Thomas Claes

Working for @fesonline with a focus on Western Africa and Economy and Decent Work.
Previously, @libyafes and @fes_mena
Tweets are private.

[Norwegian Refugee Council @NRC_Norway]

BREAKING: A new report by the NRC-led West Bank Protection Consortium documents sexualised violence and gender-based abuse by Israeli settlers against Palestinians, part of a broader pattern of coercion driving displacement across the West Bank.

[Thomas Claes @ThPaCl]

@philippcjahn @TurkishAirlines @TurkishHelpdsk Hahaha du und TK ist aber auch eine unendliche Geschichte!

[Haaretz.com @haaretzcom]

A Jesus statue gets more empathy than Palestinians in Israel
https://t.co/n3cIRuHWTk

[Thomas Claes @ThPaCl]

“In a carefully coordinated publicity stunt last week, Trump received a McDonald’s takeaway order from Sharon Simmons, a 58-year-old grandmother who began working as a delivery driver to help cover the cost of her husband’s cancer treatment.”

[Rula Jebreal @rulajebreal]

La risposta del vicedirettore de L'Espresso Enrico Bellavia all'ambasciatore istaeliano Peled.

"La scorsa copertina de L’Espresso sugli abusi dei coloni in Cisgiordania che l’ambasciatore 🇮🇱 Peled ha improvvidamente «condannato», insegna alcune cose. Innanzitutto, a noi che abbiamo molto da imparare. Anche da quello che facciamo.

Senza il ghigno beffardo del colono che irride alla donna palestinese, colto dall’obiettivo esperto di Pietro Masturzo quel racconto, intriso di sradicamento, violenza, sangue non avrebbe avuto la stessa forza. Perché dice di una pulizia etnica che punta a coltivare le spinte espansionistiche del Grande Israele.
E non ha nulla a che vedere con LA SICUREZZA nazionale. Non obbedisce a logiche, sia pure distorte o funzionali, di contrasto a minacce terroristiche.

È un’operazione di conquista condotta da civili, liberamente armati, spalleggiati dall’esercito 🇮🇱 . Un’annessione né lenta né silenziosa, in spregio al diritto, sotto gli occhi del mondo. In quella foto che ha fatto il giro del mondo c’è la sintesi e il grado zero del sopruso: lo scherno. Più di un corpo martoriato, stabilisce senza lambiccamenti il torto e la ragione. Documenta un surplus di prevaricazione nella sproporzione tra un maschio armato e una donna inerme, cacciata dal suolo che ha calpestato.

L’immagine su carta ha il privilegio di fissare l’istante e consegnarlo alla memoria. Duratura e non volatile, per quanto evocabile on demand in ogni istante, come nel mondo digitale. Ha il merito di aderire istantaneamente al nostro immaginario, di entrare nell’archivio del vissuto collettivo. Non richiede altro per essere richiamata. Non presuppone una ricerca, ma la nostra intelligenza. Naturale. Il web la veicola e la porta dove il settimanale non arriva. Oltre a conservarla per tutti.

Una straordinaria fotografia non basta, senza il lavoro rigoroso sul contesto. Se l’ambasciatore si fosse preso la briga di controllare – era in chiaro, sfogliando il settimanale dalla seconda pagina – si sarebbe evitato un infortunio e un corto circuito. L’infortunio di sollevare semplici sospetti «manipolatori» sull’immagine. Il corto circuito di impartire lezioni sull’uso della «responsabilità» e della «correttezza» che gli si sono ritorte contro da parte di chi non si è fermato alle figure, ma si è concesso l’ormai raro scrupolo di leggere.

La copertina è parte di un foto-racconto, corredato di una serie di minuziose informazioni raccolte sul campo da chi quella Cisgiordania la testimonia da anni. Non bastasse, Alae Al Said ha riscontrato ogni dettaglio, aggiungendovi la propria conoscenza di quella realtà. La partigianeria sui fatti non è mai un buon viatico per approcciarli o confutarli. Sedicenti esperti, sulla scia dell’ambasciatore, si sono spinti a sostenere che l’immagine fosse generata dall’Ia. Bastava documentarsi. Per gli scettici, esiste una versione video di quel lavoro e il New York Times ha pubblicato un reportage realizzato in quegli stessi frangenti. Nel quale, peraltro, è immortalato il medesimo colono.

Non siamo noi a promuovere «stereotipi e odio». Contro neonazisti e neofascisti, contro gli antisemiti, siamo dove siamo sempre stati. In quello stesso posto dove i TERRORISTI non sono un’etnia, come i CRIMINALI non sono un popolo. Il GENOCIDIO si chiama con quel nome. E non si fanno sconti a chi nasconde o mistifica la realtà. Neppure in nome della Storia".

[Jan Rosenow @janrosenow]

Spain's renewables build-out has structurally decoupled its electricity prices from gas markets.

Gas now sets the price in only 15% of hours, compared to 90% in Italy.

Countries that invested early in clean power are far less exposed to fossil fuel price shocks.

[Joerg Lau @joerglau]

I don't think Helmut Kohl, or for that matter Angela Merkel, would have allowed that. If you do not defend the weak against a bully, you are weak, and you will be next.

