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Category: Global

  • Former MP Anae calls for ‘Pacific justice’ over immigration in petition

    Asia Pacific Report

    A former National MP has launched a petition calling for “equality and respect” in New Zealand’s immigration visa treatment of Pacific Islanders, saying “many are shocked when they learn the truth”.

    In a full page advertisement in The New Zealand Herald newspaper today, Anae Arthur Anae condemned the New Zealand government’s visa settings that discriminated against Pacific peoples visiting the country and recalled the “dark days of the Dawn Raids“.

    The petition calls on the government to allow Pacific people to enter New Zealand on a three-month visitor visa issued on arrival.

    “While 90 percent of New Zealanders value and respect the contribution that Pacific peoples have made to this beautiful nation, most are unaware of the unfair treatment we continue to face,” Anae declared.

    “Many are shocked when they learn the truth.”

    “Currently, citizens from 60 countries aroundn the world — representing a combined population of 1.65 billion peopole — can arrive at any New Zealand airport and receive a three-month visitor visa arrival, free of charge,” he said.

    “In contrast, the 16 Pacific Island Forum nations, with a total population of fewer than 16 million, are denied this privilege.

    ‘Lengthy, expensive’ process
    Anae, who recently discussed his proposal on Radio Samoa, said that instead Pacific people needed to go through a “lengthy and expensive” visa application process — “preventing many from attending family funerals, emergencies, graduations and other important family events”.

    Until recently, he said, New Zealand’s Immigration Office in Samoa had been open for just an hour a day, “serving over 200,000 people with deep family and historical ties to New Zealand”.

    Anae said this lack of accessibility was “unacceptable for nations bound to New Zealand through treaties of friendship and shared sacrifice”.


    Former MP Anae Arthur Anae discusses his petition with Radio Samoa.

    “Let us reflect: Is this how we treat nations who have stood beside New Zealand through war, loss and shared history?” he said.

    The "Pacific Justice:" advertisement in the New Zealand Herald
    The “Pacific Justice:” advertisement in today’s New Zealand Herald. Image: NZH screenshot APR

    “We have shown loyalty, worked hard to build this country since the 1940s, and contributed immensely to its growth. Yet, we were once hunted in the dark days of the Dawn Raids, a shameful chapter that should never be repeated.

    “Pacific peoples have proven time and again that, when given the opportunity, we can achieve and contribute equally to anyone else.”

    The petition has received at least 24,000 signatures and closes on November 7.

     

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Palestine advocate Ms. Rachel celebrated in ‘Women of the Year’ roundup

    Glamour magazine has celebrated two prominent advocates of Palestinian liberation in their Women of the Year issue:


    Both have faced significant criticism for their anti-genocide stance. As such, this celebration highlights that the tide is turning on Palestinian liberation.

    Ms. Rachel

    Ms. Rachel is a children’s entertainer who we’ve reported on in the past. In their piece celebrating her, Glamour write:

    The success of Ms. Rachel is a rare and curious thing. During the past few decades, most of our early-childhood icons have been animated animals or brightly colored puppets—Barney, Peppa, Elmo, Bluey. Not since Mister Rogers has an actual adult human managed to break into that particular canon of cultural fixtures, becoming a household name and shaping the imaginations of millions while still speaking joyfully and directly to the youngest amongst us.

    They add:

    most recently, she’s become one of the loudest American voices for the children in Gaza. Fundraising, posting, and bringing Rahaf, a three-year-old double amputee, onto her show. Admirers from UNICEF leaders to Hollywood actors have praised her for saying what many politicians won’t. Critics, meanwhile, accuse her of politicizing childhood. She doesn’t flinch. “I have to just remind myself that kids’ lives are more important than my reputation,” she tells me.

    Ms. Rachel is still fighting to support Rahaf and others like her, as she explained herself just two days ago:


    When asked what she hoped to achieve with her activism, Ms. Rachel told Glamour:

    I’ve seen several people comment something similar, which is seeing Rahaf made me realize that the kids in Gaza are like my kids. I didn’t know just how dehumanized Palestinians are before I started doing this work. I did have a Palestinian mom say on a Zoom really early, “Thank you for seeing our children as human,” and I just couldn’t believe she had to thank me for that. It’s just how everyone should see every child in this world. I don’t know how we can value one child’s life over another child’s life in this world. They’re all equal and we just need to treat them all like the precious, beautiful gift they are.

    Ms. Rachel has continuously demanded that her government provide the Palestinians with much-needed aid:

    She also believes the Palestinians should receive reparations:

    Given that Western governments – including the UK – have supported Israel’s genocide, it makes sense that we should pay to rebuild Gaza.

    This is especially true given how hostile our countries are to refugees.

    At the end of the day, if politicians don’t want people to come here, they need to stop blowing up their homes.

    ‘Antisemitism’ smear campaign

    Speaking on those who have accused her of antisemitism, Ms. Rachel said:

    It’s incredibly painful. Saying that I don’t care deeply about one group of children because I’m focused on children in an emergency situation isn’t right. It’s not true. My friends know who I am and God knows who I am. But nothing is going to silence me from being an advocate for children because that’s a calling, and it’s the right thing to do. And labeling people because they care deeply about all children is wrong.

    In April, the widely-discredited smear group ‘Stop Antisemitism’ called on the US attorney general to investigate Ms. Rachel for her advocacy:


    The group didn’t explain why the US government should investigate a US citizen for criticising a foreign power – a foreign power conducting a genocide no less.

    In the UK, the left has faced a similar smear campaign for supporting Palestinian liberation. It’s important to remember, though, that Ms. Rachel didn’t come at this from a position of politics; she simply wanted the killing to stop.

    The fact that Israel’s backers attacked her so viciously exposed who they really are.

    Featured image via CNN

    By Willem Moore

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Blue Pacific’s unfinished business – West Papua and regional integrity

    ANALYSIS: By Ali Mirin

    When the Pacific Islands Forum concluded in Honiara last month, leaders pledged regional unity under the motto “Iumi Tugeda” — “We are Together”.

    Eighteen Pacific heads of government reached agreements on climate resilience and nuclear-free oceans.

    They signed the Pacific Resilience Facility treaty and endorsed Australia’s proposal to jointly host the 2026 COP31 climate summit.

    However, the region’s most urgent crisis was once again given only formulaic attention. West Papua, where Indonesian military operations continue to displace and replace tens of thousands of Papuans, was given just one predictable paragraph in the final communiqué.

    This reaffirmed Indonesia’s sovereignty, recalled an invitation made six years ago for the UN High Commissioner to visit, and vaguely mentioned a possible leaders’ mission in 2026.

    For the Papuan people, who have been waiting for more than half a century to exercise their right to self-determination, this represented no progress. It confirmed a decades-long pattern of acknowledging Jakarta’s tight grip, expressing polite concern and postponing action.

    A stolen independence
    The crisis in West Papua stems from its unique place in Pacific history. In 1961, the West Papuans established the New Guinea Council, adopted a national anthem and raised the Morning Star flag — years before Samoa gained independence in 1962 and Fiji in 1970.

    Papuan delegates had also helped to launch the South Pacific Conference in 1950, which would become the Pacific Islands Forum.

    However, this path was abruptly reversed. Under pressure from Cold War currents, the Netherlands transferred administration to Indonesia.

    The promised plebiscite was replaced by the 1969 Act of Free Choice, in which 1026 hand-picked Papuans were forced to vote for integration under military coercion.

    Despite protests, the UN endorsed the result. West Papua was the first Pacific nation to have its recognised independence reversed during decolonisation.

    Systematic blockade
    Since the early 1990s, UN officials have been seeking access to West Papua. However, the Indonesians have imposed a complete block on any international institutions and news media entering.

    Between 2012 and 2022, multiple UN high commissioners and special rapporteurs requested visits. All were denied.

    More than 100 UN member states have publicly supported these requests. It has never occurred. Regional organisations ranging from the Pacific Islands Forum to the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States have made identical demands. Jakarta ignores them all.

    International media outlets face the same barriers. Despite former Indonesian President Joko Widodo’s 2015 declaration that foreign journalists could enter Papua freely, visa restrictions and surveillance have kept the province as among the world’s least reported conflicts.

    During the protests in 2019, Indonesia shut down internet access across the territory.
    Indonesia calculates that it can ignore international opinion because key partners treat West Papua as a low priority.

    Australia and New Zealand balance occasional concern with deeper trade ties. The US and China prioritise strategic interests.

    Even during his recent visit to Papua New Guinea, UN Secretary-General António Guterres made no mention of West Papua, despite the conflict lying just across the border.

    Bougainville vs West Papua
    The Pacific’s inaction is particularly striking when compared to Bougainville. Like West Papua, Bougainville endured a brutal conflict.

    Unlike West Papua, however, Bougainville received genuine international support for self-determination. Under UN oversight, Bougainville’s 2019 referendum allowed free voting, with 98 per cent choosing independence.

    Today, Bougainville and Papua New Guinea are negotiating a peaceful transition to sovereignty.

    West Papua has been denied even this initial step. There is no credible mediation. There is no international accompaniment. There is no timetable for a political solution.

    The price of hypocrisy
    Pacific leaders are confronted with a fundamental contradiction. They demand bold global action on climate justice, yet turn a blind eye to political injustice on their doorstep.

    The ban on raising the Morning Star flag in Honiara, reportedly under pressure from Indonesia, has highlighted this hypocrisy.

    The flag symbolises the right of West Papuans to exist as a nation. Prohibiting it at a meeting celebrating regional solidarity revealed the extent of external influence in Pacific decision-making.

    This selective solidarity comes at a high cost. It undermines the Pacific’s credibility as a global conscience on climate change and decolonisation.

    It leaves Papuans trapped in what they describe as a “slow-motion genocide”. Between 2018 and 2022, an estimated 60,000 to 100,000 people were displaced by Indonesian military operations.

    In 2024, Human Rights Watch reported that violence had reached levels unseen in decades.

    Breaking the pattern
    The Forum could end this cycle by taking practical steps. For example, it could set a deadline of 12 months for an Indonesia-UN agreement on unrestricted access to West Papua.

    If no agreement is reached, the Forum could conduct its own investigation with the Melanesian Spearhead Group. It could also make regional programmes contingent on human rights benchmarks, including ensuring humanitarian access and ending internet shutdowns.

    Such measures would not breach the Forum’s charter. They would align Pacific diplomacy with the proclaimed values of dignity and solidarity. They would demonstrate that regional unity extends beyond mere rhetoric.

    The test of history
    The people of West Papua were among the first in Oceania to resist colonial expansion and to form a modern government. They were also the first to experience the reversal of recognised sovereignty.

    Until Pacific leaders find the courage to confront Indonesian obstruction and insist on genuine West Papuan self-determination, “Iumi Tugeda” will remain a beautiful slogan shadowed by betrayal.

    The region’s moral authority does not depend on eloquence regarding the climate fund, but on whether it confronts its deepest wound.

    Any claim to a unified Blue Pacific identity will remain incomplete until the issue of West Papua’s denied independence is finally addressed.

    Ali Mirin is a West Papuan academic and writer from the Kimyal tribe of the highlands bordering the Star Mountain region of Papua New Guinea. He holds a Master of Arts in international relations from Flinders University – Australia.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Israel committed to ‘business as usual’ in seeking Gaza gains, says analyst

    Asia Pacific Report

    Middle East political analyst Zeidon Alkinani says Israel’s military is continuing “business as usual” to the east of the yellow line in Gaza in spite of the ceasefire deal.

    The military withdrew behind the yellow line as part of the ceasefire deal, while the government works to ensure “absolute gains” in the enclave and the continuation of its “political, economic and military occupation”, Alkinani told Al Jazeera.

    While “the attacks are much more minimised” compared with before the ceasefire, Israel’s political establishment was still trying to exert leverage over Gaza’s future — including the makeup of an international security force.

    Hamdah Salhut, reporting from Amman, Jordan, because Al Jazeera is banned from Israel and the occupied West Bank, said that the Israelis had been putting a lot of pressure on mediators, specifically the United States.

    “They’re saying they’re not ready for any talks on phase two or what’s next of this deal until the remaining 13 bodies of captives are brought back from Gaza,” she said.

    “Hamas has said they don’t know where those bodies are, and they need assistance on the ground in the form of specialised teams and heavy machinery.”

    Israel had been reluctant at first to allow this to happen.

    Turkish team barred
    “In fact, there was a Turkish team of about 80 people who were on the other side of the border just last week, whom Israel denied entry to,” Salhut said.

    “But now they have allowed in an Egyptian team, alongside the Red Cross. Hamas too are now searching in areas that are technically under Israeli control, outside that yellow line perimeter where Israeli forces withdrew from.”

    Meanwhile, an emergency doctor at Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital says her team is treating a growing number of Palestinians who have been injured by unexploded ordnance when they return to their homes following their displacement by the war.

    “As people come back to the north after the heavy bombardment . . . they’re moving into their old homes, they’re setting up tents in the rubble, and there are so many unexploded missiles,” said the doctor, who gave her name as Harriet.

    She said children were among those being injured by the ordnance left scattered across the territory, adding her team had recently treated siblings aged five and seven who had sustained blast and shrapnel injuries from a bomb.

    About 66,000 tonnes of unexploded ordnance remain lying around Gaza, and at least 53 people have been killed by the bombs so far.


    The UN’s Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) says Israel is continuing to block its international staff and humanitarian aid from entering Gaza.

    Still, about 12,000 of its local staff are pushing ahead with the delivery of “healthcare, psychosocial support, and education to the people, often under unimaginable conditions”, the agency said in a post on X.

    Israel had banned UNRWA from operating in territory it controls last year, claiming a number of its employees were members of Hamas.

    The International Court of Justice ruled last week that Israel, as an occupying power, must support relief efforts provided by the UN and its entities, including UNRWA. It also found that Israel had not substantiated its claims that a significant number of UNRWA employees were Hamas members.

    In its post, UNRWA said “a ceasefire alone is not enough.

