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Category: israel

  • From the sound of the crowd to the echo of explosions: the story of sports journalists in Gaza

    In an instant, the sounds of the crowd and their cheers from the stadiums turned into the echo of Israel’s explosions. The seasoned sports journalist from Gaza, who had spent years covering major tournaments, from the 2022 World Cup in Qatar to the local league, suddenly found himself in front of a camera tasked with conveying the suffering of his people.

    What used to be a day of filming goals, celebrations, and match analysis became one of documenting blood, destruction, martyrs, and hunger.

    This transition was not just a change of workplace, but a complete reversal of his media mission: from conveying the joy of the crowd and the excitement of the stadium to narrating a live human tragedy to the world. Between the destruction and devastation, and between the scenes he used to see in his sporting dreams and what was happening on the ground, the journalist became a witness to daily violations and massacres, sacrificing the psychological and professional comfort he was accustomed to in sports media in order to convey the voice of Gaza to the world.

    It took Palestinian sports journalist Wael Al-Halabi less than a minute to realise that his professional life had changed forever.

    Sports journalists on the frontline in Gaza

    At noon on 7 October 2023, as he was preparing to cover a Premier League match in Gaza, he received an urgent call from his manager asking him to go to the hospital instead of the stadium. The voice on the other end was decisive:

    The newsroom needs you immediately… The war has begun.

    In that moment, Halabi’s lens shifted from following players to documenting martyrs. From the background of the stands and cheers, he found himself facing corpses, blood, and screams searching for survivors. He tells Palestine Online:

    The job of a journalist in war is no different from that of a fighter… only the weapon changes.

    What happened to Al-Halabi was no exception; it was the general scene of an entire sports press turned upside down. Dozens of journalists who used to fill the stadiums with their coverage and interactions are now running after the smoke of air strikes, chasing stories of survivors instead of stars, and recording the names of martyrs instead of league scorers.

    Yahya Eid, who used to photograph players’ shots or the joy of the crowd, found himself chasing his camera between destroyed houses:

    The player I used to photograph scoring a goal, I now photograph standing at his friend’s funeral… How can a single lens bear this transformation?

    He adds that the war has stripped the profession of its original innocence: photography is no longer a search for moments of joy, but an attempt to save memories before they are erased.

    As for journalist Khamis Abu Hasira, known to the Gaza public for his voice broadcasting matches on Sawt al-Quds radio, he appeared after the start of the war on Palestine Today television, standing amid the rubble of a stadium that was once filled with cheers. In that shot, which shook viewers, he addressed the camera, saying:

    Here, where the crowds used to cheer, displaced people now sleep without shelter.

    A seismic shift

    The shift from sports journalism to war coverage was not just a professional transition, but a humanitarian shock and a psychological battle that these journalists face every day. Sport gives stories clear endings: winners and losers, goals and joy. War, however, offers only one ending: death.

    This shift imposed on Palestinian journalists was not a choice, but a necessity to capture the truth in the midst of one of the most violent wars in contemporary history.

    They have become a bridge between what is happening on the ground and what reaches the world, a first line of defence against attempts to obscure the narrative, and witnesses to a time when everything is collapsing… even the stadiums that were once a symbol of life.

    As the war continues to change every detail of Gaza, sports journalists remain a model of the profession’s resilience and courage; those who have moved from the roar of the crowds to the echo of explosions, carrying their cameras as a last point of light amid the darkness of war, clinging to their mission: to keep the truth alive… even if the stadium dies.

    I, the writer of this article, am no exception to this harsh transformation.

    Lives changed forever in Gaza

    I spent many years in football stadiums, as a prolific writer, television analyst, and sports reporter, covering international tournaments such as the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, and I was preparing for research projects in sports media development after obtaining a master’s degree in this field.

    But the war in Gaza pushed me, as it did others, to leave the stands behind and stand in front of a French television camera, conveying the voices of martyrs instead of the voices of fans, documenting hunger instead of infiltration, and destruction instead of joy.

    As the days passed, I could no longer remember what life was like before the war. I was swallowed up by politics and the field, until I found myself writing about myself as I tried to remember what my daily life was like when the most important news was a beautiful goal, not an air strike.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Alaa Shamali

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Gaza is on the brink of psychological collapse, as entire generations are left traumatised by genocide

    In Gaza, the darkness left behind by war is unlike any other; there is something more profound than the rubble and heavier than Israel’s destruction. It is a collective psychological breakdown that silently creeps over the souls of more than two million people, turning daily life into a long battle against fear, loss, trauma and insecurity.

    With the passage of time, it becomes clear that the effects of war do not end when the bombing stops, but begin anew within the souls of those trying to survive in a reality that gives them no chance to recover.

    With the destruction of the only psychiatric hospital and seven community treatment centres, and the interruption of essential medication, the sector faces a serious treatment gap that has led to severe relapses for thousands of patients.

    As children, women, survivors from under the rubble and medical staff suffer from unprecedented psychological disorders, experts warn of a long-term collapse that could drag an entire generation into chronic trauma if the process of rebuilding the psychological system does not begin immediately.

    Hisham al-Madloul, director of mental health at the Ministry of Health, sums up the current situation by telling the Canary:

    Gaza is experiencing an unprecedented collective psychological disaster since the start of the Israeli aggression.

    Collective trauma strikes Gaza society… and psychological survival is lost

    The loss of security, mass death, scenes of rubble, and the absence of even a minimum level of safety are all complex disasters that have triggered an unprecedented wave of psychological illness in Gaza.

    Experts say that Gazans today live in a state of ‘constant shock,’ keeping their minds and bodies in a state of constant alert, with no place to rest and no respite to catch their breath.

    The psychological sector has not been spared from direct targeting. The occupation destroyed the only hospital specialising in psychiatry, as well as seven community centres that dealt with the most fragile cases.

    This destruction not only left a therapeutic void, but also disrupted an entire system that was barely meeting pre-war needs.

    It’s spreading

    With the collapse of these facilities, the sector in Gaza experienced a severe shortage of essential psychiatric medications, causing serious relapses in patients who had been stable for years, some of whom became emergency cases.

    Psychiatric teams, which were already limited, are now facing enormous pressure that exceeds human capacity.

    Doctors and specialists are working without equipment or medicines, amid daily scenes of deep psychological trauma in Gaza.

    The sector is seeing a huge increase in demand for psychological help, while its capacity is almost zero.

    Health institutions are recording an unprecedented increase in:

    • Post-traumatic stress disorder.
    • Severe depression.
    • Chronic anxiety and stress.
    • Sleep disorders.
    • Aggressive or withdrawn behaviour in children

    Al-Madloul warns that these disorders will become chronic, transmissible across generations if treatment is not started urgently.

    Mental health in Gaza is on the verge of collapse

    Al-Madloul warns that the future of mental health in Gaza is at stake, calling for: Rebuilding the infrastructure for psychological treatment. Urgently providing medication, expanding the number of specialised staff, and launching long-term programmes for community recovery.

