radiofree.asia

Category: israel

  • Gaza Officials: Israel Has Only Let in 14 Percent of Aid Required by Ceasefire

    Israel has only allowed a small fraction of aid trucks required by the ceasefire deal to enter Gaza, Palestinian officials have said, in the latest report of Israeli officials violating the terms of the agreement and prolonging their famine campaign in the Strip.​​ According to the Gaza Government Media Office, as of Monday evening, only 986 aid trucks have entered Gaza since the beginning of…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Video: Peston cuts off Polanski for mentioning that Israel tortures UK citizens

    Green party leader Zack Polanski appeared on ITV’s Peston last night and continued his string of strong media appearances. Polanski clearly rattled his pro-Israel interviewer, who was an eager participant in the ‘Labour antisemitism’ smear scam against Jeremy Corbyn and the left and was continuing the UK establishment’s desperate attempts to justify allowing racist, violent Maccabi Tel Aviv fans to rampage through Birmingham next month despite their own city banning them for violent rioting – and who cut Polanski off for pointing out, factually, that Israel has tortured UK citizens and should therefore be boycotted:

    Israel has also murdered UK citizens, for which it was not even reprimanded by the UK government – which has almost certainly provided it with assistance in the murder of Palestinians and likely of UK aid workers too.

    Featured image via YouTube screenshot/Peston

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Zack Polanski says kick Israel out of all sports

    As the Labour government shitshow over Maccabi Tel Aviv fans rages on, the Green Party’s Zack Polanski has once again shown Prime Minister Keir Starmer what a real leader looks like. And it’s one with principles in spades as he calls for Israel to be banned from international sports.

    Maintaining his media momentum, Polanski dove right into another TV interview – this time with ITV’s Robert Peston. Like with many of his recent appearances, he caught the corporate media hack off guard with his no-holds-barred responses.

    Polanski said he endorsed a “general boycott of Israeli sports teams” in “the same way we have with Russia”. He also added that it’s important athletes are allowed to play; however, it is “deeply problematic” if they are allowed to “play under their state banner or a city in Israel”, whilst Israel is committing genocide:

    This was clearly not the response Peston bargained for, so in reply, he said:

    You have to accept Israel is a democracy, and you’re basically punishing essentially innocent citizens. It’s perfectly reasonable to criticise the Israeli government, but to punish citizens in that way is surely not appropriate.

    Then Polanski started to explain how the Flotilla participants were not treated as any democracy would treat a person. However, he was not able to finish his sentence before Peston cut him off and said that it was “time”.

    ‘Democracy’

    Peston’s claim that we cannot boycott Israel because it is a democracy is quite frankly ridiculous:

    Firstly, Israel is an apartheid state. Palestinians and Jewish Israelis are treated differently in practically every aspect of life. Including, but not limited to, education, employment, family life, freedom of movement, health, housing, and residence. There are dozens of Israeli laws and policies which institutionalise this prevailing system of racial domination and discrimination.

    Secondly, it means the people voted for the government that is now carrying out a genocide. Jewish Israelis voted for Netanyahu.

    In Russia, which has faced sporting sanctions since it launched its war on Ukraine, Russians did vote for Putin. However, the US, Germany, and the UK, among other nations, have all said that the vote was neither fair nor free, due to “imprisonment of political opponents and censorship.

    However, of the 15 million people living in ‘Israel’, half of them are not Jewish, and most of them have no right to vote in Israel. Non-Jewish residents in the Israeli-controlled West Bank and East Jerusalem do not have the right to vote in national elections.

    This means that the Jewish people of Israel did in fact vote for a genocidal maniac, when they didn’t have to. Unlike in Russia, where there was no alternative. Having said that, whilst it may be a ‘democracy’, most of its citizens did not vote for Netanyahu.

    Sports boycotts

    Throughout history, sports boycotts have been a legitimate protest tool against countries committing human rights violations.

    In 1964, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) banned South Africa from participating in the Tokyo Olympic Games.

    This happened because of pressure from the anti-apartheid movement to boycott the regime’s segregationist sports policies. Not only did it work, it was significant in mobilising awareness of apartheid laws and support for the movement, as events were cancelled and players were prevented from travelling.

    After Russia invaded Ukraine, the IOC banned the Russian national team and suspended the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC). Similarly, Russia was expelled from the 2022 World Cup and both FIFA and UEFA banned it from all international competitions. The announcement also included Russian clubs involved in European competitions.

    Saved by the bell

    Of course, just as Polanski was about to make another crucial point about Israel breaking international law detaining and abusing the Global Sumud Flotilla activists, ITV conveniently called it:

     

     

    Some on X pointed out the glaring double standards on display. While the corporate media has swathes of time to spare for the political charlatans of the right-wing, its hostility to left-wingers speaking hard truths the media is loathe to admit, is plain to see:

    Let’s be clear: Israel is a colonial entity – that for all the talk of a ceasefire – is continuing to commit a genocide and heinous atrocities in Gaza. In over two years of brutal siege, it has massacred hundreds of Palestinian football players and athletes. It has stolen the lives – and dreams – of more than 20,000 children.

    It likes to hide behind its image as the supposed bastion of democracy in the Middle East. But of course, nothing could be further from the truth in its colonial, apartheid regime. Peston’s appeal to this is nothing short of propaganda for the violent settler state – and in this context, entirely irrelevant anyway.

    Had Peston and ITV not cut Polanski off, we’re sure he would have set them straight on all this too.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By HG

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Dr Rahmeh Aladwan arrested at her home after her public support of Palestine

    British Palestinian Dr Rahmeh Aladwan was arrested from her home at 7.30am on Tuesday 21 October after a ‘two-year long coordinated assault campaign”, including death threats, by the UK Zionist lobby for daring to stand up against Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people:

    Government overreach

    Israel-funded Health Secretary Wes Streeting has backed the campaign against Dr Aladwan and other pro-Palestinian medics, claiming that their criticism of Israel’s genocide and the UK’s collusion is ‘antisemitism’ and planning changes to legislation to effectively allow their suspension without trial or process.

    So extensive and self-evident was Streeting’s involvement that the British Medical Journal wrote:

    UK ministers are reportedly drawing up plans to change the law to make it easier to suspend doctors accused of misconduct from practising while they are under investigation.

    The move has been prompted by the health secretary, Wes Streeting, being dissatisfied with the handling of the case of a British-Palestinian doctor, Rahmeh Aladwan, who is currently under investigation by the General Medical Council (GMC) over allegations of antisemitic remarks. Streeting is also reported to be planning to legislate for a new duty on NHS staff that would specifically prohibit them from making “racist” statements.

    The fact that Streeting’s interference is so brazen is a disgrace. The government has no business interfering in wrong-headed arbitration over the personal views of NHS staff. And, when those views are more broadly up for censorship and suppression, anyone invested in freedom of speech should be deeply concerned.

    And, Dr. Aladwan is part of a fast-growing group of NHS staff facing intimidation, censorship, and professional discrimination for their views on Palestine. As the Canary reported previously, Muslim midwife Fatimah Mohamied is taking her former employers, Chelsea and Westminster NHS Foundation Trust, to court. Even having left her job as a midwife, she was treated abhorrently by the trust, UK Lawyers for Israel, and the Nursing and Midwifery Council after she expressed her support of Palestine’s right to exist on her personal social media.

    Death threats against Dr Aladwan

    Dr Aladwan has also faced a campaign by the same lobby groups to bar her from medical practice – as the lobby tried and failed to do against Dr Ghassan Abu Sitta, but this time with the admitted collusion of the General Medical Council (GMC) for Dr Aladwan’s refusal to ‘repent’:

    Dr Aladwan

    A medical tribunal found Dr Aladwan had not done anything worthy of sanction:

    However, a leaked internal GMC communication revealed that it is still seeking sanctions against her because she won’t ‘moderate’ her stance on Gaza:

     

    Understandably, the entire process has taken its toll:

    The death threats are worse than ever. I have had to call the police for the second time this year to protect my family.

    Even then, the targeting of Dr Aladwan goes much deeper.

    The Canary was present at a protest outside Downing Street on Wednesday 15 October. NHS doctors and nurses were protesting against state repression of their freedom of speech over Israel and Palestine. As we put out on our social media, cops got violent after they arrested a doctor that was there:

     

    View this post on Instagram

     

    A post shared by Canary (@thecanaryuk)

    But this doesn’t tell the whole story.

    The Zionist lobby colluding with the cops

    The woman arrested was de-arrested after just eight minutes. This was because cops had, in a characteristic fit of racism, mistaken her for Dr Aladwan. Why? Because just around the corner from the protest were two members of the Zionist lobby – as this image shows:

    Both these men are linked to pro-Zionist group Stop The Hate UK, along with other Israeli groups. It was them who instructed the police to go an arrest who they believed was Dr Aladwan – except it wasn’t her.

