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Category: israel

  • Israel bombs Lebanon again only to ‘liberate it from Iran’

    ‘Liberation’ — Gideon Sa’ar.

    Israel has again slaughtered dozens of civilians in mass bombing attacks across southern Lebanon. They bombed eastern Lebanon’s border with southern Syria, which is now largely occupied by the coloniser’s military.

    The occupation forces attacked al-Jabour, al-Qatrani and al-Rayhan, as well as Buday and Hermel in the Bekaa Valley. They also targeted Wadi Al-Qusayr in Syria’s Homs governorate. The United Nations has condemned Israel’s “systematic” attacks on Lebanese civilians as war crimes. Moreover, the UN Human Rights Commissioner highlighted that Israel had already murdered at least 127 civilians. These include children killed under its supposed ceasefire with Lebanon.

    Israel’s war crimes rampage in Lebanon

    Human Rights Watch has also released a report this week. The report documents Israel’s systematic destruction of Lebanon’s reconstruction equipment. It highlights the targeting of factories and machinery essential for rebuilding homes in southern Lebanon.

    Meanwhile, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar was welcomed to the UK for secret meetings by the Starmer government in April. He has downplayed these actions.

    Sa’ar fled when the Hind Rajab Foundation sought his arrest for war crimes. He told the Saudi Arabian state-owned Alarabiya that Israel’s actions are for Lebanon’s own good. Sa’ar claims they aim to liberate Lebanon from wicked old Iran.

    Sa’ar even went so far as to claim that Lebanese militia’s attacks on Israel in the last year had been “without any reason”.

    He seemingly forgot the repeated bombing attacks killing Lebanese civilians. Moreover, he ignored the thousands murdered and maimed, which were set in motion following the walkie talkies pager attack in September 2024.

    Bombing for peace

    Sa’ar also claimed that Israel only wants “peace and normalization” with Lebanon. He added that the “very minor border disputes” which exist can be easily resolved. This presumably includes Israeli groups selling off Lebanese land to US Zionists.

    The attitude of “we’re bombing you and might invade again because we want to be friends” is Sa’ar interpretation of logical thinking.

    If an Israeli minister is speaking, he’s lying — unless they’re admitting to more killings to satisfy their territorial greed — though even that would be half the truth.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • UAE is buying out notorious Israel arms firm Elbit Systems for $2.3 billion

    The United Arab Emirates (UAE) will buy Israel’s notorious arms firm Elbit Systems. The $2.3bn deal will be the second largest in Israel history. Israel and UAE are accused of carrying out genocide in Gaza and Sudan respectively. The new deal draws them close together than ever.

    The New Arab said that French outlet Intelligence Online first confirmed UAE as the mystery buyer whose identity has been kept quiet:

    Elbit, whose facilities in the UK and Europe are frequently targeted by pro-Palestinian protesters, manufactures some of Israel’s most advanced military equipment, including unmanned systems and airborne sensors.

    They already have various deals in place. The buy-out is just the latest move. For instance, the UAE has also bought Elbit’s “advanced aircraft protection systems”:

    These systems rely on advanced laser technology to disable the sensors of surface-to-air missiles launched at aircraft. They will be manufactured inside the UAE as part of a joint project that has received approval from the Israeli government.

    It is a long-term plan. The new deal will:

    be implemented over eight years and is considered the second-largest arms deal in Israeli history.

    UAE and Israel are key US allies. They get a long leash and political cover from Washington. The Abraham Accords are at the centre of it all.

    UAE and Elbit aligned in slaughter

    The UAE signed the Abraham Accords in 2020, normalising relations with Israel. The agreement pledges the pair will:

    chart together a new path to unlock the vast potential of their countries and of the region.

    But there’s more.

    UAE and Israeli arms industries are already intertwined. As New Arab said:

    Elbit Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries both have representative offices in Abu Dhabi. The UAE has also invested in Third Eye, an Israeli company which develops anti-drone technology.

    UAE backs the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Sudan. RSF atrocities have filled massed graves across the country. Yet the UK has sold UAE equipment that is now in the hands of RSF.

    Israel is already on trial for genocide. In fact, Israel just lost an ICC appeal to stop its own leaders being investigated for crimes against humanity.

    Israel and UAE are very alike in principle: amoral, Western-funded and backed genocidaires. Ultimately, these violent regimes seem made for each other. And it comes as no surprise that UAE would look at a firm like Elbit, a global leader in arms and repressive technologies, and think they wouldn’t mind a bit of that for themselves. Israel and the UAE are playing high-power politics.

    For them, Sudanese and Gazan civilians are grist to the mill of regional and global ambition.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Joe Glenton

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Zionists try to conflate Bondi beach attack with a ‘globalised intifada’

    In utterly typical fashion, politicians and the mainstream media in the UK and across the world have immediately moved to link the appalling antisemitic terror attack at Bondi beach in Australia to anti-Zionist protests.

    In particular, pro-Israel commentators across the world have united in condemning the Bondi attack as an expression of a ‘globalised intifada’. This is nothing short of a flagrant attempt to conflate anti-Zionist sentiment with antisemitic violence.

    Bondi beach

    On 14 December, Australia bore witness to one of the most heinous mass shootings in its history. Two gunmen on a bridge overlooking Bondi Beach opened fire on a Jewish festival festival celebrating the first day of Hanukkah.

    Between them, the gunmen killed 15 people. Police forces then shot one of the suspects dead at the scene. Australian police have claimed that the antisemitic terror attack was inspired by ISIL/ISIS.

    Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu almost immediately sought to capitalise on the Australian tragedy. He sought to connect the attack to the fact that Australia has recently recognised the state of Palestine.

    In a televised interview, Australian PM Anthony Albanese was interrogated on whether he thought there was:

    any link between that recognition and the massacre in Bondi.

    However, he soundly rejected the comparison:

    No, I don’t. Overwhelmingly, most of the world recognises a two-state solution as being the way forward in the Middle East.

    However, this didn’t stop journalists and politicians around the world trying to connect anti-Zionist action and antisemitic terrorism. In particular, a notably prominent number of commentators chose to connect the Bondi attack to the phrase “globalise the intifada”.

    Desperate comparisons

    All of this is in spite of the fact that there is no evidence of the Bondi shooters using the word ‘intifada’. Nonetheless, independent journalists Caitlin Johnstone and Tim Foley did fantastic work collating examples of the very direct links between the two conjured up by pro-Israeli commentators.

    The UK’s own health secretary Wes Streeting said:
    What on earth do you think globalise the intifada means? And can’t people see the link between that kind of rhetoric and attacks on Jewish people as Jewish people? Because that’s what really struck at the heart of Jewish people in our country today — an attack on Jewish people organising around Hannukah, coming together as Jewish people.” ~

    Danny Cohen of the Telegraph wrote:

    Chanting ‘globalise the intifada’ leads to Bondi Beach

    US senator Ted Cruz asked:

    I have a simple question for leftists after the antisemitic shooting in Australia. What do you think ‘globalize the intifada’ means?

    Bret Stephens of the New York Times wrote:
    Bondi Beach Is What ‘Globalize the Intifada’ Looks Like
    For those who’ve been marching these past few years demanding to ‘globalise the intifada’ this is a barbarous anti-Semitic consequence of their pro-Islamist stupidity.” ~
    A Campaign Against Antisemitism spokesperson stated:
    When people call to ‘globalise the intifada’, this is what they are calling for: dead Jews, terrorism and families shattered forever.” ~

    Herb Keinon of the Jerusalem Post wrote:

    Shooting at Bondi Beach is what a globalized intifada looks like

    Zachary Faria of the Washington Examiner used:

    Palestinian propaganda has globalized the intifada

    The Intifada

    Johnstone and Foley’s list goes on and on. For context, ‘intifada’ means ‘uprising’ or ‘rebellion’ in Arabic. It’s the name given to two Palestinian uprisings against Israeli repression. The first occurred in the late 1980s:

    The First Intifada was a largely spontaneous series of Palestinian demonstrations, nonviolent actions like mass boycotts, civil disobedience, Palestinians refusing to work jobs in Israel, and attacks (using rocks, Molotov cocktails, and occasionally firearms) on Israelis.

