Category World News

The United States’s 20-point plan to end Israel’s war in Gaza is not the same as the draft proposed by a group of Arab and Muslim countries, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar has said.

“I made it clear that the 20 points that President (Donald) Trump made public are not ours. Changes were made to our draft. I have the record,” Dar said, speaking to politicians on Friday, according to remarks carried by Dawn news.

His comments come after the White House on Monday released a plan with fanfare that would include a ceasefire, the return of all captives, Hamas disarmament, and a new political architecture for post-war Gaza – one that would exclude the Palestinian group.

Its release came a few minutes before Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stood next to each other at the White House to announce the plan. There, Trump told Hamas it had 72 hours to accept the proposal. On Tuesday, he gave the Palestinian group three to four days to agree to the plan.

Meanwhile, Hamas political bureau member Mohammad Nazzal told Al Jazeera on Thursday that the group was discussing Trump’s plan and would soon announce its position on the proposal. “We are not dealing [with the plan] under the logic that time is a sword pointed at our neck,” Nazzal said.

The published document was presented as a joint effort between Israel, the US and a number of Arab and Muslim countries. Last week, several leaders from the Arab and Muslim world discussed the plan at a meeting on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

But while there are no official records of what was discussed at that mini-summit, Axios reported that the proposal announced by the American and Israeli leaders earlier this week contained “significant changes”, requested by Netanyahu, to the draft that had been agreed on by the Arab leaders and Trump.

The amendments were made during a six-hour meeting between Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Netanyahu, the report said. The revised version ties Israel’s withdrawal to Hamas’s disarmament and allows Israel – after a withdrawal in stages – to remain within a buffer zone inside the enclave until there are no risks of any “terror threat”, it added.

A group of eight Arab and Muslim countries, including Pakistan, Qatar, Turkiye and Saudi Arabia, welcomed Trump’s announcement in a joint statement.

Qatar has said that it agrees with the aims of the plan, and seeks further discussions on its details.

“If we speak of the main objectives, there are objectives that it [the US plan] achieves, such as ending the war, and there are things that need clarification, which certainly need discussions and negotiations,” Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani told Al Jazeera.

Egypt’s Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty also said that more talks were needed. According to the US proposal, an international body chaired by Trump would have oversight, while a Palestinian technocratic committee would handle civilian governance until the Palestinian Authority reforms itself. To take care of security, according to the proposal, a stabilisation force would be deployed.

“There are a lot of holes that need to be filled; we need more discussions on how to implement it, especially on two important issues – governance and security arrangements,” Abdelatty said on Thursday.

Experts pointed out that there are sticking points. There are questions on whether Hamas will agree to disarm since it has repeatedly said it would not, as the main face of Palestinian armed resistance.

The current proposal also nods vaguely at how reforms may open a pathway to Palestinian statehood, which is not recognised as a right but as the “aspiration of the Palestinian people”.

The plan does not mention the forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza – a significant shift from Trump’s earlier lambasted position when he suggested the relocation of the population outside the enclave to turn it into the “Riviera of the Middle East”, which was heavily criticised as ethnic cleansing.

It also ruled out the occupation of Gaza and the annexation of the occupied West Bank – actions that Netanya’s far-right coalition members are pushing for.

Israel has intercepted the Global Sumud Flotilla sailing to Gaza and detained hundreds of crew members. The UN’s Francesca Albanese is calling it an abduction. Soraya Lennie asks, does Israel have the legal right to do any of this?

Nine US universities have been asked to accept a number of demands by the US government in order to gain “preferential access” to federal funds.

The universities were informed on Wednesday that a memo from the government had been sent to them instructing them to reduce foreign enrollment and repress institutions that “belittle” conservative ideas in order to be funded.

The White House has not made the memo public or provided an explanation of why these nine institutions were chosen in particular.

What are the new requirements for universities seeking federal funding, as revealed by this information.

What is stated in the White House memo to US universities?

The 10-point memo has the title “A Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education.”

According to the terms of the memo’s terms:

• When hiring staff and faculty, universities must make sure that admissions and financial support services take into account race and sex when granting students and providing financial aid.
• GPA and test scores, as well as race, national origin, and sex, must be made publicly available.
• Before being admitted to a university, all applicants must take a standardized test, such as the SAT.
• International students are required to account for only 15% of undergraduate enrollments.
• Universities must maintain a “vibrant marketplace of ideas on campus” without a dominant political ideology.
• They must abolish organizations that “purposefully denigrate, demonize, and even stoke violence against conservative ideas.”
• Universities are required to reduce administrative costs, freeze tuition costs, and publicly share graduate earnings by program for five years.
• Institutions should waive tuition for students enrolled in “hard science” programs if their endowments exceed $2 million per undergraduate student.

