💡 SPOTLIGHT
Stolen land, stolen life: When an Israeli soldier takes a Gazan baby home
An Israeli soldier took an infant girl from Gaza after her family was killed during bombings, and brought her to an undisclosed location in Israel. When the news emerged, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry, based in the West Bank city of Ramallah, called it a “heinous crime” and demanded the return of the child to Palestine, reports Nourhan Sharafuldin in Arabic-language independent digital media Daraj.
Shahar Mendelson revealed that his “friend in arms,” fellow soldier Harel Itach, kidnapped (rescued?) a baby girl from Gaza after he found her crying in a house he raided. Mendelson indicated that the baby’s family was killed in an airstrike, adding that Itach transferred the baby to a hospital in Israel before he died in combat.
The child may be in a hospital that does not receive calls from her family. She does not wear a bracelet bearing her real name. They may have called her “Jaffa,” but she has yet to know her name. She may be given a new name in a new language that competes with her mother tongue, which Jaffa has not yet had the opportunity to learn. Jaffa may grow up without the two languages fighting in her mind, but rather speaking in Hebrew, which has become her “new” language.
If the child is not taken to live with a family, she will be raised in a synagogue where she will receive a strict Orthodox Jewish education. If she is adopted by a family, she may gain a new life. Thus, Jaffa moves between many lives, none of which she chose.
Rather, it is a life that was chosen for her and imposed on her — from the cry for help in the cradle after her family were killed by the Israeli army’s bombing. Her family was wiped from civil registry records, like more than 50 families in Gaza who faced the same fate.
Jaffa moved between showers of bullets and debris to a hospital that we know nothing about. Today, the little Jaffa is seized by those who seized the city of Jaffa. Is baby Jaffa a survivor? Will she remember who killed her family when she grows up?
I think that Jaffa will become the feminine version of Khaldoun S., the main character in Ghassan Kanafani's 1969 novel Returning to Haifa. She is the victim of a new Nakba, or catastrophe, as she was removed from her home and her family.
Jaffa, Khaldoun and other Palestinians are proof that Israel steals everything — even children, even life, literally and figuratively.
The little girl, Jaffa, will grow up within a life that was imposed on her. She was stolen/kidnapped/rescued from her cradle, to live in a house built on land that does not belong to the residents of the house. Perhaps the people with whom Jaffa grows up are Europeans, white and blond, who do not look like her. Will Jaffa not ask herself when she grows up: "Why don't I resemble those who sing to me before bed?" [...]
— Read the full article by Nourhan Sharafuldin for Daraj, translated into English by Worldcrunch.
🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
• Hamas proposes three-stage ceasefire over 135 days, Blinken in Israel: Hamas has proposed a ceasefire plan for four-and-a-half months leading to an end to the war, in response to a proposal sent last week by Qatari and Egyptian mediators and backed by the United States and Israel. The proposal would see militants exchange remaining Israeli hostages they captured on Oct. 7 for Palestinian prisoners. Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Israel on Wednesday, where he is expected to press for an “essential” truce agreement as the war with Hamas enters its fifth month.
• Russian airstrikes reported across Ukraine, Tucker Carlson to interview Putin: Russian missile strikes hit Kyiv and other cities on Wednesday morning, leaving at least three dead and 11 injured. The whole country was put under air alert and attacks were reported as far west as Lviv, near the Polish border. Meanwhile, Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, says he will "soon" interview Vladimir Putin in Moscow, which would be the Russian President’s first one-on-one interview with a Western journalist since he launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
• Blasts near Pakistan candidates' offices kill 24 on eve of election: Two blasts near electoral candidates' offices in Pakistan's southwestern province of Balochistan killed 24 people and injured dozens, raising concerns over security in the lead up to Thursday's polls. Pakistan goes to the polls amid rising militant attacks in recent months and the jailing of Imran Khan, the winner of the last national election, whose case has been dominating the headlines despite an economic crisis.
• U.S. Congress deadlocked on aid to Ukraine, Israel and border security: The U.S. House of Representatives rejected a Republican-led bill that would provide $17.6 billion to Israel, as Democrats said they wanted a vote instead on a broader measure that would also provide assistance to Ukraine, international humanitarian funding and new money for border security. Support for that bill has diminished among Republicans with former President Donald Trump pressuring them to avoid handing President Joe Biden a legislative victory.
• Milei's controversial economic reforms stalled in Argentine Congress: Argentine President Javier Milei's controversial deregulatory reforms faced a major setback in parliament when the package was prevented from advancing and sent back for a rewrite, legislators said. Initially containing 660 provisions covering the economy, trade, culture, criminal law, even football clubs, the bill has since been whittled down to around 300 articles.
• Chile ex-president Sebastian Pinera dies in helicopter crash: Chile’s former President Sebastian Pinera, a billionaire tycoon who twice held the South American nation’s top job, has died in a helicopter crash. The 74-year-old Pinera died in the popular vacation spot Lago Ranco, some 570 miles south of Santiago.
