27/03/2025

THURSDAY | MAR 27, 2025

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Israeli police free Palestinian Oscar winner TEL AVIV: Israeli police released Oscar-winning Palestinian filmmaker Hamdan Ballal (pic) on Tuesday, after “It was a very strong attack and the goal was to kill.” According to the Israeli military,

The Wall Street Journal reported this week that Boeing was looking to overturn the plea deal related to the 737 MAX crashes, in the hope that the administration of Donald Trump would show it more leniency. It was not immediately clear why O’Connor decided to cancel the April 11 deadline for the plea deal and move directly to trial. “For years we have been fighting, and I am fighting, on behalf of the victims and my daughter Camille, for truth and justice,” said Berthet. – AFP Student activist cannot be detained, rules judge Occupied by Israel since 1967, the West Bank is home to around three million Palestinians, as well as nearly half a million Israelis who live in illegal settlements. – AFP WASHINGTON: A Korean American Columbia University student, who is a legal permanent US resident and has taken part in pro-Palestinian protests, cannot be detained by federal immigration officials for now as she fights attempts to deport her, a judge ruled on Tuesday. Yunseo Chung, 21, has lived in the US since she was seven, and sued the administration on Monday to prevent her deportation. Her legal team was informed this month that her lawful permanent resident status was being revoked, according to court records in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York. President Donald Trump has pledged to deport foreign pro Palestinian protesters and accused them of supporting Hamas, of posing hurdles for US foreign policy and of being antisemitic. Protesters, including some Jewish groups, say the administration wrongly conflates their criticism of Israel and support for Palestinian rights with antisemitism and support for Hamas. The Department of Homeland Security alleged Chung engaged in concerning conduct, including when she was previously arrested by police during a protest at Barnard College that DHS termed “pro-Hamas”. Chung has not yet been arrested by federal officials. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald on Tuesday issued a temporary restraining order against the government that prevents Chung from being detained. Actions against Chung form part of a pattern of government efforts against pro-Palestinian voices critical of Israel’s military assault. – Reuters attacked the activists as well as Ballal’s house in the village. Foreign activists regularly stay in Masafer Yatta’s communities to accompany Palestinians as they tend to their crops or shepherd their sheep and document instances of settler violence. Rights groups have said that since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, a separate Palestinian territory, there has been a spike in attacks by Israeli settlers in the West Bank.

“He was hitting me all over my body and there was also a soldier with him hitting me.” Yuval Abraham, who co-directed No Other Land , said Ballal has injuries to the “head and stomach, bleeding”. Activists from the anti-occupation group Centre for Jewish Nonviolence said they witnessed the violence in Susya while there in an effort to deter settler violence. “This type of violence is happening on a regular basis,” said Jenna, an American activist who declined to share her full name out of security concerns. She said before Israeli forces arrived, a group of 15 to 20 settlers

city where No Other Land is set. The best documentary at this year’s Academy Awards tells the story of forced displacement of Palestinians by Israeli troops and settlers in Masafer Yatta, an area Israel had declared a restricted military zone in the 1980s. A police spokesperson confirmed Ballal had been detained, while a later statement from the force said three people had been released on bail. The statement said they were being investigated “on suspicion of rock hurling, property damage and endangering regional security”. Ballal said he had been attacked by a settler.

three Palestinians were apprehended on Monday for “hurling rocks” during a confrontation between Israelis and Palestinians in the southern West Bank village of Susya. “Following this, a violent confrontation broke out, involving mutual rock hurling between Palestinians and Israelis,” the

detaining him a day earlier for “hurling rocks” following what activists described as an attack by settlers in the occupied West Bank. Basel Adra, who worked with Ballal on the Oscar winning documentary No Other Land , posted a photo of Ballal on X after his release with blood stains on his shirt.

military statement said. The village is near Masafer Yatta, a grouping of hamlets south of Hebron

“After I won the Oscar, I did not expect to be exposed to such attacks,” Ballal said in a video by AFPTV.

