Palestinian president calls Bahraini normalization "betrayal of the Palestinians and Jerusalem"
11 September 2020
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the U.S.-brokered Bahrain-Israel agreement, as his office issued a statement, saying “the Palestinian leadership see this as a betrayal of the Palestinian issue, of Jerusalem and of the al-Aqsa mosque” by Bahrain.
Why it matters: The Bahraini decision to follow the Untied Arab Emirates and normalize relations with Israel is a further blow to the Palestinians, who are losing Arab support. Earlier this week, the Palestinians failed to get the Arab League to back them in condemning the Israel-UAE agreement.
What they're saying: The statement by Palestinian leadership also noted that Bahrain “is legitimizing the crimes of the Israeli occupation against the Palestinian people,” and called on the Bahraini government to reverse its decision to normalize relation with Israel.
- PLO secretary general Saeb Erekat said: “The UAE and Bahrain are contributing to Trump's presidential campaign at the expense of the inalienable rights of the people of Palestine. The normalization race is not the answer to the achievement of Palestinian freedom and independence.”
The impact: Palestinian foreign minister Riyad Al-Maliki announced that he will recall the Palestinian ambassador in Manama as a protest to the Bahraini move.
- The Palestinians withdrew their ambassador from Abu Dhabi a month ago after the UAE normalized relations with Israel.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.