    He concludes by telling the Canary:

    Gaza today is not only facing physical destruction… it is facing a war on the soul, and if it is not treated, it will not be able to rise again.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Alaa Shamali

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Elon Musk calls for murderers to be hung. Let’s hope his mates aren’t included.

    Despite presenting himself as a super-productive mega-genius, Elon Musk spends all day tweeting – the worst and most ridiculous thing a person can do. As a result of his incessant posting, Musk frequently says things that come back to bite him. The post below on capital punishment may be one such incident:

    “Unequivocal evidence of guilt”, hey Elon Musk?

    Benjamin Netanyahu is the prime minister of Israel and the man most responsible for the genocide in Gaza. As a result of this, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has a warrant out for his arrest, with the crimes in question being war crimes.

    Sadly for Musk, the ICC is not able to implement the death penalty. Israel, meanwhile, is looking to legalise the murder of Palestinian captives:

    If Elon Musk does want to see an imprisoned Netanyahu asphyxiated, he should claim his pal Benjamin has access to Epstein’s video recordings (something which may be the case if the Mossad claims are true). Once the rumour’s out there, we’re sure it won’t be too long before Netanyahu finds himself suicided in suspicious circumstances.

    Moving away from Netanyahu, it’s also the case that Musk has something of a death count himself. While this is arguably true of any automobile manufacturer, the issue with Tesla is that many of the deaths seem to be directly linked to the ‘autopilot’ feature. The website TeslaDeaths.com has the number of ‘Autopilot deaths’ at 59 currently, and autopilot isn’t the only suspected issue:


    The ‘503’ in the above tweet references the fact that it’s the 503rd reported incident in the thread. If Elon Musk is found to be criminally negligent and responsible for the Tesla deaths, should he be hung by the neck?

    The company was actually found partially liable for a death earlier this year, so presumably that means he should be partially hung – kind of like an autoerotic asphyxiation-type situation, but punitive.

    Itchy Twitter fingers

    We’d be remiss if we didn’t point out that Elon Musk has previously argued for clemency for murderers, including one who was very famously filmed doing the murder:


    As we said at the top, Musk is a low-witted Twitter addict who tweets all day without thinking. He’s calling for the death penalty today, but he’ll call for the opposite tomorrow if it suits him, and he won’t even recognise the hypocrisy.

    Featured image via Government of Israel

    By Willem Moore

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Obama aide Hurwitz says it again: Gaza’s dead children are inconveniencing Israel

    Barack Obama’s former speechwriter Sarah Hurwitz has ‘said the quiet part out loud’ about Israel’s genocide in Gaza again.

    Hurwitz said last week – on camera, apparently without care or awareness of how it sounded – at a Zionist event that the “carnage” in Gaza is making it difficult to effectively petition for Israel and the similarities between Nazis killing helpless Jews, and “powerful Israelis hurting weak Palestinians”, were making it hard to advocate for the colonial project.

    And now, speaking as part of a panel at the ‘Z3’ conference in California, she has complained that she is “talking through a wall of dead children”, making it hard for her to “argue in favour” of the Israel.

    Hurwitz: saying the quiet part about Israel out loud

    Hutwitz’s interviewer Benjamin Kerstein was no better, responding that images and videos of dead Palestinian children on social media are “emotional blackmail”, to which Hurwitz’s response was: “that’s nice… but it’s a harder argument than we’re understanding”.

    Hurwitz’s solution to the ‘problem’ of dead Palestinian children making ‘hasbara’ on behalf of Israel harder?

    Not, as anyone with humanity might imagine, to stop killing Palestinian children.

    No, instead Hurwitz wants Jewish schools and parents to ban them from having smart phones – at all, at any time of day – to prevent them seeing footage showing the consequences of Zionism, because otherwise their brains will get ‘warped’, presumably by things like humanity, compassion, and opposition to injustice that would turn them against the genocidal colony:

    Sick in the head

    Could anything better illustrate the sickness of Zionism than Hurwitz’s comments? Slaughter, starvation, and ethnic cleansing – then moaning that it makes propaganda harder and might turn the kids of Zionists against the racist colonial project their parents love. As Palestinian writer-in-exile Yousef Munayyer observed:

    It never dawns on them that maybe the solution is to just treat Palestinians as equal human beings. Ban cell phones, ditch holocaust education, shut down TikTok, sue the universities into the ground. All that is easier and more reasonable for them than treating us as humans.

    The latest estimates by medical and statistical experts say that Israel has killed around half a million children in Gaza – more than half of those under five years of age – while they and their parents continue to face starvation and disease as Israel, despite its supposed ‘ceasefire’ obligations, still refuses to allow food and building materials into Gaza.

    Israel is spending huge sums on online propaganda to pervert the output of AI systems in response to questions about Gaza, while its billionaire supporters buy up media and social media platforms to silence Palestinian voices and other platforms remove the evidence.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Gaza residents live in 20,000 homes threatened with collapse – with no where else to go

    With the onset of winter, thousands of families in the Gaza Strip find themselves facing a tragedy that worsens day by day: dilapidated tents that leak rainwater, or destroyed, cracked houses that could collapse on their inhabitants at any moment. Between these two harsh choices, the circle of danger widens with no solution in sight – all thanks to Israel’s ongoing genocide.

    Since the Israeli war destroyed tens of thousands of housing units, many displaced people have been forced to return to their damaged homes after being unable to endure the tents, which cannot withstand the cold winter weather and heavy rains. With the continued ban on the entry of new tents and prefabricated caravans, the suffering of families who have lost any safe alternative is deepening.

    Last week, a building in Al-Shati camp in Gaza collapsed on its residents, prompting civil defence crews to rush to rescue those trapped under the rubble, resulting in injuries to several family members. Prior to that, several buildings collapsed across the Strip, some of which left casualties, while thousands of residents remain at risk of collapse at any moment.

    Fear renews itself every moment in Gaza

    In the Al-Zaytoun neighbourhood, the family of Khalil Youssef, 48, lives in constant anxiety because of a neighbouring four-storey building that has been destroyed by air strikes and is on the verge of collapse. Khalil says his family hears ‘knocking’ and strange noises coming from inside the cracked building, while stones constantly fall in front of their home. Despite the direct threat to their children as they pass by, the family has no other choice as the cold intensifies and alternative shelter is difficult to find.

    In the Tuffah neighbourhood of Gaza, Abu Anas sits among the rubble of his home near a small stove, trying to warm his three children. ‘The first night of rain was disastrous… The walls cracked, and we heard breaking sounds inside the ceiling. But this situation is still better than a tent,’ he says, pointing to three rooms he had to close after parts of their ceilings collapsed.

    Local engineering estimates indicate that thousands of homes have become uninhabitable due to cracks, subsiding foundations and damaged columns. Official data indicates that around 400,000 housing units are out of service, equivalent to 80% of the sector’s total of 500,000 units. More than 20,000 homes need to be demolished immediately due to the extreme danger they pose, while many are inhabited by displaced persons who have no alternative.

