内容摘要：calling the Supreme Court’s decision not to weigh in “a grave mistake”.

calling the Supreme Court’s decision not to weigh in “a grave mistake”.

Posing as criminals from China looking to launder over $100m, Al Jazeera’s undercover reporters managed to gain access to these smugglers and gangs.Zimbabwe is a key player in these operations. Gold accounts for

— over $2bn — of the country’s exports. But the nation faces a strict international sanctions regime, and even though its gold trade is not in itself banned by the West, the broader strictures against Zimbabwe make it harder to export the precious metal through official channels.However, using a web of companies and patronage from some of Zimbabwe’s most powerful individuals, smugglers have turned those constraints on trade into an opportunity to launder billions of dollars and help the government in Harare get around some of the consequences of sanctions.The process is as simple as it is cunning: Criminals from around the world with large volumes of unaccounted cash can give that money to the Zimbabwean government, directly or through smugglers. The Zimbabwean government desperately needs US dollars since the county’s own currency has little international value following years of hyperinflation.

In exchange, launderers get clean, legitimate cash — from the sale of Zimbabwean gold — transferred to their bank accounts.‘Good washing machine’

One of the smuggling operations the I-Unit encountered was led by Uebert Angel, Zimbabwe’s ambassador-at-large to Europe and the Americas. Angel was appointed personally by Mnangagwa with the responsibility of securing global investments for Zimbabwe, and is one of the country’s most influential diplomats.

Angel, who is also a prominent pastor, works with his deputy, Rikki Doolan. The duo made an offer to Al Jazeera’s undercover reporters that Angel could use his diplomatic cover to smuggle dirty money into Zimbabwe. That cash would then be used to purchase Zimbabwean gold with the help of Henrietta Rushwaya, president of the country’s mining association and a niece of Mnangagwa.Israeli ministers and settler politicians are using rhetoric about protecting Jewish Biblical heritage to disguise their long-held desire to annex Sebastia, Azim said.

Eliyahu was joined in Sebastia by Minister of Environmental Protection Idit Silman and Yossi Dagan, chairman of the Shomron Regional Council, which controls 35 illegal West Bank settlements.Silman has hailed the scheme and told Israeli media, “historical justice is being done”, accusing Palestinians of attempting to “erase” Jewish heritage.

The Israeli government has long been clear that Sebastia, which most historians agree was the capital of the Kingdom of Israel for less than 200 years, will be taken over and transformed into the centrepiece of Israeli tourism in the West Bank.In May 2023, the Israeli government approved a 30 million shekel (more than $8m) scheme to restore the park and establish a tourism centre, new access roads, and an expanded military presence. The four million shekel ($1.2m) regeneration of a disused Hijaz railway station about two miles from Sebastia, last operational in the final years of the Ottoman Empire, has also been announced.