    Footage from the day shows cops with Dr Aladwan’s name on a piece of paper, as well as instructions on the law that they were going to arrest her under:

    Dr Aladwan

    It is likely that these two men, or others from Stop The Hate UK, did similar with the Met Police when cops arrested someone else on their hit list:

    @thecanaryuk

    BREAKING 📢 Activist and content creator @ani.says2 has been arrested AGAIN by the Met in the latest episode of targeted, racialised repression against her. Full story on www.thecanary.co Solidarity with Ani ✊

    ♬ original sound – The Canary

    Activist and journalist Ani.Says has been central to what has been going on. As the Canary previously reported, she has also been targeted by the Zionist lobby for her activism and views on Israel.

    Ani told the Canary:

    What we are now seeing in the UK is an extension of the violence that Israel has rained down on the Palestinians for two years of a genocide and for 77 years of occupation preceding this.

    The British Government are controlled and owned by the Israeli Zionist lobby and are using the British police, media, and the legal system of this great nation to inflict their own version of violence on us. Unlawful arrests, public shaming, court cases, job losses, loss of freedom of speech and a fear for one’s life and safety if we speak out against a genocide.

    Our media is controlled and anyone who speaks out to tell the truth is demonised and dehumanised. This is the the UK’s own version of a McCarthy type witch hunt where Zionist fingers point at us and the government and police do their bidding. Understand that this affects us all regardless of our political viewpoints. Dissent is being oppressed in every form.

    Dr Aladwan could be any of us

    Dr Aladwan predicted last week that the state would come for her, writing presciently on X that:

    Britain is in serious trouble. They’re not just coming for me. They’re coming for our free speech. They’re coming for a fundamental British value: ‘innocent until proven guilty’.

    There is now a concerted and organised campaign by the pro-Zionist lobby to doxx and target prominent anti-genocide activists – and then get the cops to collude with them to ensure people are arrested. It has taken the Met nearly a week to finally come for Dr Aladwan – and she knew it was going to happen.

    So, the complicit Starmer regime’s war on the freedom of speech and protest rights of UK citizens – at the behest of the Zionist lobby – has come literally to Dr Aladwan and Ani’s doorsteps. But be warned: it might come to any of our doors next.

    Additional reporting via Steve Topple

    Featured image and additional images supplied

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • O’Neill continues to pass off F-35 whitewash as pro-Palestine policy

    North of Ireland First Minister Michelle O’Neill today again posed as a defender of Palestine by aligning herself with the recent Invest NI cover-up conducted by her party colleague, Economy Minister Caoimhe Archibald. Last week, in an announcement panned by local Palestine activists, Archibald said a review conducted by Invest NI – the government “Regional Economic Development Agency” – indicated no support for “projects that provide arms or components to Israel”.

    Speaking at Stormont today, O’Neill said Archibald was correct to also rule the Executive out of involvement in trade talks between the Starmer regime and so-called Israel. The Sinn Féin Vice President said:

    Yes, I believe the minister is absolutely correct in making a decision. It’s a policy decision that she has outlined in a direct response to the genocide that’s happened in Palestine.

    So I think it’s wholly appropriate that she would make that call in terms of no trade with companies that are arming Israel.

    F-35 manufacture

    O’Neill had been subject to craven questioning from an unknown journalist more preoccupied by recent legal action taken against Archibald than with Stormont’s assistance of so-called Israel’s genocide. The Economy Minister has been hit with a pre-action protocol letter from the think tank Unionist Voice Policy Studies (UVPS). Their claim is that Archibald has no authority to make such a ruling, given international trade is not a devolved matter.

    All this fretting from the pro-genocide wing of Six Counties politics is taking place despite the fact Archibald has thus far been involved in whitewashing local government’s participation in Zionist mass slaughter. Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT) have identified multiple sites around the Six Counties which manufacture F-35 parts. The warplanes have been a key cog in the Zionist entity’s machinery of genocide throughout the last two years. Oxfam’s policy adviser on arms and conflict Martin Butcher has described it as a certainty that parts made locally are going to the illegitimate pseudo state “either in new aircraft from the United States or as parts from a regional warehouse”.

    Yet Archibald’s weasel-worded report skirts around this essential truth via the linguistic contortion that parts made by companies here are not being shipped directly to so-called Israel. Rather, they enter a global pool of components, which are ultimately brought together to construct the killing machine that has assisted the Zionist land theft project in murdering potentially 680,000 Palestinians.

    Legal team challenging Invest NI blast their untruths

    Parts are also stored in warehouses to be shipped off as replacements for wear and tear. Given the extent to which ‘Israel’ has bombed Gaza – subjecting it to more than 18 times the tonnes of explosives per square kilometre dropped on Vietnam by the US – one can imagine replacing worn components was a frequent occurrence. A major investigation into Invest NI’s role in funding the F-35 programme found that representatives from the body met Dutch officials with a view to being involved in this storage of parts. The Netherlands operates a warehouse used for this purpose, and an Invest NI team sought to win a tender from the Dutch Ministry of Defence to supply these facilities with parts for the warplane.

    The legal team at Madden & Finucane Solicitors bringing a Judicial Review against Invest NI scoffed at Archibald’s claims:

    Despite the Minister stating that Invest NI does not support the manufacture of arms or their components for Israel, it is clear from information obtained by our client that Invest NI funds may have been used to create parts for F-35 fighter jets which have been used to drop bombs in Gaza during the recent genocide.

    They highlighted how the report acknowledged:

    …it is not possible for Invest NI or its client companies to fully track or determine the final destination of exported goods once they enter complex supply chains. The inability to track components is highly concerning when the components may have been used to commit serious humanitarian crimes.

    Their client, Cassidy Ferrari said:

    The Minister should commit to an immediate end to funding for any project that could result in components ending up in weapons used by the Israeli Defence Forces. Any public funds that may have been used in this way should be clawed back to be used instead to alleviate local issues, such as health and housing.

    This was much the same demand made by protesters who stormed an Invest NI conference on Wednesday October 15, much to the embarrassment of the agency’s executives. In suspicious timing, Archibald that very evening belched out her smokescreen report, a clear intention to undermine the momentum that local Palestine activists had built in challenging the use of public money for the machinery of mass murder.

    Stormont must end its role in the cycle of death

    The merchants of death whose robbing of public funds takes bread from the starving and medicine from the sick continue to profit from the West Asian meltdown triggered by Zionist barbarism. Some may celebrate Iran’s enhanced capacity to defend itself having acquired 48 of Russia’s SU-35 warplanes, but this ultimately represents another escalation of firepower in a region awash with tools of carnage. The $6 billion spent would have seen much more constructive use in tending to the welfare of impoverished Iranians bludgeoned by brutal US sanctions, but Western unwillingness to reign in Netanyahu and co’s destructiveness sees the arms race continue.

    For Stormont, the response must be to turn away from this nihilism decisively. A halting of weapons manufacture should be the immediate goal, with factories repurposed for life-enhancing tools rather than those that extinguish it.

    Similarly, threats of legal action regarding the limitations of devolved power should be dismissed. The Executive here should operate under the supreme command of international law, which demands all steps are taken to prevent and punish genocide. That means a complete cessation of trade with the Zionist entity, in line with Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) guidance, given any monies funnelled to the butchers of West Jerusalem enable them to perpetuate their atrocities. No party can claim to be pro-Palestine until that is the policy they pursue.

    Featured image via

    By Robert Freeman

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Video: Tory MP embarrasses himself trying to back Maccabi Tel Aviv at any cost

    The establishment continues to embarrass itself over the fascist, racist, misogynist, and violent fans of Israeli football club Maccabi Tel Aviv. After the decision of West Midlands Police and Aston Villa football club to ban them from a ‘European’ fixture in Birmingham early next month, the establishment have persisted in trying to overturn the decision.

    Keir Starmer, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, the UK ‘mainstream’ media and an array of pro-Israel mouthpieces, including one who happens to work for an Islamophobic pro-Israel think-tank, supposedly representing a Jewish Villa fan-club that doesn’t exist, all came out of the woodwork to attack the Villa/WMP decision as racist. And then, they were promptly exposed as sold-out fools when the club’s Israeli home city cancelled its game on Monday night because of rioting by Maccabi fans, who were then filmed roaming about looking for someone to beat up.

    Starmer and co have not apologised or withdrawn their smears – and former Tory party leader Iain (Duncan) Smith was still pursuing the issue on Monday, claiming in the House of Commons chamber that when Maccabi played a match against Istanbul, everything went off with no problems or violence.

    Liverpool MP Ian Byrne, an actual football fan, then had to point out that football’s European ruling body UEFA decided the match had to be moved to Hungary because Turkish authorities refused to allow it to take place in Istanbul – and their Hungarian counterparts then ordered it to be played it behind closed doors.

    And that was why there was no trouble at that one game:

    Skwawkbox understands that Smith is still in A&E for the removal of his foot from his mouth.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Foreign Office refuses to disclose notes of ‘secret meeting’ between Lammy and Israeli foreign minister

    The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) has refused to disclose notes concerning a ‘secret meeting’ in April between David Lammy, at the time Keir Starmer’s Foreign Secretary, and his Israeli counterpart Gideon Sa’ar – because they could be “open to misinterpretation” and might harm the UK’s relationship with (genocidal) Israel, Scottish paper The National has revealed. The FCDO blocked publication of any papers relating to the meeting.

