JERUSALEM: An Israeli Cabinet minister has said relations with US President Donald Trump take priority over condemning neo-Nazis, to justify Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s muted response to events in Charlottesville.
Critics have accused Netanyahu of being slow to condemn extremism and anti-Semitism at US far-right protests, having only done so in a single tweet — three days after the rally in the Virginia town that ended in bloodshed.
Ayoub Kara, the communications minister and a vocal Netanyahu supporter, said in remarks published on Friday in the Jerusalem Post that backing Trump was a strategic must for Israel’s right-wing government.
“Due to the terrific relations with the US, we need to put the declarations about the Nazis in the proper proportion,” Kara told the newspaper.
“We need to condemn anti-Semitism and any trace of Nazism, and I will do what I can as a minister to stop its spread. But Trump is the best US leader Israel has ever had.”
“His relations with the prime minister of Israel are wonderful, and after enduring the terrible years of (Barack) Obama, Trump is the unquestioned leader of the free world, and we must not accept anyone harming him.”
Netanyahu regularly speaks out against anti-Semitism in other countries, but the US is Israel’s most important ally, providing it with more than $3 billion per year in defense aid as well as key diplomatic backing.
Detractors have accused him of sacrificing his moral responsibility, especially to the US Jewish community, for strategic interests.
The protests last weekend saw neo-Nazis and white supremacists protesting outside a synagogue, chanting anti-Semitic slogans and giving the Nazi salute.
For Israel, White House ties trump neo-Nazi condemnation
For Israel, White House ties trump neo-Nazi condemnation
UN rights chief Shocked by ‘unbearable’ Darfur atrocities
- Mediation efforts have failed to produce a ceasefire, even after international outrage intensified last year with reports of mass killings, rape, and abductions during the RSF’s takeover of El-Fasher in Darfur
PORT SUDAN: Nearly three years of war have put the Sudanese people through “hell,” the UN’s rights chief said on Sunday, blasting the vast sums spent on advanced weaponry at the expense of humanitarian aid and the recruitment of child soldiers.
Since April 2023, Sudan has been gripped by a conflict between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces that has left tens of thousands of people dead and around 11 million displaced.
Speaking in Port Sudan during his first wartime visit, UN Human Rights commissioner Volker Turk said the population had endured “horror and hell,” calling it “despicable” that funds that “should be used to alleviate the suffering of the population” are instead spent on advanced weapons, particularly drones.
More than 21 million people are facing acute food insecurity, and two-thirds of Sudan’s population is in urgent need of humanitarian aid, according to the UN.
In addition to the world’s largest hunger and displacement crisis, Sudan is also facing “the increasing militarization of society by all parties to the conflict, including through the arming of civilians and recruitment and use of children,” Turk added.
He said he had heard testimony of “unbearable” atrocities from survivors of attacks in Darfur, and warned of similar crimes unfolding in the Kordofan region — the current epicenter of the fighting.
Testimony of these atrocities must be heard by “the commanders of this conflict and those who are arming, funding and profiting from this war,” he said.
Mediation efforts have failed to produce a ceasefire, even after international outrage intensified last year with reports of mass killings, rape, and abductions during the RSF’s takeover of El-Fasher in Darfur.
“We must ensure that the perpetrators of these horrific violations face justice regardless of the affiliation,” Turk said on Sunday, adding that repeated attacks on civilian infrastructure could constitute “war crimes.”
He called on both sides to “cease intolerable attacks against civilian objects that are indispensable to the civilian population, including markets, health facilities, schools and shelters.”
Turk again warned on Sunday that crimes similar to those seen in El-Fasher could recur in volatile Kordofan, where the RSF has advanced, besieging and attacking several key cities.
Hundreds of thousands face starvation across the region, where more than 65,000 people have been displaced since October, according to the latest UN figures.