    “Food, hygiene kits, tents, and other supplies are desperately needed,” it added.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Gaza faces the threat of famine and humanitarian collapse once again

    The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights warned of the continuing Israeli blockade and obstruction of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip – despite more than two weeks having passed since the ceasefire agreement came into effect – is exacerbating the humanitarian disaster and genocide and threatening the lives of millions.

    Gaza: still facing the threat of famine

    The Centre called on the international community to intervene immediately and effectively to pressure the occupying authorities to open all crossings and allow the flow of aid without restrictions or selectivity, in order to meet the urgent humanitarian needs of the afflicted population.

    The Centre welcomed the recent advisory opinion issued by the International Court of Justice, which called on Israel to agree to relief programmes in Gaza and facilitate their implementation, especially those carried out by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), emphasising that the decision reflects international consensus against any attempt to undermine the Agency’s vital role.

    The centre noted that the occupation has allowed only about 1,000 aid trucks to enter since the ceasefire began on 10 October, while the sector needs at least 600 trucks per day to cover the basic needs of its population of about 2.1 million, 96% of whom suffer from acute food insecurity.

    Thousands of trucks remain stuck at the crossings, including 6,000 UNRWA trucks carrying six months’ worth of food, as well as hundreds of thousands of tents and shelter supplies, with winter approaching.

    Genocide

    The centre explained that the displaced are living in tragic conditions in tents and shelters that lack the basic necessities of life, after Israeli aggression forced them into displacement and destroyed residential neighbourhoods, leaving behind some 61 million tonnes of rubble and creating a vast human vacuum in the city.

    They are also prevented from returning to their areas behind the so-called ‘yellow line,’ which swallows up more than half of the Gaza Strip, amid the collapse of water and sanitation services and the continuing destruction of infrastructure.

    The Centre emphasised that Israeli control over the amount and type of aid is part of a systematic policy to subject Palestinians to harsh living conditions that amounts to genocide.

    It holds the international community legally and morally responsible for ensuring the sustainable entry of humanitarian aid and enabling UNRWA to perform its humanitarian role to save the lives of hundreds of thousands of affected families in Gaza.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Alaa Shamali

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Israel is still trying to cover up evidence of its genocide in Gaza

    The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Observatory has confirmed that Israel continues, in an organised and institutionalised manner, to implement a systematic policy of covering up material evidence of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity committed over the past two years in the Gaza Strip, through field and administrative measures aimed at concealing the truth and obstructing any independent international investigation.

    Israel is still covering-up evidence of war crimes

    In a press statement, the Observatory explained that the Israeli authorities are working through an integrated system comprising government, judicial and security agencies to provide legal cover for policies of media blackouts and prevention of transparency.

    It noted that the Israeli Supreme Court’s decision to grant the government an additional postponement to allow independent journalists to enter Gaza reflects this integration, as it gives legitimacy to government decisions that seek to protect perpetrators of crimes and obscure evidence on the ground.

    The Observatory explained that preventing international journalists and investigators from entering Gaza is part of a consistent policy aimed at keeping crimes out of the international spotlight.

    It clarified that Israel has imposed a media blackout on the Strip since the start of the aggression, allowing only limited tours under the supervision of its army, which makes coverage completely subject to military censorship. It noted that the killing of 254 Palestinian journalists and the prevention of international correspondents from entering the area embodies a policy aimed at monopolising the Israeli narrative and preventing the victims’ stories from being told.

    Obstructing justice

    The Observatory emphasised that Israel is also obstructing international justice efforts by preventing international investigation committees and forensic and criminal anthropology experts from entering, leading to the destruction of biological and criminal evidence proving the facts of mass killings and the use of prohibited weapons.

    The authorities also continue to hold hundreds of bodies, including those of prisoners and detainees, and have handed over some 195 bodies without providing information about their identities or the circumstances of their deaths, in clear violation of the Geneva Conventions.

    He added that Israeli forces have carried out operations to bulldoze and level destroyed land and areas in Gaza, leading to the removal of physical evidence and the erasure of crime scenes. They also control about 50% of the Strip militarily and have turned it into restricted access areas, preventing any independent field or humanitarian documentation.

    Israel’s acts are an extension of genocide

    The Observatory stressed that these practices constitute a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and the decisions of the International Court of Justice, which oblige Israel to preserve evidence and prevent its destruction.

    It considered that preventing independent investigations and denying victims justice is an extension of the crime of genocide itself and an attempt to erase the collective memory of the Palestinian people.

    At the end of its statement, the Observatory called on the international community and the United Nations to take urgent action to ensure that journalists and international teams are allowed to enter the Gaza Strip, secure crime scenes before evidence is lost, and to establish a field office for the International Criminal Court in Palestine to coordinate investigations and link reconstruction efforts with the preservation and documentation of evidence, stressing that preserving the truth in Gaza has become a legal and humanitarian obligation that cannot be delayed.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Alaa Shamali

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Prisoner Execution law — Ben-Gvir wants to turn Israeli cells into death chambers

    A new law under discussion in the Israeli occupation’s Knesset  has spread fear among Palestinian families and human rights organisations. On 28 September 2025, the Knesset’s National Security Committee approved draft legislation imposing the death penalty on any Palestinian who intentionally or negligently causes the death of an Israeli citizen “out of racial or ideological hatred, or with the aim of harming Israel.” The prisoner execution bill passed with 4–1 of the vote.

    Prisoner execution bill reintroduced by Ben-Gvir

    The prisoners’ execution bill is not new; it has been proposed repeatedly over the years. Most recently, in 2022, far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir — leader of the Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party and an illegal settler who is responsible for the systematic torture of Palestinian prisoners — reintroduced the bill with amendments.

    The bill passed a preliminary reading in 2023, and was approved by the Knesset’s ‘National Security Committee’ on September 28, in preparation for its first reading. Though the law requires two further readings in the Knesset to pass, for Palestinians under occupation this announcement marks a clear escalation in a system long built around mass arrests, indefinite detention, and an apartheid justice system.

    The Israeli regime aims to legitimise the killing of Palestinian prisoners

    The bill’s advancement during Gaza’s ongoing genocide has raised alarm among Palestinian detainee organisations. Both the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society and the Palestinian Commission of Detainees Affairs warned that the law seeks to legitimise and institutionalise the continued killing of prisoners held in Israeli custody — effectively granting a formal licence for execution in a system that already differentiates between the rights afforded to Israeli and Palestinian detainees.

    They denounced the law, calling it a codification of “systematic crimes”, and stated:

    The occupation has reached unprecedented levels of brutality… Despite international law’s clear position criminalising the death penalty, the occupation’s ongoing efforts to legalise this crime and grant it a ‘legitimate’ status once again underscore that the occupying state acts above the law and beyond accountability… The occupation is now working to codify the crime of execution through specific legislation. This bill adds to a repressive legal system that has, for decades, targeted nearly every aspect of Palestinian life — particularly the rights and lives of prisoners and detainees.

    If the bill becomes law, the death penalty would be mandatory, not optional

    The draft bill, as outlined in a detailed statement by the Palestinian human rights group Al Mezan, mandates the death penalty for any detainee “convicted of murder motivated by racism or hostility toward a particular public, and under circumstances where the act was committed with the intent to harm the State of Israel and the rebirth of the Jewish people in their homeland — mandatorily, not optionally or at the court’s discretion.”

    The law removes the possibility of reducing a death sentence and makes it easier to impose one, allowing judges to order execution by simple majority rather than by unanimous decision.

    Ben- Gvir not only calls to ‘open the gates of hell upon Gaza’ but says executing Palestinian ‘terrorists’ would free up prison space

    Ben-Gvir’s rise in politics has been marked by aggressive language and direct threats targeting Palestinians. In June 2024, he publicly said that Palestinian prisoners should be “shot in the head”, and called for them to receive only minimal sustenance until a death-penalty statute is passed. In another provocative statement in April 2024, he argued that the “right solution” to overcrowding in Israeli occupation prisons is executing Palestinian “terrorists”.

    Earlier this week, on 20 October 2025, Ben-Gvir also threatened to withhold his party’s support for coalition legislation unless the prisoners’ execution bill is brought to a vote within three weeks. His claim rests on a coalition agreement with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, which he says stipulates that a prisoner-execution law should be passed during the current Knesset term. He called on Netanyahu to “return to intense fighting, to conquer, to crush, to win.”

    Now that the Israeli colonial settlers detained in Gaza have been returned, Ben-Gvir has again called — on Hebrew news channel TV 14 — for the genocide in Gaza to continue, saying:

    “We must now stop everything (cancel the ceasefire). Now that we have received the (Israeli) captives from Gaza, we must return to war and open the gates of hell upon Gaza. The captives were the only reason we stopped the war. We must continue the war on Gaza, whether the Qataris and the Turks are there or not. Qatar and Turkey are our enemies.”

    In Gaza and the West Bank, news of this bill is extremely worrying for the many families whose loved ones are already imprisoned under indefinite detention or military court systems, very often deprived of medical care and subjected to isolation and abuse. For them, the prisoners’ execution bill marks a profound shift — from fearing a long sentence or uncertain release to fearing execution.

    Families of prisoners such as Marwan Barghouti, a popular Palestinian political leader held in Israeli occupation prisons since 2002 and serving multiple life sentences, are particularly alarmed. Barghouti has faced continued abuse, reportedly being beaten unconscious in September 2025 by eight prison guards during a transfer, suffering multiple broken ribs and days of incapacitation, according to his son. In August, Ben-Gvir visited Barghouti in prison and posted a video taunting him — an act widely interpreted as politicised intimidation.

    State-sanctioned killing

    This proposed execution law comes amid an ongoing genocide in Gaza and heightened repression in the West Bank. Thousands have been arrested since October 2023 and 80 detainees dying in custody — often amid allegations of medical neglect or abuse.

    The bill is now set to go before the Knesset for its first reading. If passed, the law would convert what is already structural oppression into state‑sanctioned killing. For Palestinians, it would mark a huge shift — a future in which the cell does not just imprison, but kills.

    By Charlie Jaay

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Women in Gaza: giving life where the world delivers only death

    At a time when bodies are piling up and homes are being demolished on top of their inhabitants, the women of Gaza remain a symbol of unbreakable resilience. After more than two years of Israel’s war on Gaza — mothers, wives, and daughters continue to endure a collective suffering.

    Women in Gaza: 12,000 killed… and 9,000 mothers gone

    Data shows that more than 12,500 women have been killed since the outbreak of the aggression, including over 9,000 mothers who were protecting their children from death — only to be killed themselves.

    The war has left 21,200 widows, each carrying the burden of loss and the responsibility of rebuilding life after the war stole their support and breadwinner.

    Wombs burdened with fear and miscarriage

    The harsh reality has left women with nothing but silent tears, as more than 12,000 miscarriages have been recorded due to hunger, lack of medicine, psychological stress, and the constant fear of bombing.

    In the same context, 107,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women continue to resist death in silence — without medicine, food, or medical care — in a scene that epitomises the collapse of humanity in the 21st century.

    Tents that offer no protection from the cold or pain

    With the onset of winter, the lives of displaced women become a daily tragedy.

    Torn tents fail to keep out the rain, muddy ground turns into swamps, and children shiver from cold and hunger while mothers attempt the impossible — lighting a small fire to keep their bodies alive.

    In these tents, stories of loss, hunger, and waiting are told — waiting for a humanitarian corridor, for help, or even for a milder winter.

    Women creating life amid the rubble

    Despite their wounds, the women of Gaza remain on the front line of survival.

    They bake bread over wood fires, turn tents into small community kitchens, and organise efforts to care for children and support neighbours — all at a time when the state is absent and aid has dwindled.

    Humanitarian organisations warn that current support meets only a fraction of the growing needs, leaving families already on the brink of starvation facing an even more uncertain future.

    Gaza women… the last bastion of humanity

    The women of Gaza are not just numbers in organisations’ reports, but faces that nurture life in a land where life is stolen from them every day.

    In every tent and every destroyed home, a woman of Gaza writes a new story of resilience — a testament that humanity still endures despite everything.

    Featured image via Wikimedia

    By Alaa Shamali

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Zohran Mamdani speaks out on the normalisation of Islamophobia

    New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani has delivered a speech on the normalisation of Islamophobia:


    Zohran Mamdani: “To be Muslim in New York is to expect indignity”

    In his speech, Zohran Mamdani began by speaking about mayoral candidates Andrew Cuomo and Curtis Sliwa, as well as current mayor Eric Adams:

    Yesterday, Andrew Cuomo laughed and agreed when a radio host said that I would cheer another 9/11.

    Yesterday, Eric Adams said that we “can’t let our city become Europe.” He compared me to violent extremists, and he lied when he said that our movement seeks to burn churches and destroy communities.

    The day before that, Curtis Sliwa slandered me from a debate stage when he claimed that I support global jihad.

    And every day, Super PAC ads imply that I am a terrorist or mock the way I eat, push polls that ask New Yorkers questions like whether they support invented proposals to make halal mandatory, or political cartoons that represent my candidacy as an airplane hurtling towards the World Trade Center.

    Mamdani then pivoted to addressing New York’s Muslim population:

    But I do not want to use this moment to speak to them any further. I want to use this moment to speak to the Muslims of this city.

    I want to speak to the memory of my aunt, who stopped taking the subway after September 11th because she did not feel safe in her hijab.

    I want to speak to the Muslim who works for our city—whether they teach in our schools or walk the beat for the NYPD, New Yorkers who all make daily sacrifices on behalf of this city, only to see their leaders spit in their face.

    I want to speak to every child who grows up in New York marked as the Other, who is randomly selected in a way that rarely feels random, who feels that they carry a stain that can never be cleaned.

    Growing up in the shadow of 9/11, I have known what it means to live with an undercurrent of suspicion. I will always remember the disdain I faced, the way my name could immediately become “Mohammad,” and how I could return to my city only to be asked in a double mirrored room at the airport if I had any plan of attacking it.

    And since I was very young, I have known that I was spared the worst of it. I was never pressured to be an informant like classmates of mine. I have never had the word ‘terrorist’ spray-painted on my garage, as one of my aides has. My mosque has never been set on fire.