    Patrick Harvie, a Green party member of the Scottish Parliament described the government’s excuse for hiding details of the meeting as “dangerous“:

    The idea that the public cannot see these documents because we might misinterpret them seems extraordinary, and if that excuse is allowed to stand, it would set a dangerous precedent.

    Lammy’s suspicious protections

    The meeting took place as two legal and human rights organisations, the International Centre for Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) and the Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF) applied for an arrest warrant for Sa’ar, with Lammy assuring the wanted war criminal that the request would not be granted.

    After investigators made a freedom of information (FOI) request for records relating to the meeting, the FCDO failed to respond within the usually-required twenty working days and extended the deadline, supposedly to have additional time to decide “whether release was in the public interest”. Five months later it denied the request claiming that granting it would impact policy development, national security and international relations, adding:

    We believe, if viewed, it could be open to misinterpretation, which would damage our relationship with Israel.

    The Sa’ar meeting and the guarantee of immunity provided to him is just one in a long line of such protections offered to wanted Israeli war criminals including, three months later, immunity for the “architect of the Gaza genocide”.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Gal Gadot is ‘prosecuting’ UK activists under Thatcher-era trade union laws

    Muslim anti-genocide activist Ani.Says is one of the most hounded humanitarian campaigners by the Starmer regime, for her effective campaigning for the rights and survival of the Palestinian people – and she was arrested again earlier this month by the Met Police. However, it’s now emerged that Gal Gadot is also going after her – or rather, the Met Police are doing it for the actor.

    Gal Gadot is going after UK anti-genocide activists

    In a video announcement on her Instagram page, she has told her followers that she has the Israel lobby pursuing her directly and is being prosecuted by ‘Z-lister’ Israeli Hollywood actor and former IDF soldier Gal Gadot under Thatcher-era anti-union law for ‘besetting a workplace’:

    And in an update a few hours later, Ani said that six other activists are being hounded in the same way:

    As the Met admitted at the time, “five people were arrested for harassment and offences under Section 241 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations Act which deals with wrongfully and unlawfully obstructing access to a workplace. Two of the arrests relate to incidents at previous protests while three relate to offences that took place today”.

    Solidarity from us

    As the Canary previously wrote, yes Gal Gadot may be Israeli. But the protests were because she once served in the Israel Defense Forces for two years. Previously, Reuters reported:

    Gadot served the IDF for two years, a stint which included participation in the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war, which Lebanon gave as its reason for banning the “Wonder Woman” movie starring Gadot when it was released in 2017, the Washington Post

    Gadot also claimed it was “unfair” that her movies were being boycotted because she supported Israel.

    But there’s a difference between being Israeli and supporting a nation perpetuating violent settler colonial Zionism and working for a genocidal army.

    The Canary sends its solidarity to the Gal Gadot 7 in this extension of the Zionist lobby’s war on UK citizens’ free speech and protest rights.

    In case you’re lucky enough not to be familiar with Gal Gadot’s performances yet, here’s a short video of her ‘best’ lines:

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • A Return To The Balfour Declaration

    The highly touted picture of “Middle East peace” is quite deceptive.

    Nobody in the region truly believes that peace is at hand, that there is a credible path to peace, or that the thorny issues of the Arab-Israeli conflict have been resolved.

    It is not the first time that a U.S. president congratulates himself — and is congratulated by Western and Middle Eastern parties — for reaching a settlement of the conflict.

    Jimmy Carter was hailed when he presided over the Camp David Accords — it was supposed to end the conflict, but in reality it gave Israel a free hand to attack any combination of Arab countries and the Palestinians because the major Arab military force was neutralized (through bribes to the ruling despot and the military brass).

    The post A Return To The Balfour Declaration appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • BREAKING: Al Jazeera publishes name of man said to have ordered murder of Hind Rajab

    Al Jazeera Arabic has named Major Sean Glass, of the so-called “Vampire Empire” tank company of Israel’s 52nd Battalion of its 401st Armoured Brigade, as the occupation commander who allegedly gave the order in Gaza, from inside an Israeli tank, to destroy the car carrying Palestinian child Hind Rajab and her family, as well as the ambulance rushing to rescue them, killing all those on board both vehicles.

    Little Hind and her alleged murderer.

    Five-year-old Hind was the last to survive of her family and a heart-breaking recording of her terrified last conversation with a Palestinian emergency despatcher ended with Hind telling the female despatcher that it was hard to breathe because she didn’t want her mother to have to clean blood from her dress. The bodies were not found for several days; forensic examiners found 355 bullets had been fired into Hind’s car from close range by an Israeli tank.

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Israeli Military Is Still Holding 9,000 Palestinians in Prison

    “Even after having released almost 2,000 people last week, the Israeli military is still holding about 9,000 Palestinians, in what it calls security prisoners or detainees,” says Sari Bashi, an Israeli American human rights lawyer and former program director at Human Rights Watch. “Only about a thousand of them have actually been convicted of any crime. The vast majority of people being held are…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Gaza Officials Say Israel Has Violated Ceasefire 80 Times in First 10 Days

    Israel has committed at least 80 violations of the ceasefire agreement since it began just 10 days ago, Palestinian officials have said, leaving hundreds of casualties as Israeli officials threaten to return to their extermination campaign now that the living Israeli captives have been returned. In a statement on Sunday, the Gaza Government Media Office said that Israel had killed 97…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Thousands of sick and injured children are trapped in Gaza – slowly dying

    The Ministry of Health in Gaza said that more than 5,600 sick children have been granted permission to leave the Strip for treatment, while 22,000 critical cases remain stranded awaiting travel, amid a near-total collapse of the health system after two years of Israel’s genocide and tight blockade.

    Gaza’s sick and injured children: trapped by Israel

    The ministry added in a statement issued on Monday that 5,000 cancer patients are at risk of death due to a severe shortage of medicines and the breakdown of medical equipment, while hundreds of pending surgical cases still require urgent operations that cannot be performed within the Strip.

    Official data indicate that 30% of those wounded in Israel’s genocide are children, and that one in five children under the age of five suffers from severe malnutrition as a result of restrictions on the entry of food and medical aid.

    According to the Ministry of Health, Israeli bombing has left more than 56,000 children orphaned since the start of the war, most of whom live in temporary shelters lacking clean water and basic healthcare, while psychological and social support programmes have been suspended due to the destruction of centres and hospitals.

    The United Nations says that the health sector in Gaza is operating at less than 20% of its capacity, after dozens of medical facilities were targeted, warehouses were destroyed, and fuel needed to run generators was blocked from entering.

    The Ministry of Health has called on the international community to pressure Israel to open the crossings and allow medical aid to enter without restrictions, stressing that the continued blockade is a ‘death sentence for thousands’ and that what is happening in Gaza is a ‘true test of the world’s conscience.’

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Alaa Shamali

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Israel refuses to leave Lebanon in spite of ceasefire deal with Hezbollah

    A ceasefire agreement between the Israeli regime and the Lebanese resistance group Hezbollah, in November 2024, was meant to end the violent attacks. The deal was to finally allow thousands of displaced Lebanese people to return to their homes in the border villages, while Israeli forces were required to withdraw from Lebanon. But, almost a year after the deal was signed Israel has refused to leave.

    80,000 people unable to return home

    According to the UN, ‘Israel’ now occupies 10 square kilometres of Southern Lebanese territory. Its forces still remain in at least five positions on the Israel-Lebanon border. And, this has even prevented UN peacekeeping troops from entering these areas. Already twice this month, October, the Israeli occupation has dropped grenades near the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon peacekeeping troops, and says it will not leave Lebanon until Hezbollah is disarmed.

    According to the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), more than 80,000 people are still unable to return to their homes in the South of Lebanon, and remain displaced due to the ongoing violence and insecurity caused by ‘Israel’.

    Typical excuses from Israel

    In the past couple of weeks, the regime has escalated its attacks on construction infrastructure, in the South of the country. On October 11, intense airstrikes hit a place in the south that sold heavy machinery, destroying over 300 construction vehicles and at least one three-storey house. One person was killed and seven others wounded. Although the IOF claimed the equipment was going to be used to rebuild Hezbollah infrastructure, residents of Msayleh, the town that was targeted said the structures belonged to civilians, and were not military targets.

    A week later the Israeli occupation carried out massive airstrikes, targeting multiple locations in Southern Lebanon, including the town of Ansar which was hit with 14 airstrikes. A missile directly hit a cement plant, causing a huge fire and explosions. Six people were injured. The excuse yet again was that Hezbollah was using a quarry at the cement plant to rebuild its facilities and infrastructure.

    These attacks are raising concerns over the delays in rebuilding, as many of the targeted machinery was being used for cleanup and repair work on roads, water, and sewage infrastructure. Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said:

    The Israeli aggression against Lebanon aims to destroy the productive structures and hinder economic recovery, under false security pretexts. Israel’s escalatory behavior confirms that it continues to violate its obligations and uses force outside any legitimate framework.

