Why were so many Thai farmers among the hostages held by Hamas? By DAVID RISING Updated 10:57 PM GMT+8, June 7, 2025 https://apnews.com/article/thailand-hostages-gaza-explainer-israel-37e874bff5cb81ad6ea49d57058858a1 BANGKOK (AP) — Israel says it has retrieved the body of a 35-year-old Thai hostage who was abducted into Gaza during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that sparked the war. Nattapong Pinta was among 31 Thais taken by the Hamas militant group. Thailand’s foreign ministry in a statement Saturday confirmed that Pinta, the last Thai hostage in Gaza, was confirmed dead. It said the bodies of two others have yet to be retrieved. The ministry has said 46 Thais have been killed during the war. Thais were the largest group of foreigners held captive by Hamas. They were among tens of thousands of Thai workers in Israel. Here’s a look at what they were doing. Why are there so many Thais in Israel? Israel once relied heavily on Palestinian workers, but it started bringing in large numbers of migrant workers after the 1987-93 Palestinian revolt, known as the first Intifada. Most came from Thailand, and Thais remain the largest group of foreign agricultural laborers in Israel today, earning considerably more than they can at home. Israel has come under criticism for the conditions under which the Thai farm laborers work. A Human Rights Watch report in 2015 said they often were housed in makeshift and inadequate accommodation and “were paid salaries significantly below the legal minimum wage, forced to work long hours in excess of the legal maximum, subjected to unsafe working conditions and denied their right to change employers.” A watchdog group found more recently that most were still paid below the legal minimum wage. How many Thai nationals work in Israel? There were about 30,000 Thai workers, primarily working on farms, in Israel prior to the attack by Hamas. The Thai ambassador to Israel, Pannabha Chandraramya, recently said there are now more than 38,000 Thai workers in the country. What happened after some left? Faced with a labor shortage in the wake of the exodus, Israel’s Agriculture Ministry announced incentives to try to attract foreign workers back to evacuated areas. Among other things, it offered to extend work visas and to pay bonuses of about $500 a month.
FYI, guess where they got the idea. Influence of Biblical Law on Early Islamic Thought Deuteronomy contains passages explicitly calling for the death penalty for apostasy and idolatry: Deut. 13:6–10 "If your very own brother, or your son or daughter, or the wife you love, or your closest friend secretly entices you, saying, ‘Let us go and worship other gods’... you must certainly put them to death." And again in: Deut. 17:2–5 "If a man or woman living among you... has worshiped other gods... take the man or woman... and stone that person to death." These verses define apostasy and idolatry as crimes that threaten the covenant community and must be purged. To the Jews, Deuteronomy = Devarim is the fifth and final book of the Torah.
What I find weirdly amusing is @gwb-trading is repulsed by Trump's bullshit but embraces it when it comes out from Israel sources and claiming he's not Jewish.
I am merely outlining (once again) the three leading scenarios for alternatives to Hamas governance in Gaza. All three have been outlined in the Arab press -- not only Israeli sources. None of the three are aligned with Trump's plan for Gaza; his plan involves the forcible removal of all the Palestinians. I want to make it quite clear once again that I do not support the removal of Palestinians from Gaza which is nothing more than ethnic cleansing.
US pushing to ensure ‘maximum impunity’ for Israel through attack on four ICC judges: Iran By IFP Media Wire June 8, 2025 https://ifpnews.com/us-maximum-impunity-israel-icc-judges-iran/ The Iranian Foreign Ministry strongly condemned the US imposition of sanctions against the International Criminal Court (ICC)’s judges over the tribunal’s issuance of an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for war crimes and crimes against humanity against Palestinians. Commenting on X, former Twitter, on Saturday, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said the move marked a “new low,” even for a country such as the US, which was “badly” addicted to using sanctions and intimidation towards realizing its foreign policy goals. The US, he said, has issued the coercive measures in line with its way of abusing its power and obstructing international justice. The administration of President Donald Trump imposed the measures on Friday in response to the court’s serving Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with the warrant last year, amid the regime’s genocidal war against the Gaza Strip that began in October 2023. The war has so far claimed the lives of around 55,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children. The American sanctions were also meant to punish the court’s judges for investigating the war crimes that had been committed by American troops in Afghanistan during the US’s invasion of the Asian country. Washington dismissed the probes as “illegitimate and baseless.” Baghaei, however, said the American bans were aimed at “ensuring maximum impunity for Israel’s atrocity crimes and ethnic cleansing in occupied Palestine.” The spokesman cited an earlier case in point across the US’s policies as the American diplomatic representatives at the United Nations Security Council’s vetoing a draft resolution mandating “permanent” ceasefire in the Israeli war. Such moves, the official regretted, had made the United States “the most enduring & persistent accomplice in Israeli regime’s horrifying crimes of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and aggression.” Baghaei urged the international community to act in response to the deadly American-Israeli partnership, warning that the US’s actions were undermining international law and threatening the foundational principles of humanity.