    To be Muslim in New York is to expect indignity. But indignity does not make us distinct—there are many who face it. It is the tolerance of that indignity that does.

    Mamdani also released a video on the same topic:

    Islamophobia and other forms of racism are increasingly normalised in the UK too, with Reform MP Sarah Pochin saying earlier today that seeing Black and Asian people in adverts ‘drives her mad’. Earlier this same month, Conservative Robert Jenrick complained that residents of Birmingham had failed to ‘integrate’ into British culture, with Birmingham’s Muslim population representing nearly 30% of the city’s residents.

    Islamophobia VS anti-Islamophobia

    In related news, a partner at the venture capital firm Sequoia Capital said that Mamdani:

    comes from a culture that lies about everything. It’s literally a virtue to lie if it advances his Islamist agenda. The West will learn this lesson the hard way

    As Forbes reported, however:

    The controversy escalated significantly as over a thousand founders and tech professionals subsequently signed an open letter demanding Maguire face disciplinary action. The comments are also likely to have angered some of Sequoia’s largest investors, the sovereign wealth funds from majority-Muslim countries in the Middle East.

    Adding to the controversy, the Financial Times confirmed yesterday that Sequoia’s COO, Sumaiya Balbale, a practicing Muslim who was well-regarded internally and by the start-ups she worked with, resigned after five years at the company. The public comment was cited as the direct trigger for Balbale’s resignation, which she privately characterized as resulting from an Islamophobic atmosphere.

    Featured image via ZohranKMamdani

    By Willem Moore

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Gaza’s Plestia Alaqad to star in Palestinian horror film The Visitor

    The New Arab

    A Palestinian horror film inspired by folklore is moving forward, with journalist and author Plestia Alaqad joining the cast alongside American-born Kuwaiti-Palestinian journalist and media personality Ahmed Shihab-Eldin, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

    Titled The Visitor, the feature is written and directed by Palestinian-American filmmaker Rolla Selbak and produced by Black Poppy Productions.

    The story follows a young Palestinian man in Jerusalem who must protect his family after a “Ghouleh” — a female demon from local folktales — emerges in his town.

    Production is scheduled for a 25-day shoot in Jordan in 2026, with US-based Watermelon Pictures joining as executive producer and financier. The company, which supported From Ground Zero, Palestine’s first Oscars submission, will collaborate with Jordan’s Imaginarium on the production.

    Watermelon Pictures’ head of production, Munir Atalla, told The Hollywood Reporter that Selbak’s vision “marks a bold new foray into genre films for Palestinian cinema“.

    Alaqad, a Palestinian author, journalist, and poet, gained international attention for her daily social media coverage of Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

    Her memoir, The Eyes of Gaza: A Diary of Resilience, was published earlier this year by Pan Macmillan and was released in the United States in September.

    Human rights, Arab identity
    Shihab-Eldin, an Emmy-nominated journalist and actor of Palestinian descent, is best known for his work on Al Jazeera’s The Stream and various independent media projects focusing on human rights and Arab identity.

    Selbak told The Hollywood Reporter that The Visitor “is about erasure, and the deep human need to be seen”, adding that “living under occupation can be scarier than the monsters in our folktales”.

    Atalla told The New Arab in June that Watermelon Pictures was founded in response to censorship and the lack of representation facing Palestinian storytellers in global cinema.

    “The [Gaza] genocide put into stark relief the extent to which the existing systems we have will never serve us,” he said. “We have to build our own cultural power and financial power to compete and fight in this ideological battle that we’re in.”

    He added that the company’s new streaming platform, Watermelon+, was designed as “a living archive of Palestinian cinema”, protecting films from being erased or deplatformed.

    Alaqad also told The New Arab earlier this year that her work had sought to preserve Palestinian life and memory beyond the violence.

    “The media only shows Gaza when it’s being bombed,” she said. “We’re seeing how Palestinians are getting killed, but we don’t see how Palestinians lived.

    “That’s where the dehumanisation comes in.”

    Republished from The New Arab.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Hedges slams hostile Australian interview, unpacks Press Club and Western media betraying Gaza

    Pacific Media Watch

    Pulitzer Prize–winning US journalist Chris Hedges joins Antoinette Lattouf on We Used To Be Journos to unpack his time in Australia, including some fraught interactions with sections of the Australian media.

    The pair also discuss what he flew all this way to talk about — how Western journalists are betraying their colleagues in Gaza.

    Hedges also offers some honest advice for young people who still want to tell stories and speak truth to power.


    The We Used To Be Journos interview.                     Video: ETTE Media

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • NZ minister warned on possible risk over Israeli use of satellites

    Pacific Media Watch

    New Zealand’s Space Minister Judith Collins was warned just two months into Israel’s war on Gaza that new BlackSky satellites being launched from NZ could be used by that country’s military, reports Television New Zealand’s 1News.

    According to a network news item on Friday, government documents showed officials had recommended the launches go ahead in spite of risks, saying there were no restrictions on trade with Israel.

    Minister Collins gave the green light and RocketLab began launching the the Gen-3 BlackSky satellites from Mahia Peninsula earlier this year.

    In the documents, obtained by 1News political reporter Benedict Collins under the Official Information Act, Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment officials said while there were risks, the positives outweighed the negatives.

    The officials’ advice on the satellite launches stated: “While it poses risks, there is a net good associated with commercially available remote sensing due to the wide range of applications,” 1News said.

    One risk they identified related to Israel, but they said there were mitigating factors.

    “There are no United Nations Security Council sanctions on Israel, and New Zealand does not implement autonomous sanctions outside the context of the conflict in Ukraine,” they advised the minister.

    “There are also no policy restrictions on New Zealand’s trading relationship with Israel.”

    World court warnings
    However, over the two years of war on Gaza since 7 October 2023, several nonbinding legal opinions by the world’s highest court and UN agencies have warned Israel about its illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories and also warned countries and companies about complicity with the pariah Zionist state.

    In the latest ruling this week, the International Court of Justice said Israel was obliged to ease the passage of aid into Gaza, stressing it had to provide Palestinians with “basic needs” essential to survival.

    The wide-ranging ICJ ruling came as aid groups were scrambling to scale up much-needed humanitarian assistance into Gaza, seizing upon a fragile ceasefire agreed earlier this month.

    ICJ judges are also weighing accusations, brought by South Africa, that Israel has broken the 1948 UN Genocide Convention with its actions in Gaza.

    Another court in The Hague, the International Criminal Court (ICC), has issued arrest warrants for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.

    According to 1News, the NZ documents also show that when MBIE officials recommended the application be approved they were aware experts at the UN were warning a possible genocide could unfold in Gaza and that schools and hospitals were being bombed.

    ‘Appalling’ decision
    The officials’ advice came in December 2023, two months after the Hamas attacks on Israel which left 1200 people dead. Israel in response launched a retaliatory offensive in Gaza that has killed more than 68,000 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

    Minister Collins said this week the decision had been the right one.

    “We don’t have sanctions on Israel, we’re not at war with Israel, Israel is not our enemy,” she said.

    But Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick said it was an “appalling” decision that could fuel human rights abuses, reports 1News.

    Officials at New Zealand’s space agency declined to be interviewed by 1News about Blacksky and RocketLab did not respond to a request for an interview with its founder Sir Peter Beck.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Trump’s ICE agents ‘violently detain’ blind man in Portland

    Since returning to power, Donald Trump has used the Immigration and Custom Enforcement service (ICE) like his own personal gestapo. In one troubling video, this saw them ‘violently detaining’ a blind man in Portland, Oregon.


    ICE: State violence

    As reported by the Hill, ICE agents dragged Quinn Haberl into their facility. In the course of dragging him, the agents dropped him on his head at one point. Following the fall, one agent stopped to collect Haberl’s white cane.

    According to the Hill, activists report that Haberl is ‘usually joyful, dancing and having a good time while protesting outside of ICE’. These activists said directly:

    It was heartbreaking to see him being dragged the way he was. The visceral reaction was to just not continue videotaping and get the angle, but I just couldn’t keep it out. I had to keep him in frame. I had to keep him in frame, and it just hurt my heart.

    The Department of Homeland Security responded as follows:

    This rioter was arrested after he blatantly disobeyed law enforcement orders to remain off federal property, obstructed law enforcement, and continued to block the driveway so vehicles could not enter or exit the ICE facility.

    Haberl, meanwhile, is reportedly ‘too emotional to speak’.

    His friends have established a GoFundMe to cover his medical bills and legal defence, which you can find here.

    Targeting Americans

    While ICE is specifically tasked with policing migrants, other recent videos claim to show them targeting US citizens. The commonality between those targeted is that they’re not white:

     

    View this post on Instagram

     

    A post shared by Stop ICE Mobile Alerts (@stopicenet)

     

    View this post on Instagram

     

    A post shared by useless cops (@uselesscops)

    Deploying masked ICE agents to assault citizens is just one way in which America has become increasingly authoritarian under Trump. Other ways include Trump:

    It’s important to know all this, because politicians like Nigel Farage and Kemi Badenoch want to emulate Trump’s America:

    With this in mind, it’s crucial that everyone in the UK knows precisely what these politicians have planned.

    Featured image via Instagram

    By Willem Moore

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • West Bank annexation: Israel in open defiance of international law

    On Wednesday, October 22, the Israeli occupation’s Parliament advanced a bill to annex and extend Israeli sovereignty over the occupied West Bank, in violation of international law and UN resolutions. Rights groups warn that West Bank annexation would constitute a grave breach of international law, entrenching apartheid and legitimising land theft on a massive scale.

    West Bank annexation after the West recognised a Palestinian state.

    The bill, titled ‘Application of Israeli Sovereignty in Judea and Samaria, 2025’, passed its preliminary reading, with the support of the Israeli occupation’s far right government and also the opposition parties. This was the first of four votes needed to pass it into law. It was introduced by extreme-right, homophobic Israeli politician, Avi Maoz, from the religious conservative Noam party.

    The move — illegal under international law — will have serious consequences for Palestinians. It would not only make the creation of a viable Palestinian state impossible, but would entrench the occupation and legitimise ‘Israel’s’ ongoing crimes against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. According to Amnesty International, annexation would:

    worsen human rights violations and enshrine the entrenched impunity that has fuelled decades of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other grave violations.

    Annexation is illegal and gives the Israeli occupation no authority over the Palestinian territory

     In a statement, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry in Ramallah condemned the vote, claiming that the Israeli occupation has “no authority over any part of Palestinian territory,” and said it would fight it through legal and political means.

    Annexation — when a country takes control of a territory by force and declares its sovereignty over it — is illegal. In the case of the occupied West Bank, annexation would mean full control over the territory for the Israeli occupation. It would provide legal and political cover for its policies of institutionalised discrimination, mass human rights violations, dispossession, displacement and disenfranchisement, and would further entrench the conditions Palestinians already face.

    Even without formal annexation, between 600,000 and 750,000 illegal colonial settlers live across 250  illegal settlements and outposts in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. They are armed and supported by the government. They are protected by Israeli occupation forces, while roads, walls, and checkpoints carve up stolen Palestinian land.

    Annexation — The ultimate quest for Zionists

    The vote exposed deep divisions in Israel’s governing coalition.  Netanyahu and most of his Likud party abstained or voted against the bills, aware of possible consequences from the US. But annexation is viewed as the ultimate fulfilment of Zionist destiny and​Yuli Edelstein, a senior Likud member, broke ranks and cast the decisive vote.

    Trump is now prioritising a Gaza ‘cease‑fire’ and normalisation with Arab partners, and any talk of annexation risks alienating Washington. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, while visiting ‘Israel’ during the vote, said about annexation of the West Bank:

    The president’s made clear that’s not something we’d be supportive of right now, and we think it’s even threatening to the ‘peace deal’…At this time, we think it might be counter productive.

    Annexation plans condemned by US for the wrong reasons

    Rubio’s statements implied that annexation was bad timing rather than a moral red line, and raise questions about US motives. They also confirm that what is important to Trump are not Palestinian rights but only the stability of his fragile ‘Peace Plan’ and his ego.

    In 2020, during his first term, Trump was encouraging Netanyahu’s annexation plan, through his ‘Deal of the Century’. Only after Arab states, particularly the UAE, made annexation suspension a condition for the Abraham  Accords did Netanyahu back away from his plan.

    Now, five years later, with Trump making himself out to be a global peacemaker, he has  ruled out annexation, saying: “Israel’s not going to do anything with the West Bank”, claiming the US would withdraw all support for the Israel regime if annexation went ahead. He is insisting that he “gave his word to Arab countries” to avoid destabilising new normalisation deals. Trump’s shifting stance on annexation — endorsing, delaying, and denying it as headlines change — makes clear that his word carries no credibility.

    Bill to link East Jerusalem with illegal settlements also advanced in the Knesset

    In the same week, the Knesset also advanced a bill to authorise massive illegal construction in the E1 settlement corridor. If passed, this would revive the long‑delayed E1 project east of Jerusalem. Its aim is to link Ma’ale Adumim, one of the Israeli occupation’s largest illegal settlements, directly to Jerusalem via thousands of new housing units and highways.

    The Israeli occupation government’s plan aims to connect Ma’ale Adumim — home to around 40,000 illegal settlers and one of the largest illegal settlements in the occupied territory — to Jerusalem through an estimated 3400-4000 housing units, new roads, commercial zones, hotels, and industrial areas. This project is part of Israel’s ‘Greater Jerusalem’ strategy, designed to expand the city’s boundaries to include major settlement blocs while cutting off Palestinian neighbourhoods from each other.​

    If built, the E1 development would have catastrophic consequences for Palestinians. It would cut the West Bank in half, isolate East Jerusalem, and divide Palestinian lands into isolated enclaves.

    This would eliminate any possibility of a unified, viable Palestinian state. The plan forces Palestinians onto segregated bypass roads and tunnels between regions — a system designed to cement Israeli control over the heart of the West Bank.

