His performance in the 1986 World Cup tournament has since become sporting legend. He dubbed his controversial first goal in a quarterfinal the “Hand of God”, since it led to an Argentinian victory over England – a rival with whom the country only four years previously had fought a war over the Falklands Islands, known as the Islas Malvinas in Spanish.
Also addressing the crowd at the “Jerusalem Day” march was the country’s ultranationalist finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, who has been vocal in his push for the annexation of the occupied West Bank, and the displacement of Palestinians from Gaza.Smotrich asked the crowd: “Are we afraid of victory?”; “Are we afraid of the word ‘occupation?’” The crowd – described as “revellers” within parts of Israeli media – responded with a resounding “no”.
“There’s a cohort of the extreme right who feel vindicated by a year and a half of war,” the former Israeli diplomat Alon Pinkas told Al Jazeera. “They think their message that, if you blink you lose; if you pause, you lose; if you waver, you lose, has been borne out.”Alongside the intensifying of Israel’s onslaught on Gaza, which has now killed more than 54,000 Palestinians, voices of dissent have grown louder. In April, more than 1,000 serving and retired pilots issued an open letter protesting a war they said served“political and personal interests”
rather than security ones. Further letters, as well as anorganised campaign encouraging
young Israelis to refuse to show up for military service, have followed.
Perhaps sensing the direction the wind was blowing, the leader of Israel’s left-wing Democrats Party, Yair Golan – who initially supported the war and took a hardline position on allowing humanitarian aid into Gaza – launched aInstead, the vast majority of Samsung, Apple and Electrolux products have been imported by dozens of little-known Russian companies and individual entrepreneurs.
Most of the shippers named in Russian import data are incorporated in jurisdictions that have not joined sanctions against Moscow, including the UAE, China and Hong Kong.Al Jazeera approached several of the biggest suppliers of Apple products identified in custom records posing as a potential wholesale buyer from Russia.
Three companies responded to email inquiries, expressing interest in selling to Russia despite sanctions. Two of those later stopped their communications without providing details about their businesses.“We are actually selling directly on Russian marketplaces ourselves,” a sales manager at BMG International, a company registered in Dubai, told Al Jazeera.