    With the onset of winter in Gaza, the risks are exacerbated, as torrential rains and strong winds cause soil erosion that may threaten the remaining stability of cracked buildings. This is forcing large numbers of families to leave their inadequate tents and seek shelter from the cold in damaged concrete houses, even though this option puts them at risk of death.

    Warnings go unheeded

    The Civil Defence Authority in Gaza has warned of an immediate danger to residents due to thousands of houses that are in danger of collapsing. The authority’s spokesperson, Mahmoud Basal, said that dozens of citizens have died and hundreds have been injured as a result of collapsed buildings, calling on residents to stay away from them as much as possible and seek refuge in available shelters.

    Basal explained that Gaza City is the most affected, confirming that the threatened buildings are concentrated in the neighbourhoods of Al-Tuffah, Al-Zaytoun, Al-Rimal, Al-Zarqa and Al-Shati camp—the same areas that have recently seen intense military operations. He added that the lack of alternatives and the occupation’s refusal to allow tents and caravans to be brought in is forcing residents to return to dangerous buildings, despite the direct threat to their lives.

    While working in the Zarqa area, civil defence crews documented a number of citizens injured after two houses collapsed, while others were injured in Al-Shati camp as a result of a cracked building collapsing.

    The agency called on the international community to shoulder its responsibilities and exert pressure to provide safe and rapid alternatives, such as insulated tents, caravans and temporary shelters, until reconstruction can begin.

    With a harsh winter expected, experts warn of an impending humanitarian disaster unless corridors are opened to bring in basic supplies or urgent solutions are found to save thousands of families caught between the danger of collapse and the harshness of displacement.

    Amidst the rubble of homes and the cold of tents, one question remains unanswered in Gaza: how long can people live on the brink of death?

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Alaa Shamali

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Israel has violated the so-called Gaza ceasefire almost 500 times in six weeks

    According to Gaza’s Government Media Office, as of November 22, Israel has committed 497 violations of the ‘ceasefire’ agreement, since it came into effect on October 11.

    Israel has killed 342 Palestinians and injured 875 since the ‘ceasefire’ agreement

    These ongoing violations have led to Israel killing 342 civilians and injuring a further 875. The Zionist entity has also arbitrarily detained 35 people during incursions and raids during the past six weeks. The Government Media Office says these figures reaffirm:

    the occupation’s insistence on undermining the agreement and creating a bloody reality on the ground, that threatens security and stability in the Strip.

    Israel is taking these actions in clear defiance of all legal and moral obligations:

    Israel

    The violations committed by the Israeli occupation include 142 incidents of direct gunfire targeting civilians, homes, residential neighbourhoods, and displaced person’s tents; 21 incursions carried out by military vehicles into residential and areas beyond the temporary yellow line; 228 bombardment and targeting operations by land, air and artillery; as well as 100 demolitions of homes and civilian facilities:

    These all constitute a systematic crime aimed at expanding destruction and collectively punishing the population. This is a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions.

    Lines crossed

    According to the Government Media Office, Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) have now advanced around 300 metres beyond the so called ‘yellow line’ in Gaza City. Under the first phase of the ‘ceasefire’ deal, the IOF was required to retreat to this yellow line. But this still leaves the occupation in control of 58% of Gaza.

    Yesterday, 22 November, Israel violated the ‘ceasefire’ agreement 27 times:

    It launched a wave of airstrikes and artillery shelling across the Strip. These killed at least 24 Palestinians and injured 87 others. The targets included a vehicle in a crowded residential area of Gaza City, and two separate homes in Al Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.

    Israel launched the attacks after claiming its soldiers were attacked by Hamas. But the Zionist regime has used these fabricated pretexts regularly, to systematically violate the agreement, on a daily basis. According to Hamas, this is so the occupation is able to “evade the agreement and return to the war of genocide”:

    67 children killed by ‘Israel’ since ‘in six weeks of ‘ceasefire’

    According to the Gaza Health Ministry, as of 22 November Israel has killed more than 69,733 Palestinians and injured 170,863 since October 7, 2023. UNICEF says at least 67 children have been killed by the occupation  since the ‘ceasefire’ was announced. This is an average of almost two a day, every day since October 11.

    Featured image and additional images via the Canary

    By Charlie Jaay

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Israel just bombed a residential neighbourhood in Beirut, in a major escalation

    Israel has launched a deadly airstrike deep inside Beirut’s southern suburb, killing at least one person and injuring 21, in what Lebanese officials and observers are calling a massive escalation — and a blatant violation of the already-shredded ceasefire agreement:

    Yet another violation as Israel bombs Beirut

    According to UNIFIL, Israel has already racked up around 3,000 ceasefire violations since last year’s agreement.

    Today’s strike in Beirut, just three days before the one-year anniversary, shatters any pretence of restraint or of respect to treaties they themselves signed.

    On Lebanese social media, many had half-jokingly been warning this would happen the second Pope Leo left the country. Leo was scheduled to end his visit on 30 November — and sure enough, Israel didn’t even wait for him to arrive:

    Mohamad Kleit, our correspondent in Lebanon and contributing writer at the Canary, was just a minute’s walk from the impact site in Beirut. He reports:

    The blast ripped through a densely populated residential street, killing at least one person and injuring 21, according to the Ministry of Health. The casualty toll is likely to rise given the nature of the neighbourhood: packed apartment blocks, narrow alleyways, and shops that are usually buzzing on a Sunday afternoon. Among the injured is a woman in her 40s who was violently thrown off her balcony by the force of the explosion and is now in critical condition in hospital. Four buildings were damaged in total — including the primary targeted building — and the strike blew apart two apartments from both the main street and the adjacent alleyway.

    Kleit stressed that:

    This is a strictly residential area, home to a public library, cafés, clothing shops, restaurants, several mini-markets and even a small mechanic’s garage — not a military hub by any stretch of the imagination.

    Israel has claimed the target in Beirut was Haitham Tabtabai, but it said it is still not sure that the assassination was successful. A chilling statement as Kleit says that the “sound of rushing ambulances doesn’t seem to stop.”

    Kleit confirmed that there was absolutely no combat activity, nor was the area remotely close to any active frontline. The location is over 100 kilometres from the border, he added, making this a crystal-clear violation of both the ceasefire agreement and international law. He narrowly escaped harm — he was just a minute’s walk away when the bombs hit.

    The Canary understands that Israel fired four missiles at the building – with one still remaining unexploded:

    Beirut

    The wider picture

    Israel didn’t ‘accidentally’ hit a civilian zone in Beirut. It flew over a hundred kilometres into a residential capital district and dropped explosives on families, shoppers, and people out for Sunday coffee. This is not ‘security.’ This is not ‘precision.’

    Israeli drones circle Beirut all day, everyday. They know exactly who and what exists in these buildings. Every civilian casualty that fell was on purpose. There were no mistakes. Just terror. Raw, sheer, colonial terror.

