JEDDAH: The chief executive of the British Council said that one of the biggest challenges of working in conflict zones, such as Syria, is to have the capacity to deal with the scale of the issue.
“The biggest challenge, to be honest, is the scale of the need,” Sir Ciaran Devane said from Amman during an interview with Arab News on Wednesday. “The other challenge is reminding ourselves that we have to be patient and that it will take all of us to help Syria rebuild itself.
He is currently leading a delegation to Lebanon and Jordan to examine and understand the impact of the UK’s wider response to the Syrian crisis, in particular the impact of educational and civil society interventions on the long-term stability of both nations.
He said the enormity of the task at hand required patience. “If you are the CEO of an organization like the British Council, you have to remind yourself and everyone else that what is needed is patience,” he said. “The day that people start firing bullets is not the day that peace has been established and it is not the day when communities can be rebuilt.”
Sir Ciaran was educated at University College, Dublin, where he gained first-class honors in biochemical engineering. He then began his career as an engineer and manager for Imperial Chemical Industries before becoming a management consultant, mostly with Gemini Consulting. He holds a master’s degree in International Policy and Practice from George Washington University in the US. He became chief executive of the British Council in January 2015.
The delegation that Sir Ciaran is leading comprises senior British civil servants from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Cabinet Office, as well as vice chancellors from various British universities.
Following are excerpts from the interview:
Q: Thank you for talking to Arab News. We heard you just arrived from Lebanon?
A: Yes, I arrived from Lebanon. I am in Amman now.
Q: Can you tell us about your observations during the current visit?
A: The purpose in coming to Jordan and Lebanon is what I regard as the No. 1 priority for the British Council: Our contribution to the next generation of young people in the Gulf, the Middle East and North Africa. That is our highest priority. Those young people are a group we want to help and support. We can work with government partners, educational partners and civil society partners. Specifically in the context of the crisis in Syria and its effects, how can we help the Lebanese education system? We must help for the sake of Lebanese students and for the sake of Syrian refugees in Lebanon and in Jordan. The education system and civil society in both countries must help them achieve what they want to achieve in spite of the difficulties engulfing them.
Q: At the British Council, how do you see the role of soft power in a hard power world?
A: I go back to our history. We got our Royal Charter in 1940 when we, in Europe, were in the midst of our own crisis. Quite literally, as the bombs were falling, there were people in London at the time saying that there was a role for an organization to work with the cultural resources of the UK. They knew they had to involve science, education, governance and language in order to foster the interchange of knowledge, ideas and discoveries. What they wanted was to promote neighborliness and the feeling was, “Yes we are at war at the moment, but there will be a day when we will have to rebuild the country.” They knew there would be a role for reconciliation and so the role of the British Council became the promotion of friendly knowledge and understanding between people. Our cultural assets, our educational assets with those of countries in and around the region were used in interacting with other people. It was done in a way which promoted knowledge and understanding between people; it was also done through education, through languages, through art events and through science. All of those were used to create understanding and a relationship that would foster cooperation in place of hostility.
Q: The conflicts in this region are unprecedented. Has the British Council worked in similar circumstances in other places?
A: We learned from our own lessons in Northern Ireland where we had our own experience. I am Irish myself and I grew up at a time when we had significant divisions between groups and communities. That was the starting point. We have been heavily involved in working with partners in Nigeria; we have programs in Colombia. We have experience in difficult situations. That helps in two ways. One is that you understand what is helpful and what is not helpful. Also, it means that you know what it is like to be on the receiving end.
Q: There is a large displacement of people from Syria and Iraq. Obviously this will feed radicalization. Do your programs help to de-radicalize in any way?
A: The analogy that I use is that of the difference between surgery and public health. It is not our job to tackle violent extremism. It is our job to provide opportunities and work with young people to help them fulfill their desires. If a young person has the opportunity to get involved in social entrepreneurship and can find a way of achieving fulfillment and also feeding themselves through that activity, then there is less pressure on them to join a militia. In my analogy, we never do the surgery. We are not interested in that. We are not qualified for that. We don’t know how to do that. We don’t want to do that. But we are public health. We can provide what will remove the need for surgery. How can we work with young people so that they can make contributions to their communities? We teach them the skills they need. If they want to set up their own businesses, we try to help them. We also work with local populations because one of the striking things is the generosity of the Lebanese and the Jordanians in the face of the huge number of refugees. We try to support the communities. Our aim is to develop skills in young people so that when peace finally comes, they can rebuild their communities.