    Annexation and settlement expansion all part of the ‘Greater Israel’ plan

    In a statement after the vote, the Settlements Subcommittee of the Israeli occupation’s Civil Administration said:

    This is a dramatic and important step to strengthen settlements, deepen Israel’s grip on the heart of the country, and make it clear to the whole world that Judea and Samaria are an integral part of the State of Israel.

    Far right Security Minister, and illegal settler, Itamar Ben Gvir said of the votes successes:

    The right-wing government is doing what is right for the residents of the State of Israel. And what is right for the residents of the State of Israel is sovereignty now.

    In August 2025, Netanyahu formally reapproved the E1 plan after two decades of international delays. A move which Defense Minister Bezalel Smotrich called ‘the burial of the Palestinian state idea.’ Since early 2025, the Israeli occupation has rubber-stamped about 25,000 illegal settler homes — an all-time record.

    The international community has a legal and moral duty to take immediate measures to ensure the Israeli occupation is unable to continue its apartheid and settler colonial land grabbing project in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which the International Court of Justice has ruled illegal.

    Featured image via Wikimedia

    By Charlie Jaay

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • US-Israeli startup plan to block sun with airborne chemicals

    A US-Israeli geoengineering startup has raised $60m as part of its plan to test ‘sun-reflecting technology’. Critics are warning the new tech could have unexpected negative impacts on global weather and drive “geopolitical conflict”. Supporters, meanwhile, have pointed out it might not do that.


    Geoengineering

    If you’re unfamiliar with solar ‘geoengineering’, it’s essentially climate change in reverse. Much like how we’ve caused global warming and other changes by releasing carbon, methane, and other gases, scientists believe we can reverse the problem by releasing particles which reflect sunlight back into space.

    Recreating the problem which got us here in the first place only in reverse — what could go wrong, eh?

    As it turns out, quite a lot.

    In a report titled The Risks of Geoengineering, the Center for International Environmental Law summarised:

    • Geoengineering technologies, if deployed at scale, could have profound, unpredictable, and potentially irreversible effects on biodiversity, both through their direct impacts and as a result of compounding and exacerbating existing planetary crises caused by pollution, climate change, and unsustainable land use.
    • If deployed at scale, geoengineering technologies would likely cause a range of harmful impacts, including changes in precipitation, uneven cooling, and oxygen depletion, as well as degrade nutrient cycling, weaken the ozone, and disrupt food webs with significant deleterious impacts on biodiversity and human well-being globally.
    • As it is impossible to test geoengineering technologies for their intended impact on the climate except through large-scale deployment, geoengineering proposes turning the Earth into a laboratory, with the risk of locking in a wide range of harmful and potentially irreversible impacts, including exacerbating climate change and its associated harms.

    Capital fights back

    As reported by Politico, this latest geoengineering plan is being led by US-Israeli startup Stardust Solutions. Their technology involves custom particles which the company claims are ‘inert’. They also believe these particles will not accumulate in humans or ecosystems, will not harm the ozone layer, and will not create acid rain.

    Stardust Solutions’ founders are nuclear physicists who worked for the Israeli government. Although they insist their new project is unaffiliated with the state of Israel, they are headquartered outside Tel Aviv. This could cause problems for them worldwide given the boycott of Israel which began during Israel’s apartheid era and continued throughout the genocide.

    Speaking to Politico, CEO Yanai Yedvab said:

    putting their trust in the concept of, we need a safe and responsible and controlled option for sunlight reflection, which for me is [a] very important step forward in the evolution of this field

    Noting that backers include “venture capital firms”, Politico highlights that:

    The startup’s fundraising haul was led by Lowercarbon Capital, a Wyoming-based climate technology-focused firm co-founded by billionaire investor Chris Sacca.

    It was also backed by the Agnellis’ firm Exor, a Dutch holding company that is the largest shareholder of Chrysler parent company Stellantis, luxury sports car manufacturer Ferrari and Italy’s Juventus Football Club. Ten other firms — hailing from San Francisco to Berlin — and one individual, former Facebook executive Matt Cohler, also joined Stardust’s fundraising round, its second since being founded two years ago.

    Speaking about the private nature of this enterprise, Politico notes that even advocates of geoengineering think the ‘for-profit’ model is the absolute worst way of pursuing this technology. One person they spoke to was Gernot Wagner, a climate economist who authored Geoengineering: The Gamble. 

    Wagner said:

    They have convinced Silicon Valley [venture capitalists] to give them a lot of money, and I would say that they shouldn’t have. I don’t think it is a reasonable path to suggest that there’s going to be somebody — the U.S. government, another government, whoever — who buys Stardust, buys the [intellectual property] for a billion bucks [and] makes the VC investors gazillions. I don’t think that is, at all, reasonable.

    Won’t somebody think of the billionaires?

    The problem with fighting climate change is that it negatively impacts the people who want to profit from climate change. Rather than reducing the use of fossil fuels, then, why not instead go full steam ahead while also making a killing by stuffing the atmosphere full of patented particles?

    Things may go horribly wrong, of course, but that doesn’t really matter when you see every disaster as an opportunity to make more money.

    Featured image via Picryl

    By Willem Moore

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Widespread destruction of European-funded projects in the Gaza Strip

    Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor (Euro-Med Monitor) has condemned the Israeli occupation’s widespread destruction of European-funded projects and infrastructure in the Gaza Strip. They described it as part of a ‘systematic campaign’ amid the ongoing genocide.

    Hundreds of European-funded projects and key infrastructure decimated

    Ramy Abdu is Founder and Chairman of Euro-Med Monitor, and Assistant Professor of Law and Finance. He told the Canary:

    Over the past two years, Israel has destroyed nearly 90 percent of Gaza’s buildings and 80 percent of its infrastructure and public services. Given that most of Gaza’s facilities are financed through international donors — including significant European contributions — this means that the destruction has wiped out hundreds of projects and structures funded by Europe.

    In Gaza, key infrastructure, supported by the European Commission and EU member states, has been repeatedly targeted. These funds have flowed through Palestinian civil society organizations and UN agencies, especially the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). Initial investigations by Euro-Med Monitor reveal the destruction of critical facilities including water desalination plants, hospitals, clinics, schools, and housing units- many part of EU-backed reconstruction efforts.

    Intentional targeting with the aim of making Palestinian life intolerable

    This systematic targeting by the occupation not only destroys physical assets but also vital systems designed to guarantee basic rights such as access to water, health, education, and adequate housing, as Abdu explains:

    Attacking them constitutes a grave breach of Israel’s obligations as an occupying power under international humanitarian law. Disabling desalination plants and water and sewage networks directly undermines people’s right to safe water and public health. Destroying schools deprives children of their right to education, while demolishing homes forces thousands of families into displacement within the Strip.

    Among the worst hits was a European Union-funded water desalination facility in Khan Younis, operated under UNICEF’s water programmes, which was completely destroyed despite being clearly marked as civilian infrastructure. A similar facility in Deir al-Balah, built through the EU’s Water Programme for the Palestinian Territories and implemented by UNICEF, was struck during military operations, leaving thousands without access to safe drinking water. International aid agencies Oxfam and UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) have documented the destruction of essential water pumps and storage tanks, showing how even EU-funded assets are vulnerable despite efforts to share precise, deconflicted coordinates.

    EU projects across Gaza destroyed by ‘Israel’

    The assault on education has been equally devastating. Most of Gaza’s schools, including many run by UNRWA and funded by the EU, have been damaged or destroyed. A school in Rafah financed through the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) was flattened while sheltering civilians. Other facilities providing psychosocial and child protection services, such as those supported by the Norwegian Refugee Council and Save the Children, have also been destroyed, leaving tens of thousands of children without places to learn or feel safe. This destruction reverses years of EU investment in education and robs a generation of Palestinians of opportunity.

    Water and sanitation infrastructure, critical to everyday life, has suffered extensive damage. The EU has long supported Gaza’s sector through central desalination programmes, short-term low-volume water units, and distribution networks. But coastal wells, transmission lines, reservoirs, and pumping stations-many funded by the EU, have been targeted. Destruction of EU-backed water units and ruptured transmission pipelines, in Beit Lahia, has led to severe shortages of drinkable water and hampered hygiene efforts, affecting vulnerable populations.

    Healthcare infrastructure tells a similar story of destruction and loss. Evidence from Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), the World Health Organization (WHO), and UNRWA highlights repeated attacks on hospitals and clinics. The Indonesian Hospital and Al-Shifa Medical Complex, both supported by international donors, have been hit multiple times, causing mass casualties and forcing total closures. MSF’s Gaza City clinic and warehouse were demolished, even though the group had repeatedly shared GPS coordinates with Israeli forces. A primary healthcare centre in northern Gaza funded by Germany’s GIZ was flattened, which led the German government to suspend bilateral cooperation in protest.

    ‘International silence and impunity, emboldens Israel to continue’

    The WHO has recorded over 600 attacks on health facilities and ambulances in Gaza between October 2023 and June 2024, the highest level of healthcare targeting in any global conflict of that period. As a result, Gaza’s healthcare system has been paralyzed, with hospitals lacking power, medical staff, and supplies, effectively collapsing civilian medical care.

    Abdu says:

    This policy of destroying European-funded projects is not new—it has repeatedly happened in Gaza and continues in the West Bank. This persistent pattern, coupled with international silence and impunity, emboldens Israel to continue.

    Despite repeated evidence and official European assessments confirming these systematic violations-many amounting to genocide, the EU’s response has been limited only to words, with no action taken. Europe, as Israel’s main trading partner and largest arms market, maintains political and economic ties that enable the ongoing destruction and violence.

    Europe even stays silent when ‘Israel’ destroys European-funded projects and infrastructure

    The reluctance of European institutions to activate legal mechanisms, such as suspending trade advantages, freezing cooperation frameworks, or resolving disputes, contravenes their commitments under Article 2 of the EU–Israel Association Agreement, which conditions relations on respect for human rights. Euro-Med Monitor warns that European silence and inaction send a troubling message- that destruction of EU-funded assets and terrorising civilians have no consequences. This failure undermines the EU’s credibility and weakens its standing in upholding international law and the rules-based global order.

    An official EU investigation is essential, with a detailed public report on losses and accountability. Abdu says:

    Europe must act to compel Israel to pay comprehensive financial compensation for all European-funded projects damaged or destroyed, including replacement and operational costs.

    In this context, compensation is more than just monetary reparation. It represents acknowledgment of responsibility for internationally unlawful acts and a vital step in restoring Palestinians’ access to essential services repeatedly shattered by violence. Euro-Med Monitor is also demanding prosecution of civilian and military officials responsible for this intentional destruction, and support for international legal proceedings.

    According to Abdu, the EU must take urgent enforceable action, including suspending the EU-Israel Association Agreement and backing investigations to ensure accountability for Israel’s crimes against protected civilian property and obstruction of humanitarian aid.

    Continued investment in Gaza essential for Palestinians

    Euro-Med Monitor stresses the importance of continuing to invest in Palestinian development, and providing urgent financial support for recovery and rebuilding efforts in key sectors such as water, health, education, and housing. It warns against cutting relief and service programmes which, it says, would punish innocent victims twice. Instead, the focus should be on pressuring the Israeli regime through economic, political, and legal measures.

    Until Europe acts, its silence will remain part of Gaza’s destruction.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Charlie Jaay

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Sitting atop a volcano — unexploded munitions turn Gaza’s rubble into a death trap

    The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) has warned of the growing danger posed by tens of thousands of tonnes of unexploded munitions left behind by the Israeli occupation army in the Gaza Strip, stressing that it poses a direct threat to the lives of civilians and hinders rescue and rubble removal efforts.

    In a statement received by the Canary on Friday, the centre explained that preliminary estimates indicate the presence of around 20 thousand unexploded bombs, rockets and missiles dropped by the occupation army during its ongoing aggression. It noted that these remnants are scattered among approximately 70 million tonnes of rubble resulting from the destruction of homes and infrastructure in the Strip.

    Unexploded munitions making Gaza a minefield

    Mahmoud Basal, spokesperson for the Civil Defence Authority, added that approximately 71 thousand tonnes of explosives remain buried in the rubble, making every recovery operation a deadly task. He pointed out that rescue workers face real dangers while performing their duties, as any wrong move could lead to a deadly explosion.

    The PCHR noted that a number of fatal accidents have been recorded in recent months as a result of unexploded munitions, the latest of which was in the Al-Zaytoun neighbourhood of Gaza City, where a buried shell exploded, killing three civilians, while another explosion in Nuseirat camp injured four workers clearing rubble.

    The centre called for the formation of a specialised international committee under the supervision of the United Nations to conduct a comprehensive survey of unexploded munitions sites in Gaza. The committee would need to send international engineering teams equipped with the necessary equipment and expertise to remove them and secure populated areas. It also demanded that the occupation authorities disclose maps of the locations where bombs and ammunition were dropped during the war.

    The statement stressed the need to immediately open the crossings to allow the entry of heavy machinery and equipment needed for debris removal and body recovery operations, emphasising that the international community’s continued silence in the face of this catastrophic situation constitutes indirect complicity in the suffering of the people of Gaza.

    Featured image by the Canary

    By Alaa Shamali

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • US rejects Hamas, UNRWA roles in Gaza as Israeli aid siege persists

    Pacific Media Watch

    United States top diplomat Marco Rubio says the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) “is not going to play any role” in aid delivery in Gaza, reports Al Jazeera.

    He also rejected the possibility of Hamas being involved in any future governance of the besieged enclave.

    Speaking during a news conference while on a visit to Israel yesterday, the US Secretary of State claimed UNRWA had become “a subsidiary of Hamas”, echoing an Israeli government line that has been discredited by the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

    In response, UNRWA insisted that its presence “remains vital to meeting urgent humanitarian needs” across the bombarded and starved enclave, where a deadly Israeli offensive has killed more than 68,000 Palestinians in two years.

    In a statement posted on X, the agency also highlighted that the ICJ had recognised that “no organisation can replace the UNRWA’s role in supporting the people of Gaza”.

    Farhan Haq, the deputy spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General, also dismissed Rubio’s characterisation.