    ‘Israel’ killing children and abducting civilians in Lebanon

    Between the start of the ‘ceasefire’ on Nov 27, 2024 and October 17, 2025, there have been almost daily violations by the Israeli occupation in Lebanon. Israeli occupation forces have confirmed over 500 airstrikes on so called ‘Hezbollah targets’. 108 Lebanese civilians, including 16 children, were killed during this time, while at least 19 civilians have been abducted by the IOF in the south of the country.

    According to the World Bank, reconstruction and recovery in Lebanon is expected to cost the cash strapped Lebanese government approximately $11 billion.

    Hezbollah is a resistance movement, which was founded after the Israeli regime seized Lebanon in 1982. Many believe its weapons play an essential role in protecting Lebanon’s security, with a recent survey showing 58 percent of Lebanese oppose Hezbollah disarming, as long as Israel is still occupying the country. But the Israeli occupation and many Western countries have forced the Lebanese government to approve the groups’s disarming, at the expense of Lebanon’s security, and the wish of its people.

    Featured image via X/Hasan Dorr

    By Charlie Jaay

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Man ‘arrested for wearing Star of David’ was in fact trying to get at anti-Zionist Jews

    Pro-Israel lobby groups, media, and trolls have tried to manufacture outrage by claiming that a man – not named, but described as the “founder of the Society of Independent Legal Observers” (SILO) – was ‘arrested for wearing a Star of David necklace’ over the weekend. Stephen Pollard, former editor of the libel-riddled Jewish Chronicle, went to the Tory Spectator to demand to know why “the Met think [sic] the Star of David is offensive”:

    Far-right broadcaster GB News described the arrest as ‘insane’:

    But the man was not arrested for ‘wearing a Star of David’, nor even for “antagonising pro-Palestine protesters”.

    No, he was not arrested for ‘wearing the Star of David’

    Instead, a statement from the Met reveals that he was arrested for repeatedly defying orders to stay away from a group of Jews peacefully protesting against Israel’s genocide in Gaza, members of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN) – and the Israel lobbyists had dishonestly edited video to support their false claim:

    We understand the concerns raised, but the claim this man was arrested for wearing a star of David necklace is not true. He was arrested for allegedly repeatedly breaching Public Order Act conditions that were in place to keep opposing protest groups apart.

    The conditions required protesters from the pro-Israel group Stop the Hate to remain in one area with protesters from the pro-Palestinian group IJAN required to remain in a separate area.

    The man told officers he was acting as an independent legal observer but his actions are alleged to have breached the conditions in place, and to have gone beyond observing in an independent and neutral way to provoking and, as such, actively participating as a protester.

    Over the course of an hour, the man is alleged to have continuously approached the area allocated to IJAN, getting very close to protesters to film them and provoking a reaction. Officers had to intervene at least four times to ask the man to return to the Stop the Hate area as required by the conditions.

    When he failed to do so after multiple warnings, he was arrested. He was released on bail and the investigation continues.

    The clipped footage released, in which officers question the man’s status and actions as an independent legal observer, is six minutes of an hour-long interview. We can fully appreciate why this clip in isolation causes concern and we are continuing to review and work with communities to understand the concerns they have voiced.

    METROPOLITAN POLICE

    We’ve been here before

    The case brings to mind the incident last year involving Gideon Falter, boss of the Israel-funded lobby group that calls itself ‘Campaign against Antisemitism’ (CAA). Falter claimed he had been prevented from crossing the road because he was Jewish and an anti-Israel (in fact, anti-genocide) march was approaching. UK ‘mainstream’ media immediately (of course) amplified his claim, giving abundant airtime to interviews in which he repeated his claim and his attacks on anti-genocide protest.

    But video evidence proved that Falter had not been ‘just trying to cross the road’. Instead, accompanied by a clan of minders and bodyguards, he was trying deliberately to impede the march. Under eventual challenge on camera, Falter fell to pieces and refused to discuss the issue. Only Sky News appeared even to have modified its reporting when this evidence became public – no doubt because it doesn’t help the regime’s narrative that anti-genocide protests are ‘hate marches’ and peaceful protesters are a threatening ‘mob’.

    CAA, described by human rights group CAGE as one of the two key pro-apartheid organisations in the UK, is one of the most prominent groups among the UK Israel lobby, even boasting of its role in getting the Starmer government to ban the non-violent anti-genocide protest group Palestine Action as terrorists. CAGE has complained to the Charity Commission about CAA’s lack of transparency about its sources of funding and its blatantly political activities.

    What is SILO?

    SILO, the group apparently ‘founded’ by the alleged agitator arrested by the Met, is mentioned by the trolls as if it is something noteworthy and substantial. However, a ‘WHOIS’ search for its domain reveals that its website, which is hosted on Israeli domain firm Wix, only came into existence in June.

    The website’s ‘about’ section – in fact the whole website – contains nothing except a two-line ‘welcome’, an email address and an image of what appear to be pencil cases or make-up bags:

    The ‘welcome’ claims the organisation is “dedicated to upholding justice and protecting rights”, but gives no detail of any justice it has upheld or rights it has protected, nor whose rights it is interested in protecting, or even of who else is in the ‘society’ except for its un-named ‘founder’ – who may be named Levy, according to an apparently now-deleted reference to him in an AOL article whose link is still listed by Google:

    Arrested for wearing the Star of David = it was a scam

    Without any detail on its own site or others about its activities, it’s not currently possible to say what rights SILO is interested in, but the arrest of Mr Maybe-Levy at the weekend for allegedly trying to get at a group of Jewish anti-Zionist protesters strongly suggests that the rights in question may be those of Israel and those who support it, like CAA – and its fellow apartheid-apologist group (according to CAGE) UK Lawyers for Israel, who are currently under investigation for making ‘baseless and vexatious’ legal threats to try to silence Israel’s critics and have used such tactics against everyone from doctors and hospital boards to streaming services.

    As always, if an Israeli official or supporter are talking, there’s a very good chance the story is not what you are being told. As an Iranian official observed drily last week in reference to a promise from Israeli PM Netanyahu that he isn’t planning to attack Iran, they are:

    capable of deception.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Australian Gaza flotilla activist on his time in a notorious Israeli prison – podcast

    Earlier this month Australian Surya McEwen was among hundreds of humanitarians and activists onboard an aid flotilla bound for Gaza when the fleet was intercepted by the Israeli military.

    McEwen joins Nour Haydar to talk about what it was like being inside Israel’s Ketziot prison, the conditions detainees face and why he continues to fight for Palestine

    You can subscribe for free to Guardian Australia’s daily news podcast Full Story on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

    Read more:

    Continue reading…

    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • Another Palestinian detainee dies from medical neglect while in Israeli custody

    Palestinian political detainee, 49 year old Mahmoud Talal Abdullah, has died from medical neglect while in Israeli occupation custody. He is the 79th Palestinian to do so, since the start of the genocide in Gaza.

    Abdullah, who was from Jenin Refugee Camp, was arrested by the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) in February 2025. After his arrest, his health deteriorated significantly, and it was later revealed that he had advanced cancer. Despite medical tests confirming this, the occupation refused to release him and kept him in custody until he died. He died just one day after being transferred to Assaf Harofeh Hospital.

    During his time in the Israeli occupation prisons, Abdullah was transferred from Megiddo Prison to Gilboa Prison, and later to the Ramleh Prison Clinic.

    Abdullah was a former prisoner who was detained during the Second Intifada in 2002, spending two years behind bars. Before his latest arrest, he suffered from health problems, and was undergoing treatment. His re-arrest deprived him of completing his medical treatment.

    Palestinian detainees targeted by medical neglect

    Palestinian prisoner’s rights groups- the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society, and the Commission of Detainee’s Affairs – say the Israeli occupation carries out a “systematic policy” of slowly killing prisoners, and hold it “fully responsible” for Abdullah’s death.

    According to testimonies of released prisoners who have spent time in the occupation’s jails, torture– which is considered a war crime and a crime against humanity- is systematic against Palestinians in the occupation’s prisons. Prisoners are currently facing the most deadly period in the history of the prisoners’ movement since 1967. A total of 316 Palestinians are known to have been martyred in jail, and the number of withheld bodies of prisoners, before and after the genocide, has risen to 87. Of these deaths, 76 have been since October 2023.

    With daily crimes ongoing inside the prisons, the number of deaths is only expected to increase. Thousands of prisoners are held in conditions lacking the most basic necessities for life, and are exposed to systematic violations including torture, starvation, physical and sexual assault, medical neglect, and the spread of infectious diseases.

    There has also been field executions of dozens of detainees. Recently returned bodies, after the ceasefire agreement came into effect, show clear evidence of the huge level of brutality inflicted on many of these prisoners.

    The Israeli occupation, and its accomplices and enablers needs to be held to account for these crimes against Palestinians, including prisoners. For decades, exceptional impunity has been granted to the Israeli regime by many global powers, and human rights and international law somehow become irrelevant. For too long it has been treated as though it is above the law, and this needs to come to an end.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Charlie Jaay

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Keir Starmer’s favourite Israeli football team riots in shock to nobody

    Maccabi Tel Aviv rioted yesterday in a move which even the craven British media and political class can’t cover up. Hours after UK politicians – including the grand high bitch himself, Keir Starmer – and corporate journalists lied down the barrel of every camera they could find, the notorious far-right hooligans fought with city rivals.

