Gaza deaths top 20,000; Colorado Supreme Court Justices threatened
The Up First newsletter: Gaza, Israel and the U.S. Security Council on a Call for a U.N. Veto
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Israel’s military offensive in Gaza has killed more than 20,000 people, according to Gaza’s health ministry. 70% of the people who were killed were women and children. Meanwhile, the U.N. Security Council has been deadlocked for three days on a resolution calling for a cease-fire and allow the U.N. to inspect aid trucks and speed up the arrival of food and fuel for Gaza. U.N. negotiators have weakened the language in the proposal in an effort to avoid a U.S. veto.
The Colorado Supreme Court decision to disqualify Donald Trump from the state’s primary ballot has provoked a violent reaction on the internet. Personal information of some of the Colorado Supreme Court justices is circulating in far-right spaces online, as well as calls to arm up to hurt or kill perceived political foes.
The Color Purple: From Pulitzer Prize Winner Alice Walker to Stephen Spielberg and Celie and her triumph over Violent Abuse as the First Piece of Art That Helped Me Feel Less alone
This essay was written by Michel Martin. She hosts Morning Edition. She’s previously hosted Weekend All Things Considered, the Consider Tell Me More this Saturday.
I’ve talked to a lot of people about The Color Purple, due to hit theaters on Christmas Day. I want to know when they first saw the 1982 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Alice Walker, the hit 1985 film directed by Stephen Spielberg, or the 2005 Broadway Musical.
I know why some people remember their first time so well. The Broadway show was the first one some people ever saw — like Danielle Brooks, who plays Sofia in the new movie. The 1985 movie and Broadway shows were star-making vehicles for others: Oprah Winfrey and Cynthia Erivo were also present.
And some people will tell you that the story of Celie and her triumph over vicious abuse was the first piece of art they experienced that helped them feel less alone.
The Color Purple: A View of How Israel and Gaza Operate in the Second-Force War on the Gazan Government – All Things Considered
I don’t know how I got to know about The Color Purple. I grew up in New York and went to cheap seats to see shows. I read a lot. Always have.
Movies: In The Zone of Interest, director Jonathan Glazer depicts the family of Auschwitz camp commandant Rudolf Höss as they go about their daily routines while a massive machinery of death grinds away next door.
TV: The final season of The Crown was the last for Queen Elizabeth II. Imelda Staunton speaks with NPR’s All Things Considered about the show’s attempt to portray the royal family in all of its truth.
The health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza says that the majority of the Palestinians killed have been women or children.
An estimated 129 people are still being held captive in Gaza, according to the Israeli prime minister’s office. It’s thought that at least 20 of them are dead.
This week, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin arrived in Israel to urge leaders there to downscale the war effort to more targeted operations that reduce wide-scale harm to civilians.
Criticism of Israel’s ground operation has redoubled in recent days, even among Israelis, after the Israeli military admitted that its own soldiers had shot and killed three Israeli hostages in Gaza, who were shirtless and waving a makeshift white flag in an effort to be rescued.
Several international voices have expressed concern that the Israeli military is not doing enough to limit harms to civilians in the Gaza operation, including the United States which sent officials to Israel this week to encourage leaders to reduce their intensity.
According to the World Food Programme, more than half of households in Gaza are experiencing severe levels of hunger. On average, Palestinians in Gaza have access to less than two liters of drinking water per day, the report found.
In Gaza, 85% of the population has left their homes and crowded into tent camps in the southern part of the territory as Israel continues to expand its ground operation. Hospitals, schools, places of worship and thousands of homes have been damaged or destroyed in northern Gaza.
After the conflict began, the United States has vetoed several Security Council resolutions on Israel and Gaza, most notably earlier this month when a resolution had been rushed and ignored. The US objected to resolutions that did not condemn Hamas.
The resolution Friday encouraged the provision of enough fuel into Gaza to meet all humanitarian needs, a long-standing sticking point for Israel, which says Hamas could steal fuel for its combat effort.
The final language of the resolution does not call for a new inspection regime. Instead, it asks the U.N. secretary general to appoint an aide coordinator for Gaza.
There are still serious and widespread concerns about the draft resolution, which could slow down delivery of humanitarian aid by setting up an unsafe monitoring mechanism, said Evans. We have to make sure any Resolution helps and does not hurt the situation.
The U.S. has been working to get Israel to accelerate the pace of these inspection, but the Biden administration has been wary of a new U.N. resolution further complicating what is already a complicated situation.
Another sticking point in negotiations was whether the U.N. itself should inspect the trucks that are entering Gaza to deliver desperately needed aid. Israel is checking these convoys to make sure there is no weapons being smuggled in for Hamas.
“We know this is not a perfect text. We know only a cease-fire will end this suffering,” said Ambassador Lana Zaki Nusseibeh of the United Arab Emirates, the sponsor of the resolution, in remarks ahead of the vote. “Often in diplomacy, the challenge is meeting the moment in the world we live in, not in the world that we want,” she added.
In the end, the wording approved by the Security Council was watered down compared to earlier drafts of the resolution. The U.S. objected to previous drafts of acessation or suspension of hostilities. Negotiators ultimately settled on language that called for creating “the conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities.”
Friday’s vote had originally been scheduled for Monday, but it was repeatedly delayed to allow for negotiations over the final text of the resolution in an effort to get the U.S. — Israel’s strongest ally on the international stage — to agree not to veto.