    This is a message — and that message is escalation.

    If Israel wanted to show the world that ceasefires mean nothing and civilians mean even less, it succeeded.

    More updates to come as the situation develops.

    Featured image and additional images via the Canary

    By Jamal Awar

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Why did FIFA quickly punish Russia – yet is ignoring Israel?

    Despite the documented violations and genocide committed by the Israeli occupation over two years in Gaza and the differences between this and Russia’s war on Ukraine, the most pressing question in sporting and legal circles remains: Why did FIFA rush to suspend Russia’s participation in international tournaments following its invasion of Ukraine, while not taking the same action against Israel despite allegations of widespread violations against Palestinian athletes?

    This question, which is being asked today from the streets of Gaza to the offices of international sports federations, reveals a wide gap between FIFA’s legal text and its practices on the ground.

    A swift decision against Russia by FIFA… and a complete absence of sanctions against Israel

    In February 2022, just a few days after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, FIFA and the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) announced the suspension of Russian national teams and clubs from all international competitions.

    The decision was based on ‘exceptional and unprecedented circumstances,’ as described by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which later upheld the sanction.

    In contrast, despite decades of documented violations by Israel against Palestinian athletes – preventing movement, killing athletes, destroying sports infrastructure, and involving settlement clubs – FIFA has not taken similar action.

    This discrepancy has led observers to question whether FIFA applies double standards in enforcing its regulations and whether politics plays a greater role than law in its decision-making.

    The legal basis: stronger against Israel but enforced against Russia

    Legally, FIFA has broad powers to suspend or expel any association that violates its statutes.

    Article 16 of its statutes gives the Council the right to immediately suspend any association that commits a ‘serious breach of its obligations.’ Article 3 also stipulates FIFA’s commitment to respect human rights, and Article 4 prohibits any form of discrimination.

    The Russian case

    The punishment was imposed because of an external political violation – military invasion – and not because of direct sporting practices. However, FIFA responded quickly on the basis of a “threat to the integrity and integrity of the game”.

    The Israeli case

    The evidence, on the other hand, relates to direct sporting violations:

    • Preventing Palestinian players from travelling to participate in tournaments.
    • Targeting sports stadiums and facilities and destroying hundreds of them in Gaza.
    • Killing hundreds of athletes.
    • Including clubs in illegal settlements in the Israeli league, in clear violation of Article 64 of FIFA regulations.

    Despite this, FIFA has not exercised its legal powers against Israel.

    The extent of the violations and their impact on football

    Russia

    Did not prevent international athletes from travelling and did not target foreign sports facilities.

    The punishment was more political than sporting in nature.

    Israel

    Its military policies have completely destroyed Palestinian sporting life:

    • Sports activities have completely ceased in Gaza.
    • Sports infrastructure has been destroyed.
    • Entire generations of players have been lost.

    These practices affect the very essence and fundamental structure of the game, yet they have gone unpunished by FIFA.

    Political and media pressure

    Experts in sports law confirm that FIFA acted against Russia under significant international political pressure led by Europe. The Western consensus on punishing Moscow contributed to a quick and sweeping decision.

    In contrast, Israel enjoys significant political and media support in the West, making any move against it more sensitive within international sports institutions, especially since most of the leaders of FIFA and the continental federations come from Europe and North America.

    This reality has made FIFA more cautious in the Israeli case, despite the breadth of evidence and the strength of the legal basis.

    In the 2018 Palestinian Football Association case concerning settlement clubs, the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled that FIFA had full authority to sanction Israel, but chose not to exercise that authority. This ruling confirms that the absence of sanctions is not due to legal loopholes, but rather to a lack of will.

    As for Russia, the court immediately supported the sanctions, considering that the circumstances ‘justified the exception.’

    Two different standards, and the need for a comprehensive review of FIFA’s policies

    The fundamental difference remains that FIFA treats Russia as an external political threat, while treating Israel with flexibility despite violations that affect the very core of Palestinian football.

    This discrepancy raises new questions about FIFA’s ability to adhere to its stated principles on human rights and non-discrimination, and about the urgent need for an independent oversight mechanism to ensure that rules are applied equally, free from political pressure.

    As sporting suffering continues in Palestine, the pressing question arises: does FIFA need global pressure similar to that exerted in the case of Russia before it applies its standards to Israel?

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Alaa Shamali

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • US ‘Homeland Security’ Twitter account seemingly run from Israel

    Recently, Elon Musk announced that his Twitter/X platform would be revealing the location data that every user posts from. People have anticipated this day for some time, as they suspected many far-right accounts are actually foreign individuals cosplaying as Western reactionaries to farm clicks:


    Now, people are starting to see the location data, and as expected, many of the site’s most prominent far-right nationalists are actually international grifters:

    And as we’ll get to, one of the exposed accounts was reportedly the US Department of Homeland Security.

    Chaos with Twitter location data

    The accounts exposed via the Twitter location data update so far include the following:



    The Right Wing Cope account published a ‘heat map’:


    Many have reported that Twitter ‘paused’ or ‘ended’ the programme:

    It was difficult to prove this, as Twitter is incredibly buggy, so sometimes different people have different user experiences. At the same time, the feature is back online for most.

    ‘Home’ land

    There’s no way Musk didn’t know the Twitter location data update would expose right-wing grifter accounts. Saying that, he probably didn’t expect it to expose the US government:

    While many didn’t find the situation funny, the (alleged) Israelis running the Homeland Security account are not among them:


    The account data now says they’re based in the United States, but it has a circled ‘i’ next to it (what some people are describing as an ‘exclamation point’):

    As people have highlighted, the symbol signifies that the account is using a VPN to hide their actual location:

    Wild times

    Fair play to Elon Musk, this change to his social media site is actually a positive one. Does it make up for his years of negative choices? Not even slightly, but it has at least exposed some of the worst people on the website.

    Featured image via Daniel Oberhaus (Flickr) / Public Domain

    By Willem Moore

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Parochialism, Justice and International Law: Türkiye’s Genocide Warrants for Israel

    The authorities in Türkiye have hit their stride regarding international humanitarian law, a subject they are not always consistent about.  The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the defence minister Israel Katz, and others are facing arrest warrants for genocide from the Istanbul Criminal Court of Peace. This is plucky, assertive, and undoubtedly, from the perspective of the Erdoğan government, stealing publicity. It also brings up that hoary old chestnut of parochial interest and the merits of the accuser.

    A November 7 statement from the Istanbul chief public prosecutor’s office said that as many as 37 suspects were on the list, though not all were named. We know that it includes, in addition to Netanyahu and Katz, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, the IDF Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, and Navy Commander David Saar Salama. They are charged under Article 77 (crimes against humanity) and Article 76 (genocide) of the Turkish Penal Code.