• Australia’s right to ghost your boss: Australia will introduce laws giving workers the right to ignore unreasonable calls and messages from their bosses outside of work hours without penalty, with potential fines for employers that breach the rule. The “right to disconnect” is part of changes to industrial relations laws proposed by the federal government under a parliamentary bill, which it says would protect workers' rights and help restore work-life balance.
🗞️ FRONT PAGE
Argentine newspaper Rio Negro dedicates its front page to the major setback faced by President Javier Milei in Congress on Tuesday when his key reform bill, aka the Omnibus Law bill, was dismissed and sent back to further treatment by the Lower House committees. The reform package, which addresses a wide spectrum of sectors, from economy to culture, had previously been approved as a whole on Friday but as the item-by-item voting drew a significant defeat and Milei's party called for a session adjournment and for the text to be rewritten. Meanwhile, the freshly elected head of State visited the Wailing Wall in Israel where he was "moved to tears." He also confirmed his intention to move Argentina's embassy, currently located in Tel Aviv, to Jerusalem. A decision which was heavily criticized by Hamas as the city is considered occupied Palestinian territory.
📰 STORY OF THE DAY
In Taiwan, immigrants and their children redefine identity for an island nation
Despite a growing population and recent policies, “new residents” and their Taiwan-born children are not yet fully integrated into the country's politics and society. Following the general election in early January, Singapore-based digital media The Initium talks with young “new second generation” Taiwanese about their personal and political experiences.
🇹🇼 Living in Taiwan yet connected to a distant “motherland,” members of the new second generation find themselves straddling two worlds. While their immigrant mothers keep a low political profile — focusing on the economy and unwilling to vote — many second generations are seeking to shape their identity through political participation, and to change Taiwanese society's perception of them. Approximately 400,000 second-generation immigrants have the right to vote.
💸 Lin's personal journey reflects the struggles of the new second generation. Raised in Taichung by an Indonesian-Chinese mother, Sunny, his early life was marred by financial hardships and societal prejudice due to Indonesia’s exclusionary policy and Taiwan’s discrimination. His mother's life in Taiwan was difficult. His father earned low pay as a construction worker, but he spent a lot on drinking and prostitution, and he neglected his family. Sunny was treated badly by her husband's relatives, who called her a foreign domestic helper, and by her husband, who considered her a "bought wife".
💬 When Liu was a child, he was proud of his "mixed race" identity and would say that his mother was from China. But after the 2008 Chinese milk scandal, he began to experience Taiwanese unkindness toward China. He wished that his mother would not show up at school and expose his identity, so he could remain invisible as a Taiwanese. A native of Taiwan, Liu said, "Sometimes I even forget that I am not a 'pure Taiwanese'. Still, society reminds me again and again that I’m a foreigner.”
➡️ Read more on Worldcrunch.com
📹 THIS HAPPENED VIDEO — TODAY IN HISTORY, IN ONE ICONIC PHOTO
➡️ Watch the video: THIS HAPPENED
#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS
$3.08 million
Singapore's biggest lender DBS Group Holdings Limited announced a 30% cut in variable pay of its chief executive officer Piyush Gupta — one of the highest paid executives in the country — due to last year's digital banking disruptions. Several outages saw payment and ATM transactions stalled across the city-state. Gupta’s cut amounts to Singapore $4.1 million ($3.08 million). Meanwhile, DBS said its net profit exceeded $10 billion for 2023, surpassing its medium-term target.
📣 VERBATIM
“Can every parent really be responsible for everything that their children do?”
— Jennifer Crumbley, the mother of a school shooter who killed four students in 2021, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter by a Michigan jury in a first-of-its-kind trial on Tuesday. Prosecutors argued that Crumbley had been negligent in the storage of the household's guns and ammunition used for the shooting and that her, and her husband — set for trial next month — were aware of the unstable mental state of their son potentially making him a danger for others. Shannon Smith, Jennifer Crumbley's lawyer, argued her son's crimes were “unforeseeable” and asked the jury to what extent a parent could be held responsible for their child's actions. For more on U.S. gun culture, we offer this recent Worldcrunch original essay.
📸 PHOTO DU JOUR
Aftermath of a Russian airstrike on a block of flats in Kyiv’s Holosiivskyi district. A series of missile strikes hit the Ukrainian capital and other cities on Wednesday morning, killing at least three and injuring 11. — Photo: Serhii Loparev/Ukrinform/ZUMA
👉 MORE FROM WORLDCRUNCH
• Senegal's "Constitutional Coup" — Is Democracy In Africa A Lost Cause? — FRANCE INTER
• Is Wikipedia The Last Hope For Free Speech In Putin's Russia? — VAZHNYYE ISTORII/IMPORTANT STORIES
• Spain, From One Fiesta To Another — And The Party Lasts All Year Long — ETHIC
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