    In fact, the local derby had to be abandoned, such was the violence.

    Pundits and MPs lined up just days ago to say the Midlands police ban on Maccabi was anti-semitic. Which must also mean Tel Aviv police are anti-semites. Go figure:

    Starmer has endless capacity for blood on his hands

    Starmer and his government have reportedly been working to overturn the police ban. Which can mean only one thing: if the ban is dropped, and it kicks off in Birmingham… it’s on Starmer:

    Scenes from the cancelled match show the pitch covered in flares as opposing fans faced off:

    Not that we’re fans of the cops, but doesn’t this all mean the PM owes West Midlands police an apology:

    Like X user Emma Wheatley, we’re keen to see how Starmer explains himself now – the absolute wally:

    As one social media user pointed out, this level of irony could not have been scripted:

    ‘Risk to life’

    The local Israel police were very straightforward. The match was cancelled because there was a “risk to life”. It remains to be seen if Starmer and his cronies will risk Brummy life by letting the fans visit:

    We’ve relished seeing divisive arguments about Muslims being the issue fall apart before our eyes. In many cases, just hours after they were made:

    The weaponisation of anti-semitism has long been out of control in the UK. It’s been used to shut down debate of Israeli genocide. And even to topple left-wing politicians. And it rarely gets exposed like this, given how much the UK establishment are on board with the practice.

    But, wow, they’ve fucked it this time:

    Ruling class panic

    And as X user Ben Smoke pointed out, this isn’t just a problem of wrongheaded pundits and inept MPs. This is a systemic issue:

    But a final word to journalist Barry Malone who, like so many of us, will relish the ruling class panic which will now ensue:

    Again and again we see reflexive support from establishment figures for falsified narratives of Israeli victimhood. This ranges from backing known football thugs right up to the level of an active genocide. They’re a disgrace almost without equal.

    Naturally we’ve emailed Starmer’s press office to see if he’s going to stick with his preposterous calls to lift the Birmingham police ban. We’ll update you if they come back to use. Which our bet is… will be around about never.

    Featured image via YouTube screenshot/The World Report

    By Joe Glenton

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Israel caught LYING over what happened at Rafah so it can resume the genocide

    On Sunday 19 October Israel claimed that Hamas had ‘fired an anti-tank missile and gunfire toward IDF troops’ after emerging from a tunnel near Rafah, in the South of the Strip.

    In a statement, Al-Qassam Brigades – the armed wing of Hamas – said they knew nothing about the incident, reaffirmed its ‘full commitment to implementing all agreed upon terms’, and said the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) were fabricating pretexts to justify continued attacks:

    We have no knowledge of any incidents or clashes taking place in the Rafah area, as these are red zones under the [Israeli] occupation’s control.

    But war criminal far-right ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich are both keen to resume the genocide, as their posts on X show:

    So, the Israeli occupation seized the opportunity to launch a wave of strikes in several areas of Gaza, including Khan Younis in the South. It also announced the Rafah border would remain closed and no aid trucks would be allowed to enter through the crossing.

    But it seems as though the Israeli occupation has stepped up its bombing campaign yet again under false pretences.

    Israel has lied over what happened at Rafah

    Israeli media reported that a gag order had been imposed on the incident in Rafah, and according to Palestinian journalist Younis Tirawi this is because the occupation forces were lying.

    The incident in Rafah had nothing to do with Hamas, but instead involved illegal colonial settlers who are employed in Gaza by the military to use their private bulldozers to flatten the homes of displaced Palestinians. The noise heard was not caused by a supposed ‘anti-tank missile’ being fired, or any ‘gunfire’, but by a settlers bulldozer running over an unexploded ordinance when it was destroying homes:

    Drop Site News reporter Ryan Grim says the US knew the truth about the incident, and when they told this to Netanyahu he announced he would reopen the crossings shortly:

    45 martyrs were recorded at Gaza’s hospitals on 19 October, from a day of heavy and intense carpet bombing that targeted residential areas of the Strip. According to its posts on X, the IOF dropped at least 120 bombs from its warplanes.

    In Khan Younis, more than 20 consecutive strikes were carried out by the Israeli occupation on crowded residential areas.

    Israel Rafah

    Also, at least five people were killed and several injured when a cafe that was close to tents sheltering displaced people was struck by Israel in central Gaza, West of Deir Al Balah. The headquarters of the Palestine Media Production Company (PMP) in the town of Al-Zawayda central Gaza was also targeted. The airstrike killed broadcast engineer Ahmed Matar and the son of journalist Mohammed Al-Za’anin, while journalist Ismail Jaber was injured from the attack.

    The home of the Abdul Hadi family in Al- Burej refugee camp, central Gaza, was bombed. Four people were killed and eight injured.

    Several tents sheltering displaced families were also targeted and get alight, including in Nuseirat refugee camp where four were killed and 13 injured.

    Clear violations

    Although the mediators have not presented any evidence of Hamas violating its implementation, Israel has deliberately violated the agreement from the day the ceasefire came into force – including now in the aftermath of the Rafah incident.

    According to Gaza’s Government Media Office, as of 19 October the Israeli regime has carried out 80 documented breaches – 21 of these carried out on 19 October – since the ceasefire was declared on 10 October, which has resulted in 97 killed and 230 wounded.

    Under Phase One of the ceasefire agreement the Israeli occupation retains control of 58% of the Gaza Strip, including nearly all of Rafah.

    Featured image and additional images supplied

    By Charlie Jaay

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • PSNA slams NZ defence minister Collins over genocide ‘dog-whistling’

    Asia Pacific Report

    New Zealand’s major Palestine advocacy and protest group Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa has condemned Defence Minister Judith Collins for “dog-whistling to her small choir” over Israel’s genocidal war on the besieged Gaza enclave.

    Claiming that Collins’ open letter attacking teachers at the weekend was an attempt to “drown out Palestine” in discussions with the government, PSNA co-chair Maher Nazzal said that it demonstrated more about her own prejudices than teacher priorities.

    Teachers, who had devoted their lives to educating children in Aotearoa, would be “appalled at the wholesale slaughter” of Palestinian school children in Gaza, he said in a statement today.

    Israel has killed at least 97 Palestinians and wounded 230 since the start of the ceasefire, and violated the truce agreement 80 times, according to the Gaza Government Media Office.

    “Teachers who are committed to the education and development of the next generation of our country would feel a special affinity with the children of another nation, who are being killed by Israeli bombing in their tens of thousands, seeing all their schools destroyed, and who will suffer the consequences of two years of malnutrition for the rest of their lives,” Nazzal said.

    He added that just two months ago, Collins had featured on television standing next to a damaged residential building in Kiev while condemning Russia for attacks which had killed Ukrainian children.

    “But not a critical word of Israel from her, or her cabinet colleagues, despite Israel just now resuming its mass bombing in Gaza,” Nazzal said.

    Children ‘deserve protection’
    “Ukrainian, Palestinian and New Zealand school children all deserve protection and we should expect our government to speak up loudly in their defence, without having to have a teachers’ union raise government inaction on Gaza with them.

    “But even after 24 months of genocide, Collins won’t find the words to express New Zealand’s horror at the indiscriminate killing of school children in Gaza.

    Advocate Maher Nazzal at today's New Zealand rally for Gaza in Auckland
    PSNA co-chair Maher Nazzal . . . “not a critical word of Israel from her . . . despite Israel just now resuming its mass bombing in Gaza.” Image: Asia Pacific Report

    “But she’s in her element dog-whistling to her small choir in the pro-Israel lobby.

    “Collins has already been referred to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, for complicity in Israel’s genocide by facilitating the supply of military technology for Israeli use.

    “It’s more than time for Luxon to pull back his Israeli fanatic colleagues and uphold an ethical rule-based policy, and not default to blind prejudices.”

    A critique of the Collins open letter published in The Standard
    A critique of the Collins open letter published in The Standard . . . “she makes a number of disturbing claims, as valued workers (doctors, mental health nurses, scientists, midwives, teachers, principals, social workers, oncologists, surgeons, dentists etc) ramp up to one of the biggest strikes in history”. Image: The Standard

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • The UN says entire families are buried beneath the rubble in Gaza

    The UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Tom Fletcher, warned of the magnitude of the humanitarian disaster in the Gaza Strip, stressing that the scale of the task of recovering bodies from under the rubble of destruction is ‘enormous and beyond the capacity of any single entity to bear alone.’

    In a television interview with Al Jazeera from inside the Gaza Strip, Fletcher said that thousands of destroyed buildings and homes ‘hide beneath them the bodies of entire families waiting to be recovered,’ He pointed out that the rubble scattered everywhere makes search and recovery operations ‘complex and extremely dangerous,’ given Israel’s continued restrictions on the entry of heavy equipment and specialised equipment.