Q: What are the challenges that you are experiencing in this particularly dangerous region?
A: It is difficult for us to get to some of the communities that we would like to go to. That is just the sheer logistical problem. The biggest one, to be honest, is the scale of the need. The biggest challenge is a practical one. The key is having the means to deal with the scale of the issue. The other one, from our point of view, is to realize that this will take time. If you are the CEO of an organization like the British Council, you have to remind yourself and everyone else that what is needed is patience. The day that people start firing bullets is not the day that peace has been established and it is not the day when communities can be rebuilt. Again, if you go back in history, take the European context; it was a long time after the end of the war in 1945 before things got back to something approaching normalcy. The other challenge is reminding ourselves that we have to be patient and that it will take all of us — from Europe as well as our friends in the Middle East and Gulf — to help Syria rebuild itself.
Q: Can you please tell us more about the strengthening of the civil society network through the Mobaderoon initiative?
A: This is a group of young people who went through a citizenship program we developed. This is not something new; it has been going on for the last 10 years across Syria. We are working in different geographical areas — some are controlled by the regime and others by rebels. Our contribution is to work with the young people, helping them to develop the skills and capabilities needed to run community projects. We try to give them the skills and confidence to work with other partners in the communities. I am an engineer and here is some data for you: 83.5 percent of those who participated in the programs say that one of the things they gained was understanding and acceptance of people from other communities. And 86.2 percent said that they felt the direct impact of their contribution as a citizen to the local society. This is about young people taking initiatives and the translation of “Mobaderoon” is “Initiative Takers.” When I met a group of them yesterday, it was very moving; I saw the generosity of the host communities to the suffering of people who have been uprooted by the conflict. It was moving in one sense but also inspiring because these young people are traveling back and forth in Syria. Many of them live in Damascus and Aleppo — and they are regularly going back to help their communities. One of the most memorable comments was from a young man from Aleppo: “I am on one side of a line and they are on the other. I want the skills so that when there is no line, I can go to them, talk to them and we can start building. It is not about taking sides or thinking one side was right and the other wrong. We are all Syrians and we are all human beings. We want to build a better Syria and get ready for the time when we can do that. I hope that is what we all want.”
Q: So the British Council’s response to the crisis is producing positive feedback?
A: We are a small part of the response. We are related to the Foreign Office but we are also an independent entity. We have our own board, for example. My observation is based on talking to other UK partners. Part of my delegation, for example, is the CEO of International Alert which is a UK NGO working on building peace. All of us would say there is more to do and we mustn’t lose our momentum.
Q: There must be a feeling of a sense of accomplishment?
A: I wouldn’t be that enthusiastic. There are, however, some fine stories that show us that things are better then they would otherwise be. I think all of us are realistic and that the human consequence of all conflicts is how much more needs to be done. Are the programs that we are implementing having a good effect? Absolutely yes. Are they sufficient? Absolutely not.
Q: Your last comments to young people in the Arab world?
A: My message to them is to continue to be optimistic. The future is there. It will be yours. The rest of us will do our best to help you use to the fullest your capabilities and skills. We will support you in your efforts to build a better world.
British Council CEO Sir Ciaran Devane: The generosity of the Lebanese and the Jordanians is striking
British Council CEO Sir Ciaran Devane: The generosity of the Lebanese and the Jordanians is striking
Netanyahu says deadly Israeli strike in Rafah was the result of a ‘tragic mistake’
- “Despite our utmost efforts not to harm innocent civilians, last night there was a tragic mistake,” Netanyahu said Monday in an address to Israel’s parliament
TEL AVIV, Israel: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that a “tragic mistake” was made in an Israeli strike in the southern Gaza city of Rafah that set fire to a camp housing displaced Palestinians and, according to local officials, killed at least 45 people.