Arab parliament condemns displacement agency move

o Stop grave violations of international law, president tells global community

CAIRO: Arab Parliament President Mohammed Ahmed Al Yamahi condemned the Israeli authorities’ announcement of the establishment of an agency aimed at displacing Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, in addition to the approval of 13 settlement outposts in the West Bank. He considered these steps a “dangerous escalation” aimed at emptying Palestinian lands of their inhabitants and expanding illegal settlement activity. Mohammed affirmed the parliament’s firm rejection of any attempts to liquidate the Palestinian cause or impose unjust solutions, stressing that the displacement of Palestinians in all its forms constitutes a crime against humanity under international law and the Geneva Conventions, and a blatant violation of international and humanitarian law. He called on the international community, the UN Security Council, and international and regional parliaments to assume their legal and moral responsibilities to stop these grave violations against the

He also emphasised the Arab Parliament’s efforts to confront Israeli policies aimed at displacing Palestinians and expanding settlements, and stressed the need to respect the Palestinian people’s right to live in dignity on their land, in accordance with relevant international resolutions. Meanwhile, hundreds of Palestinians protested in northern Gaza to demand an end to war and chanting “Hamas out”, social media posts showed, in a rare public show of opposition to the group. Most buildings in the densely populated area have been reduced to rubble and much of the population has moved multiple times to escape the conflict. “Out, out, out, Hamas get out,” chanted those seen in one of the posts published on X, apparently from the Beit Lahiya region of Gaza on Tuesday. It showed people marching down a dusty street between war-damaged buildings.

Smoke rises following an explosion in North Gaza. – REUTERSPIC

failed to improve its compliance and ethics programme, in breach of a 2021 deferred prosecution agreement following the two MAX crashes. That deal had been approved to address the disasters in Ethiopia and Indonesia. But in December, a judge in Texas rejected the 2024 settlement over apparent flaws in the selection process for a monitor to ensure Boeing’s compliance, sending the company and the government back to continue discussions. seized in 2023. Since Israel resumed its strikes on Gaza, saying its goal was to dismantle Hamas, nearly 700 people, mostly women and children, have been killed, according to Palestinian health officials. Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007 in elections that swept out the Fatah group of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. It has ruled the enclave since then, offering little space for opposition. Some Palestinians voice caution about speaking out against the group publicly for fear of retribution. – Bernama/Reuters

the reputational damage that would likely be associated with a public criminal trial. The Justice Department declined to comment on the case. “I am so happy that Judge O’Connor of Texas has put an end to the delaying tactics of Boeing and the Department of Justice,” said Catherine Berthet, whose daughter Camille died in one of the crashes. Boeing agreed last July to plead guilty to fraud after the Justice Department found the company In other posts, one of the banners held by the crowd read “Enough wars”, while people chanted “We don’t want war.” Hundreds of thousands of residents who had fled to the south of Gaza earlier in the war, which has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians so far, had returned to their ruined homes in the north when a ceasefire took effect in January. Now, Israeli evacuation orders after the country relaunched its offensive on March 18 have shattered the two-month truce, during which Hamas handed over more hostages from the 250 or so people the group

Palestinian people, to compel Israel to immediately cease its aggression on the Gaza Strip and its dangerous escalation in the occupied West Bank. He also urged support to fulfil the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people to establish their independent, sovereign state with Jerusalem as its capital. June 23 trial date for Boeing MAX criminal case The posts began circulating widely late on Tuesday. Reuters was able to confirm the location of the video by buildings, utility poles and road layout that matches satellite imagery of the area. Reuters was not able to independently verify the date of the video. However, several videos and photographs shared on social media showed protests in the area on March 25.

WASHINGTON: A US federal judge on Tuesday set a trial date of June 23 in the Justice Department’s criminal case against aircraft manufacturer Boeing over two deadly 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019. In two court filings in Texas, Judge Reed O’Connor said he was vacating an April 11 deadline for Boeing and prosecutors to announce progress on a plea deal, and moving ahead with the trial over the two crashes, in which altogether 346 people died. After the accidents, all 737 MAXs

were grounded for 20 months worldwide. Boeing admitted in April 2019 that its Manoeuvring Characteristics Augmentation System – an anti-stall software – had been partly to blame. Boeing said it was still engaged in “good faith discussions” with the Justice Department regarding an “appropriate” resolution. Despite Tuesday’s decision, the company could still in theory reach agreement with the prosecution on a new guilty plea, which would spare it