    The UN official added that many families are still waiting for the recovery of their loved ones’ bodies, stressing that this issue is a ‘purely humanitarian matter’ that must be included in the field commitments of the ceasefire agreement, calling on all parties to cooperate to facilitate the tasks of rescue and relief teams.

    An urgent humanitarian priority, says the UN

    Fletcher explained that providing the necessary search and rescue equipment is a top priority in the UN plan, stressing that the enormous amount of rubble scattered throughout the destroyed cities makes it impossible to reach victims without significant engineering and technical intervention.

    He stressed that the humanitarian response in Gaza is not limited to food and medicine, but also includes ‘restoring dignity to victims by recovering and burying them in a dignified manner.’

    Fletcher described the humanitarian situation in the Strip as ‘indescribably difficult,’ saying that the cities he visited had been ‘razed to the ground’ and that the scale of the destruction was ‘beyond imagination.’

    He noted that what he saw during his field visits ‘reflects an enormous humanitarian tragedy that calls for broad international solidarity,’ stressing that the United Nations is intensifying its efforts to remove rubble, reopen roads and facilitate the delivery of aid to the besieged population.

    He added that the United Nations needs thousands of trucks per week to distribute food, health and educational aid, explaining that about one million meals are currently being distributed to the population despite the severe shortage of resources.

    Gaza is on the brink of collapse

    Fletcher noted that hospitals in Gaza are operating under enormous pressure and lack fuel, medicines and vital equipment, while hundreds of thousands of children are waiting to return to school as part of a UN plan to gradually restart the education process.

    The Deputy Secretary-General spoke about the UN’s 60-day plan following the ceasefire agreement, explaining that it is a ‘comprehensive plan’ aimed at bringing in thousands of trucks loaded with humanitarian supplies and supporting the operation of local bakeries, which have begun producing hundreds of thousands of loaves of bread daily after the arrival of flour, yeast and fuel.

    He added that the plan also includes bringing in thousands of tents in preparation for winter, securing fuel for cooking, heating and operating sewage treatment plants, as well as rehabilitating hospitals and schools and providing them with basic educational supplies.

    Fletcher stressed that ‘the challenge ahead of us is enormous, and rebuilding Gaza requires a long-term vision,’ calling on the international community to shoulder its responsibility, saying, ‘It is time for the world to take serious action to end the suffering in Gaza after years of neglect and isolation.’

    With regard to coordinating the entry of aid, Fletcher said that the Israeli side had committed to allowing trucks to cross, and that the United Nations was beginning to see tangible results after the reopening of the Rafah crossing and the start of the actual flow of supplies. However, he stressed the need to open all crossings permanently to ensure the unimpeded flow of humanitarian aid.

    He also called for international and Palestinian organisations to be able to work side by side in distributing aid, stressing that local markets are in dire need of basic items such as eggs and daily food products.

    The world must act

    Speaking about the killing of more than 100 UN employees during the war, Fletcher expressed ‘deep sadness at the loss of colleagues,’ affirming the UN’s commitment to continue its work ‘in honour of their memory’ and stressing that the organisation would maintain its humanitarian presence in the Strip despite the challenges and risks.

    Fletcher concluded his statement by emphasising that Gaza must not be left alone to face this destruction, saying that ‘bringing life back to this devastated place is not the responsibility of the Palestinians alone, but a global humanitarian duty,’ calling for genuine and sustained solidarity that will restore hope to millions of civilians who have lost everything.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Alaa Shamali

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • ICC rejects Israel’s appeal, upholds arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Galant

    The International Criminal Court (ICC) has, for the second time, rejected Israel’s appeal against the arrest warrants issued for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Galant.

    The ICC: not backing down over war criminals

    In a ten-page ruling issued on Friday 17 October, the ICC stated that Israel was ‘repeating its previous arguments,’ referring to its first appeal, which was rejected in July 2025 and was also based on the argument that the court lacked jurisdiction to consider the crimes in question.

    The Hebrew newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth quoted informed sources as saying that Israel reiterated in its latest appeal its position that the court ‘lacks jurisdiction to consider crimes committed on Palestinian territory.’

    In its decision, the ICC confirmed that it was not obliged to discuss the issue of jurisdiction raised by Israel before executing the arrest warrants, noting that the warrants were issued in an ‘independent legal process’ not directly related to the issue of jurisdiction.

    In Israeli legal circles, it is believed that the ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement in Gaza may have an impact on the court’s proceedings against Netanyahu and Galant, although Israeli sources told the same newspaper that the agreement ‘will not officially affect the course of the case.’ as the indictments relate to crimes allegedly committed between 8 October 2023 and 20 May 2024.

    It is noteworthy that in July 2025, the ICC rejected an official request from Israel to cancel the arrest warrants and suspend the investigation against Netanyahu and Galant, explaining at the time that the suspension of the investigation under Article 19(7) of the Rome Statute only applies in the event of a challenge to the ‘admissibility of the case’ , which Israel did not do, as its objection was limited to the issue of jurisdiction only.

    Palestine is recognised

    The ICC recognised Palestine as a State Party to the Rome Statute on 5 February 2021, granting it jurisdiction over the Palestinian territories occupied in 1967, including the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

    On 3 March 2021, the Court’s Office of the Prosecutor announced the opening of a formal investigation into ‘the situation in Palestine,’ before Israel lodged a formal objection to the Court’s jurisdiction on 23 September 2024.

    Two months later, on 21 November 2024, the First Pre-Trial Chamber issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Galant on charges related to war crimes and crimes against humanity.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Alaa Shamali

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Dirt emerges on the Labour-Israel relationship – despite Starmer trying to suppress it

    The National has reported that Keir Starmer’s Labour government has blocked a Freedom of Information (FOI) request regarding a meeting with Israel. While there are legitimate reasons for the government to block FOIs, the excuse given here has been described as “extraordinary”.

    Scottish Green MSP Patrick Harvie responded by saying the “idea that the public cannot see these documents because we might misinterpret them seems extraordinary, and if that excuse is allowed to stand, it would set a dangerous precedent”.

    Try as Labour might, however, they can’t stop the dirt about them and Israel from getting out:

    What are they hiding

    As we reported previously, Labour’s David Lammy (then-foreign secretary) hosted a secret meeting with his Israel counterpart Gideon Sa’ar in April. Wanting to know more about this “clandestine event”, the National sent an FOI requesting any documents relating to the visit. As they report, the government should have responded within 20 days. In the end, they kept pushing this date back, with a final refusal sent 5 months later.

    The refusal stated (emphasis added):

    Some of the information in scope shows our internal position and strategy on this bilateral relationship [with Israel].

    This relationship of trust allows for the free and frank exchange of information on the understanding that it will be treated in confidence. If the United Kingdom does not respect such confidences, its ability to promote and protect UK interests through international relations will be hampered, which will not be in the public interest.

    We believe, if viewed, it could be open to misinterpretation, which would damage our relationship with Israel.

    For these reasons, we consider that the public interest in maintaining this exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosure of the information.

    Freedom of Information was introduced to ensure confidence in government behaviour. Now we’re being told a British government can’t provide transparency to the British public because it might upset a foreign power.

    Where does it end?

    Not here, it seems, as there’s also this:

    “Nothing has changed” when it comes to Labour and Israel

    MintPress described lord Ian Austin as an “Arch Israel lobbyist” back in February 2024:

    As reported by the Guardian on 18 October:

    The Foreign Office recommended that David Lammy endorse a trade mission to Israel, days after he suspended trade talks and rebuked the country’s government, internal documents reveal.

    In an unusual move, officials asked for ministerial advice over Ian Austin’s visit to Israel in late May. Bureaucratic dysfunction meant the trip by the trade envoy went ahead without the support of ministers or advisers.

    The Foreign Office had said the peer would not meet any representatives of the Israeli government. But photographs show him with senior Israeli trade officials on two occasions.

    Activist and rapper Lowkey noted what Austin was up to back in May:


    The Guardian piece also carried this particularly telling section (emphasis added):

    The official said the visit would give Austin the opportunity “to explain to Israeli civil society and business … that nothing has changed in our existing trading relationship” and concluded: “We recommend the visit goes ahead. Do you agree?”

    In Israel, Austin met Rafael systems who produced the Spike missiles which almost certainly “killed seven World Central Kitchen aid workers, including three British citizens”. And if things went to plan, Austin told them that nothing had changed.

    Here he is telling Sky News that people are ‘obsessed’ with Gaza:


    Funny he has a problem with this given he wants to ensure ‘nothing changes’.

    Either Ian Austin has gone completely rogue and is undermining the UK’s position on the Israeli government (which was actively committing a genocide at the time), or nothing was officially signed so Lammy would have plausible deniability.

    Whichever way you look at it, it’s a grubby affair.

    Dirt

    To be fair, we have a pretty good idea why this current Labour government would want to avoid transparency:

    At this point, Starmer and his cronies are up to their eyeballs in it.

    They might be able to block some of this stuff now, but it will all come out eventually.

    Featured image via House of Commons

    By Willem Moore

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • BREAKING: video emerges from Israel’s ceasefire-breaking onslaught in Gaza

    Israel – which has committed more than 47 violations of the supposed ‘ceasefire’ in Gaza in just a few days – has now resumed its wholesale heavy bombing of Gaza, killing dozens of Palestinian civilians including many children.