Universities who choose not to adhere to the outlined standards may lose federal funding, but those who do will be compensated and rewarded.

Which universities have this memo received?

On Wednesday, the following universities received notice of this agreement:

• Arizona University
• Brown University
• Dartmouth College
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
• University of Pennsylvania
• University of Southern California
• University of Texas
• Virginia University
• Vanderbilt University

What has the response been to these institutions?

The universities have largely stated that they are still reviewing the memo.

Local news outlets in Arizona reported that Arizona University spokesperson Mitch Zak said in a statement: “The university first learned of the compact when we received it on Oct. 1. We are reviewing it carefully.”

The University of Texas system is pleased that its flagship, the University of Texas at Austin, was chosen by the Trump administration as one of only nine institutions in the US for potential funding advantages under its new Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education, according to Kevin P. Eltife, the chairman of the University of Texas Board of Regents.

Eltife continued, “We enthusiastically look forward to engaging with university officials and immediately reviewing the compact.”

Brown University announced on Thursday that it would set up an ad hoc committee on diversity and inclusion to develop the recommendations as well as a draft action plan to maintain and advance diversity and inclusion on campus over the next ten years.

What responses have people given?

The American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the second-largest teacher’s union in the nation, criticized the demands in a statement released on Thursday.

The Trump administration’s proposal to give colleges and universities with court-appointed patrons favor favoritism, patronage, and bribery in exchange for allegiance to a partisan ideological agenda, the statement read.

The American Association of University Professors (AAUP), a group that has opposed White House interference in higher education in the US, joined the AFT in supporting the group.

Todd Wolfson, president of the AAUP, told Reuters: “This seems to be the administration moving toward a carrot approach, but the stick is embedded in the carrot.”

Additionally, concerned professors from the targeted universities have weighed in.

In a statement to the university’s student-run newspaper, The Daily Pennsylvanian, Kermit Roosevelt, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, stated that “it seems to have a pretty broad theory of what foments political violence.”

Why is the Trump administration currently doing this?

The Trump administration’s most recent attempt to alter the political climate of higher education institutions in the US is represented by the memo.

Trump began retaliating against US university students who had last year participated in marches and camps against Israel’s occupation of Gaza shortly after his inauguration in January.

The administration claimed that these students were “pro-Hamas” and anti-Semitism propagating on campus. Trump also alleged that universities were “illegal and immoral discrimination” through diversity, equality, and inclusion (DEI) programs.

Trump signed an executive order on January 29 that mandates that any actions federal agencies take against anti-Semitism on campus within 60 days of the incident.

To all the resident aliens who joined the pro-jihadist protests, Trump was quoted as saying in a fact sheet the day after that: “We put you on notice: come 2025, we will find you, and we will deport you. I’ll also immediately revoke all Hamas sympathisers’ student visas on college campuses, which have experienced unprecedented radicalism.

Several students have since been subject to deportation and visa revokes, including Columbia University alumnus Mahmoud Khalil, who was detained and arrested in March. A US immigration judge ordered Khalil, who is married to a US citizen, to be deported to Syria or Algeria on September 12.

In honor of six-year-old Hind Rajab, who was killed alongside her family by Israeli forces in Gaza in January 2024, Columbia University took center stage during the pro-Palestine encampments last year on US campuses.

Trump revoked $ 400 million in federal funding for Columbia in February, citing “a failure to protect Jewish students from anti-Semitic harassment.”

Columbia received a letter from the Trump administration outlining the requirements for resuming funding negotiations in March. Within a few days, Columbia responded, accepting the government’s demands.

In April, Trump also frozen Harvard University’s funding.

After months of deliberating about Harvard’s educational policies, Trump announced on September 30 that his administration was close to reaching a deal with Harvard. Trump claimed Harvard will pay about $500 million for an undisclosed reason, without providing any further information about the deal.

With exceptions to religious and medical reasons, the university now requires protesters to present university ID when asked to do so. Additionally, it has employed 36 security personnel who, with the assistance of the New York police, are authorized to arrest students.