    “You’ve already heard us talk about how UNRWA is not linked to Hamas,” he told reporters at the UN. “UNRWA is the backbone of our humanitarian operations in Gaza.”

    Israel banned the agency from operating after accusing some of its staff of taking part in the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack without providing evidence.

    Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh said the proclamation by Rubio that UNRWA was a Hamas “subsidiary” was “quite shocking” and “devastating” for UNRWA and all who were involved in Gaza.

    UNRWA exonerated by ICJ
    UNRWA was not only exonerated by the ICJ and two separate commissions of inquiry, but also had the largest, most extensive aid mechanism in Gaza, Odeh said.

    “It has thousands of employees, it has the data to distribute aid to Palestinians with dignity and in an orderly fashion,” she said.

    “Nobody has that kind of infrastructure and history in Gaza.”

    Despite a US-mediated ceasefire that took effect earlier this month, Israel has continued launching attacks across Gaza. At least two people were killed in shelling east of Deir el-Balah in central Gaza yesterday, a source at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital told Al Jazeera Arabic.

    Israel has also kept the Rafah crossing near Egypt sealed, blocking large-scale aid deliveries that were stipulated in the truce agreement.

    In his remarks on Friday, Rubio voiced hope of soon putting together an international security force to police the ceasefire in Gaza and said Israel, which opposes including Turkiye, could veto participants.

    In Suva, The Fiji Times reports that Israel says Fiji’s “neutral and highly skilled military” could play a valuable role in future peacekeeping efforts once negotiations on Gaza’s next phase were complete.

    The indication came as Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel said discussions between Israel, the United States and Arab nations would determine the structure and participants of any peacekeeping arrangement.

    “I have to say that we do trust the Fijian forces,” Haskel said during a joint press conference with Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka before she left for her controversial visit to New Zealand.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Fiji’s stance on Israel and new embassy stirs revived condemnation

    Asia Pacific Report

    Fiji opening an embassy in Jerusalem last month in defiance of United Nations resolutions on Occupied Palestine and hosting a visit by a senior Israeli minister from the paraiah state this week has revived condemnation by Pacific human rights groups and Palestinian advocates.

    Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel visited the Philippines, Papua New Guinea and Fiji — where she welcomed a possible “peacekeeping” role — in a week-long Pacific friendship mission.

    She also faced controversy in New Zealand over the trip.

    Both Fiji and Papua New Guinea have opened controversial embassies in Jerusalem, recognised as the capital of Palestine when statehood is granted.

    The NGO Coalition on Human Rights in Fiji has condemned Fiji’s coalition government for “callously ignoring the unfolding famine and mass starvation in Gaza”, saying it was being “deliberately orchestrated” by Israel in a statement.

    The statement was issued before the opening of the embassy and the declaration of a Gaza ceasefire brokered by President Donald Trump and three mediating Middle East countries.

    While Israel has violated the fragile ceasefire several times in the past two weeks, killing at least 100 Palestinians, the International Court of Justice has made a nonbinding ruling that Israel must support UN relief efforts in Gaza, including those conducted by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).

    Embassy entourage
    The NGOCHR statement by chair Shamima Ali, dated September 9, criticised widespread reports in Fiji media that Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka would take “an entourage of 17 government officials and spouses” to officially establish the residential Fijian embassy.

    “The coalition government appears to be callously ignoring the unfolding famine and mass starvation in Gaza that is being deliberately orchestrated by the state of Israel,” she said.

    “This very same Fiji government previously defended the destruction, killing, and maiming of scores of thousands of innocent civilians — 70 percent of them women and children — by Israel at the International Court of Justice [in an earlier and ongoing case on genocide].”

    Shamima Ali highlighted the visit in August by two World Elders — Mary Robinson (former President of Ireland and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights) and Helen Clark (former Prime Minister of Aotearoa New Zealand and former Head of UNDP) — to the Rafah crossing into Gaza from Egypt.

    They had witnessed how Israel was preventing the flow of food, water, and medicine to the suffering people of Gaza, and declared it as an “unfolding genocide” — “this is not the chaos of war, nor the result of an environmental disaster. It is intentional.”

    Ali said Prime Minster Rabuka, and ministers Lynda Tabuya and Pio Tikoduadua had made “rather unconvincing arguments” about opening of the Fijian embassy in Jerusalem on September 18 amid the unfolding genocide in Gaza.

    “Whether they like it or not, in the eyes of the world, Fiji will be seen as a country that supports the apartheid and pariah state of Israel, and its genocide in Gaza,” the statement said.

    ‘Not in our name’
    Ali said the NGOCHR reiterated its “Not in our name” opposition to Fiji’s defence of Israel at the ICJ in a case brought by South Africa accusing Israel of committing genocide.

    It also declared its strongest “Not in our name” opposition to the establishment of the Fiji Embassy in Jerusalem.

    “Neither action reflects the wishes of all citizens of Fiji. It does not reflect well on Fiji for the present coalition government to be effectively supporting Israel’s genocide in Palestine.”

    Members of the Fiji NGO Coalition on Human Rights are Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre (chair), Fiji Women’s Rights Movement, Citizens’ Constitutional Forum, femLINKpacific, Social Empowerment and Education Program, and Diverse Voices and Action (DIVA) for Equality Fiji.

    Pacific Network on Globalisation (PANG) is an observer.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Another child starves to death in Gaza at the hands of Israel

    As Rimmas Talat Karim becomes the fifth child in Gaza to starve to death at the hands of the Israeli occupation, 41 international NGOs (INGO) are calling for the Israeli occupation to allow the unhindered entry of humanitarian aid into the enclave.

    Continued breaches of ceasefire agreement by ‘Israel’

    These NGOs claim that Israeli occupation authorities continue to breach the terms of the ceasefire. This is by continuing to ‘restrict and politicise aid’. Between October 10 —when the ceasefire was approved — and October 21, 17 organisations were blocked from delivering humanitarian aid. These are life supplies of food, water, medical supplies, shelters, assistive devices, hygiene kits and children’s clothing. Three-quarters of these denials were issued on the grounds that these organizations are ‘not authorized’ to deliver humanitarian aid into Gaza. During this time period, the Israeli occupation also rejected 99 requests to deliver aid by INGOs. Another six requests by UN agencies were denied as well.

    Closure of crossing limits entry of humanitarian aid

    Before the start of the genocide, an average of 500 aid trucks were entering Gaza daily. Phase One of the ceasefire agreement called for 600 aid trucks per day to enter the territory unimpeded. But the Israeli occupation has, yet again, failed to honour this commitment. Instead, just two of the five crossings are open — the Kerem Abu Salem crossing in the South and the Al Karara crossing in the central area of Deir Al-Balah. The other crossings remain closed, severely limiting the amount of humanitarian aid that is able to reach starving, displaced, sick and desperate Palestinians in Gaza.

    The blockade isn’t just logistical — it’s being weaponised as part of Israel’s wider strategy of collective punishment.

    The occupation continues to weaponise aid to starving Palestinians. It refuses to open the other three crossings, accusing Hamas of delaying the handover of Israeli prisoner remains. As of October 21, according to the Government Media Office, the average number of trucks entering the Strip daily, since the ceasefire took effect, has not exceeded 89. These limited amounts do not meet even the basic needs to secure the life and dignity of Palestinians in Gaza.

    Many trucks entering the Strip are commercial

    According to the WHO, Israel is allowing mostly commercial trucks into Gaza — loaded with food that Palestinians are too poor to buy. But prices are soaring in the Strip, so most of the items remain out of reach for Palestinians who do not have the money to buy them.

    The Rafah border crossing with Egypt, in the south of the Strip, also remains closed. Humanitarian aid trucks have been waiting at the border for many months, while Palestinians have been unable to leave the Strip for essential medical treatment, as the Rafah crossing is the only gateway for them to leave the enclave.

    With no permission to leave Gaza from Israeli occupation, many Palestinians are dying.

    15,000 Palestinians are in urgent need of medical care abroad, and are waiting for ‘permission’ because the occupation has intentionally destroyed Gaza’s healthcare system. These include children such as eight-year-old Luay Dweik, who was suffering from hepatitis. Dweik died after being unable to travel outside of Gaza for treatment, because Israeli occupation forces closed the Rafah crossing.

    Image supplied via author

    Since its approval on October 10, the Israeli occupation has repeatedly breached the ‘ceasefire’ agreement, and its killing of Palestinians has not stopped.

    Israel’s siege has made starvation a policy, not a consequence. Every truck it blocks and every permit it withholds tightens the noose around a people already fighting to survive.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Charlie Jaay

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Why do liberals lionise Zelensky, but ignore Marwan Barghouti?

    Volodymyr Zelenskiy has had an audience with King Charles ahead of a meeting with UK PM Keir Starmer. Reports suggest Starmer will press allies for more long-range missiles for Ukraine. That kind of support is bipartisan. Boris Johnson was also a huge fan of Zelenskiy. But what about figures like Marwan Barghouti?

    Western liberals have lionised the former comedian from the first days of the war. It’s hard not to get a sense of crossover between FBPE Twitter centrists and the president’s fanbase in the UK. It’s another flag for their X bio, after all.

    And it’s hard to shake the sense that in Ukraine, finally, well-heeled centrists found a war where the victims were white enough to deserve support. Imperialism seems only to be worth resisting when the victims look like you.

    That’s not to dip into the kind of apologia for Vladimir Putin’s invasion preferred by a fringe of campist weirdos in the West. But it does beg questions about why Zelenskiy gets to play international diplomacy on something like easy mode, while others languish in fascist jails, their captivity barely remarked upon by Wooferendum Twitter.

    For example, is it even possible to imagine that kind of liberal support for someone like Marwan Barghouti — the so-called Palestinian Nelson Mandela. Barghouti is seen as a figure of unifying popularity in Palestine, even as he languishes in an Israel jail, subject to beatings by his fascistic captors.

    Marwan Barghouti: Palestine’s Nelson Mandela

    He was sentenced to five life sentences in 2002. For murder charges he denies. By a coloniser court whose authority he rejects. In a trial which experts say was full of illegalities.

    He’s a sort of Palestinian everyman, known for his calm demeanour, who learned Hebrew in jail and spent years in exile. He spent years in hiding, dodging Israeli assassination attempts.

    The National describes him as:

    an avid reader, consuming histories and biographies, including that of Nelson Mandela by the British author Anthony Sampson. In 2013, the campaign for Barghouti’s release, backed by eight Nobel Peace laureates, would be launched from Mandela’s old cell on Robben Island in South Africa.

    One of US foreign policy’s leading talking shops even acknowledged his wide appeal and potential to lead a future Palestinian state, noting:

    a growing acknowledgement among Israelis and Palestinians that Barghouti’s broad appeal and reformist streak offer the best prospects for peace.

    Here’s Drop Site’s News founder Jeremy Scahill with a fascinating overview of Barghouti:

    In the latest round of hostage exchanges, despite the best efforts of Hamas negotiators, his release was denied. Barghouti isn’t even in Hamas. He has reportedly been a critic of the organisation himself, but such is the respect he attracts the conservative wing of Palestinian resistance demanded (vainly) he be freed.

    So here you have a unique character. An intellectual and long-time prisoner of an unjust regime on allegedly jumped-up charges. A unity figure who commands a degree of respect from all sides. Some say, the man most likely to lead his people toward peace. A sort of moderate, if you will? Surely the sort of figure your average smug centrist would get behind, no? Well, no. It doesn’t seem that way.

    And it’s hard not to come to uncharitable conclusions about why.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Joe Glenton

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • ‘Oceania voices’ – Indigenous climate adaptation network launches in Ōtautahi

    SPECIAL REPORT: By Te Aniwaniwa Paterson of Te Ao Māori News

    Māori and Pasifika leaders are leading climate adaptation, guided by ancestral knowledge and Indigenous principles to build resilience and shape global solutions.

    Last week, they played a key role in launching a new Indigenous climate adaptation network at a wānanga ahead of Adaptation Futures 2025, held on October 13-16 in Ōtautahi Christchurch.

    The network aims to build a global movement grounded in Indigenous knowledge, centred on decolonising systems and financial mechanisms, and ensuring Indigenous peoples have direct access to climate finance, the funding that supports actions to address and adapt to climate change.

    Kaiwhakahaere Lisa Tumahai says Ngāi Tahu are in the midst of 'the challenge of our lifetime' - climate change.
    Kaiwhakahaere Lisa Tumahai . . . Ngāi Tahu are in the midst of “the challenge of our lifetime” — climate change. Image: Te Ao Māori News

    The wānanga was led by Lisa Tumahai (Ngāi Tahu), New Zealand patron for Adaptation Futures 2025 and deputy chair of the NZ Climate Commission, and Tagaloa Cooper (Ngāti Hine, Ngāpuhi, Niue), director of the Climate Change Resilience Programme at the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) in Apia, Samoa.

    “The Indigenous Forum came from what we learnt at the previous two adaptation conferences. The recommendations from Indigenous peoples were to step it up a bit at this conference and create an intentional day and space for Indigenous voices,” says Tumahai.

    “For the first time, people are really seeing the commonalities we share with other Indigenous populations, whether they’re from Canada, Africa, or the Amazon.”

    Tagaloa Cooper
    Tagaloa Cooper . . . encouraging Pacific rangatahi to take charge of their stories and lead discussions on what loss and damage mean for their communities. Image: Women in Climate Change Network

    Kotahitanga across Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa
    Cooper said many of the Pasifika in attendance felt “at home” in Aotearoa and welcomed the opportunity to have a major conference hosted in the region, as international events are often inaccessible due to high costs.

    “I’d like to have more of these types of conversations with our cousins in New Zealand where we can exchange knowledge, learn from each other, and also be innovative about how we do adapt,” she says.

    She added that, in speaking with Pacific participants, there was a strong call for deeper engagement with iwi across Aotearoa, particularly in rural communities facing similar challenges to small island nations, to create more opportunities for sharing and exchanging traditional knowledge.