    The resumed bombing shreds the ceasefire-that-never-was after the daily breaches took more than a hundred lives almost entirely ignored by the UK ‘mainstream’ media.

    Israel is a terror state.

    Featured image and video supplied

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • “Jewish Villans” Aston Villa supporters club didn’t exist online before Maccabi furore

    The decision of West Midlands Police and Aston Villa football club to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters from the Villa match against the Israeli team early next month because of Maccabi’s notorious reputation for racist riots has seen a massive media and political operation swing into action to project ‘outrage’ at the supposed decision to ‘deny football fans the right to attend a game because they’re Jewish’. Supposedly.

    The campaign has made no mention of non-Israeli teams being banned plenty of times because of fears about the behaviour of their fans — including all English teams at one point. Nor do they mention — at least with any honest portrayal — the abundant video record of racist chants, rape threats and death threats of Maccabi fans, their songs about drinking the blood of opposing fans, their cries of “Death to Arabs” and their mockery of dead Palestinian children killed in Israel’s Gaza genocide. A behaviour so bad that Dutch intelligence services now classify Israel as a national security threat.

    One figure has appeared in the media more than any other as the face of supposed ‘Jewish’ hurt at the idea that Israeli thugs, terrorists and racists might be banned ‘just for being Jewish’ — Andrew Fox. Fox was at first presented as the ‘Jewish honorary president’ of the “Jewish Villans” (or “Villains”) supporters club, though some outlets have removed the word “Jewish” after people pointed out Fox, in bygone days, had admitted that he isn’t.

    Aston Villa Jewish supporter’s club

    But the ‘mystery’ goes further: there’s no such thing as “Aston Villa Jewish Villans/Villains” supporters club.

    The club did once tweet Passover greetings to Jewish fans including a message from Rabbi Michael Pollak, whom it described as “Chief Rabbi and member of” the group “Fans of Diversity Aston Villa Jewish Supporters Club.” However, the message quoted by Pollak doesn’t mention Aston Villa.

    There is a Rabbi Michael Pollak, but his bio says he’s from London and makes no mention of Villa or any links with the club. The only existing Google hit for his name and “Villa” at the same time is a link to a B’nai B’rith post where the page contains a link to a comment in the last couple of days about the Maccabi ban:

    Even “Fans of Diversity Aston Villa Jewish Supporters Club” and its variants have next to no online presence, but “Aston Villa Jewish Villans/Villains” appears to have none at all before it sprang into being for the Maccabi faux-outrage. Search engines reveal no relevant hits before the last few days, except for a few new comments on older pages — which appears to be a regular tactic used by Israel lobby ‘astroturfers’ to try to create some older-looking search results:

    These results are corroborated by Villa fans’ forums, who’ve never heard of either variant:

    And Mr Fox himself? Well, he exists and appears to be a retired army major as the media have described him — however, he is also an ardent advocate for Israel who has visited Israel with the Israeli military and appeared on far-right TV station GB News to defend Israel’s war crime of bombing a civilian building in (US ally) Qatar in September — an appearance that the Islamophobic ‘Henry Jackson Society’ (HJS) also featured. Fox also appeared on screen to describe Israel’s genocide in Gaza as a ‘just war’ and regurgitating Israel’s long-disproven atrocity propaganda of mass rapes and beheaded babies.

    And in an article for HJS, as human rights groups, the UN and journalist groups condemned Israel’s targeted, UK-assisted slaughter of hundreds of Palestinian journalists in Gaza, he said Israel should be killing more journalists, a comment that Action on Armed Violence condemned as:

    a politicised argument that undermines the foundational principle of civilian protection in war. To accept it would be to take a step toward normalising the targeting of journalists for the content of their reporting: an erosion of humanitarian law that would outlast the current conflict and endanger reporters worldwide. And if Fox’s own repeated, IDF-facilitated trips to Gaza were judged by the elastic criteria he applies to others, he himself might be classified as a combatant.

    None of this has prevented Mr Fox from being presented by virtually every ‘mainstream’ UK media outlet as the face and voice of supposed anger among Aston Villa fans at the decision not to allow Maccabi thugs to rampage through Birmingham as they did in Amsterdam and elsewhere.

    And not only did it not prevent it, none of these facts has as much as been hinted at in the ‘MSM’ coverage.

    You’d almost think it was a joint operation between the genocidal coloniser Israel and the genocide-denying and collaborating Starmer regime to whitewash Israeli racism and violence and demonise any opposition to it. Outlandish, eh?

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Tunisians are rising up to outlaw normalisation with Israel’s genocidal regime

    Activists in Tunisia are renewing pressure on their government to introduce the anti-normalisation bill in parliament for voting. The bill would criminalise relations with Israel, and is something they have been campaigning for, for many years.

    Their movement, called ‘One Million Signatures to Criminalise Normalisation’, is led by prominent pro-Palestinian groups, including the Coordination Committee for Joint Action for Palestine, the Tunisian Boycott Campaign, and the Anti-Normalisation Campaign.​

    Tunisia: Activists are campaigning to outlaw normalisation with the Israeli occupation

    The concept of ‘normalisation’ presents Israel’s oppressive policies — such as occupation, apartheid, and settler colonialism — as being normal or acceptable. According to the Palestinian BDS National Committee, normalisation involves participating in any project or activity that brings Palestinians and Israelis together without meeting the following two key conditions: the Israeli side must publicly recognise Palestinian inalienable rights, and joint efforts must actively oppose Israeli oppression through co-resistance. If these conditions are not met, the activities are considered normalisation and should be boycotted because they serve to whitewash Israel’s regime of injustice and undermine Palestinian resistance.​

    Organisers in Tunisia are gathering signatures to push for legislation that makes these normalisation activities criminal offences, arguing that they attempt to make the ongoing starvation, displacement, settler colonialism, and genocide appear normal, instead of the crimes that they are. They say that engaging in joint projects with Israelis, without addressing the root causes of injustice, and without Palestinian-led resistance, continues the ongoing cycle of oppression and apartheid. The campaign specifically targets activities like cultural festivals, conferences, or artistic collaborations that bring together Palestinians and Israelis without fulfilling the two essential conditions of recognition and resistance.​

    Several countries already maintain strong positions against normalisation with the Israeli occupation. Algeria’s Constitution explicitly supports a full Palestinian state and forbids normalisation efforts with the Zionist regime, while Iran continues to support armed Palestinian resistance and has also refused diplomatic ties, instead maintaining its position of anti-normalisation. Yemen and Iraq have also passed anti-normalisation laws.

    Normalisation means complicity in the Israeli occupation’s oppression and many crimes

    But the vast majority of countries, the UK included, while claiming to uphold international law, have maintained complicity in systemic violence and genocide against Palestinians by continuing their normalisation of relations with the Israeli regime. Despite the occupation’s policies of displacement, settlement expansion, military aggression, and genocide, they have signed trade agreements and increased diplomatic ties, legitimising the actions of this rogue state. Their support provides cover for war crimes and crimes against humanity, allowing the occupation to persist without international accountability.​

    The public in Tunisia are deeply opposed to normalisation with the Israeli occupation. Earlier this month, protesters gathered outside the U.S. embassy in Tunis, demanding the expulsion of the American ambassador and the passage of laws criminalising normalisation with the Israeli occupation. Demonstrators accused the U.S. of supporting genocide, while organisers announced they would continue protesting until the authorities enact anti-normalisation laws and cut all military and political ties with the Israeli regime and the US. Several weeks earlier, crowds again gathered outside the US embassy, while hundreds of activists marched through Tunis, calling for laws that stop all forms of cooperation with the Israeli terrorist state.

    BDS criteria

    According to the Palestinian BDS movement, normalisation — meaning participating in joint activities without addressing underlying injustices — is a tool of colonial and oppressive regimes and serves to cover up Israel’s apartheid and settler colonial policies, weakening the global solidarity needed to end these systems.​

    The campaign to criminalise normalisation represents a broader resistance movement for justice and human rights and the struggle against colonialism, and while most countries — both Western and Arab — continue to normalise relations with this pariah state, Tunisian citizens see this as perpetuating injustice and delaying liberation for Palestinians, and they are demanding action from their government.

    Tunisia’s Parliament debated similar legislation in November 2023, which prohibited the ‘recognition of the Zionist entity or the establishment of direct or indirect ties’ with it’, and would have banned any interaction between people from Tunisia and Israel, irrespective of the context. ‘Normalisation’ would have resulted in six to 10 years in prison and a fine equivalent of up to £23,000. But Tunisian President Kais Saied used his veto power, indefinitely postponing the voting on the bill, so the law was not passed.

    Moral and legal duty to act against the Israeli regime

    Bringing an end to the illegal occupation, and stopping, preventing and punishing genocide remain a moral and legal duty for all countries. In 2024 the International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion stated that Israel’s occupation of Palestine was illegal and, in September 2025, a UN International Commission of Inquiry said the Israeli occupation was committing genocide. Why are our governments not taking action to stop a regime that is responsible for an illegal occupation, a system of apartheid, an illegal siege and a genocide?