    Reference is made to the March 21 bombing of the Turkish Palestinian Friendship Hospital, the October 17, 2023, attack on the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital, the deliberate destruction of medical equipment by Israeli soldiers, and the blockading of Gaza and the denial of humanitarian aid to the enclave. The October attack on the humanitarian Global Sumud Flotilla in international waters, and the seizure by Israeli forces of crew members, is also mentioned.

    This enterprise is not without problems. Türkiye is not particularly amenable to punishing genocide within the context of its own, strictly invigilated history. Such nationalistic, convenient laxity brings to mind George Orwell’s formidable argument made in the October 22, 1943 issue of The Tribune. Reviewing a work outlining the case for trying the Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini for war crimes, Orwell trawls through the record of hypocrisy among British figures who saw much merit in the skull-cracking antics of Italy’s fascist leader, at least when things seemed rather rosy. He points out the hobbling problems of those making such accusations, given that a trial for Mussolini might well be justified alongside those of the then-current Prime Minister Winston Churchill, or former Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald, and even the Chinese Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek. When seeking to place leaders of a country in the dock, be careful what you wish for.

    To this day, it is forbidden to describe the sadistic and opportunistic killing of Armenians within the proto-Turkish state that arose from the stricken body of the Ottoman Empire as genocidal.  Power, as always, smudges the record.

    Given that Turkish prosecutors are not coming to the table with sprightly, clean hands, any such move will cause not merely discomfort among human rights advocates but stabbing derision from political critics.  Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar was quick to take up the challenge, observing that “in Erdogan’s Turkey, the judiciary has long since become a tool for silencing political rivals and detaining journalists, judges and mayors.” This is not a charge Erdoğan can be easily acquitted of, given his successful efforts to bring the entire judiciary under the control of the executive branch. Independent judges and prosecutors have been imprisoned.  Sympathetic Islamists and nationalists have swelled the ranks.

    In the United States, guffawing pundits can be found aplenty, poking fun at Türkiye’s charges as “nonsense”. This remains stock practice in an imperium that adulates international law even while battering it, suggesting an often-schizophrenic approach. Michael Rubin, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, offers a case in point. Striking in his criticism of the Turkish effort, Rubin is worried about the implications of targeting democratically elected leaders for how they mistreat their own subjects. What of, say, violent acts and misdemeanours committed against India’s Muslim minorities?  It becomes clear that Rubin assumes that leaders of democratic societies are above suspicion when it comes to human rights violations, while Islamic states are opportunistic and villainous. “The Indian government,” he broods, “should not ignore the outrage, for what Erdoğan targets Israel with today, he will apply to India tomorrow.”

    Were Erdoğan successful in getting any Israeli into court, it would “only be a matter of time until he and his Pakistani, Qatari, and Malaysian allies try to do the same with democratically elected Indian leaders like Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and senior Indian diplomats and military officers as part of a similar ‘lawfare’ campaign to pursue their Kashmir and Khalistan ambitions.”  (Notice the lazy bracketing of all these states.)

    This is not to say that charges of genocide won’t fly. The International Court of Justice in The Hague is currently tasked with assessing Israel’s conduct in Gaza, alleged by South Africa’s submission to be genocidal in nature. While the judges have yet to reach a decision on the genocide question, they have made several provisional orders cautioning Israel to abide by the UN Genocide Convention. The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory was somewhat bolder, asserting in its September 16 report that four of the five elements of genocide outlined in the Convention had been met by Israel’s ruthless waging of war in the Strip.  Innumerable civil society and human rights organisations, including the Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem, have made similar findings.

    Governments the world over often misuse international law as a pretext to attack their enemies. This effort by the Turkish court system might be seen as another play in the politicisation of human rights. But States and their legal organs can also exercise universal jurisdiction in punishing the most abhorrent of crimes – crimes against humanity, war crimes, genocide, and torture. The other option, one stubbornly resisted by Israel, the United States, and Türkiye, is becoming a party to the Rome Statute and the International Criminal Court. In refusing to become parties to the statute, all three are, at least on that score, in violent agreement.

    The post Parochialism, Justice and International Law: Türkiye’s Genocide Warrants for Israel first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • Saudi Arabia Just Said No To Israel And The United States

    The United States is trying to shape the Middle East in the image it wants. From pushing through its plan for Gaza at the United Nations, to pulling Syria and Saudi Arabia closer into its orbit, President Trump may soon get the Middle East that he desires.

    However, he will not get it all his own way, as forces from Iran, Yemen, and across the region still oppose Trump’s plans and fight against it.

    All the while, Israel continues to expand its control of its neighbors. This week, it has been stepping up bombing campaigns against targets in Lebanon from its bases in the occupied south of the country.

    The post Saudi Arabia Just Said No To Israel And The United States appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Breaking Out Of Media Group-Think

    The past two years have seen a catastrophic failure by Western journalists to report properly what amounts to an undoubted genocide in Gaza. This has been a low point even by the dismal standards set by our profession, and further reason why audiences continue to distrust us in ever greater numbers.

    There is a comforting argument — comforting especially for those journalists who have failed so scandalously during this period — that seeks to explain, and excuse, this failure. Israel’s exclusion of Western reporters, so the claim goes, has made it impossible to determine exactly what is occurring on the ground in Gaza.

    The post Breaking Out Of Media Group-Think appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Report: US Mercenary Firm Behind Aid Massacres Returning To Gaza

    UG Solutions, a US military subcontractor that guarded Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) aid sites, is ramping up recruitment for a new deployment as plans advance for 12 to 15 distribution locations to reopen in Gaza next month, Drop Site News reported on 19 November.

    A former US Army officer, who spoke anonymously citing security concerns, said a UG Solutions recruiter told him in late October that the company “was going to need a lot more guys” for a Gaza operation expected to begin in early to mid-December.

    The officer was offered $800 per day for static guard duty and $1,000 for mobile roles, plus a steady allowance of $180 per day.

    The post Report: US Mercenary Firm Behind Aid Massacres Returning To Gaza appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • UN Resolution 2803—it fuels occupation and destroys self-determination

    On November 17, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) voted in favour of UN Resolution 2803, for which Trump wrote the vague text. This now means the US has sole authority to oversee all operations in Gaza- civilian and military.

    By voting for the UN Resolution 2803, they have agreed to normalise the occupation

    According to Palestinian civil society groups, the Council has agreed to normalise the colonial occupation of Palestine. This has been imposed on Palestinians without their participation and, they say, against their will.

    The Resolution pushed forward by the US and allies, will implement Trump’s  twenty-point plan unveiled in September. This plan is about foreign domination presented as international governance, and has been condemned by Palestinian civil society. According to the Palestinian NGO Network (PNGO), and the Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council (PHROC), the resolution constitutes “a blatant violation of the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to self-determination”.

    US threatened to continue the genocide in Gaza unless Resolution accepted by UN Security Council

    These groups say the methods used to enforce compliance with the Resolution expose the coercive nature of this initiative. U.S. officials said the plan had to be accepted, otherwise they would “finish the job”. Under international law, any deal obtained under threats of force holds no legal validity, yet the Security Council approved it. This has given the Resolution legal legitimacy, although it is not rooted in any legal framework.