[Thomas Claes @ThPaCl]

💔

[Elizabeth Tsurkov @LizHurra]

On May 17, 2025, an Israeli airstrike on Gaza killed Jihad a-Sharif's wife and 3 children, Faten, Muhammad and Omar.
Jihad posted this on Facebook alongside this photo with his daughter (my translation)
**
Three days ago, someone told me he had seen a little girl in the street. He said her features resembled my daughter Faten so much that he thought it was her…
When I heard that, I felt my heart almost stop from the intensity of my longing for her.
I kept passing through that same street, hoping I might meet that little girl, just so I could ask her parents for permission to hold her to my chest and ease a bit of this painful longing… but I never found her.
Yet God soothed my heart: Faten came to me in a dream. I saw her, and I held her in an embrace that made me feel as if the whole world couldn’t contain my joy. I asked her, “Where are you?”
She said, “We are in Paradise, daddy.”
I hugged her for a long time and said, “Take me with you…” but she remained silent.
I woke up with my heart filled with peace. It was enough for me that God comforted me with her embrace, even if only in a dream.
I ask God to reunite me with her and with my loved ones in heaven soon, and to keep my heart steadfast until I meet her again.
https://t.co/4P3ZyXndXH

[Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez @AOC]

From Orbán to Trump, the rise of far-right movements is tightly coordinated and transcends borders.

So too should be our international defense of democracy and the fight for working people.

From policy to tactics, it’s time to take the gloves off and fight for our future.

[James Jackson @derJamesJackson]

New: Germany's Bundestag President visited Gaza with the Israeli army today, despite the foreign ministry and the German embassy in Tel Aviv advising against the trip (via Politico)

[Thomas Claes @ThPaCl]

Was für ein peinliches Foto alleine schon. Der ganze Rest noch schlimmer.

[Tarek Baé @Tarek_Bae]

Bundestagspräsidentin Julia Klöckner (CDU) 🇩🇪 hat heute gemeinsam mit Israels Militär 🇮🇱 Gaza besucht. Den Teil Gazas, aus dem Israel sämtliche Menschen vertrieben; hinter der sog. „gelben Linie“, die Gazas Einwohner nicht übertreten können, ohne getötet zu werden. Nichts davon spricht Klöckner an. Da, wo sie steht, würde Israel aktuell Palästinenser 🇵🇸 ermorden. Der Name „Palästinenser“ geht ihr kein einziges mal über die Lippen. Ein Wort zu den Opfern des israelischen Vernichtungskriegs? Fehlanzeige. Aber sie sagt wortwörtlich, auf dem Schutt Gazas stehend: „Die aktuellen Sicherheitsmaßnahmen nach dem 7. Oktober 2023 sind nachvollziehbar.“

Für das Foto hat sie ernstgemeint posiert. Sie trägt eine schusssichere Weste. Niemand in dem Gebiet schießt auf Menschen, außer Israel; von Klöckner „Freunde“ genannt.

Das ist mehr als propagandistische Inszenierung. Das ist menschenverachtender Genozidtourismus.

[Thomas Claes @ThPaCl]

@TiloJung The famous war and genocide happening in Senegal, remember?

Incredible how some people's minds operate. Name a random country in the Global South, certainly there is some war or whatever. 🤢

[The Cradle @TheCradleMedia]

Son of caregiver held in ICE detention over unfounded PLO allegations dies; father barred from funeral
——
Wael Tarabishi, a 30 year old US citizen with severe Pompe disease, died on 23 January in a Texas intensive care unit after his father and full time caregiver, Maher Tarabishi, was detained by US immigration authorities. Maher, a Jordanian national, was arrested on 28 October 2025 during a routine check in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Dallas and held more than 200 miles away.

Relatives said Wael, who had undergone 36 surgeries and was confined to bed, suffered a rapid health decline without his father’s daily care. He was hospitalized with sepsis and pneumonia and spent days in intensive care calling for his father, including during a month long ICU stay, before his death.

Family members said officers ignored Maher’s long standing legal permission to remain in the US as his son’s caregiver and detained him despite explanations at the scene. ICE later alleged that Maher was a criminal and a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which has not been designated a terrorist group since 1987, a claim relatives described as unfounded. ICE did not allow him to attend his son's funeral.

[Charlie Sykes @SykesCharlie]

"All of us, citizens and immigrants alike, are being ruled by people who think life is a privilege bestowed by authority, and death is a fair penalty for disobedience."
https://t.co/qQNtTgxKZK

[Daractenus @Daractenus]

Theres a very long list of US products that cannot be sold in the EU thanks to EU regulations. Since the favorite pastime of the Trump regime and every US oligarch is now to demonize EU regulations, I thought it would be very much worth going through some of those products.🧵

[Ulf Buermeyer - [email protected] @vieuxrenard]

Natürlich ist das wieder rassistisch, aber was mir viel mehr Sorgen macht: Um am „Stadtbild“ wirklich etwas zu ändern, müssten massenweise Menschen mit deutschem Pass abgeschoben werden.

Das ist #Remigration à la AfD & Potsdam.

#Stadtbild #Merz

[Thomas Claes @ThPaCl]

An Armseligkeit schwer zu überbieten.

[Arye (ARO) Sharuz Shalicar @aryeshalicar]

Dank all den vielen hasserfüllten radikal Islamo-faschistischen, antisemitischen, und anti-freiheitlichen Kundgebungen von Feinden des freien Westens, wissen immer mehr Menschen im freien Westen zu schätzen, was Israel für einen Bärendienst für unser aller Freiheit leistet.

[Thomas Claes @ThPaCl]

Unglaublich wie Personen auf so komplett anderen Ebenen in eine Sendung eingeladen werden. Ist doch eine echte Zumutung fur Daniel Gerlach (und die Zuschauer).

[Nurder Koch @NurderK]

Israelische Propaganda im ÖRR.
#Lanz

[Der Postillon 📯 @Der_Postillon]

Weil sie das deutsche Schienennetz über Jahre sabotiert haben: CSU als linksextremistische Terrorgruppe eingestuft https://t.co/4TEcY3zOB0