Dozens of protesters yesterday demonstrated outside the Taipei office of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) against US support for Israel in the recent conflict between Israel and Hamas that has led to heavy civilian casualties in the Gaza Strip.
“Free Palestine! Let Gaza live!” protesters chanted as they held placards with slogans against the Israeli military action in Gaza, urging the US to cease military support for Israel, as well as pictures of children killed in the Israeli offensive.
The protesters also placed red handprints on flags of the US and Israel to symbolize their belief the two countries are responsible for the bloodshed in Gaza.
Photo: CNA
“It has been more than 20 days since Israel launched its latest offensive on Gaza, leading to the deaths of more than 1,200 people and wounding more than 620, while, according to UN statistics, as many as 160,000 Palestinians have been displaced,” Taiwan Labor Party Vice Chairman Tang Shu (唐曙) said.
“The US not only firmly supports the Israeli massacre of Palestinians, but has also been providing US$3 billion a year in military assistance to Israel since 2006,” he said.
While US President Barack Obama says he feels saddened to see Palestinian civilians being killed, the US never withdraws its support for Israel, Tang said.
Photo: CNA
“On July 23, the US was the only country at a UN meeting that voted against launching an investigation on Israeli war crimes, meaning that the US approves of the killings in Gaza,” Tang said.
He condemned Israel for attacking a UN refugee facility despite receiving a clear warning from the UN.
“Israel does not care, because the US is backing it,” he said.
China Tide Association secretary-general Lin Sheng-chou (林聲洲) said that it was hard for him to imagine that a people who suffered from ethnic cleansing would now involve themselves in the same crime.
“What the Nazis did to the Jews shocked the world, triggering a worldwide anti-fascist movement,” Lin said.
“It is hard for me to imagine that the Jews are doing to Palestinians what the Nazis did to them during World War II, because of the Zionist movement,” Lin said.
Lin said Israel says that it has launched attacks on Gaza because it was being attacked by rockets fired by Hamas.
“However, the military forces of the two sides are not balanced. Israel is using a disproportional force to attack Gaza, harming mostly civilians and civilian facilities,” he said.
Tang said that if the US claims that it supports Israeli military action because Israel has the right to self-defense when rockets are flying into its territories, then “why doesn’t the rule of self-defense apply to Palestinians as well?”
At the end of the demonstration, AIT spokesperson Mark Zimmer came out to take a petition from the protesters.
A rally is being organized for outside the Israeli representative office in Taipei on Saturday evening and everyone who is concerned about what is going on in Gaza is welcome to attend, Tang said.
An undersea cable to Penghu County has been severed, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said today, with a Chinese-funded ship suspected of being responsible. It comes just a month after a Chinese ship was suspected of severing an undersea cable north of Keelung Harbor. The National Communications and Cyber Security Center received a report at 3:03am today from Chunghwa Telecom that the No. 3 cable from Taiwan to Penghu was severed 14.7km off the coast of Tainan, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) upon receiving a report from Chunghwa Telecom began to monitor the Togolese-flagged Hong Tai (宏泰)
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
Actor Lee Wei (李威) was released on bail on Monday after being named as a suspect in the death of a woman whose body was found in the meeting place of a Buddhist group in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) last year, prosecutors said. Lee, 44, was released on NT$300,000 (US$9,148) bail, while his wife, surnamed Chien (簡), was released on NT$150,000 bail after both were summoned to give statements regarding the woman’s death. The home of Lee, who has retreated from the entertainment business in the past few years, was also searched by prosecutors and police earlier on Monday. Lee was questioned three
RISING TOURISM: A survey showed that tourist visits increased by 35 percent last year, while newly created attractions contributed almost half of the growth Changhua County’s Lukang Old Street (鹿港老街) and its surrounding historical area clinched first place among Taiwan’s most successful tourist attractions last year, while no location in eastern Taiwan achieved a spot in the top 20 list, the Tourism Administration said. The listing was created by the Tourism Administration’s Forward-looking Tourism Policy Research office. Last year, the Lukang Old Street and its surrounding area had 17.3 million visitors, more than the 16 million visitors for the Wenhua Road Night Market (文化路夜市) in Chiayi City and 14.5 million visitors at Tainan’s Anping (安平) historical area, it said. The Taipei 101 skyscraper and its environs —
RSS