The strike only added to the surging international criticism Israel has faced over its war with Hamas, with even its closest allies expressing outrage at civilian deaths. Israel insists it adheres to international law even as it faces scrutiny in the world’s top courts, one of which last week demanded that it halt the offensive in Rafah.
Netanyahu did not elaborate on the error. Israel’s military initially said it had carried out a precise airstrike on a Hamas compound, killing two senior militants. As details of the strike and fire emerged, the military said it had opened an investigation into the deaths of civilians.
Sunday night’s attack, which appeared to be one of the war’s deadliest, helped push the overall Palestinian death toll in the war above 36,000, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between fighters and noncombatants in its tally.
“Despite our utmost efforts not to harm innocent civilians, last night there was a tragic mistake,” Netanyahu said Monday in an address to Israel’s parliament. “We are investigating the incident and will obtain a conclusion because this is our policy.”
Mohammed Abuassa, who rushed to the scene in the northwestern neighborhood of Tel Al-Sultan, said rescuers “pulled out people who were in an unbearable state.”
“We pulled out children who were in pieces. We pulled out young and elderly people. The fire in the camp was unreal,” he said.
At least 45 people were killed, according to the Gaza Health Ministry and the Palestinian Red Crescent rescue service. The ministry said the dead included at least 12 women, eight children and three older adults, with another three bodies burned beyond recognition.
In a separate development, Egypt’s military said one of its soldiers was shot dead during an exchange of fire in the Rafah area, without providing further details. Israel said it was in contact with Egyptian authorities, and both sides said they were investigating.
An initial investigation found that the soldier had responded to an exchange of fire between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants, Egypt’s state-owned Qahera TV reported. Egypt has warned that Israel’s incursion in Rafah could threaten the two countries’ decades-old peace treaty.
The UN Security Council scheduled an emergency closed meeting for Tuesday afternoon on the situation in Rafah at the request of Algeria, the Arab representative on the council, two council diplomats told The Associated Press ahead of an official announcement.
Rafah, the southernmost Gaza city on the border with Egypt, had housed more than a million people — about half of Gaza’s population — displaced from other parts of the territory. Most have fled once again since Israel launched what it called a limited incursion there earlier this month. Hundreds of thousands are packed into squalid tent camps in and around the city.
Elsewhere in Rafah, the director of the Kuwait Hospital, one of the city’s last functioning medical centers, said it was shutting down and that staff members were relocating to a field hospital. Dr. Suhaib Al-Hamas said the decision was made after a strike killed two health workers Monday at the entrance to the hospital.
Netanyahu says Israel must destroy what he says are Hamas’ last remaining battalions in Rafah. The militant group launched a barrage of rockets Sunday from the city toward heavily populated central Israel, setting off air raid sirens but causing no injuries.
The strike on Rafah brought a new wave of condemnation, even from Israel’s strongest supporters.
The US National Security Council said in a statement that the “devastating images” from the strike on Rafah were “heartbreaking.” It said the US was working with the Israeli military and others to assess what happened.
French President Emmanuel Macron was more blunt, saying “these operations must stop” in a post on X. “There are no safe areas in Rafah for Palestinian civilians. I call for full respect for international law and an immediate ceasefire,” he wrote.
The Foreign Office of Germany, which has been a staunch supporter of Israel for decades, said “the images of charred bodies, including children, from the airstrike in Rafah are unbearable.”
“The exact circumstances must be clarified, and the investigation announced by the Israeli army must now come quickly,” the ministry added. ”The civilian population must finally be better protected.”
Qatar, a key mediator in attempts to secure a ceasefire and the release of hostages held by Hamas, said the Rafah strike could “complicate” talks, Negotiations, which appear to be restarting, have faltered repeatedly over Hamas’ demand for a lasting truce and the withdrawal of Israeli forces, terms Israeli leaders have publicly rejected.
The Israeli military’s top legal official, Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, said authorities were examining the strike in Rafah and that the military regrets the loss of civilian life.
Speaking to an Israeli lawyers’ conference, Tomer-Yerushalmi said Israel has launched 70 criminal investigations into possible violations of international law, including the deaths of civilians, the conditions at a detention facility holding suspected militants and the deaths of some inmates in Israeli custody. She said incidents of property crimes and looting were also being examined.