    The Israeli military response – which included a government policy of breaking the bones of protestors – led to high fatalities. According to the Israeli Information Centre for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, BTselem, Israeli forces killed more than 1,000 Palestinians and injured more than 130,000 in the First intifada. Tens of thousands more were imprisoned and many were routinely tortured.

    Then, in 2000, Palestine saw a second Intifada:

    The second Intifada – commonly referred to by Palestinians as al-Aqsa Intifada – began after then-Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon sparked the uprising when he stormed al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem with more than 1,000 heavily armed police and soldiers on September 28, 2000.

    The move sparked widespread outrage among Palestinians who had just marked the anniversary of the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacre, for which Sharon was found responsible for failing to stop the bloodshed, following Israel’s invasion of Lebanon.

    When people talk of the second Intifada, they often talk of Palestinian suicide bombings. However, Al Jazeera reported that:

    observers say it was not until more than a month of Palestinians enduring lethal military attacks that some resorted to self-sacrificing violence.

    At least 4,973 Palestinians were killed over the course of the Second Intifada. Among them were 1,262 children, 274 women and 32 medical personnel, according to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights.

    For every Israeli killed during the second Intifada, Israeli forces killed six Palestinians. 

    Anti-Zionism is not antisemitism

    To decry the terrorist assault on Bondi beach as a manifestation of a globalised intifada is nothing short of a heinous smear.

    It is a smear against anti-Zionist protesters across the world who use the phrase ‘globalise the intifada’ as a call to action against Israel’s genocide. That action is non-violent, and often carried out by anti-Zionist Jewish protestors. And yet still, it is conflated with terrorism at every turn.

    It is a smear against the Jewish Australians who were murdered. They had nothing to do with Israel or its genocide of the Palestinian people.

    And last, it is a smear against the Palestinian people themselves, whose actions in defence of their own lands and rights are dismissed as hatred of the Jewish people.

    Anti-Zionism is not antisemitism. Intifada is not antisemitism. It is a call to resist the occupation of Palestinian lands and the genocide of the Palestinian people.

    There would be no need the globalise the intifada were it not that the world has made itself complicit with Israel’s genocide.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Israel military-settler alliance kills two children in two days in occupied West Bank

    Israel’s occupation army killed a child in the West Bank on 15 December. Then, after his funeral, an Israeli settler murdered another child on 16 December. And this military-settler murdering spree is just business as usual amid Israel’s accelerating ethnic cleansing of the occupied Palestinian territory.

    Most media outlets that bothered to cover this (you’ll struggle to find Western media doing so) focused on the children being teenagers, as both were 16 years old. But such framing takes focus away from the fact that they were still children.

    The apparent reasoning behind these children’s assassinations, meanwhile, was that they were ‘throwing stones‘.

    The hypocrisy is indeed clear to anyone paying attention.

    Apartheid and ethnic cleansing for the 21st century

    As Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem has pointed out:

    Israel has also been advancing the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in the West Bank since October 2023.

    The close cooperation between the military and settlers has made killing, destruction and expulsion part of daily life.

    And it explains that:

    In the past two years, more than 44 such communities across the West Bank have been uprooted. Human rights activists – particularly Palestinians – face ongoing harassment and frequent arbitrary arrests by Israeli forces…

    All of this is part of Israel’s broader policy of oppression and dispossession of Palestinians, carried out within the framework of the ethnic cleansing it is implementing in the West Bank.

    Israel is currently holding around 3,500 people in detention in the West Bank “without charges or trial“.

    On top of this week’s murders, meanwhile, recent days also saw settlers attack:

    a nine-month pregnant Palestinian woman and her children

    B’Tselem stresses that:

    Israel’s apartheid regime, which controls the entire area between the river and the sea, and is working in various ways to entrench Jewish supremacy. Violence, dispossession, seizure of space, cultural and political repression and systemic discrimination are all viewed as legitimate tools in Israel.

    Western nations supporting the genocidal Israeli regime avoid using the word apartheid. But that’s exactly what it is.

    Dehumanisation is key to the propaganda

    “Behind the smokescreen” of the so-called ‘ceasefire’ in Gaza, B’Tselem says, Israel’s destruction continues. The occupation army has murdered around 400 people since 10 October, almost none of whom were fighters. And amid Israel’s ongoing blockade, a newborn baby has just frozen to death in Gaza.

    Israel’s genocide requires dehumanisation of Palestinians, as all genocides do. It needs talk of “human animals” and ‘exterminating roaches and rats‘ to normalise its mass murder. It feeds off collective fear and trauma, nurturing a lack of empathy.

    In this reality, even many Israelis who dislike wanted war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu live in a bubble of propaganda where key words like ‘ethnic cleansing’, ‘settler-colonialism’, ‘apartheid’, and ‘genocide’ don’t figure. A 15 December Times of Israel article, for example, called for:

    the resolute protection of life, the defense and dissemination of fundamental humanity… [and] serious punitive consequences for those who incite and enable murder… to turn back the rising tide of murderous inhumanity

    But the mention of Israel’s own criminals and actions, well into a globally-recognised genocide that has killed over 20,000 children, appears as just a weak footnote. Minimising this barbarity, the author can only call for Israel:

    to minimize the loss of noncombatant life in Gaza.

    That’s what Israel claims to have been doing all along. But that hasn’t stopped it cutting thousands of children’s lives tragically short.

    The Western mainstream media, meanwhile, hasn’t done much better. It has shamefully played along – for ‘impartiality’ reasons – with the minimisation of Palestinian children’s suffering.

    The facts speak for themselves, but the propaganda countering them is powerful. So everyone who cares about the sanctity of life, and especially the lives of children, must keep speaking out.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Ed Sykes

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Netanyahu is desperately trying to tie Bondi Beach attack to Palestine recognition

    Australian PM Anthony Albanese – sadly not cut from the same cloth as the UN’s Francesca Albanese – has announced that “Islamic State [ISIS] ideology” was behind the murderous 14 December 2025 shooting attack at Bondi Beach near Sydney.

    Albanese said:

    It would appear that this was motivated by Islamic State ideology…The ideology that has been around for more than a decade that led to this ideology of hate, and in this case, a preparedness to engage in mass murder.

    According to media reports, explosives and ‘home-made ISIS flags’ were found in the car of the father and son perpetrators. This, along with the instant assumptions of Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, a wide array of Israel lobbyists and much of the Western ‘mainstream’ media, has been used to justify a series of evidently coordinated attacks on the anti-genocide protest movement (not called that by its critics, of course), as well as on the Australian and other governments for not repressing that movement enough and for recognising a Palestinian state.

    In fact, Netanyahu went so far as to claim that Australia’s recent recognition of Palestinian statehood was the reason why the attack happened. Albanese strongly rejected that claim from the butcher of Gaza.

    ISIS to Bondi Beach?

    However, there’s a wider context here which is being missed. The only presence of ISIS in Palestine is allied to and funded by Israel. The criminal Abu Shabab gang, which has strong ISIS links, has been armed, equipped and paid by Israel throughout the genocide and was working with the Israel-US forces that ran the fake ‘aid’ stations. These sham aid stations were used to steal food from those who were lucky enough to get some. This collaboration is not a secret: Netanyahu openly admitted it to the Hebrew-language Israeli media; the gang’s leader also admitted it, leading his family to disown him and call for him to be killed. Before he was killed this month in an attack by Hamas, he and his men were seen relaxing, armed, next to Israeli troops.