    UN Resolution 2803 hands complete control of Gaza to the “Board of Peace” (BoP), headed by Trump. This has authority over Gaza’s governance, including finance, immigration, civil administration, and reconstruction. No oversight mechanism exists. Palestinian participation—if it occurs at all—is symbolic, and unable to alter the “foreign and imposed nature” of the BoP. Its creation is seen only as a new chapter of governing without consent.

    PNGO, and PHROC warn of the likely collaboration between the BoP and the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a body already implicated in the ‘Israeli’ genocide in Gaza. They say:

    It is clear to us that the BoP intends to coordinate its occupation of Gaza with Israel, signaling continuing violations of the laws of occupation.

    Mandate of the ‘International Stabilisation Force’—illegal under international law

    A US led International Stabilization Force (ISF) will also be deployed into Gaza. This will work in “close consultation and cooperation” with the Israeli occupation and Egypt, and is a foreign military force tasked with, among other things, disarming the resistance. But its mandate has no basis in international law, as there is a legal right to resist occupation and colonial domination. PNGO and PHROC argue that the presence of the ISF reflects a serious failure of the UN Security Council’s mandate to maintain peace. Instead of protecting Palestinian rights, the UN is institutionalising a new occupation regime, and providing legal cover for it. Resolution 2803 also permits ‘Israel’ to maintain a “security perimeter until Gaza is properly secure from any resurgent terror threat”. This further enables and normalises control and annexation.

    The UN Resolution 2803 excludes any reference to accountability, and does not even acknowledge the decades of documented ‘Israeli’ human rights abuses and war crimes. Its adoption, they argue:

    signals the UNSC’s shameful abandonment of the UN’s historic responsibility towards the Palestinian people.

    Nothing in the Resolution to benefit Palestinians

    By placing Gaza’s reconstruction in the hands of foreign contractors and “donors”, the resolution also sidelines Palestinians from rebuilding their own society, and undermines sovereignty and development. They warn this will threaten economic self-determination and will also open the door to the exploitation of natural resources, including the energy reserves off the coast, in Palestinian waters.

    This Resolution also contradicts key decisions of the International Court of Justice (ICJ). In October 2025, the ICJ reaffirmed Israel’s obligation to allow unhindered humanitarian aid into Gaza through UN agencies such as UNRWA. But under the Resolution, the BoP controls aid distribution, and foreign forces set the conditions on how aid is delivered. Without guarantees for sufficient aid, Palestinian groups say, the resolution enables continued collective punishment through the weaponisation of food, water, medicine, and shelter.

    ‘Catastrophic failure’ by UN Security Council

    PNGO and PHROC stress that the right to self-determination overrides any contradictory Security Council decision. In response to the “catastrophic failure” by the Security Council, they are calling for third states to reject the implementation of UN Resolution 2803. Instead, they must take meaningful action, which does not violate international law.

    Palestinians are demanding a path focused on Palestinian rights. This includes ending settler-colonial apartheid and stopping Israel’s unlawful occupation and annexation. They want accountability for past and ongoing crimes. They also call for a UN oversight mechanism for reconstruction that respects Palestinian consent. Additionally, they urge diplomatic, military, and economic sanctions on the Israeli regime, including embargoes on arms and energy.

    Palestinian self determination is a non-negotiable right

    Palestinian civil society demands the international community no longer sidesteps its responsibilities, by empowering those who uphold the occupation. The right to self-determination is a binding obligation under international law. It is a non-negotiable right, essential for Palestinians to assert control over their land and determine their own political future. Countries must uphold their legal and moral obligations. They must not maintain ‘Israel’s’ illegal occupation, and must act to prevent and stop its genocide in Gaza. The world’s actions will not only determine Gaza’s future, but also the legitimacy of the global legal system.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Charlie Jaay

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Queen’s University continues its Palestine crackdown by crushing free speech

    Genocide fans take heart — Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) is continuing to back Zionist slaughter in Palestine by attacking the right to free speech on its campus. They’re going after both students and academics. On Wednesday, November 19 a demonstration was held at the main entrance to the university in support of Saoirse Wagner, who is facing disciplinary proceedings as a result of their participation in a peaceful protest at a careers fair earlier this year.

    The event was hosted by QUB on February 5 — present were a number of companies linked to Israeli crimes. Among them were Coca-Cola, an official Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) target due to its operations in illegally occupied Palestinian land; Martin Baker, who make ejector seats for the F-35 jets that have played a key role in dropping the equivalent of over six nuclear bombs on Gaza; and Collins Aerospace, a subsidiary of RTX (formerly Raytheon), a key supplier of weaponry to the Zionist terror regime.

    Peaceful protest successfully ejected arms companies from Queen’s University jobs fair

    The protest was organised and led by BDS Belfast, a local direct action Palestine solidarity group, who were joined by students from QUB Palestine Assembly (QUBPA). They entered the event’s venue Whitla Hall and informed attendees via loudspeaker of the complicit companies’ presence, and urged students not to visit their stalls. The activists considered the action a major success, with the targeted companies packing up their tables and banners within 20 minutes of the protestors arriving.

    In an Instagram post featuring footage of the event, BDS Belfast said:

    With little pressure, the university and companies folded, shutting down their stalls for the day. This is yet another key example that direct action works. We urge Palestine activists around the world — take matters into your own hands and shut these criminals down. Nowhere should be safe from accountability for companies aiding apartheid, occupation and genocide. Take action, and free Palestine!

    QUB and the fleeing genocide enablers were less keen on how things unfolded, however, with those ejected falsely claiming they faced intimidating behaviour from the protestors. Wagner, who is the secretary of QUBPA, now faces charges of engaging in “abusive, threatening, bullying or harassing behaviour”, which could result in expulsion from the university if the disciplinary committee rules against the student.

    Speaking on Wednesday, 19 year-old Wagner said:

    We cannot let this repression deter us or intimidate us because that’s what [they’re] trying to do. That’s what the goal is, to scare people, not just in the Palestine solidarity movement, but in the trans rights movement, in the trade union movement, in the Irish language movement on campus — scare them into not exercising their democratic right to free speech, but we can’t let them do that.

    Crackdown part of a wider removal of basic rights for those under British rule

    They went on to quote Qesser Zuhrah, a Palestine Action activist currently on hunger strike at Surrey’s Bronzefield prison:

    On Day 16 of my hunger strike, my starving body couldn’t handle the cold and I shivered until some fellow prisoners noticed my state and helped me to my cell, got me a hot water bottle and tucked me into the bed.

    How lucky am I!

    Because today, on day 773 of the ongoing genocide in Gaza, the Zionist entity is still blocking blankets, shelter materials, tents and food from reaching our starving and freezing Palestinian People!

    Zuhrah is one of six prisoners linked to the direct action group, who have been subjected to appalling mistreatment in British jails. They have suffered years of detention without trial, extended periods of solitary confinement, and many have been denied access to letters they have been sent.