Israel has long maintained it has an independent judiciary capable of investigating and prosecuting abuses. But rights groups say Israeli authorities routinely fail to fully investigate violence against Palestinians and that even when soldiers are held accountable, the punishment is usually light.
Israel has denied allegations of genocide brought against it by South Africa at the International Court of Justice. Last week, the court ordered Israel to halt its Rafah offensive, a ruling it has no power to enforce.
Separately, the chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court is seeking arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as three Hamas leaders, over alleged crimes linked to the war. The ICC only intervenes when it concludes that the state in question is unable or unwilling to properly prosecute such crimes.
Israel says it does its best to adhere to the laws of war. Israeli leaders also say they face an enemy that makes no such commitment, embeds itself in civilian areas and refuses to release Israeli hostages unconditionally.
Hamas triggered the war with its Oct. 7 attack into Israel, in which Palestinian militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and seized some 250 hostages. Hamas still holds about 100 hostages and the remains of around 30 others after most of the rest were released during a ceasefire last year.
Around 80 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have fled their homes. Severe hunger is widespread, and UN officials say parts of the territory are experiencing famine.
Security Council to hold emergency meeting after Rafah strike: diplomats
UNITED NATIONS, United States: The UN Security Council has convened an emergency meeting for Tuesday after a deadly Israeli strike on a displaced persons camp in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, diplomats told AFP.
The closed-door meeting was requested by Algeria, which is currently a non-permanent member of the council, diplomats said.
New settler units on Palestinian land hand Israel a powerful demographic weapon
- Israeli authorities accused of exploiting Gaza war to create “more facts on the ground” in occupied West Bank
- Uptick noticed in approvals for illegal settlements in East Jerusalem within or alongside Palestinian neighborhoods
LONDON: On July 11 last year, 68-year-old Nora Ghaith and her husband Mustafa Sub Laban lost their battle to hold on to their home in Jerusalem’s Old City — in which Ghaith was born — when Israeli police broke down their door and forcibly evicted the elderly couple.
The eviction of the last remaining Palestinians in an apartment building now filled with settlers was carried out under a controversial law. This legislation enables Jews to claim properties that supposedly belonged to their families before they were evicted in 1948, and were subsequently occupied by Palestinian refugees.
The Legal and Administrative Matters Law was passed in 1970 after Israel annexed East Jerusalem. The same law does not, however, permit the far larger number of Palestinians whose families were evicted from West Jerusalem in 1948 to reclaim the properties they lost.
In fact, the Absentee Property Law, passed in 1950 and amended in 1973, prevents Palestinians from reclaiming lost properties.
Both laws are doubly unjust, critics say, because Jews who left East Jerusalem in 1948 were later given Palestinian properties in West Jerusalem as compensation, and in being allowed to “reclaim” properties in East Jerusalem are being doubly compensated.
Last year, the “deeply shocking and heart-breaking” eviction of the Ghaith-Sub Laban family and many other Palestinian families in East Jerusalem was condemned by UN experts as “part of Israel’s apartheid machinery at work, designed to consolidate Jewish ownership of Jerusalem and racially dominate the city’s population.”
The human rights special rapporteurs said such evictions were “a gross violation of international humanitarian law and a war crime,” and evidence of “intention to annex and colonize the occupied territory in violation of international law.”
Less than a year on, however, two Israeli human rights nongovernmental organizations said that while the global community’s attention has been focused on the death and destruction unfolding in Gaza, there has been “a major acceleration in the promotion and fast-tracking of new settlement plans in East Jerusalem and a dramatic spike in the rate of demolitions of Palestinian homes.”
The Israeli government “is clearly exploiting the war to create more facts on the ground to predetermine the final status of Jerusalem and thwart all prospects for a negotiated political agreement, while forcibly displacing Palestinians from their homes and the city,” Amy Cohen, director of international relations at Ir Amim, told Arab News.
Ir Amim, or City of Nations, is an Israeli NGO working “to render Jerusalem a more equitable and sustainable city for the Israelis and Palestinians who share it and to help secure a negotiated resolution on the city.”