    Netanyahu panicking

    Inevitably, as well as blaming Palestinians and their supporters for the Bondi beach murders, Netanyahu and his PR machine are blaming Iran. The Sunni Islamic State and Shia Iran would never cooperate, but this is neither allowed to interfere with the propaganda narrative nor queried by ‘mainstream’ media interviewers.

    The fact that Ahmad al Ahmad, the hero who disarmed one attacker and was shot and wounded by the other, is a Muslim from Idlib in Syria took some of the wind from the sails of the immediate attempt to weaponise the Bondi attack against Muslims in general and Palestinians and their supporters in particular. But the Israel lobby is pressing on with its propaganda campaign regardless.

    Real journalists would be demanding an explanation from the various propaganda mouthpieces as to why they are using the attack against the pro-Palestine movement when the only ISIS in Palestine works for the Israeli government, and against Iran when the perpetrators allegedly held an ideology that detests Iran viscerally and implacably.

    Tragically, as so often, there is little real journalism among the ‘MSM’ – especially when it comes to Israel.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Israel is smuggling narcotics into Gaza, Palestinian tribal council warns

    Israel is still smuggling narcotics into Gaza, according to a local authority. The Palestinian tribal and clan council says large amounts of drugs are arriving – including via drone. And they claim is it a deliberate attack on Palestinian youth.

    According to grass-roots media page Translating Falasteen:

    the Palestinian Tribal and Clan Council warned that the Israeli occupation was facilitating the smuggling of large quantities of narcotics into Gaza, a systematic attempt to target Palestinian youth while food, medicine, and essential aid remain blocked.

    Israel running ‘drug distribution networks’

    The council said “Israeli-backed militias” were “operating drug distribution networks from Rafah”. The Israeli aims if  to “fracture Gaza’s social fabric”.

    The council called the practice “a national betrayal“.

    these attempts have intensified, with increasing reports of drugs being smuggled by drones day and night and through aid trucks, as later investigations revealed narcotic pills, including Oxycodone, hidden inside flour bags from U.S.-dispatched aid earlier this year, reinforcing fears of a coordinated effort to destabilize Palestinian society under siege.

     

    Opioids in the flour

    Israel has already been accused of mixing drugs into flour intended as aid for a starved population in summer 2025. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) was also implicated at the time. Israeli and mercenary forces killed and wounded many Palestinians from GHF’s militarised ‘aid’ points.

    New Arab reported on 29 June 2025:

    that Oxycodone pills were mixed into bags of flour, with some pills being found inside packages of aid meant for distribution to Palestinians.

    The Gaza government media office also condemned the discovery of oxycodone pills linked to GHF flour at the time.

    We have so far documented four testimonies from citizens who found these pills inside the flour bags.

    The media office warned of a:

    possibility that some of these narcotic substances were deliberately ground or dissolved in the flour itself.

    Middle East Eye explained:

    Oxycodone is an opioid meant to treat severe and long-term pain, often prescribed to cancer patients. The drug is highly addictive and can have life-threatening effects

    GHF maintains that it did not mix drugs into flour:

    It said bags of flour delivered to Gaza were commercially produced and not packaged by GHF staff.

    GHF has since closed down in Gaza. The firm behind it had opened up new operations as part of the US ‘peace’ plan. They’re always ready to make a quick buck off apartheid and occupation.

    Featured image via ABNA

    By Joe Glenton

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Rebranding Genocide

    First, it was Israel’s right to defend itself. Then it was a war, even though, by Israel’s own military intelligence database, 83 percent of the casualties were civilians. The 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza, living under an Israeli air, land and sea blockade, have no army, air force, no mechanized units, no tanks, no navy, no missiles, no heavy artillery, no fleets of killer drones, no sophisticated tracking systems to map all movements, or an ally like the United States, which has given Israel at least $21.7 billion in military aid since Oct. 7, 2023.

    The post Rebranding Genocide appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • How Your Engagement Ring Helps Fund Genocide In Gaza

    Did your engagement ring help fund a genocide in Gaza? Quite possibly. Despite possessing no mines of their own, Israel is a major player in the world’s diamond business, buying up minerals across Africa and selling them to the West, netting billions in the process. Diamonds are Israel’s most important export, and directly bankroll the country’s ongoing genocide against the people of Gaza. MintPress explores the dark world of Israeli blood diamonds.

    Any visitor walking through Tel Aviv’s exclusive Ramat Gan district will be struck by its wealth. Skyscrapers are everywhere, and expensive jewelry stores lines the streets.

    The post How Your Engagement Ring Helps Fund Genocide In Gaza appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Israeli prison rapists claim they raped ‘in self-defence’

    Content warning: this article contains discussions of rape and sexual assault, which some readers may find upsetting

    Far-right lawyers acting for four members of a group of Israeli prison guards exposed when footage of them anally raping a helpless Palestinian prisoner have announced the legal defence they will be filing if they are prosecuted: they raped in ‘self-defence’.

    ‘Raped in self-defence’ is now a defence if you’re a far-right Israeli

    Some observers have wrongly attributed an Israeli article covering the announcement as referring to the case of hospital director Dr Adnan al-Bursh, who was raped to death in an Israeli prison, though this by no means invalidates their reactions:

    In fact, the article refers to the July 2024 case of an unnamed victim in footage deliberately leaked by then-chief prosecutor for the Israeli military, Yifat Tomer Yerushalmi – she was suspended and is being prosecuted after the military mounted an intensive search for the whistleblower.

    The Israeli regime has long claimed that anything it wants to do to Palestinians is ‘legitimate’, including fascist ‘security’ minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who qualified only that it should be for ‘national security’ and called the arrest of the “hero” soldiers “shameful”.

    But the prevailing attitude is perhaps best exemplified by Netanyahu’s Likud MP Hanoch Milwidsky, who said – responding directly to a question about the filmed rape – that “Yes! If he is Nukhba [Hamas unit], everything is legitimate.” Milwidsky has himself been accused of rape and sexual assault by several women; days after the accusations became public, Netanyahu promoted him.

    This attitude of arrogance and impunity extends within Israel far beyond the borders of military bases and the walls of the Knesset. As the Times of Israel notes:

    After the arrests [of the soldiers], a mob of far-right activists and lawmakers broke into the base and demonstrated, and later stormed the Beit Lid base where the suspects were being held and questioned.

    A poll by Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies found that only 21% of Israelis believe soldiers that rape Palestinian prisoners should face criminal prosecution.

    Disgusting

    Journalist Yvonne Ridley pointed out that the accused received a “heroes welcome” when they appeared in public:

    Israel and its supporters, along with many western media and politicians, continue to claim that Palestinian raiders perpetrated rape during the 7 October 2023 raid. United Nations investigators and even Israel’s prosecutor found no evidence for this. Other alleged atrocities, such as the infamous ’40 beheaded babies’ and ‘babies in ovens’ claims have also been disproven, yet continue to be repeated. Israel has made it a criminal offence to challenge its atrocity propaganda.

    The United Nations has condemned Israel’s use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and a form of torture in captivity, going as far as to say, in a report earlier this year, that the detention of Palestinians is “characterized” by it:

    Israeli detention is characterized by widespread and systematic abuse and sexual and gender-based violence. These practices have increased significantly in severity and frequency since 7 October 2023, following orders and statements of the Minister for National Security Ben Gvir who is in charge of prisons. The mistreatment of Palestinian detainees by Israeli authorities is a result of an intentional policy that utilises sexual, reproductive and other forms of gender-based violence to humiliate and degrade Palestinians in detention. This was observed across several facilities, temporary holding locations, during interrogation and while in transit.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Councillor goes on hunger strike over Filton 24 political prisoners

    Islington councillor Ilkay Cinko-Oner is holding an individual vigil and 24-hour fast today, 16 December 2025, outside her Labour MP’s office in solidarity with hunger-striking anti-genocide activists held as political prisoners without trial by the Starmer government – particularly hunger-striker Kamran Ahmed, who is imprisoned in the constituency.

