Notices by Zecharias Zelalem (zekuzelalem@dair-community.social), page 5

THREAD: Huge news out of Ankara, Turkiye. After a year of bickering and diplomatic tensions, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced that Ethiopia and Somalia have pledged to end their near year long feud, over Ethiopia's controversial MoU with the breakaway republic of Somaliland.

This appears to have defused the potential for conflict in the region. For now.

https://www.dw.com/en/ethiopia-somalia-reach-compromise-to-end-feud-turkey-says/a-71029613

@timnitGebru the swiftness of the offense is a surprise...I don't think anyone a week ago could say they saw a lightning offensive ending it all in days. Although...with critical allies Iran and Hezbollah weakened, and Russia bogged down in Ukraine, Assad had fewer allies willing/able to fight alongside him and prevent his downfall.

State television headquarters in Damascus, as well as Damascus International Airport, have been seized by rebels, according to the Middle East Eye.

Bashar Al-Assad, according to their sources (and many others), is no longer in Syria.

This appears to be it.

https://www.middleeasteye.net/live/live-syrian-rebels-close-damascus

Here's footage of our segment of the ceremony...along with the speeches we gave.

Aseel Mousa finished her speech with "from the river to the sea" and there were sponsors from Google and others seated right there watching it all😆

But none of us were censored thankfully. We all acknowledged genocide.

Londoners were kind, accommodating and especially generous with their wine.

Thank you fediverse family, for your support throughout my year of reporting!

Selam.
-ZZ.

https://youtu.be/wcaxGhjL9Yc?si=-ZsH3wjw6nR6qcWU

@ricci Thank you!!!!🙏🏿

@ohmu with this finish...I'm a bit less random now🤣🤣 thank you so much!!

All in all, it was an honor to meet old friends and be acquainted with new ones again. Got to hear from those who personally documented genocide of their families in Gaza. Many spoke about seeing loved ones and colleagues be killed.

This was their night, and we're glad the Rory Peck Awards acknowledged them and didn't do what the Pulitzer prize committee did last year by completely erasing them.

AFP coverage of their London journalists winning gold in London:

https://www.afp.com/en/agency/awards/gaza-journalists-afp-win-video-award-powerful-war-coverage

Hi friends. I finished runner up for the Martin Adler Prize, at the 2024 Rory Peck Journalism Awards. At this year's awards hosted at the London BFI Southbank, Palestinian journalists swept the prizes & rightfully so! It's the first time in the 30 year history of the awards that one story claims all the awards. It was a huge honor to meet them in person.

My year long coverage of Ethiopia's Amhara war for @thecontinent, Al Jazeera & The Globe and Mail sealed my place there.

Unforgettable night.

How you can tell a human rights organization (HRW, Amnesty, ACLU, etc) is doing the right thing and has impact?

When governments and billionaires spend their time and money trying to silence us.

@Tooden The New York Post just about beat them to it

@steter yeah that's not ideal. At least it's not in the headline à la Associated Press.

The headlines used by some major publishers covering Amnesty International's reports are interesting to say the least. The AP felt including Israel's take was necessary. The Washington Post stated that the report would likely "intensify a debate."

So far, nothing from the BBC or Deutsche Welle.

Amnesty have published a meaty 296 page report in which the organization determines that Israel's campaign in Gaza amounts to genocide.

It's the first human rights organization to issue the determination, and comes after a UN report last month accused Israel of actions "consistent with genocide."

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/12/amnesty-international-concludes-israel-is-committing-genocide-against-palestinians-in-gaza/

@catch56 @martinvermeer @arrrg Aaron Mate....right ballpark.

UPDATE: The Deputy Director of CAIR, Edward Ahmed Mitchell came on Twitter to respond to complaints and state that the CAIR apologizes and says the awarding was a "vetting oversight."

Mitchell says that the CAIR board plans to meet on Monday to discuss the matter.

As of yet, CAIR itself hasn't formally commented, nor has it revoked the award.

@FediThing to be frank, I know very little about the organization, aside that it's among the prominent Muslim American advocacy orgs. Perhaps they do amazing work. And they have awarded other worthy people on the day. But for an org of their stature, it's extremely disappointing to see them to honour a prolific denier of human suffering in this manner.

For the denialism of suffering in my homeland, I'm sure the organizers wouldn't care. Racism has relegated us to irrelevance.

But I would have thought a prominent Muslim org would show more sensitivity for Syrians, a Muslim majority people.

It seems Palestinian solidarity gives everyone a pass, no matter how foul your transgressions are.

If hating Israel is all that is required with no humanitarian based ethical standards necessary...why not award David Duke? I'm pretty sure he qualifies.

On Friday, the DC based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) just had a gala event honouring their 30th anniversary. There, the org handed out the "Gaza Solidarity Award" to a number of journalists.

Among the awardees, someone infamous (not pictured) for years of mocking Syrian regime atrocity victims, denying/downplaying Russian atrocities in Syria & elsewhere, platforming Tigray genocide denial & a lot more.

Absolutely tone deaf from CAIR. At an event labeled "standing for justice."

@Nochem couldn't have put it better 💯

37 years after this brutal crime against a young Black liberation activist was enabled by the racist apartheid system of the era during its dying days...the ageing accused police officers were actually made by the court to visit the crime scene.

How the tables have turned. Family & friends of Nyoka had lost hope for justice, saying that the Truth & Reconciliation Commission was of no help, because the accused portrayed the act as self defense against Nyoka, who they described as a "terrorist."