    Cynthia Houniuhi
    Cynthia Houniuhi from the Pacific Island Students Fighting Climate Change presented at the United Nations Adaptation Futures Conference. Image: Te Ao Māori News

    The value of Indigenous knowledge
    Cooper emphasised that Indigenous peoples hold a vast body of knowledge that has long been marginalised.

    “Science now is telling us what we’ve always known as Indigenous people,” Cooper says.

    “We must remember our ancestors navigated the vast oceans to get here and then grew nations in very difficult places. There is a lot to learn from our people because we have adapted to live in new lands and we’re still here.”

    As Indigenous observer for the World Bank’s Climate Investment Funds, lawyer Taumata Toki (Ngāti Rehua) says this is a growing area that deserves attention, given the value Indigenous peoples bring and how their knowledge can strengthen climate adaptation projects.

    Taumata Toki
    Taumata Toki at the UN headquarters for the 24th session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII). Image: LinkedIn/Te Ao Māori News

    He says he is continually inspired by Indigenous leaders around the world who are not only experts in Western knowledge systems but also grounded in Indigenous principles that are transforming how climate change is addressed.

    Toki says the guiding aim of tikanga is balance, a core concept that aligns with many other Indigenous worldviews and shapes how they approach climate change and sustainability.

    Barriers to climate finance
    Indigenous peoples globally have often had limited access to UN climate change negotiation spaces.

    Tumahai said barriers include accreditation requirements or registered body status to access climate finance.

    Cooper added that smaller nations and small administrations often lack the capacity, time, and personnel to develop complex project proposals, causing delays and frustration in the flow of funds.

    The devastation from Cyclone Gabrielle
    The devastation from Cyclone Gabrielle has prompted iwi to focus on preparing for future weather events, as climate change is expected to increase their frequency and intensity. Image: Hawkes Bay after Cyclone Gabrielle/Te Ao Māori News

    When asked whether Māori face additional barriers to accessing climate adaptation funding as Indigenous peoples within a developed nation, Toki says that, on a global scale, Māori are at the forefront of sovereignty over what development looks like.

    However, he acknowledges that when this is set against the wider context of what is happening in Aotearoa, “it doesn’t look the best,” pointing to the ongoing challenges Māori face at home despite their strong global standing.

    Māori-led adaptation and succession planning
    “When it comes to Māori-led adaptation, it needs to start in our court,” he says. “We need to have our own really thought-out discussion in terms of how we develop these projects to be both tikanga-aligned, but also wider Indigenous peoples’ principles aligned.”

    Iwi adaptation conference
    When asked about an iwi adaptation conference in Aotearoa, Tumahai say it is a great idea and could be driven forward by national iwi. Image: Phil Walter/Getty Images/Te Ao Māori News

    Once internal cohesion across iwi is established, state support will play an important role.

    Despite the challenges, Toki says the potential ahead is immense, both economically and environmentally, and Aotearoa has the opportunity to be world-leading in this space.

    Tumahai agrees that the work has to start at home, and her passion, which she has long championed, is succession planning to bring rangatahi into the work.

    “And with that succession planning, it’s not to be dismissive of the pakeke or kaumatua who are really that korowai and the knowledge holders,” she says.

    “We have our own systems that ensure the conversations are held and led where the knowledge is sitting.”

    Te Aniwaniwa is a digital producer for Te Ao Māori News and contributes to Asia Pacific Report. This article was first published by Te Ao Māori News and is republished with permission.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • PSNA slams Israeli politician over ‘sneaking into NZ’ during Pacific friendship trip

    Asia Pacific Report

    A leading Palestine solidarity and advocacy group in New Zealand has accused an Israeli cabinet minister of “sneaking” into the country this weekend while on a Pacific tour as
    Israel resumed its genocidal attacks.

    Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskell visited the Philippines, Papua New Guinea and Fiji — where she welcomed a possible “peacekeeping” role — in a week-long Pacific friendship mission.

    Both Fiji and Papua New Guinea have opened controversial embassies in Jerusalem, recognised as the capital of Palestine when statehood is granted.

    “It seems clear from media reports that Haskell is visiting Auckland this weekend as part of a trip to strengthen ties with New Zealand and other Pacific countries,” said Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa co-chair Maher Nazal.

    He said in a statement that he would expect New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters to “have had, or will be having, a secret meeting” with Haskell.

    “Haskell wouldn’t come to New Zealand unless she was having a meeting with
    Peters. Otherwise, it would be a diplomatic snub,” Nazzal said.

    “Haskell wouldn’t tolerate that, and Peters is most unlikely to snub Israel.

    “But if he’s turned her down, we’d love to hear about it.”

    Mocking Luxon
    The visit by Haskell is in spite of recently mocking Prime Minister Christopher Luxon with some sarcastic comments that New Zealand’s “worst enemies were cats and possums”, when Luxon said her boss, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, had “lost the plot” in the genocidal war on Gaza.

    Advocate Maher Nazzal at today's New Zealand rally for Gaza in Auckland
    PSNA co-chair Maher Nazzal . . . “Why would we put out the welcome mat for a representative of such a monstrous regime?”. Image: Asia Pacific Report

    Nazzal said: “The trip is a ‘thank you’ visit for New Zealand refusing to recognise Palestine [statehood]. Haskell had appointments with the governments of Fiji and Papua New Guinea earlier this week.

    “They are the only two countries in the world, other than the United States, which both voted in the United Nations last year against requiring Israel to leave the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and they also have an embassy in Jerusalem.

    “They are the greatest fans of Israel outside the United States.”

    At a media conference in Suva on Wednesday, Haskel said Fiji’s neutral and highly skilled military could play a valuable role in future peacekeeping efforts once negotiations on Gaza’s next phase were complete.

    “I have to say that we do trust the Fijian forces,” she said during the joint press conference with Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka.

    ‘Skilled, neutral military’
    “We know that you have very skilled military forces that are neutral, which is something especially important for peacekeeping.

    Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel (left)
    Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel (left) with Ambassador to Fiji and the Pacific Roi Rosenblit at the MOU signing with Fiji this week. Image: Eliki Nukutabu/The Fiji Times

    “We know this is a force you can trust, with skills, with morals and we’ve had close collaboration throughout history in many posts around the Middle East and surrounding our borders as well.”

    She was referring to Fiji’s long UN history as a Middle East peacekeeping force, but admitted that the Gaza role would not be through the United Nations.

    “Israel is using starvation as a weapon of war against Palestinians and withholding New Zealand aid from the people of Gaza,” Nazzal said.

    “Why would we put out the welcome mat for a representative of such a monstrous regime?”

    Haskell was recently interviewed by “genocide-denier Sean Plunket” on his radio show The Platform saying she would like to visit to “thank the New Zealand government for its support over the last two years”.

    “That says it all. New Zealand has stood resolutely with a racist, apartheid regime as it continues to commit genocide against the Palestinian people – two years and counting,” Nazzal said.

    Seven embassies in Jerusalem
    Last month, Fiji inaugurated its embassy in Jerusalem — becoming the seventh nation to have its diplomatic mission in the city in defiance of the United Nations policy.

    Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel with Prime Minister James Marape
    Deputy Foreign Minister Haskel with PNG Prime Minister James Marape at Melanesian House, Waigani during a courtesy visit this week. Image: PNG Bulletin

    The other countries are: Guatemala, Honduras, Kosovo, Paraguay, Papua New Guinea and the United States.

    Other nations that maintain ties with Israel have their embassies in Tel Aviv.

    Papua New Guinea inaugurated its embassy in Jerusalem last year.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • French MPs clash over New Caledonia policy, debates further postponed

    By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk

    French national politics have once again cast a shadow on New Caledonia’s issues even though the French Pacific territory is facing a pressing schedule.

    Debates in the French National Assembly on a New Caledonia-related Bill were once again heated and rocky yesterday, resulting in further delays.

    The fresh clashes resulted from a game of alliances, mostly French national left-wing parties siding with the pro-independence FLNKS of New Caledonia (Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front and the other side of the Lower House (mostly centre-right) siding with pro-France New Caledonian parties.

    It is further evidence that French national partisan politics is now fully engaged on remote New Caledonia’s issues.

    On the agenda in Paris was a Bill to postpone New Caledonia’s local provincial elections from the current schedule of not later than 30 November 2025 to the end of June 2026.

    The purpose of the Bill (which was earlier approved in principle by New Caledonia’s local parliament, the Congress) was to allow more time for new negotiations to take place on a so-called Bougival agreement project, signed on July 12.

    The Bougival process aims at turning New Caledonia into a “State” within the French State, as well as creating a New Caledonian “nationality”, also within the French realm.

    It also envisaged transferring some French powers (such as foreign affairs) to New Caledonian authorities.

    FLNKS rejected deal
    But even though some 19 parties had originally signed the Bougival deal was signed, one of the main pro-independence parties — the FLNKS — has decided to reject the deal.

    The FLNKS says their negotiators’ signatures was not valid because the text was a “lure of independence” and did not reflect the FLNKS’s conception of full sovereignty and short-term schedule.

    The FLNKS is also clearly opposed to any postponement of New Caledonia’s provincial elections and wants the current schedule (not later than November 30) maintained.

    The rest of New Caledonia’s parties, both pro-independence (such as moderate PALIKA -Kanak Liberation Party- and UPM -Progressist Union in Melanesia-) and those who want New Caledonia to remain part of France (such as Les Loyalistes, Rassemblement, Calédonie Ensemble), stuck to their signatures.

    They have since held meetings and rallies to explain and defend the deal and its associated implementation process and steps to turn it into relevant pieces of legislation and constitutional amendments.

    One of those pieces of legislation includes passing an organic bill to postpone the date of local elections.

    The Upper House, the Senate, passed the Bill last week in relatively comfortable conditions.

    But in a largely fragmented National Assembly (the Lower House), divided into far left (dominated by La France Insoumise -LFI-, centre left Socialists, centre-right — and influential far-right Rassemblement National, there is no majority.

    A ‘barrage’ of amendments
    Hours before the sitting began on Wednesday afternoon (Paris time), National Assembly President Yaël Braun-Pivet had to issue a statement deploring LFI’s tactics, amounting to “pure obstruction”.

    This was because in a matter of a few hours, LFI, in support of FLNKS, had filed more than 1600 amendments to New Caledonia’s Bill (even though the text itself only contained three articles).

    The barrage of amendments was clearly presented as a way of delaying debates since the sum of all of these amendments, if properly discussed, would have taken days, if not weeks, to examine.

    In response, the government camp (a coalition of pro-President Macron MPs) resorted to a rarely-used technicality: it called for a vote to “kill” their own Bill and re-divert it to another route: a bipartisan committee.

    This is made up of a panel of seven National Assembly MPs and seven Senators who will be tasked, next week, to come up with a consensual version and bring it back before the Lower House on October 27 for a possible vote and on October 29 before the Senate.

    If both Houses of Parliament endorse the text, then it will have to be validated by the French Constitutional Council for conformity and eventually be promulgated before 2 November.

    But if the Senate and the National Assembly produce different votes and fail to agree, then the French government can, as a last resort, ask the Lower House only to vote on the same text, with a required absolute majority.

    If those most urgent deadlines are not met, then New Caledonia’s provincial elections will be held as scheduled, before November 30 and under the existing “frozen” electoral roll.

    This is another very sensitive topic related to this Bill as it touches on the conditions of eligibility for New Caledonia’s local elections.

    Under the current system, the 1998 Nouméa Accord, the list of eligible voters is restricted to people living and residing in New Caledonia before 1998. Whereas under the new arrangements, it would be “unfrozen” to include at least 12,000 more, to reflect, among others, New Caledonia’s demographic changes.

    But pro-independence parties such as the FLNKS object to “unfreezing” the rules, saying this would further “dilute” the indigenous vote and gradually make them a minority in their own land.

    ‘Political response to political obstruction’
    Pro-France MP Nicolas Metzdorf and Bill Law Commission Rapporteur Philippe Gosselin both said the tactical move was “a political response to (LFI’s) political obstruction”.

    “LFI is barking up the wrong tree (…) Especially since the pro-independence movement is clearly divided on the matter (for or against the Bougival process),” Gosselin pleaded.

    “It was necessary to file this rejection motion of our own text, because now it will go to the bipartisan committee to be examined once again. So we’re moving forward, step by step. I would like to remind you once again that (the Bill) is coherent with about eighty percent of our political groups represented at New Caledonia’s Congress”.

    The “Prior rejection motion” was voted by a large majority of 257 votes (and the support of Rassemblement National, but without the Socialists) and the sitting was adjourned without further debates.

    When debates resume, no amendment will be allowed.

    Moutchou ‘open to discussion’
    In spite of this, during debates on Wednesday, newly-appointed French Minister for Overseas Naïma Moutchou assured she remained open to discussion with the FLNKS so that it can re-join talks.

    She admitted “nothing can be done without the FLNKS” and announced that she would travel to New Caledonia “very soon”.

    During question time, she told the Lower House her mantra was to “build” on the Bougival text, to “listen” with “respect” to “give dialogue a chance” and “build New Caledonia’s future”.

    “The signature of the Bougival deal has revived hope in New Caledonia’s population. It’s true not everyone is now around the table. (My government) wishes to bring back FLNKS. Like I said before, I don’t want to do (things) without the FLNKS, as long as FLNKS doesn’t want to do things without the other parties”, she said.

    FLNKS chief negotiator at Bougival, Emmanuel Tjibaou and pro-France Metzdorf also had a brief, sometimes emotional exchange on the floor, Wednesday.

    They both referred to their own respective interpretations of what took place in July 2025 in Bougival, a small city west of Paris.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Israel targeted more than 270,000 victims in Gaza during two years of genocide

    The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor revealed a shocking report that lays bare the genocide stats that came from Israel’s warcrimes against the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip since 7 October 2023. The report documents the killing, injury or arrest of more than 270,000 Palestinians, or nearly 12% of the Strip’s population, in one of the bloodiest humanitarian disasters in modern history.