    Solidarity with the political prisoners on hunger strike

    Cinko-Oner, leader of the Independent and Green group and independent councillor for Laycock Ward where Pentonville prison is sited, began her vigil outside former front-bencher Emily Thornberry’s constituency office this morning.

    Ahmed is on the 38th day of his hunger strike in protest. Like the other seven prisoners refusing to eat, he is protesting at his imprisonment for almost eighteen months – three times the usual statutory limit and with potentially a year or more still to go before hope of a day in court. He and other strikers have been repeatedly hospitalised – and stubbornly ignored by both the government and the ‘mainstream’ media, despite the danger of death that they face and the mistreatment they have endured from the authorities, including denial of essential medicines and medical attention.

    Cinko-Oner says that Thornberry has ignored her letters appealing for help and attention on the case. ‘Justice secretary’ David Lammy has also refused to meet either the strikers’ legal representatives or their MPs, and even tried to deny he had even heard of their case when confronted by protesters.

    Another of the hunger-strike prisoners, Amu Gib, lives in Islington North constituency next door and is represented by Jeremy Corbyn. Corbyn’s attempts to engage with Lammy or his boss have also been rebuffed, despite his letter demanding action and meetings being signed by 51 MPs and peers.

    ‘Lawfare’

    Human rights groups, which have already slammed the Starmer regime’s ‘lawfare’ war on anti-genocide protest and particularly the political imprisonment of the ‘Filton 24’ group of activists of which the hunger-strike prisoners are members. Amnesty International has now also warned Starmer that his intransigence risks killing people who do not deserve to be detained under the anti-terrorism laws that the government is using against them. Amnesty’s campaigns director Kerry Moscogiuri said:

    This is crisis point for these activists – prosecutors must drop the allegations of a ‘terrorism connection’ in these cases and end any excessively lengthy pre-trial detention. Those on hunger strike are victims of the UK’s excessively broad terrorism laws which have been misused to escalate ordinary criminal prosecutions of direct-action protesters into terrorism cases.

    In her letter, Cinko-Oner told Thornberry:

    As your constituent and local authority Cllr I plead and urge you to ask the government to meet with the hunger strikers, give them the medical care they require, and end the UK’s complicity in genocide.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Filton anti-genocide defendants denied decent food during trial

    The determination of the Keir Starmer Labour Party government to ‘make the process the punishment’ in the treatment of anti-genocide activists and journalists, in his zeal to protect Israel from the consequences of its genocidal actions, has reached a new low. Once again, it’s the political prisoners on hunger strike in the firing line.

    Shocking developments in the hunger strike scandal

    In response to the acquittal of activists by juries in several cases, the state has already raided homes, seized electronic devices, imposed unworkable bail conditions, kept arrestees waiting months to find out whether they will be prosecuted – and, most notably, both held the ‘Filton 24’ activists in prison for almost a year and a half before trial (and counting), and announced Starmer’s plan to abolish jury trials for all but a handful of the most serious offences.

    And now, as some ‘Filton’ prisoners’ cases have finally come to trial, Starmer’s police state is denying them food all day during their trial, except for a sandwich at lunch – and has even barred a judge from allowing them a banana as extra sustenance.

    Writer and former UK ambassador Craig Murray, who has been covering the current trial broke the news earlier today (16 December 2025) in a post on X:

    This sounds incredible but I assure you it is true. The Palestine Action defendants in the Filton trial get no breakfast and no dinner.

    They are woken at 5.30am. Their only food is a sandwich lunch they may not access until 1pm.

    Judge Johnson had ordered they be given bananas in the dock, but he has been told by court authorities he cannot do that again.

    “Bananagate”

    The Real Media news outlet elaborated on what it has termed ‘Bananagate’:

    [Bananagate – Part 2: We mentioned the food issues at the start of our coverage of Day 16 before the weekend. Part of the reason for further delays and the early end of proceedings today was the continuation of those problems.

    When the judge requested that a court clerk provide a banana to a defendant in the dock today, the Serco staff refused, telling the court that they had got into trouble for doing so on Friday. Security rules at the court also apparently meant that packed lunches provided by the prison could not be checked and provided before 1pm. Even the intervention of the judge apparently could not overcome these obstacles to common sense.]

    The Filton 24 have also reported being denied medical care and essential prescription drugs in prison. Eight of the group are on hunger-strike, most for more than a month now, against Starmer’s decision – exposed as being made in consultation with the Israeli embassy – to deny them bail for what might be as much as 18-24 months more on top of the time already imprisoned.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Israel Is Attempting to Create a New Status Quo in the West Bank, Locals Say

    On December 3, Israeli forces raided a home in the town of Qabatiya, south of Jenin, tearing down a map of Palestine hanging on the wall and confiscating another. The homeowners, a woman and her 11-year-old daughter, were detained for several hours and subjected to on-site field interrogations as Israeli troops vandalised the rest of the house before eventually withdrawing. Noura Muhammad…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • 3 in 4 Republicans Under 45 Say They Prefer US Fund Health Care Over Israel

    New polling finds that a comfortable majority of Republicans say they would rather the U.S. fund health care programs at home than continue to send billions to Israel, in the latest show of the increasing divide between the public and U.S. political leaders on Israel policy. Polling conducted last month asked whether or not Republican voters believe that the U.S. should give Israel funding…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Winter doubles the tragedy in Gaza as chaos takes hold once again

    The head of the Gaza Strip Municipalities Union, Yahya Al-Sarraj, warned of grave dangers threatening the lives of residents and displaced persons with the arrival of a new low-pressure system, amid widespread destruction of infrastructure and the worsening humanitarian crisis in the Strip.

    Gaza: further chaos for millions

    Al-Sarraj stressed that the Gaza Strip has already been decimated by Israel’s genocide, noting that the current low pressure system doubles the risks, especially for tens of thousands of displaced persons living in tents and shelters that lack the minimum safety requirements.

    Heavy rains on Monday 15 December evening flooded and destroyed hundreds of tents for displaced persons west of Gaza City, with the damage concentrated in the areas of Shalih and Tel al-Hawa, due to strong winds and heavy rains.

    Al-Sarraj warned of the dangers of flooding in tents and shelters, especially in low-lying and densely populated areas, in the absence of safe shelter and heating, which exacerbates the suffering of children, older, and sick people.

    He explained that emergency and civil defence teams are working with limited resources to try to limit the damage and rescue citizens, at a time when a severe fuel shortage is hampering the operation of heavy machinery and water pumping stations, further exacerbating the humanitarian situation.

    He also warned of the possibility of collapses in damaged buildings housing forcibly displaced persons, cautioning that the continuation of these conditions could lead to civilian casualties.

    Al-Sarraj called on the international community and humanitarian organisations to intervene urgently to provide emergency aid, shelter and fuel, and to work to protect civilians from the repercussions of repeated low pressure systems in the context of an extremely fragile humanitarian situation.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Alaa Shamali

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Company Behind “Alligator Alcatraz” Vies for Contract to Rebuild Gaza

    At least a dozen people have died in Gaza as winter storms batter displaced Palestinians forced to shelter in makeshift tents among the rubble of collapsing buildings severely damaged by Israeli bombing. That rubble is being eyed by U.S.-based contractors, who are already vying for lucrative contracts to rebuild Gaza under the Trump-backed ceasefire deal. “People are lining up and treating this…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Israeli occupation forces assault elderly Palestinian amputee and international activists

    On the morning of 15 December, Israeli occupation forces descended on Sheikh Said’s land in Rakiz, a village in Masafer Yatta. The International Solidarity Movement reports:

    Occupation forces turn up instead of police

    The Palestinian family had recently erected a razor wire fence to prevent settler sheep and ATVs entering their land. The fence had only been there a short while when a settler came and began tearing it down.