Sidoarjo, East Java – Dewi Ajeng was at home in Probolinggo – a city in Indonesia’s East Java – when she received a chilling message in the group chat of her son’s school in Sidoarjo, located some two hours away.

There had been “an incident”.

The Al-Khoziny Islamic Boarding School had collapsed, trapping the young students, all boys, mostly aged between 12 and 18 years old, inside.

Dewi’s 13-year-old son, Selendra Haikal Rakaditya, was among those buried beneath the rubble.

“I just felt a range of mixed emotions. I was sad, frantic, crying. Then my husband messaged me to confirm the news,” she told Al Jazeera.

“I called my friend in Sidoarjo and told her to go to the school and find him, and that I was on my way.”

Dewi arrived at about 5.30pm, about two hours after the school collapsed during afternoon prayers.

Her son, Haikal, had not been found.

The names of children who were rescued and taken to different hospitals in the Sidoarjo area were pinned to large notice boards set up by search and rescue teams.

“There were six ‘Haikals’ on the lists and I went to every hospital trying to find out if my son was there,” Dewi said.

“Then someone sent me a video from the scene and I could hear a voice shouting, ‘Mama, mama, mama,’ and I thought, ‘Thank God, that’s him, he’s calling for me’,” she said.

“From then on, I focused on the scene of the collapse. I just knew he was in there, and I told the search and rescue teams that he needed to be rescued.”

But a rescue would not be easy.

Young Haikal was trapped inside an air pocket under the fallen debris with five other pupils. He was the second closest to a jagged escape route through gaps in the rubble. But the way out was blocked by the body of one of Haikal’s friends, who died due to the force of the building collapse.

There was no way for Haikal to crawl out, or for the rescuers to squeeze in and reach him.

‘I was crying, screaming. I just kept praying’

The difficult rescue effort took three days – a terrifying time for Dewi as members of the search and rescue teams fought to reach her son. A brief moment of hope arrived when they were able to create a shaft through which they passed bread and water to the trapped students.

Almost exactly 72 hours after the boarding school collapsed, Haikal was brought out of the debris by rescuers and placed on a stretcher. Dewi told Al Jazeera that rescuers advised her not to look at her son, and instead go straight to the local hospital to see him.

“When I got there, I don’t even remember what happened, I was crying, screaming. I just kept praying. When I finally saw him, I just thanked God. He had withstood everything for 72 hours. He had made it,” she said.

Slowly, Dewi said, her son told her what had happened.

He had almost finished afternoon prayers on the second floor of the boarding school on Monday when chunks of the ceiling started to fall on the boys.

“Then he heard a cracking sound and the building caved in completely. He said he felt like he was being pulled in all different directions,” Dewi said.

What no one knew at the time, but which the authorities confirmed later, was that construction workers had been pouring concrete on an upper floor of the boarding school, the weight of which had caused the building to collapse.

Haikal told how hundreds of students ran in all directions. About 100 had made it out of the building, some with significant head injuries and broken bones. Five students died, and at least 60 were unaccounted for – including Haikal and his friends.

“I asked if he screamed when he found himself trapped in the darkness of the rubble, and he said that he didn’t,” Dewi said.

“He remembered his science classes at the school and how he had been taught to conserve his energy in an emergency situation, so he tried to stay calm and not panic. He couldn’t breathe at first, and he didn’t want to tire himself out. Only later did he call for me,” she said.

Haikal and his trapped friends talked to each other as they waited for help to arrive. Some fell asleep amid the dust, shattered concrete and twisted metal that had once been their classrooms.

Haikal’s leg was trapped by a falling piece of the roof, but he still prayed, sitting up at every prayer time and encouraging his friends to do the same, his mother said.

“It was extraordinary what they endured,” she said.

Dewi credits her son’s ability to survive the disaster to his resourceful personality, telling how she had discouraged him from using a mobile phone or other digital gadgets and that he was always outside playing, and enjoyed searching for animals and insects in their garden.

“He’s a very creative child,” she said.

For now, Dewi is focused on Haikal’s physical and emotional wellbeing, after the trauma endured over three claustrophobic days and two dark nights trapped beneath the collapsed school.

He is still in intensive care, and doctors are working on restoring blood flow to his leg, which was affected by the cement slab falling on him.

When he is well again, Dewi said they will find a new school for her son to attend.