    According to the report, the number of martyrs reached about 75,190 Palestinians, including 21,310 children and 13,987 women, and 90% of them were civilians. The scale of the devastation is staggering. More than 173,000 people were injured, tens of thousands of whom suffered permanent disabilities or serious injuries, including 40,000 cases of long-term disability, 21,000 of whom were children, while more than 45,000 children lost one or both parents.

    Genocide stats: 12,000 prisoners detained from the Strip

    The Monitor also documented the arrest of about 12,000 Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, including 2,700 who remain in detention or have been forcibly disappeared, in harsh conditions that violate all international norms.

    The report noted that Palestinian detainees were subjected to the most horrific forms of physical and psychological torture inside Israeli detention centres. Through field interviews, the Monitor documented 42 types of torture, including rape and sexual assault, severe beatings resulting in broken bones, electric shocks, deprivation of sleep and food, deliberate humiliation by spitting and urinating on prisoners, and threats to kill their family members. Cases of deliberate killing inside cells were also recorded, reflecting a systematic approach of inhumane treatment that amounts to war crimes under international humanitarian law.

    The report added that Israel’s starvation policy has caused the deaths of 482 Palestinians, including 160 children, as a result of malnutrition and food insecurity faced by all of the population living in the Gaza Strip. Per capita water availability has declined by 98%, while 8 out of 10 buildings in the Strip have been destroyed, including 555,000 housing units, 621 schools (95%), 3,300 industrial facilities, 191 media outlets and 100% of hospitals. Irreplaceable buildings weren’t spared 890 mosques, three churches and 205 archaeological and historical sites were also damaged.

    With regard to the destruction of cities, the Euro-Mediterranean Monitor documented widespread destruction and damage affecting almost all areas of the Strip, as the occupying army pursued a scorched earth policy and destroyed vital infrastructure, property and buildings.

    Is it still a ceasefire if people are still getting killed?

    Despite the ceasefire that came into effect on 11 October of this year, the Monitor documented 47 new violations, during which 73 Palestinians were killed in separate attacks, including air strikes, artillery shelling and direct sniping.

    Professional groups were not spared, with 1,701 health workers, 255 journalists, 800 teachers and 200 academics killed. There has also been a 300% increase in miscarriages among women as a result of fear, psychological trauma and severe stress.

    Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor explained that around 99% of Gaza’s population had been forcibly displaced from their homes at least once, while the Strip had been transformed into a psychologically and socially devastated area, with most of the population showing symptoms of PTSD and a loss of sense of security and normal life.

    The Monitor emphasised that the recent ceasefire does not mean an end to the suffering, as Israel continues its siege, restricts the entry of aid, and obstructs rescue operations and the removal of rubble.

    The Monitor called for urgent international action to hold Israeli officials accountable for their crimes and impose comprehensive economic and diplomatic sanctions, while guaranteeing the Palestinians’ right to freedom, dignity and self-determination and ending the occupation and apartheid regime imposed for more than seven decades.

    Featured image via Mohammed Ibrahim on Unsplash

    By Alaa Shamali

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Rare ICJ ruling condemns Israel in every possible legal manner

    The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague has ordered that Israel must allow aid into Gaza. Additionally, the court has found that Israel breached its obligations by putting restrictions on aid over the last two years.

    Since the ceasefire came into force on October 10, Israel has repeatedly broken it, both in bombing Gaza and in not letting the required amount of aid over the border.

    On October 15, the United Nations (UN) confirmed Israel was only letting half of the required aid trucks into Gaza

    By October 18, there were already 47 recorded violations of the ceasefire. These resulted in Israel murdering 38 Palestinians and injuring 143 more.

    ICJ eviscerates Israel

    But now, the ICJ has published a damning advisory opinion which, above all else, states that Israel has failed to uphold its humanitarian obligations as an occupying power under the Geneva Convention. In doing so, Israel failed to ensure that it had met the “basic needs” of the Palestinian population.

    Importantly, Israel has banned the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) since January – claiming that it lacks neutrality and Hamas, along with other armed groups, had infiltrated the organisation.

    Of course, these claims are unsubstantiated, and instead, the court found that the organisation are the backbone of all humanitarian assistance in the area. This means there is an:

    Obligation of Israel not to impede operations of United Nations entities, other international organizations and third States, and to co-operate in good faith with United Nations to ensure respect for right of Palestinian people to self-determination.

    The ICJ has previously made two other rulings related to Israel’s war crimes in Gaza. In July 2024, the court ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories was illegal. It had previously issued a ruling demanding that Israel take immediate measures to prevent acts of genocide in Gaza.

    ‘An obligation to protect medical personnel’

    The advisory opinion states that Israel is obligated to supply the Occupied Palestinian Territory with “essential supplies and health services”. It also states that Israel is under:

    negative obligation not to impede provision of such supplies and services.

    Article 55 of the Geneva Convention requires the occupying power to provide the population with food and medical supplies. In particular, it should:

    bring in the necessary foodstuffs, medical stores and other articles if the resources of the occupied territory are inadequate.

    This means that Israel must not block the delivery of supplies or health services, which, everyone who has been paying attention knows, it has been doing for well over two years.

    Additionally, the advisory opinion says Israel has an:

    Obligation to respect and protect relief and medical personnel and facilities — Principle that humanitarian relief personnel must be respected and protected forming part of customary international law — Personnel participating in relief actions also protected by principle of distinction, unless and for such time as they directly participate in hostilities.

    Article 56 of the Geneva Convention reiterated this. It states:

    The Occupying Power has the duty of ensuring and maintaining, with the cooperation of national and local authorities, the medical and hospital establishments and services, public health and hygiene in the occupied territory, with particular reference to the adoption and application of the prophylactic and preventive measures necessary to combat the spread of contagious diseases and epidemics. Medical personnel of all categories shall be allowed to carry out their duties.

    This means that bombing hospitals? Illegal. Murdering medics? Illegal. Injuring Red Cross workers? Also very illegal.

    Of course, we know this. The majority of the international community knows this. These are the same legal arguments that lawyers have been using since Israel started its Genocide. Except now, it’s come from the most prestigious court in the world.

    ‘Starvation as a method of warfare’

    It is well documented that Israel has used starvation as a method of warfare.

    Obviously, Article 54 of the Geneva Convention prohibits this. Even more obviously, this has never stopped Israel from starving Palestinians.

    The advisory found that Israel blocked the entry of aid into the Gaza Strip from March 2 to May 18, 2025. The court also viewed that the actions of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation since May 2025 were not sufficient to alleviate the situation. It reinforced:

    The Court further refers to its finding that the local population in the Gaza Strip has been inadequately supplied. In these circumstances, the Court recalls Israel’s obligation not to use starvation of the civilian population as a method of warfare.

    The advisory then noted how a global initiative aimed at enhancing food security and nutrition analysis, which includes organisations such as UNICEF, the World Bank and the WHO, found that as of May 2025:

    the entire population of the Gaza Strip faced high levels of acute food insecurity, with half a million people facing starvation.

    It then later reported that the conditions in the Gaza Strip had “drastically deteriorated since then” and as of the end of August 2025, the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip had:

    become catastrophic, with evidence of famine, mass displacement, extreme levels of deprivation and
    a continued increase in civilian casualties, including children.

    A damning vindication

    The contents of this advisory opinion are not news to anyone. However, it means that Israel no longer has a legal leg to stand on. And the point here is that Israel has never had a legal leg to stand on. However, mainstream media can no longer pretend that they do not know, or that the rulings are open to interpretation. They will, of course. But, this is a significant step from the ICJ in its condemnation of Israel.

    And, the ruling is a damning vindication of every single expert who has been arguing these same legal points for years. From debating whether Israel is an occupying power and therefore Palestinians have a right to armed resistance, to Israel’s legal and moral obligations to the people of Gaza – it’s all here in black and white.

    There is no doubt that the United Nations should suspend Israel. And ultimately, Israel has no recourse whatsoever anymore to pretend that it is remotely acting in defence of its borders or interests. Morally, it never did, but with this ruling, there couldn’t be more of a legal precedent set to characterise their actions.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By HG

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Cole Martin: The Gaza ceasefire isn’t the end – what six months in Palestine showed me

    Returning to Aotearoa after half a year in the occupied West Bank, Cole Martin says a peace deal that fails to address the root causes — and ignores the brutal reality of life for Palestinians — is no peace deal at all.

    COMMENTARY: By Cole Martin

    A ceasefire in Gaza last week brought scenes reminiscent of January’s brief pause — tears, relief, exhaustion and devastation as families reunited after months, years and even decades in captivity.

    Others were exiled or discovered their entire family had been killed; thousands returned to their homes in northern Gaza, others to rubble – but just like last time, it didn’t last.

    Already Israeli leadership has been calling for a renewed onslaught in Gaza and have continued airstrikes across the strip, including more than 100 strikes on Sunday alone. More than 50 Palestinians were killed, including a family of 11, seven of whom were children, in one strike on a bus.

    People stand in a crowded, fenced corridor with metal bars, waiting to pass through a security checkpoint with a turnstile gate in an old, worn building with arched ceilings and exposed lights.
    An Israeli checkpoint near Al-Khalil, Hebron . . . Palestinians stand in a crowded, fenced corridor with metal bars, waiting to pass through a turnstile gate. Image: Cole Martin

    The prevention of food, water, aid and critical infrastructure continues; the borders remain closed; and across the rest of Palestine, Israel’s brutal system of domination, apartheid and displacement continues.

    It’s impossible to ignore two critical elements that this deal omitted: a failure to address the root causes and a jarring lack of international accountability.

    Despite human rights organisations, the UN General Assembly and the International Court of Justice all ruling Israel’s occupation is illegal, and their practices constitute apartheid, world leaders including New Zealand have refused to act, let alone sought to prevent genocide in Gaza.

    I returned to Aotearoa this week after six months documenting and reporting from the occupied West Bank, where Israel continues its campaign of violent displacement and colonial expansion. Almost everyone I know has tasted the terror of Israeli domination.

    Broke into bedroom
    My Arabic tutor described how soldiers broke into her bedroom at night to interrogate her family about a man they didn’t even know. My climbing partner warned you can be shot for climbing in the wrong place, with most of their crags now inaccessible.

    I visited Jerusalem with a friend who scored a one-day permit. He lives in Bethlehem, just a half-hour away, but they’re barred from visiting and must return by midnight; a process involving biometric scanners and intrusive searches.

    And I was based in Aida refugee camp, one of dozens across the land where thousands of families have lived since their violent displacement in 1948 — the ethnic cleansing which saw 750,000 expelled, 15,000 killed and 530 villages destroyed.

    Refused the right to return, their homes are now dormant ruins in “nature reserves” or inhabited by Israeli families. Israel was built on the land, farms, businesses and stolen wealth of these families — and countless more who remain as “present absentees” within the state of Israel.

    My friend Yacoub lives just 10 minutes from his childhood home, yet he is denied return.

    A split image: on the left, a rock climber ascends a rugged cliff while another person stands below; on the right, a man stands outside a stone archway, looking at a scenic, hilly landscape under a clear sky.
    Left: Palestinian climbers enjoy one of their last accessible crags, the others too dangerous to access because of settler violence. Right: Yacoub Odeh, 84, walks the ruins of his childhood village Lifta, denied his right to return to live, despite living just 10 minutes away. Images: Cole Martin

    More than 9100 Palestinians remain in Israeli captivity, including more than 400 children – thousands without charge or trial. But even “trials” bring no justice.

    I visited the Ofer military courts and witnessed a corrupt system designed to funnel Palestinians to prison based on extortion, plea bargains and “secret evidence” which the detainee and lawyer aren’t allowed to see. Meanwhile, Israeli settlers receive full legal rights in Israeli civil courts; two vastly different legal systems based on race — if the settler is arrested at all.

    Almost everyone I met has experienced detention firsthand or through a close family member — involving beatings, humiliation, starvation and threats. A nurse my age humorously asked why I wasn’t married yet; when I asked the same, he explained he’d only recently left years of Israeli captivity.

    Settlers’ impunity
    In July, fundamentalist settler Yinon Levy shot dead my friend Awdah Hathaleen on camera, in broad daylight. Authorities arrested more than 20 of Awdah’s family, withheld his body for over 10 days, then barred people from attending the funeral.

    His killer was free within five days, back harassing the family, and has established an illegal settlement in the middle of their village — destroying homes, olive groves, water and electrical infrastructure with no repercussions.

    A man sits on a bench under a canopy, observing the ground, with stone walls and plastic chairs in the background.
    Tariq Hathaleen stares at the bloodstained courtyard where his cousin and best friend Awdah was shot. Tariq was detained for several days following Awdah’s death. Image: Cole Martin

    I visited countless communities across the West Bank who face daily harassment, violence and incursions from Israeli settlers, police and military. Settlements continue to expand, preventing Palestinians from reaching their land.

    Almost 900 checkpoints, roadblocks and settler-only roads restrict movement between towns and cities, including urgent medical access. Israel controls the water, funnelling over 80% to their colonies while heavily limiting access to Palestinian communities.

    All of this continues, none of it is halted by the “ceasefire”; and most of it will escalate as soldiers leave Gaza and look to exert their dominance elsewhere.

    I’m truly fearful for my friends in the West Bank, particularly as Israel openly threatens annexation. A peace deal that ignores these realities is no peace deal.

    Resilience and courage
    But I also witnessed resilience and courageous persistence. Palestinian civil society and individuals have spent decades committed to creative non-violence in the face of these atrocities — from court battles to academia, education, art, demonstrations, general strikes, hīkoi (marches), sit-ins, civil disobedience.

    These are the overlooked stories that don’t make catchy headlines, but their success depends on the international community to provide accountability. Without global support, Palestinians have been refused their right to self-defence, resistance and self-determination.

    If we really care about peace, we need to support justice. To talk about peace without liberation is to suggest submission to a system of displacement, imprisonment, violence and erasure.

    This is not the time to turn away, this is the time to ensure that international law is upheld, that Palestinians are given their dignity, self-determination, right to return and reparations for the horror they’ve faced.