    Sheikh Said called the police multiple times though they never arrived at the scene. However, at least twelve members of the Israeli military showed up to intimidate and harass the Palestinian family further.

    Together the army and the settlers removed the fence, allowing a settler ATV to pass further onto Sheikh Said’s land.

    Part of this military harassment included the Israeli occupation forces brutally assaulting Sheikh Said. He lost his leg in April when he was shot by settler security Binyamin Bodenheimer and prevented from receiving immediate medical care by armed forces.

    The soldiers stole his crutches and laughed loudly as Sheikh Said clutched his amputated leg whilst screaming in pain. They violently arrested Sheikh Said and forcibly carried him to a military vehicle, all while he continued screaming in pain.

    He has since been released but is in hospital due to injuries sustained during the arrest.

    Attacks on human rights activists

    In the afternoon, at around 4.05pm, more than three army and police vehicles invaded the nearby village of Tuwani. At least 15 armed soldiers then raided the home of prominent human rights activist Hafez Hureini and many of his neighbors.

    Then, ten to 12 heavily armed occupation soldiers arrived at an apartment where international activists were staying. They demanded entry to the apartment, and threatened to break the door down.

    When a volunteer agreed to open the door, the soldiers assaulted her as they barged into the apartment. They showed no documentation and refused to give a reason as to why they were there.

    Soldiers forced activists out of bed, demanded IDs and aggressively photographed volunteers alongside their passports. They detained the activists in the apartment for about 20 minutes.

    These actions are indicative of the rapidly escalating incursions and land grabs across the West Bank. From attacks on both Palestinian families and international activists in Al Mughayyir, to multiple raids in refugee camps, state-sanctioned violence continues to ramp up daily.

    These are just two incidents in an area where there are many inexcusable acts of violence aiming to drive Palestinians off their land. We call on the international community not to let these acts of increasing violence and intimidation go unchecked.

    As the International Solidarity Movement was preparing this statement, at 3am 16 December, several settlers invaded a Palestinian family at their own home. They attacked both the family and international volunteers. They arrived with sticks and bolt cutters to beat the family, injuring one Palestinian with the bolt cutters.

    Featured image via International Solidarity Movement

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • People Against Genocide targets 11 HSBC branches over Elbit investments

    People Against Genocide has launched a clandestine network, with a national series of actions against HSBC. HSBC invests in Israel’s biggest weapons producer, Elbit Systems.

    In the early hours of Saturday 13 December, groups across Britain conducted operations at 11 locations of Britain’s largest bank, shattering windows and dousing buildings in red paint to symbolise the bloodshed of the Palestinian people.

    Actions took place at HSBC branches in: Catford, Lewisham, Ilford, Tottenham Court Road, Fulham, Birmingham, Wokingham, Brighton, Newcastle, Edinburgh, and Glasgow (on 12 December).

    HSBC investments

    In 2018, HSBC announced it would be divesting from the Israeli arms firm, but has since reneged on that decision. As of 13 November 2025, it owned 16,317 shares in Elbit Systems Ltd, valued at $8,318,407 in September 2025.

    Not only has HSBC reinvested in weapons production, but it continues to buy more shares. It increased its holdings by 27.22% during the quarter, from 12,826 shares in August 2025.

    HSBC claims to be:

    bringing together the people, ideas and capital that drive progress and growth, helping to create a better world.

    In fact, says People Against Genocide, it’s bank-rolling an arms company specifically linked to genocide by the United Nations. Elbit markets its weapons as “combat proven“, and its military drones have been directly linked to the deaths of thousands of Palestinian civilians, and specifically targeting children.

    The company is currently under suspension from tendering for NATO contracts because of corruption allegations.

    Direct Action previously forced Barclays Bank to sell its holdings in Elbit. And groups like People Against Genocide are now using the same tactics against HSBC. The sustained number of actions against Barclays forced the bank to re-think its investment strategy, and sell off its 16,345 shares in Elbit.

    A spokesperson for People Against Genocide said:

    Despite divesting from Israeli weapons firm Elbit Systems in 2018, HSBC has since amassed millions of dollars worth of Elbit shares right under our noses, cementing its complicity in the ongoing genocide in Gaza and brutal occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

    Banks such as HSBC invest in the production of weapons used to commit genocide as they prioritise their profits over the lives of the Palestinian people. By taking direct action and costing HSBC, we are making investing in genocide unprofitable. It’s now not only the ethical decision, but it’s also financially strategic to pull all shares out of Elbit Systems.

    Our actions were taken in solidarity with the Palestinian people, and the prisoners for Palestine hunger strikers, who are calling for Elbit to be shut down. Some are on their 41st day of hunger strike, and their resistance inspires us all to escalate our actions and to shut Elbit down.

    Featured image supplied

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Zionists use Hanukkah to stamp their control over East Jerusalem, Gaza and West Bank

    The Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem has been invaded for the second day in a row. Illegal Israeli settlers stormed the compound, and performed prayers, under the protection of Israeli occupation police. This was to celebrate the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, marked from 14-22 December.

    Illegal settlers storm the al-Aqsa Mosque compound on Hanukkah under police protection

    For Muslims, Al-Aqsa is the third holiest site in Islam. And it is a central symbol of religious identity and Palestinian presence in Jerusalem. For Jewish people, the same area – known as the Temple Mount – is the holiest place in Judaism.

    Since Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967, Jewish visitors can only enter during specifically designated hours and are not permitted to pray within the compound. Many of the illegal settlers and religious nationalist groups openly oppose this arrangement and argue for Jewish prayer rights at the compound.

    When settlers enter the Al-Aqsa compound, what they are doing is a political act. They are attempting to advance Israeli occupation control, rather than undertake a purely religious visit. These visits almost always occur under heavy Israeli police protection, during which Palestinian worshippers are often restricted, removed, or even arrested. This behaviour reinforces the sense that power is being used to impose change on this Muslim holy site.

    These incursions are part of a broader Israeli occupation policy to erase the compound’s Arab-Islamic character. Over time, repeated settler incursions raises fears of a gradual takeover, where Zionist presence becomes normalised, and prayer restrictions are challenged. They could also signal possible future changes to control over a site that carries profound religious and national significance for Palestinians and Muslims worldwide.

    IOF light torches on the remains of the Indonesian Hospital – which they intentionally destroyed earlier in the genocide

    Israeli occupation forces (IOF) have also celebrated Hanukkah by lighting torches on what is left of the once busy and incredibly important Indonesian Hospital in Northern Gaza.

    During the genocide, the Indonesian Hospital was one of the last large health facilities still operating in northern Gaza. It has now largely been reduced to ruins. It has been repeatedly targeted by the occupation’s military operations. The IOF besieged the hospital, surrounding it with tanks and restricting access for medical staff, supplies, and patients.

    Israeli airstrikes hit parts of the hospital, including power generators, causing fires and cutting off electricity. This critically undermined the Indonesian Hospital’s ability to treat patients. At various points, the hospital lost essential services, including electricity, water, fuel, food, and medicines, and could no longer function normally because of the siege and damage sustained during the attacks. In January 2025 the IOF forcibly evacuated all medical staff and local volunteers from the Indonesian Hospital.

    Hospital staff were imprisoned and killed. Head of orthopaedics, Dr. Akram Abu-Odeh, was one of the staff abducted by the IOF in late November 2023.  He remains in Israeli occupation prisons today. Earlier this year, the Israeli occupation intentionally targeted and killed Dr Marwan al-Sultan, director of the Indonesian Hospital, and his family.

    IOF committed war crimes and crimes against humanity against Palestinians in Tulkarm refugee camp in 2025 – now they light Hanukkah candles on the ruins of their homes

    Hanukkah candles were also lit in the ruins of Tulkarm refugee camp in the West Bank. In January 2025, Tulkarm, Nur Shams, and Jenin refugee camps were raided by the Israeli occupation, during Operation Iron Wall. Hundreds of homes were damaged or destroyed, and 32,000 Palestinians were forcibly displaced. They are still not permitted to return to what remains of their homes.