    Tunisia’s anti-normalisation campaign comes at a time when the international community has failed to uphold international law and protect Palestinian rights. As Tunisian activists intensify their push to criminalise normalisation with Israel,Yemen has stood alone as the only country fulfilling its legal obligations to resist the genocide against Palestinians, but it has been pounded by bombs, as a result. By enforcing a blockade on Israeli occupation linked vessels in the Red Sea, making their way to Eilat, Yemen was legally asserting its right to prevent genocide. This blockade has been a concrete action upholding international law in the face of Israeli war crimes and a humanitarian catastrophe.

    Yemen’s courageous enforcement of the blockade, despite facing devastating bombing and sanctions, underscores the urgent need for all countries to honour their legal and moral duties, not just to perform symbolic solidarity with only words and no actions.

    As Tunisia demands that its government passes essential anti-normalisation laws, the world must wake up, to ensure that normalisation is never accepted as normal and that Palestinian rights to freedom and dignity are fully defended. For peace and justice to occur, the illegal Israeli occupation must be dismantled, not normalised.

    Featured image by Mohamed Jamil Latrach on Unsplash

    By Charlie Jaay

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • BREAKING: Israel escalates with airstrikes, killing dozens in Gaza

    The Gaza Strip witnessed a new escalation on Sunday 19 October, days after the ceasefire was announced, with continuous Israeli air strikes resulting in dozens of deaths and injuries in various areas, while senior Israeli ministers called for the resumption of the genocide.

    51 martyrs since the ceasefire

    Medical sources in Gaza Strip hospitals reported that Israel has killed 51 Palestinians and injured more than 150 others since the ceasefire was declared, indicating the fragility of the truce and the continuation of Israeli violations.

    Israel carries out new raids in Al-Zawayda and Jabalia

    A source at Al-Aqsa Hospital revealed that five Palestinians were killed and others wounded in an Israeli bombardment of the town of Al-Zawayda in the centre of the Strip. In northern Gaza, two Palestinians were killed and others wounded in an Israeli air strike east of Jabalia.

    20 Israeli raids after the ‘Rafah incident’

    Israel’s broadcaster Channel 14 reported that the Israeli army launched about 20 air strikes on targets in various areas of the Strip following what it described as a ‘security incident in Rafah’ in southern Gaza, without providing details of the incident.

    Channel 14 reported an explosion in an Israeli army engineering vehicle in the Rafah area, noting that the causes remain unknown.

    Al-Qassam denies involvement and affirms commitment to agreement

    For its part, the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, denied any connection to the events in Rafah, affirming in a statement that it is fully committed to the ceasefire agreement.
    It stressed that the Rafah area is a ‘red zone’ under occupation control, adding that communication with its affiliated groups there has been cut off since the war resumed last March.

    Israel ministers calls to resume fighting

    On the Israeli side, Channel 12 reported that far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called for the resumption of fighting in Gaza, citing ‘violations of the agreement in Rafah,’ while National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir had previously called for a similar move.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Alaa Shamali

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Israel just massacred 11 members of the same Palestinian family in Al-Zaytoun, Gaza

    Content warning: this article contains video and images some readers may find distressing

    The ceasefire in Gaza was breached yet again by Israel. 11 members of the Abu Shaaban family were deliberately massacred by the Israeli occupation on Friday evening, October 17, in the Al-Zaytoun neighbourhood of Gaza City.

    Ceasefire in shatters: a deliberate, unprovoked attack on civilians by Israeli occupation

    A tank fired directly at their vehicle, while they were attempting to check on their home. The dead include seven children and three women.

    Ceasefire

    Those killed were Ihab Shaaban, his wife Randa, their seven children — all aged 13 years and under — and Ihab’s sister and brother- in- law. Palestinian rescue workers, coordinating with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), were unable to retrieve the bodies until the following day due to the ongoing Israeli attacks. But, according to Civil Defense Spokesperson Mahmoud Basal, the remains of two of the children are still missing, as their bodies were torn apart by the ‘intensity of the bombardment’.

     

    Basal said in a statement that no warning had been given before the attack, and ‘what happened confirms that the occupation remains thirsty for blood and determined to commit crimes against innocent civilians’.

    Many Palestinians unaware of the position of the ‘yellow line’

    Israeli media reports that Israeli occupation forces (IOF) fired at a ‘suspicious vehicle’ which had crossed the so-called ‘yellow line’, behind which the IOF were required to withdraw as part of Phase 1 of the ceasefire terms. There are currently no physical markers to show where this line is. In a report on Al Jazeera, Hind Khoudary said many people in Gaza do not have internet, so are unaware of the position of the yellow line or the occupation forces, and their lives are put at risk. Defence Minister Israel Katz is also calling for markers to show its position, saying they will serve as a warning to ‘Hamas terrorists and Gaza residents that any violation or attempt to cross the line will be met with fire’.

    Zionist regime breaks another ceasefire and continues with its crimes against Palestinians

    The Israeli regime has not only systematically violated international law throughout the past two years, but has also broken the ceasefire agreement and continued with its wholesale slaughter of Palestinians across all governorates of the Gaza Strip since the ceasefire was implemented on October 10, confirming it has no intention of stopping the genocide.

    Hamas is calling on Trump and the ‘ceasefire’ mediators to pressure the Israeli occupation to abide by the terms of the ceasefire, and asks the international community to fulfil its legal and moral obligations to prevent and also to stop the genocide, and hold the Israeli regime accountable for its many crimes.

    Although the first phase of the ceasefire plan states that the IOF must withdraw its troops to the yellow line,  Israeli forces are permitted to remain in several Palestinian neighbourhoods, and are still in control of 58 percent of the Gaza Strip.

    Featured image and additional images suppled

    By Charlie Jaay

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Trevor Phillips seemingly suggests football hooligans deserve equal rights

    On his Sky News Sunday show, a smirking Trevor Phillips has suggested that barring football hooligans may violate equality laws:


    This is yet another example of how the wilfully idiotic British media purposefully muddies the water.

    Protected characteristics, according to Trevor Phillips

    In the video above, Trevor Phillips says:

    Has anybody in government actually considered whether this is legal? Because looking back to a previous existence of mine, I suspect that banning Israeli fans or the fans of an Israeli club might be unlawful under the Equality Act because it applies a condition to a particular group of people.

    Phillips is talking about when he worked at the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC). He’s probably avoiding referencing the EHRC directly because it’s one of the most widely discredited organisations in the UK.

    Getting into what he’s saying, Phillips is suggesting that Maccabi Tel Aviv fans would be protected under the Equality Act because they’re a “particular group of people”. The Equality Act protects ‘groups’ when members share ‘protected characteristics’, which include:

    • Age.
    • Gender reassignment.
    • Being married or in a civil partnership.
    • Being pregnant or on maternity leave.
    • Disability.
    • Race including colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin.
    • Religion or belief.
    • Sex.
    • Sexual orientation.

    You’ll notice that ‘football team support’ isn’t on this list.

    You’re also probably aware that the authorities didn’t bar Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters for being fans; they barred them because they have a strong contingent of hooligans with a record of tearing up European cities.

    By now, if you didn’t already know, you’ve probably learned that it’s far from abnormal to bar fans with a history of hooliganism (it’s not even the only time it happened this week).


    What Phillips is insinuating is that it could have violated the Equality Act because Maccabi Tel Aviv fans are Jewish. He’s not saying that clearly, because he knows that’s not why we barred them. He also knows that not every Maccabi Tel Aviv fan is Jewish:

    The propaganda machine

    Trevor Phillips was smirking when he asked this too:


    He may have good reason to smirk. The antisemitism smear is of course being used as a vector to attack Muslims and Muslim communities, and Phillips has some noteworthy opinions on that topic:

    It’s obviously all a game to these people, and you can tell that by how seriously they take it.

    Weaponised stupidity from Trevor Phillips

    If Trevor Phillips was correct that you couldn’t block individuals from doing things because they’re part of a ‘group’, we wouldn’t be able to stop sex offenders from working in schools. Obviously what he’s saying doesn’t hold up if you think about if for two seconds, but then again, two seconds is about as long as most people can manage when watching these shows.

    Featured image via Sky News 

    By Willem Moore

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Video: Israeli troops abduct small children in West Bank

    Israeli troops have abducted two small children in Hebron, West Bank. The children clearly posed no threat, yet were dragged away, clearly terrified:

    As it has done during previous Gaza ‘ceasefires’ — which continue to be violated daily by the murderous occupation — Israel has escalated its murders and kidnappings in the West Bank since the latest ‘deal’, gleefully applauded by its fascist ministers.

    And a new United Nations report has confirmed that Israel has murdered more than a thousand Palestinians in the West Bank since October 2023 – well over two hundred of them children – with thousands more abducted. These events have rarely featured in the UK ‘mainstream’ media or the mouths of UK politicians as more than a side note, if even that.

    Israel is a terror state and the UK establishment its eager collaborators.

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.