Research, carried out jointly with Bimkom-Planners for Planning Rights, reveals that between Oct. 7 last year and March 10, some 98 Palestinian homes were demolished — an almost two-fold monthly increase compared with the period preceding the war.
At the same time, there has been “a major uptick” in efforts to create illegal settlements in East Jerusalem either within or alongside Palestinian neighborhoods.
These plans provide for more than 12,000 housing units. With an average 6.5 births per woman among ultra-Orthodox Jewish families recorded in the period 2019 to 2021, this means tens of thousands of additional settlers will be moving into East Jerusalem.
According to the most recent census, approximately 361,700 (61 percent) of East Jerusalem’s population are Palestinian Arabs. The remaining 234,000 (40 percent) are Jewish — all of whom are regarded by the international community as illegal settlers in the territory, which has been occupied by Israel since the Six Day War in 1967.
The growing number of illegal settlements is especially concerning in light of the statistics for violent assaults in the West Bank. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, from 2008 to May 12 this year, 1,498 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank and East Jerusalem — 10 times as many as the 149 Israeli deaths reported.
There is an even greater disparity in the number of injuries on both sides — 95,383 Palestinians and 2,373 Israelis.
The Israeli authorities “are certainly exploiting the circumstances right now, taking advantage of the fact that the international community is obviously overwhelmed with the horrific, catastrophic conditions in Gaza and all of its implications,” said Cohen.
“So, while the attention is diverted there — and the Israeli government is complicit in this — the activists in the settler movement are really taking advantage of the circumstances to create more ‘facts on the ground.’”
These “facts” are motivated by the Israeli government’s policy “to ensure that Jerusalem remains what they often call the ‘united, eternal capital of Jerusalem,’ and to preserve the essence of the city being a Jewish capital.
“That means not only do they have to secure control over as much space as possible, but also over the demographic balance of the population — the demographic majority must be in favor of Jewish Israelis, which is being achieved by targeting the Palestinian population.”
She added: “These policies and these measures essentially put a cap on the Palestinian demographic, which serves as a form of — and it’s horrific to even say this — but a form of displacement and population control, to ensure that there will be a Jewish demographic majority in the city.
INNUMBERS
98 Palestinian homes demolished in Oct. 7-March 10 period in East Jerusalem.
12,000 Housing units planned in illegal settlements in East Jerusalem.
“And this has been playing out in the form of demolitions.”
Since Oct. 7, plans for no fewer than eight new settlements in East Jerusalem have been fast-tracked.
The fear, said Cohen, was that the situation was approaching a tipping point beyond which the implementation of a two-state solution would become impossible.
“If the international community were to come together today with representatives of Israel and the Palestinian Authority and begin to sit down and draw some sort of road map, it would look very, very different than it did 20 years ago, during Camp David or even before that during the Oslo Accords,” she said.
“Obviously, any road map would have to be adapted to the reality of today. You cannot reverse most of what has happened up until now in Jerusalem. But you can certainly prevent what Israel is trying to do right now.
“And so first and foremost is the need to really address the here and now, to halt the major developments on the ground for settlements and to halt the mechanisms of displacement, such as demolitions and evictions.”
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She added: “If the international community is really serious about a two-state solution, it needs to act now to hold Israel accountable to international law and the parameters of a two-state solution, and so far we haven’t seen that.”
Since the outbreak of the war there has been renewed discussion about the need to jump-start a new peace process, to renew dialogue toward an agreed-upon negotiated resolution.
“But with that, we have to bring back the centrality of Jerusalem in the debate, because without Jerusalem there is really no two-state solution.
“And as we all know, without a two-state solution, we will not be able to achieve peace and security for all of us, Israelis and Palestinians, living between the river and the sea.”
Aid trucks arrive in Gaza, but no deliveries yet
CAIRO: More than 100 aid trucks managed to reach the Gaza Strip by Monday morning after an agreement to reroute aid through the Kerem Shalom border crossing, but supplies have not been distributed amid an ongoing Israeli assault, sources said.
Deliveries are badly needed as little aid has reached southern Gaza since May 6, when Israel took control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing, about 3.5 km from Kerem Shalom and the main entry point into Gaza for humanitarian and commercial supplies.