    Zionist Hanukkah celebrations are unfolding against a backdrop of dispossession, destruction, and loss of life. What is presented as religious observance – in East Jerusalem, Gaza and the West Bank – is inseparable from the realities of occupation. Here, power determines who can pray, who can heal, and who can remain on their land.

    These acts deepen the sense that Palestinian holy sites, homes, and institutions are systematically being erased, while suffering is normalised. These scenes are part of a broader pattern in which religious imagery is used to demonstrate control over occupied territory. When sites of worship, medical centres, and shelters become places to display power, the message for Palestinians is one of marginalisation and disappearance.

    Featured images via author

    By Charlie Jaay

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • ‘Where Love Lives’? Not in the Naqab Region – John Lewis accused over Israeli SodaStream products

    Achingly middle class retailer John Lewis has once again pulled off a touching, if slightly hokey, Christmas ad. An uncommunicative teenager gives his Dad a vinyl copy of Alison Limerick’s house classic Where Love Lives and bonding ensues.

    But behind the festive mush, there are allegations that John Lewis is failing to address concerns over its SodaStream products.

    SodaStream

    Following a legal letter to four major retailers, regarding their supply of SodaStream products, John Lewis has responded. But its response fails to address concerns over SodaStream’s exploitation of Palestinian workers and displacement of Bedouin communities.

    Previously, in July 2025, the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) filed a formal complaint to the UK Advertising Standards Authority over SodaStream’s misleading advertising.

    The Israeli company was based in the illegal settlement of Ma’ale Adumim in the occupied West Bank until 2015. It subsequently relocated into the Naqab (Negev) region following international criticism.

    Reports show its current facility benefits from the displacement of Bedouin communities whose homes were demolished for industrial expansion, including SodaStream’s plant.

    ICJP writes to retailers

    Following this submission, ICJP contacted major retailers on 29 October: John Lewis, Rymans, Currys, and Argos. It warned of serious legal and regulatory risks tied to their continued sale of SodaStream products.

    These products were not just previously linked to illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory. Now they also benefit from the displacement of Bedouin communities in the Naqab region, and the exploitation of Palestinian workers.

    This plausibly places the retailers in breach of obligations under domestic and international law.

    ICJP formally urged these retailers to suspend sales of SodaStream products, citing serious concerns over the company’s practices.

    Evidence submitted to the Advertising Standards Authority shows that SodaStream’s promotional messaging misrepresents the reality of its operations. Contrary to the company’s claims, Palestinian workers have been segregated from Israeli colleagues and subjected to discriminatory treatment, exploitative labour conditions, and denial of religious accommodations.

    The advertising further obscures the fact that Palestinians work for SodaStream out of economic necessity under Israel’s continuing occupation. It misleadingly portrays their presence as a reflection of SodaStream’s workplace culture.

    ICJP warned that such practices expose retailers to reputational, consumer, and regulatory risks, and requested a response outlining due diligence measures, supply chain audits, and steps to review SodaStream’s compliance with human rights standards.

    John Lewis’ response

    John Lewis are the only one of the four retailers to respond to the letter so far. Its reply, however, is wholly unacceptable. It fails to meet the standards of accountability expected of a leading UK retailer.

    The response leans heavily on compliance rhetoric and internal codes of conducts, but crucially sidesteps the central ethical concerns raised.

    Simply citing adherence to frameworks such as the UN Guiding Principles on Human Rights, without demonstrating any concrete action, is dismissive and inadequate.

    This approach fails to reassure consumers that John Lewis is taking allegations of harm to Palestinians and complicity in illegal occupation seriously.

    The vague commitment to “keep this under review” (ICJP’s letter) is insufficient and passive in the face of credible concerns. By refusing to acknowledge the seriousness of the allegations, and failing to provide a plan of action, John Lewis undermines its own reputation for transparency.

    This response does not reflect the ethical leadership or responsible product sourcing practices that the public expects. So it leaves the company exposed to reputational and regulatory consequences.

    By continuing to stock SodaStream products, John Lewis and other retailers are putting profit over human rights concerns. They are enabling and profiting from economic activity linked to displacement of Bedouin communities and exploitation of Palestinian workers.

    ICJP’s Head of Legal, Mutahir Ahmed, said:

    Around this time of year, John Lewis would rather focus on Christmas whitewashing of their brand. Their Christmas advert this year is ‘Where Love Lives’. The answer is certainly not in the Naqab region, where Bedouin communities are being displaced, and Palestinian workers are exploited to make the products that John Lewis sells on its shelves.

    Featured image via YouTube screenshot / John Lewis

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Exploiting A Massacre To Cover Up A Genocide

    The 15 innocent victims killed in Sunday’s terrorist attack on a Hanukkah party at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia are being exploited by extreme Zionists in a bid to distract from Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza.  

    Their memories are being used by the likes of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli as well as Australian officials, sections of the media and members of the public.

    Instead of putting the blame on the only known perpetrators police have identified so far — the father and son shooters Sajid and Naveed Akram — Zionist extremists are implicating innocent citizens who have dared protest Israeli atrocities. 

    The post Exploiting A Massacre To Cover Up A Genocide appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Israeli ‘Predator’ Smartphone Spyware Exposed

    New research published by Amnesty International exposes the disturbing internal workings of Intellexa, and its constellation of digital espionage products. This includes ‘Predator’, a highly invasive resource linked to grave human rights abuses in multiple countries. Intellexa’s menacing technology allows government customers to access target smartphones’ cameras, microphones, encrypted chat apps, emails, GPS locations, photos, files, browsing activity, and more. It’s just the latest example of an Israeli-linked spyware specialist acting with no consideration for the law – although one wouldn’t know that from Amnesty’s probe.

    The post Israeli ‘Predator’ Smartphone Spyware Exposed appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • ‘Depraved response to a depraved act’: Netanyahu blames attack on Australia recognizing Palestine

    Common Dreams Logo

    This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on Dec. 14, 2025. It is shared here under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was swiftly criticized around the world on Sunday for trying to connect a deadly shooting that targeted a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach in Sydney to the Australian government’s decision to recognize Palestinian statehood.

    Netanyahu referenced a letter he sent to Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in August, after Albanese and Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong announced the decision, which followed similar moves from Canada, France, and the United Kingdom, amid Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip, which has been widely condemned as genocide.

    As Netanyahu noted, he wrote to Albanese: “Your call for a Palestinian state pours fuel on the antisemitic fire. It rewards Hamas terrorists. It emboldens those who menace Australian Jews and encourages the Jew hatred now stalking your streets.”

    The Israeli leader shared a video and transcript of his commentary on the social media platform X, where Jasper Nathaniel, who reports on the illegally occupied West Bank, called it a “depraved response to a depraved act.”

    “Obviously massacring unarmed men, women, and children at a Hanukkah celebration is antisemitic terror,” Nathaniel added in a separate thread. “Just like massacring unarmed men, women, and children in Gaza and the West Bank is anti-Palestinian terror. There are no moral exceptions regarding the slaughter of civilians.”

    Electronic Intifada director Ali Abunimah said, “Basically Netanyahu is saying that Australia got what it had coming for not supporting his genocide in Gaza even more than it already does.”

    Avi Meyerstein, founder of the Washington, DC-based Alliance for Middle East Peace, declared: “This is absurd. Calling to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with peace, security, and self-determination for all, recognizing Israel and Palestine both, is a call to reduce the flames and put everyone on a path toward a better future.”

    Cameron Kasky, who survived the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida and is now running for Congress as a Democrat in New York, also blasted Netanyahu over his comments, saying that “this is an atrocious downplaying of real antisemitism at a time when rampant Jew hatred is killing people.”