    Wagner is not the only QUB student to suffer repression from the institution, which still has warmonger and Jeffrey Epstein associate Hillary Clinton as its chancellor. The higher education provider also continues to indirectly invest in so-called ‘Israel’ via BlackRock. Ethan Cunningham, chair of the Palestine Assembly, has been expelled, in a move his peers believe is linked to involvement in Palestine protest.

    Cunningham most notably took part in the 14 November 2024 protest that saw the thugs at the Police Service of Northern Ireland’s Tactical Support Group violently assault peaceful protestors, with the subsequent endorsement of the university. He has been ejected on the basis of a missed exam in June 2025. It occurred as a result of his grandfather’s death. Sources linked to Queen’s have informed the Canary that such a punishment is inexplicably harsh and without recent precedent, clearly indicating retaliation by QUB for Cunningham’s role in Palestine activism.

    Academics targeted too, as office is raided

    Even academics have not been spared the clampdown. Professor Sue-Ann Harding of the School of Arts, English and Languages department had pro-Palestine signs confiscated from her office on two separate occasions. The most recent one just in the last week. Speaking to the Canary, Harding said:

    HoS [Head of School] is very supportive and making inquiries but so far I’ve not heard anything from security and I’ve yet to see any actual written policy on this. On reflection, I’m mad that they confiscated the signs.

    She continued:

     I’ve also never received a single complaint from students or colleagues.

    Harding also spoke of her reasoning behind having the signs visible:

    I’d add that another reason I display the signs is to normalise support for Palestine and protesting genocide. I want students to feel Queen’s is a safe place to advocate for justice.

    Students have expressed concerns that they feel unsafe on campus when wearing other pro-Palestine symbols, such as keffiyehs. Professor of Green Political Economy John Barry, a vocal presence at the university in support of Palestinian rights, told the Canary:

    The threatened expulsion of Saoirse and the confiscation of Sue-Ann’s pro-Palestinian items from her office, and other forms of Queen’s repressing pro-Palestinian sentiment is an indication of how violence abroad in Palestine returns as repression at home.

    He continued:

    As a member of this university, I am ashamed both of the continuing ties the university has with the Israeli regime, despite its promises of completely divesting and cutting ties, [alongside] threatening students like Saoirse who for me are exactly the type of students Queen’s should be proud of supporting and educating. Young people with the courage of their convictions, demonstrating leadership in the absence of such leadership elsewhere.

    When asked for comment, Saoirse struck a defiant tone. She emphasised the need to maintain pressure on Queen’s University rather than capitulate to their intimidation tactics:

    The QUB Palestine Assembly has been one of many universities participating in the all-island walkouts across Ireland, has organised disruptions and sit-ins, along with teach-ins and educational events for students. However, now, more than ever, we must not just maintain our efforts but escalate them. The lies of the so-called ceasefire and the repression of student activists demonstrate that we must continue to organise, continue to agitate, and continue to struggle for an apartheid-free campus and a free Palestine.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Robert Freeman

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Over 92 Percent of Homes in Gaza Are Rubble. How Do We Even Start Rebuilding?

    In the wake of the United Nations Security Council rubber-stamping Donald Trump’s plans for Gaza — including the creation of a so-called “board of peace” and a militarized “international stabilization force” — the very notion of rebuilding is slipping through the cracks, overshadowed by what is framed as the more urgent need to keep the peace in place. But peace manufactured this way is nothing…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • What are Canadian military learning from genocidal apartheid state?

    Canadian forces are learning from the génocidaires, directly assisting the US/Israeli occupation of Gaza, and will likely help build a colonial Palestinian force. Canadian troops have been taking tips from the Israeli occupation forces. According to a series of reports, Canadian troops participated in IOF seminars this week to learn about its war crimes in Gaza. They reportedly even conducted tours of the Gaza Envelope. The Israeli military said the gathering was to “strengthen cooperation, enhance familiarity with diverse operational approaches, exchange professional knowledge and experience between the participating militaries.” Part of the aim of the training from the Israeli perspective is to have the foreign forces adopt its outlook on the genocide and become “ambassadors” for that country. Asked about it by Alex Cosh of The Maple Friday Defence Minister David McGuinty refused to confirm or deny the Canadian military presence.

    Of course, Canadian forces have long had a bevy of ties to their Israeli counterparts. The two countries have a military cooperation agreement, and 29 Canadian troops were dispatched to Israel last year for arms training. After Hamas’ October 7, 2003, attack, Canada’s most elite soldiers were dispatched to Israel, and the Canadian Air Force flew 30 Israeli reservists back into the country. Canadian military intelligence assists Israel through the Five Eyes.

    Canadian soldiers are part of the newly constructed colonial facility detailed in the New York Times article “The American-Run Base Planning Gaza’s Future”. While Canadians are part of the US/Israeli operation, the Times reports, “there is no formal Palestinian representation … Palestinian officials have not been included in the coordination center.”

    Why do Palestinians need to participate in their own governance when the US/Israel/Canada obviously have their interests at heart?

    The US base is part of implementing Donald Trump’s “peace plan”, which has seen Israel kill over 300 Palestinians since the Gaza “ceasefire” began. The U.S.-led “Board of Peace” will control all services and humanitarian aid into and out of Gaza and is to supervise financing and reconstruction of the devastated coastal strip.

    On Monday, the UN Security Council effectively endorsed a US colonial protectorate to safeguard Israel’s illegal occupation, which Palestinians overwhelmingly reject. The Security Council resolution also calls for the deployment of a US-led “International Stabilization Force (ISF).”

    Canada may participate in the ISF, though most Canadian support will likely go to building the Palestinian security force intended to suppress resistance in Gaza. The US/Israel are seeking to establish a Palestinian force that would weaken or destroy the resistance in Gaza.

    Canada has a two-decade-old initiative to train and assist Palestinian Authority security forces to act as the subcontractor of Israel’s occupation. Through Operation Proteus, about 20 Canadian troops and police in the West Bank are part of a mission led by the Office of the United States Security Coordinator. The mission began as an effort to destroy Palestinian unity and support the compliant Palestinian Authority against Hamas.

    My campaign’s platform to lead the NDP calls to “End Operation Proteus: a Canadian military program that costs hundreds of millions of dollars in training, equipping and supporting the Palestinian Authority (PA) forces which are used to violently suppress Palestinian opposition and resistance.” A recent Action Network instigated by a volunteer in my leadership campaign calls on Canadian officials to sever all military ties with the lawless, genocidal apartheid state.

    Who could disagree with that?

    Please email the Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand to demand that Canada sever all military ties with the lawless, genocidal, apartheid state.

    The post What are Canadian military learning from genocidal apartheid state? first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • The UNSC vote to gift Gaza to its enemies

    Why did the United Nations Security Council vote to give authority over Gaza to a genocidal demolition squad called the Board of Peace, headed by Donald Trump?