    Cole Martin is an independent New Zealand photojournalist who has been based in the occupied West Bank for six months and a contributor to Asia Pacific Report. This article was first published by the The Spinoff and is republished with the author’s permission.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Thousands march through streets as part of NZ’s ‘mega strike’

    RNZ News

    Thousands have marched through major city streets and rallied in small towns across Aotearoa New Zealand as part of today’s “mega strike” of public workers.

    More than 100,000 workers from several sectors walked off the job in increasingly bitter disputes over pay and conditions.

    It was billed as possibly the country’s biggest labour action in four decades.


    Strike action in Auckland’s Aotea Square.    Video: RNZ

    Among those on strike were doctors, dentists, nurses, social workers and primary and secondary school teachers.

    Several rallies were cancelled by severe weather in the South Island and lower North Island.

    Auckland
    One of the day’s main rallies got underway shortly after midday with thousands of protesters gathering in Aotea Square for speeches, before marching down Queen Street.

    Many carried signs and chanted, cheered and danced as they made their way down.

    'Mega strike' protesters in Auckland, 23 October 2025.
    “Mega strike” protesters in Auckland today. Image: Nick Monro/RNZ

    Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick said it was embarrassing that the government was labelling the action politically motivated.

    “Of course this is political. Politics is about power and it’s about resources and it’s about who gets to make decisions that saturate and shape our daily lives,” she said.

    There was a smaller, earlier rally in the morning in Henderson.

    Tupe Tai from Western Springs College, who has been teaching for several decades, said the situation had become untenable.

    “We’ve got really underpaid and overworked teachers, they need that support.”

    She also said teachers needed an environment where they could work on the curriculum, have time to do it, but also have a life.

    Protesters in the 'mega strike' in Hamilton, October 2025.
    Protesters in the “mega strike” in Hamilton today. Image: Libby Kirkby-McLeod/RNZ

    Hamilton
    The crowd swelled to an estimated 10,000 in Hamilton’s rally.

    Kimberly Jackson and her daughter were at the rally on behalf of her husband, a senior doctor who had to be at the hospital working as part of lifesaving measures.

    “For us it is personal, but it’s also about this country that I love, that I’ve grown up in, and I can see terrible things happening in this country and I feel really passionate about public health care,” she said.

    Jackson said she had seen the system deteriorate over her lifetime.

    People march through central Auckland as part of Thursday's mega strike.
    Many carried signs and chanted, cheered and danced as they made their way down Auckland’s Queen Street today. Image: RNZ/Marika Khabazi

    Chloe Wilshaw-Sparkes, regional chair of the Waikato PPTA said teachers were on strike because the offers from the government were not good enough.

    “They’ve been saying ‘get round the table, have a conversation,’ but a conversation goes two ways and I think they need to be reminded of that,” she said.

    Principal of Hamilton East School, Pippa Wright, was at the rally with some of the school’s teachers.

    She said she believed in the NZEI’s principles, and she wanted changes which would ensure schools had really good teachers in front of students.

    Wright also said pay rates needed to rise.

    “So they’re not treated like graduates, and we need better conditions for teachers, and nurses, and all the public sector,” she said.

    'Mega strike' protesters in Whangārei.
    “Mega strike” protesters in Whangārei today. Image: Peter de Graaf/RNZ

    Northland
    In Whangārei, the weather was sweltering and a stark contrast from conditions further south.

    About 1200 people marched through several city blocks, after leaving Laurie Hall Park.

    As well as teachers, nurses and other union members there were students and patients showing support.

    Sydney Heremaia of Whangārei had heart surgery a few weeks ago but said he was marching to show his concern about staffing levels and creeping privatisation.

    Deserei Davis, a teacher at Whangārei Primary School, feared there would be no new teachers soon if pay and conditions were not improved.

    “We’ve voted to strike because we feel that the government hasn’t been addressing our issues, and especially at bargaining,” she told RNZ.

    “The government scrapped pay equity claims. And that was a shocking blow to women in general, but an absolute shock and a blow for us women in education. And it’s completely scrapped it.

    “More importantly, we are standing up for our tamariki, who are really poorly resourced in schools, in terms of support and the requirements coming down on teachers on a daily basis, on a monthly basis.

    “It’s burning out our teachers. We’re fighting for our support staff, our teacher aides, the most vulnerable of all our staff who don’t have job security.”

    She said the ministry’s offer was “absolutely atrocious”.

    “$1 extra an hour over a period of three years. Like let that sink in. 60 cents one year, maybe 25 cents the following and 15 cents the following year. How does that keep up with the rate of inflation?”

    Northland emergency doctor Gary Payinda told RNZ it was “pretty important to support our essential public services”.

    “We don’t like what’s been going on. Then the understaffing, the refusal to acknowledge the severity of the understaffing and then, of course, pay offers that are below the cost of living, which means . . .  pay cut. None of those things seem fair to the group of public workers that are working harder than ever under huge demand.”

    Striking staff called in after power outage
    A union organiser said striking staff returned to Nelson Hospital to care for patients after its backup generator failed in a power outage.

    The top of the South Island lost power on Thursday as wild weather hit the country. It began to be restored from 9.30am.

    PSA organiser Toby Beesley said the generators at the hospital started, but it’s understood they blew out an electrical board, which led to a 45-minute total power outage.

    “The senior leadership at Nelson Hospital reached out to us under our pre-agreed crisis management protocol that we’ve been working on with them for the last three weeks for an event of this nature, and they asked for additional PSA member support, which we immediately agreed to to protect the community.”

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Thousands march through streets as part of NZ’s ‘mega strike’

    RNZ News

    Thousands have marched through major city streets and rallied in small towns across Aotearoa New Zealand as part of today’s “mega strike” of public workers.

    More than 100,000 workers from several sectors walked off the job in increasingly bitter disputes over pay and conditions.

    It was billed as possibly the country’s biggest labour action in four decades.


    Strike action in Auckland’s Aotea Square.    Video: RNZ

    Among those on strike were doctors, dentists, nurses, social workers and primary and secondary school teachers.

    Several rallies were cancelled by severe weather in the South Island and lower North Island.

    Auckland
    One of the day’s main rallies got underway shortly after midday with thousands of protesters gathering in Aotea Square for speeches, before marching down Queen Street.

    Many carried signs and chanted, cheered and danced as they made their way down.

    'Mega strike' protesters in Auckland, 23 October 2025.
    “Mega strike” protesters in Auckland today. Image: Nick Monro/RNZ

    Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick said it was embarrassing that the government was labelling the action politically motivated.

    “Of course this is political. Politics is about power and it’s about resources and it’s about who gets to make decisions that saturate and shape our daily lives,” she said.

    There was a smaller, earlier rally in the morning in Henderson.

    Tupe Tai from Western Springs College, who has been teaching for several decades, said the situation had become untenable.

    “We’ve got really underpaid and overworked teachers, they need that support.”

    She also said teachers needed an environment where they could work on the curriculum, have time to do it, but also have a life.

    Protesters in the 'mega strike' in Hamilton, October 2025.
    Protesters in the “mega strike” in Hamilton today. Image: Libby Kirkby-McLeod/RNZ

    Hamilton
    The crowd swelled to an estimated 10,000 in Hamilton’s rally.

    Kimberly Jackson and her daughter were at the rally on behalf of her husband, a senior doctor who had to be at the hospital working as part of lifesaving measures.

    “For us it is personal, but it’s also about this country that I love, that I’ve grown up in, and I can see terrible things happening in this country and I feel really passionate about public health care,” she said.

    Jackson said she had seen the system deteriorate over her lifetime.

    People march through central Auckland as part of Thursday's mega strike.
    Many carried signs and chanted, cheered and danced as they made their way down Auckland’s Queen Street today. Image: RNZ/Marika Khabazi

    Chloe Wilshaw-Sparkes, regional chair of the Waikato PPTA said teachers were on strike because the offers from the government were not good enough.

    “They’ve been saying ‘get round the table, have a conversation,’ but a conversation goes two ways and I think they need to be reminded of that,” she said.

    Principal of Hamilton East School, Pippa Wright, was at the rally with some of the school’s teachers.

    She said she believed in the NZEI’s principles, and she wanted changes which would ensure schools had really good teachers in front of students.

    Wright also said pay rates needed to rise.

    “So they’re not treated like graduates, and we need better conditions for teachers, and nurses, and all the public sector,” she said.

    'Mega strike' protesters in Whangārei.
    “Mega strike” protesters in Whangārei today. Image: Peter de Graaf/RNZ

    Northland
    In Whangārei, the weather was sweltering and a stark contrast from conditions further south.

    About 1200 people marched through several city blocks, after leaving Laurie Hall Park.

    As well as teachers, nurses and other union members there were students and patients showing support.

    Sydney Heremaia of Whangārei had heart surgery a few weeks ago but said he was marching to show his concern about staffing levels and creeping privatisation.

    Deserei Davis, a teacher at Whangārei Primary School, feared there would be no new teachers soon if pay and conditions were not improved.

    “We’ve voted to strike because we feel that the government hasn’t been addressing our issues, and especially at bargaining,” she told RNZ.

    “The government scrapped pay equity claims. And that was a shocking blow to women in general, but an absolute shock and a blow for us women in education. And it’s completely scrapped it.

    “More importantly, we are standing up for our tamariki, who are really poorly resourced in schools, in terms of support and the requirements coming down on teachers on a daily basis, on a monthly basis.

    “It’s burning out our teachers. We’re fighting for our support staff, our teacher aides, the most vulnerable of all our staff who don’t have job security.”

    She said the ministry’s offer was “absolutely atrocious”.

    “$1 extra an hour over a period of three years. Like let that sink in. 60 cents one year, maybe 25 cents the following and 15 cents the following year. How does that keep up with the rate of inflation?”

    Northland emergency doctor Gary Payinda told RNZ it was “pretty important to support our essential public services”.

    “We don’t like what’s been going on. Then the understaffing, the refusal to acknowledge the severity of the understaffing and then, of course, pay offers that are below the cost of living, which means . . .  pay cut. None of those things seem fair to the group of public workers that are working harder than ever under huge demand.”

    Striking staff called in after power outage
    A union organiser said striking staff returned to Nelson Hospital to care for patients after its backup generator failed in a power outage.

    The top of the South Island lost power on Thursday as wild weather hit the country. It began to be restored from 9.30am.

    PSA organiser Toby Beesley said the generators at the hospital started, but it’s understood they blew out an electrical board, which led to a 45-minute total power outage.

    “The senior leadership at Nelson Hospital reached out to us under our pre-agreed crisis management protocol that we’ve been working on with them for the last three weeks for an event of this nature, and they asked for additional PSA member support, which we immediately agreed to to protect the community.”

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • ULMWP alleges 15 civilians killed in West Papua military operation

    By Caleb Fotheringham, RNZ Pacific journalist

    The United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) claims more than a dozen civilians have been killed in the Papuan highlands, including three men who were allegedly tortured and a woman who was allegedly raped.

    However, the Indonesian government claims the accusations “baseless”.

    ULMWP president Benny Wenda said 15 civilians had been killed, and the women who was allegedly raped fled from soldiers and drowned in the Hiabu River.

    A spokesperson for the Indonesian embassy in Wellington said the actual number was 14, and all those killed were members of an “armed criminal group”.

    The spokesperson described the alleged torture and rape as “false and baseless”.

    “What Benny Wenda does not mention is their usual ploy to try to intimidate and terrorise local communities, to pressure communities to support his lost cause,” the spokesperson said.

    The ULMWP also claimed four members of the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) were killed in drone bombings in Kiwirok on October 18.

    ‘Covert military posts’
    According to the Indonesian embassy spokesperson, those killed were involved in burning down schools and health facilities, while falsely claiming they were being used as “covert military posts” by Indonesia.

    “Their accusations were not based on any proof or arguments, other than the intention to create chaos and intimidate local communities.”

    The spokesperson added the Indonesian National Police and Armed Forces had conducted “measured action” in Kiwirok.

    West Papua Action Aotearoa spokesperson Catherine Delahunty said Indonesia’s military had become more active since President Prabowo Subianto came to power in October last year.

    “The last year or so, it’s depressing to say, but things have actually got a whole lot worse under this president and a whole lot more violent,” Delahunty said.

    “That’s his only strategy, the reign of terror, and certainly his history and the alleged war crimes he’s associated with, makes it very, very difficult to see how else it was going to go.”

    Delahunty said the kidnapping of New Zealand helicopter pilot Phillip Mehrtens in 2023 also triggered increased military activity.

    Schoolchildren tear gassed
    Meanwhile, a video taken from a primary school in Jayapura on October 15 shows children and staff distressed and crying after being tear gassed.

    The Indonesian embassy spokesperson said authorities were trying to disperse a riot that started as a peaceful protest until some people started to burn police vehicles.

    They said tear gas was used near a primary school, where some rioters took shelter.

    “The authorities pledge to improve their code and procedure, taking extra precautions before turning to extreme measures while always being mindful of their surroundings.”

    Jakarta-based Human Rights Watch researcher Andreas Harsono said the level of care using tear gas would have been much higher if the students were not indigenous Papuan.

    “If it is a school with predominantly settler children, the police will be very, very careful. They will have utmost care,” he said.

    “The mistreatment of indigenous children dominated schools in West Papua is not an isolated case, there are many, many reports.”

    ‘Ignored by world’
    Despite the increased violence in the region, Wenda said the focus of Pacific neighbours like New Zealand and Australia remained on the Middle East and Ukraine.

    “What has happened in West Papua is almost a 60-year war. If the world ignores us, our people will disappear,” he said.

    Delahunty said there had been a weak response from the international community as Indonesia used drones to bomb villages.

    “The reign of terror that is taking place by the Indonesian military, they’re getting away with it because nobody else seems to care.

    “If you look at the recent Pacific Islands Forums, it’s very disappointing, it came up with a very standard statement, like ‘it would be good if Indonesia would invite the human rights people from the UN in’.

    “We close our eyes, Palestine rightly gets our support and attention for the genocide that’s being visited upon the people of Palestine, but in our own region, we’re not interested in what is happening to our neighbours.”

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.