    The death toll in Australia has risen to 16, including one of at least two gunmen, and dozens more people were injured in the attack. A bystander who wrestled a gun away from one of the shooters has been identified by Australian media as Ahmed al Ahmed, a 43-year-old fruit shop owner and father. His cousin said that he was shot twice and had to get surgery.

    Even Netanyahu recognized that in Australia, “we saw an action of a brave man—turns out a Muslim brave man, and I salute him—that stopped one of these terrorists from killing innocent Jews,” but the Israeli leader then doubled down on what he called Albanese’s “weakness.”

    Responding to Netanyahu, Assal Rad, a fellow at the Arab Center Washington, DC, said that “blaming Palestinian statehood, while committing genocide against them, is just another reminder that you want to erase Palestinians from existence.”

    “If you condemn the horrific, antisemitic attack in Bondi Beach while still defending genocide in Gaza, you’re not actually outraged by the killing of innocent people,” Rad also said. “It’s not hard to condemn both, unless you think some lives are more valuable than others.”

    This post was originally published on The Real News Network.

  • Netanyahu Suggests Australia’s Recognition of Palestinian State Fueled Shooting

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has sparked outrage for using the horrific shooting at a Hanukkah event in Bondi Beach to further his agenda of blocking the establishment of a Palestinian state. Just hours after the shooting that killed 15 people and hospitalized 38, Netanyahu boasted that he had been warning Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for months that his policies…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Israel continues to obstruct aid into Gaza

    The UN has reported that Israel has rejected more than 130 aid cargo entry requests in October alone. The majority of these rejections affect small organisations that distribute aid.

    This follows a pattern. Israeli occupation authorities reject life-saving commodities, such as food, shelter, health and building supplies. They also reject equipment required to deliver vital services at scale, such as generators, solar panels, batteries, and filtration units. And, whilst all this is happening Israeli occupation airstrikes have continued almost daily. 391 Palestinians have been killed and 1,063 injured, as of 14 December.

    Israel’s genocide of Palestine evidently involves destroying any avenue of life available to Palestinians.

    Israel disrupting aid agencies with airstrikes and shelling

    A new snapshot from the Ceasefire Now Coalition is based on information from 45 international and Palestinian non-governmental organisations (NGOs) across the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Of these 45 NGOs, 28 operate in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem), 37 in Gaza, and 20 across both. These NGOs have reported on their delivery of humanitarian aid between 10 October – the day the so-called ‘ceasefire’ agreement took effect – and 30 November 2025.

    More than half the NGOs claimed that airstrikes or shelling still took place near their operations, during this ‘ceasefire’ period. They also said their work has been disrupted by the presence of unexploded ordnance.

    Even as 1.3 million Palestinians need emergency shelter as winter sets in, nearly USD 50 million worth of vital aid has been blocked from reaching Gaza, by the Israeli regime. Nearly 4000 pallets of shelter materials have been refused entry to the Strip. This includes at least five million bedding items, 800,000 tarpaulins, 56,000 tents and 29,000 solar lights.

    Almost three quarters of surveyed NGOs operating in Gaza affected by restrictions imposed by ‘Israel’

    73% of 37 surveyed NGOs working in Gaza reported that they had been affected by restrictions of the Zionist regime, with their vital cargo prevented from entering the Strip

    One in four households still only eat one meal a day, and food remains insufficient in quantity and diversity, and unaffordable for most. The occupation has allowed food with very low nutritional value, such as chocolate, sugar, and flour to flow freely into the Strip. But it still continues to intentionally block fruit and vegetables and other nutritious food from entering Gaza. Because high nutritional value food is hard to find, and very expensive still, this is why we are still seeing such high levels of acute malnutrition in Gaza among children.

    These restrictions of aid continue as Palestinians in Gaza face a catastrophic situation. A situation brought on by more than two years of genocide, and a famine entirely manufactured by the Israeli occupation. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 52% of essential medications are also completely out of stock. Life saving antibiotics and chemotherapy drugs are also largely unavailable. Meanwhile, many basic supplies, such as surgical gauze, are at zero stock.

    Israel blocks aid for a reason

    85% of these NGOs said they faced challenges imposed by Israeli occupation forces or settlers in accessing communities. They also reported facing movement restrictions imposed by occupation authorities.

    The evidence laid out by NGOs across Gaza and the West Bank points to a clear and deliberate pattern. Beyond the airstrikes, aid blockages, and movement bans lies a strategy designed to break Palestinians capacity to survive. The Israeli occupation’s policy is not only to kill directly through bombardment and deprivation. It is also to drive the remaining Palestinians to leave by making life impossible.

    The systematic denial of food, medicine, fuel, and shelter are measures that violate every standard of humanitarian law. They are intentional. These are extreme tactics, aimed at dismantling Palestinian society.

    A ceasefire that allows starvation, displacement, and daily bombings and killings is no ceasefire at all. The international community must move away from its mere statements of concern. It needs to now take concrete measures that protect civilians and enforce humanitarian law. Otherwise this Israeli genocide of the Palestinian people will continue. Every day of inaction increases the harm to Palestinians, while emboldening ‘Israel’ even further.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Charlie Jaay

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Savvy trade unionists release worker’s field guide to fighting genocide

    Grassroots trade unionists have made a guide to help you get genocide out of your workplace using boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS). The document is called ‘BDS Action Handbooks for UK Charity Workers‘. Overall, the authors are trying to inform the NGO sector. But it has lessons for everyone.

    It’s subtitled ‘A practical guide to building workplace solidarity with Palestine’ and presents various strategies and tactics. Innovative folks from the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB) put the new guide together. UK firms often use Israel tech.

    Major UK trade unions use genocide services! The Canary exposed how Britain’s biggest trade union Unison was still using genocide-linked providers in September. The providers were openly based in Tel Aviv in some cases.

    Boycott, divest and sanction to fight genocide

    The guide proposes the established model of Boycott, Investment and Sanction (BDS) to take on your bosses:

    The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement is a Palestinian-led campaign calling on people and institutions worldwide to withdraw support from companies and institutions complicit in Israeli occupation and genocide.

    Israeli firms offer everything from IT to travel and pensions. The guide shows workers aren’t powerless. Workers can:

    • Push charities to align their procurement and investment policies with international law and human rights.
    • Expose and cut ties with corporations profiting from apartheid.
    • Show practical solidarity by increasing the pressure on companies that support the Israeli occupation and genocide to cut ties with Israel.

    They suggest building power through unions, workplace policy and, where applicable, Charity Commission rules. And they advise on how to find allies, map power and build solidarity.

    Israeli-linked party food is an issue too. The guide encourages workers to:

    Ensure no Israeli wines, dates, or fruit are served at charity events.

    Deadly finances

    The focus of any BDS movement is naturally to identify areas that implicitly support genocide. Financial services can be a major problem area:

    Many of the banks that UK charities commonly hold accounts with provide finance for the weapons companies involved in the genocide in Gaza and the occupation of Palestine – these include all the major ones, Barclays, NatWest, HSBC, Lloyds and Santander.

    But the fossil fuel industry can crop up to:

    The same banks that fund arms companies like Elbit Systems are also bankrolling other deadly sectors, such as fossil fuels. This strengthens your case for boycotts.

    The guide offers campaigners tips on how to put their pro-Palestinian arguments. For example:

    We already avoid sweatshop labour, fossil fuels, and modern slavery. Supporting apartheid must also be excluded.

    Worker’s should also consider citing:

    UN resolutions, international law, and Palestinian civil society calls.

    And there’s also useful advice on how to deal with slippery bosses. Of course employers love to say boycotts are discrimination. You can tell them:

    BDS targets institutions and corporations complicit in human rights violations – not individuals.