The latest arrivals would be the biggest aid delivery into southern Gaza by far since the launch of Israel’s attacks in Rafah, with most days seeing no trucks crossing the border.
Israeli forces began a ground offensive in the east of Rafah over three weeks ago. An Israeli airstrike on Sunday triggered a fire that killed 45 people
Officials said in a tent camp in Rafah on Monday, prompting an outcry from global leaders. Egyptian security sources said 123 aid trucks had crossed the border and delivered goods to the UN.
An Israeli source confirmed that aid had been brought into Gaza and delivered to partners.
An Egyptian aid source said four fuel trucks had also crossed the border.
However, UN and Palestinian officials said Palestinian trucks that went to pick up the aid at the crossing returned empty.
“Trucks moved through, but it was not possible to collect them due to the rocket attacks and the IAF (air force) strikes,” said a UN official in Gaza, adding that the supplies belonged to the UN’s Palestinian aid agency UNRWA and the World Food Programme.
On Friday, Egypt and the United States agreed to utilize Kerem Shalom until arrangements were made to re-open Rafah from the Palestinian side, the Egyptian presidency said. Egypt has refused to coordinate with Israel on the crossing.
With few signs of Syria solution, EU pledges more support to refugees
- Jordan’s foreign minister said the international community was abandoning Syrian refugees as funding to support them in host countries dwindles
BRUSSELS: The European Union pledged more than 2 billion euros ($2.2 billion) on Monday to support displaced Syrians, but it dismissed any notion of them being able to return home because of instability under Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Before an EU-led donor conference on the 13-year-old war, Jordan’s foreign minister said that the international community was abandoning Syrian refugees as funding to support them in host countries dwindles, suggesting that ways had to be found to ease voluntary returns to Syria.
The EU conference aims to keep the war on the agenda, as well as support for the millions of refugees it has created. But as the economic and social burden on neighboring countries mounts the bloc is divided and unable to find solutions, diplomats say.
Refugees returning home is not yet one of them however, the bloc’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell made clear at the start of the conference.
“While the European Union would wish that returning home could be a realistic option for all refugees, everywhere and always, we concur with the United Nations system that currently the conditions for safe, voluntary and dignified returns to Syria are not in place,” Borrell said.
“We insist that it is the Assad regime that bears the primary responsibility for putting in place these conditions.”
Borrell said the bloc was pledging 560 million euros in 2024 and 2025 to support refugees in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Jordan and a further 1 billion euros for Turkiye.
Syria has become a forgotten crisis that nobody wants to stir, amid the Israeli war in Gaza and tensions growing between Iran and Western powers over its regional activities.
Although Assad has long since reasserted control over most of Syria in a war that began with a 2011 uprising against him, more than 5 million refugees mostly in Lebanon, Turkiye and Jordan and millions more displaced internally still have little prospect of returning home.
“We’re going to be sending a very clear message from Jordan as a host country that we feel that refugees are being abandoned,” Ayman Safadi told reporters on arrival in Brussels. “Host countries are being abandoned.”
Jordan is hosting around 1.3 million Syrians. Safadi said the issue “can only be solved by them going back to their country. So we need to focus more on creating conditions conducive for them to return voluntarily.”
Funding to support refugees is dropping with the likes of the World Food Programme reducing its aid. Countries say hosting refugees is an increasing burden, notably in economic crisis-hit Lebanon, where the discontent has seen forced deportations.
“We expect our partners to uphold international law, including the principle of non-refoulement, and reject and condemn any forced deportations,” Borrell said.
The 8th Syria conference brings together European and Arab ministers along with key international organizations, but beyond vague promises and financial pledges there are few signs that Europe can take the lead, diplomats said.
The bloc has no ties with the Assad government and Monday’s talks come just ahead of the European elections on June 6-9 in which migration is a divisive issue among the EU’s 27 member states. With far-right and populist parties already expected to do well, there is little appetite to step up refugee support.
An upswing in migrant boat arrivals from Lebanon to Europe, with Cyprus and Italy major destinations, has prompted some EU countries to warn of a big new influx into the bloc.
“We’ll continue to do everything we can. But unless we’re helped, unless the international community shoulders its responsibility, there will be a decrease in services and there will be more suffering for refugees,” Safadi said.