    The guide also includes links and resources to answer any questions you may have. Ultimately, when confronted with workplace complicity it is hard to know where to turn. This latest document will prove very useful in opposing Israel’s genocide

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Joe Glenton

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Israel arrests US solidarity activists in the West Bank

    Israeli authorities have arrested two US citizens in the West Bank. They were showing solidarity with the Abu Hamam family, who Israeli settlers have repeatedly targeted. The International Solidarity Movement has sent details:

    Solidarity

    Trudi Frost and Irene Cho were arrested on 12 December, in the West Bank village of al-Mughayyer, north-east of Ramallah. They were standing in solidarity against the forcible displacement of the Abu Hamam family.

    Officials revoked their staying permits through a summary procedure and refused to review evidence of the illegality of the arrest. They’ve transferred the two to the Givon prison near the city of Ramla.

    The legal team representing New York-based Cho and Boston-based Frost expect the detention to extend over a prolonged period. The two are refusing to cooperate with their deportation. And their lawyers are challenging the legality of the deportation order itself.

    Military order

    The arrest took place after Israeli forces claimed to present a month-long military order sealing the area.

    The area marked as off limits in the map accompanying the order, however, did not include the Abu Hamam residence. This makes the detention unlawful.

    In contrast, the closed area does include the outpost from which Israeli settlers regularly set out to terrorise the family.

    Despite that fact, Israeli forces didn’t take any steps to enforce the order against the settlers. They continue to harass and assault the family undisturbed, often with the cooperation of the Israeli armed forces.

    In a statement prior to her arrest, Frost spoke of her motivation to volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement because:

    the ethnic cleansing happening in Palestine goes against international law and against humanity.

    Cho described her admiration for:

    the long legacy of protective presence and the collective efforts to reduce settler violence.

    Frost and Cho’s detention was illegal, as their time in custody before appearing in front of an immigration officer extended for several hours beyond the legal limit of 24 hours.

    During the hearing, the officer refused to examine the maps accompanying the order. These prove the detention was arbitrary and without cause, as well as politically motivated.

    In further infringement of due process, Israeli authorities prevented the lawyer representing the two from attending the interview for several hours. Eventually, they conceded it’s their legal right to have legal representation.

    Cho and Frost are due to face a custody review panel within 72 hours from the decision to deport them.

    Following their illegal detention, the two were questioned for obstructing a police officer and being in violation of lawful direction. They were transferred to the Neve Tirza maximum security prison before being moved to Ben Gurion for a deportation interview.

    Regular attacks

    The Abu Hamam family has been the target of ceaseless harassment and assault at the hands of Israeli settlers and armed forces for over a year in an attempt to drive them away from their lands. Over the past week these attempts have escalated drastically, with near daily attacks.

    Last Sunday, 7 December, a settler attack on the family took place in coordination with a military raid on the village, which prevented residents and medics to come to the family’s help. The attack resulted in the injuries of the family’s matriarch, 59-year-old Fadda Abu Naim, 13-year-old Riziq Abu Naim, as well as two UK nationals, a Colombian-American and a French national.

    On the following day, Monday 8 December, settlers dismantled Palestinian owned corrugated metal sheds under the protection of the military.

    On Wednesday 10 December, military forces raided the family’s property. They presented a 24-hour military zone order and arrested a US and an Australian national. Friday saw the unlawful arrest of Cho and Frost, while several military raids took place on Saturday and Sunday, as the forces looked for solidarity activists. Meanwhile, settlers are allowed to roam the area, attacking and harassing Palestinian communities completely undisturbed.

    These attacks by settlers and soldiers aim to displace the Abu Hamam family forcibly from their land. It’s part of the implementation of the Israeli policy of ethnic cleansing Palestinians. In this case, displacing the family would also allow Israel to create an unbroken line of settlements and settlement outposts. This would run all the way from East Ramallah to the South Nablus area, and down to the Jordan Valley.

    Featured image via International Solidarity Movement

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Muslim hero tackles Bondi Beach gunman – yet Netanyahu claimed he was Jewish

    Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed that a heroic Jewish bystander saved Jewish lives during the Bondi Beach massacre by tackling one of the gunmen. In fact, the man who made the heroic intervention is a Muslim of Levantine descent who was shot twice in the process.

    Ahmed El Ahmed, presumably from either Lebanon, Syria or, ironically, Palestine, went up unarmed against one of the attackers, wrested his gun away and turned it on the terrorist, forcing him to flee, as footage shown by Al Jazeera demonstrates:

    A Muslim hero at Bondi Beach

    Ahmed, a 43-year-old father-of-two who owns a local fruit shop was then shot by the other Bondi Beach terrorist, wounding him in the shoulder and hand.

    5Pillars reported that speaking a man called Mustafa confirmed it was his cousin, 43-year-old Ahmed al Ahmed, who “likely saved countless lives when he confronted and wrestled with the gunman and was now in hospital”.

    According to 7NEWS, “Ahmed was shot twice during the commotion and was due to undergo surgery later that night. Mustafa said his cousin… had no experience with guns and was simply walking past when he made the decision to intervene”:

    He’s in hospital and we don’t know exactly what’s going on inside.

     

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    A post shared by Wissam Nassar (@wissamgaza)

    Netanyahu at first claimed that the Bondi Beach hero was:

    a Jew who pounces on one of the murderers, takes his weapon, and saves who knows how many lives.

    He has since corrected the record:

    Netanyahu posted on X blaming the Bondi Beach attack on Australia:

    On August 17, about 4 months ago, I sent Prime Minister Albanese of Australia a letter in which I gave him warning that the Australian government’s policy was promoting and encouraging antisemitism in Australia. I wrote: “Your call for a Palestinian state pours fuel on the antisemitic fire. It rewards Hamas terrorists. It emboldens those who menace Australian Jews and encourages the Jew hatred now stalking your streets.”

    A Palestinian-American journalist correctly observed that “Basically Netanyahu is saying that Australia got what it had coming for not supporting his genocide in Gaza even more than it already does”.

    Netanyahu also said that his regime will carry out extrajudicial murders of anyone it considers responsible for the attack:

    They’ll spend the rest of their brief anxious lives knowing that Israel will hunt them, find them and ruthlessly dispose of them. That is U.S. policy, this is Israel’s policy. It’s our policy in Gaza, in Lebanon, anywhere around us.

    Despite its various supposed ceasefire agreements with Lebanon, Syria and Palestine – one of which the Bondi Beach hero comes from – Israel continues to bomb civilians in each of those countries.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Israel’s Expanding ‘Yellow Line’ Swallows Gaza Districts

    When Ahmed Hamed returned to his home in Gaza City after the ceasefire, it stood about 1.5km west of the so-called “Yellow Line” enforced by Israel.

    Two months on, that distance has shrunk to roughly 200 metres.

    “Before the war ended, our home was in a dangerous area, and it was difficult for us to return,” the 31-year-old Palestinian journalist told Middle East Eye.

    “We waited two weeks after the ceasefire to make sure it was safe.”

    Eventually, the family went back to their house near the Shujaiya neighbourhood in eastern Gaza City.

    Almost immediately, the sounds of war returned with them.

    The post Israel’s Expanding ‘Yellow Line’ Swallows Gaza Districts appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Video: Israeli tourist assaults Italians for supporting Palestine

    In a perfect illustration of the arrogance, racism, inhumanity and sense of entitlement of Zionism and its adherents, an Israeli tourist has harassed and assaulted an Italian — in the Italian port town of Brindisi — for supporting Palestine:

    All too typically, local police admitted they took no action and made no arrests.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Zionism Remade the Story of Hanukkah in Its Image. We Celebrate an Older Truth.

    When I was 19 years old, I traveled to Israel to find long-lost relatives who had survived the Holocaust. While I was there, I was “picked up” on the street by an ultra-orthodox woman who offered me free lodging in a hostel exclusively for Jewish travelers in the Old City of Jerusalem. I was a broke teenager at the time, so I said yes. It was Hanukkah, and all across the Jewish Quarter…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.