    This question has several dimensions. The resolution itself was drafted by the US, and more specifically the Trump administration, in close consultation with the Netanyahu government in Israel. This explains why it is perfectly consistent with a continuing genocide and progressive elimination of the existing population of Gaza, totally Palestinian, but now estimated to be considerably less than two million, compared to 2.2-2.3 million two years ago. Up to half a million, almost entirely civilian and mostly women and children, have died, due to direct murder by Israeli forces as well as vast numbers of equally but differently murdered victims of starvation, malnutrition, disease, exposure and lack of medical resources, a result of the Israeli policy of denying the means of survival. A smaller minority have escaped despite their reluctance to leave and the unwillingness of most countries to accept them. The intention behind the plan is to replace the Palestinians with Zionist settlers and lucrative resorts, as well as to exploit the large oil and gas deposits off the coast for Israeli and western investors rather than for the benefit of the Palestinian population.

    This explains the resolution, but not the votes that passed it, including Algeria and Pakistan, and the abstentions of Russia and China. Russia had in fact drafted an alternative resolution, but did not submit it, due to passage of the US version. Why did Algeria and Pakistan vote in favor? This can probably be attributed to intense inducements from the US, and the fact that governments generally put their own interests first. But then why did Russia and China not veto the US proposal and submit their own? Alon Mizrahi provides a very coherent explanation, amounting to having no Arab partners to support them – not even the UN representative of Palestine, which, as we know, serves at the pleasure of Israel. The loss of Syria is keenly felt at such times.

    Is the United Nations a useful organization if it cannot uphold international law – or worse, if it passes resolutions that are in direct contradiction to international law? The fact is that the UN was designed to recognize and reflect the international power structure, not to alter it. This is why veto power exists in the Security Council. It is, in effect, a recognition that the most powerful countries have veto power over anything the UN might decide, whether the UN recognizes it or not. After WWII, the countries that signed the UN charter – especially the most powerful – also decided what constituted international law and agreed to abide by it. Although adherence has been inconsistent and violated many times, there has been general agreement on what constitutes this body of law.

    Until now. We seem to have transitioned into the era of “rules-based order.” What is that? What are the rules? Where is the order? It is an empty phrase meaning no more than the arbitrary and sometimes contrary decision making of an absolute monarch. The UN was formed by a treaty whereby all the signers agreed to give up some small measure of sovereignty in order to establish a minimal degree of security and welfare for all concerned, even if some benefitted more than others.

    In the era of the sole remaining superpower, such cooperation for mutual benefit appears to be withering away. But then, so does the superpower, as well as its Zionist appendage. It seems that we will have to be patient and steadfast, much like Palestinians, and to resist the abuses of those who rule us, also like the Palestinians.

    The post The UNSC vote to gift Gaza to its enemies first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • Hind Rajab Foundation sparks Israel lobby meltdown after Europol talks

    The Israel lobby has freaked out after European police service, Europol, began to engage with the Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF) in efforts to address Israel’s impunity for its genocide and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

    In a statement, the HRF — the group named after a five-year-old Palestinian girl murdered, along with her family, by an Israeli tank in Gaza and dedicated to bringing Israeli war criminals to account — said that it had been invited by Europol to speak in its annual gathering and that Israel lobby groups had reacted with ‘consternation’:

    On 22 October 2025, Europol invited the Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF) to speak at its annual meeting in The Hague. This invitation forms part of a broader communication process and an exploration of possible cooperation between HRF and Europol. In the last two days, several Israeli lobby groups and media outlets have expressed consternation regarding this interaction.

    It is not unusual for law enforcement to cooperate with civil-society organisations in the fight against impunity. In fact, during the Rwandan genocide and other mass-atrocity contexts, civil-society organisations played an instrumental role in identifying perpetrators and uncovering critical evidence. The pursuit of justice for the genocide in Gaza will be no different.

    The fact that lobby groups defending or denying the genocide are angered by this cooperation is no surprise. They seek to obstruct justice; we seek to allow justice to take its course.

    On the factual side, an HRF delegation consisting of our Head of Litigation, Natacha Bracq; Operational Director, Karim Hassoun; Board Member, Haroon Raza; and led by our General Director, Dyab Abou Jahjah, attended the meeting in The Hague. Mr. Abou Jahjah addressed the assembled delegations during a session organised specifically for the foundation, and Ms. Bracq delivered a presentation outlining HRF’s methodology in evidence gathering and case-building.

    The statement continued:

    Delegations from several European countries attended the sessions and expressed strong interest in our work and in exploring cooperation. Multiple bilateral meetings took place with national war-crimes units and other law-enforcement representatives, during which mutual cooperation was discussed—particularly in relation to sharing HRF evidence on Israeli war criminals who visit these countries or who hold their nationality.

    Israeli lobby groups and media outlets have spent months pushing smears and defamation against the Hind Rajab Foundation and its founders. Their reaction now is predictable: Europol’s decision to engage with HRF and invite it to its annual convention makes clear that these accusations are baseless. A law-enforcement agency would never extend such an invitation if it had even the slightest doubt about the foundation or its leadership. This is precisely why the hasbara machinery is now frustrated.

    Furthermore, Europol is a European law-enforcement agency, and the HRF is a European organisation. Foreign lobby groups and foreign governments cannot be allowed to dictate how European institutions engage with European citizens and European civil society.

    The Hind Rajab Foundation remains fully focused on its mission: bringing war criminals to justice and ending Israel’s impunity. That mission necessarily includes cooperation with law-enforcement bodies and relevant stakeholders across Europe and beyond.

    HRF added that it:

    remains fully focused on its mission of bringing war criminals to justice and ending Israel’s ability to commit its crimes unpunished. That mission necessarily includes cooperation with law-enforcement bodies and relevant stakeholders across Europe and beyond.

    So effectively has it pursued its mission so far that Israel and its agents have threatened the lives of Hind Rajab Foundation chair Dyab Abou Jahjah and his whole family.

    Featured image via HRF

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Israel steals 1.8 million sqm of West Bank land for ‘archaeology’

    In a move reminiscent of an Indiana Jones movie, Israel’s so-called ‘Civil Administration’ (CA) — in reality a branch of the Israeli defence ministry — has begun the process of ‘expropriating’ — or legislative theft in more honest language — 1,800 dunams (445 acres or 1.8 million square metres) of Palestinian West Bank land in the West Bank, so that it can ‘preserve and develop’ an archaeological site.

    West Bank land theft

    The stolen land surrounds the Sebastia site near Nablus, which Israel feels entitled to take because it was part of northern Israel back in the Bronze Age  — a little like the Picts turning up and demanding Aberdeen back because they were once there before anyone who’s possessed the land since.

    The Civil Administration, according to the Times of Israel, expects:

    to enable infrastructure development, the expansion of archaeological excavations, and the uncovering of additional historical findings.

    In a smear reminiscent of Israel’s ‘land without a people’ — lies about the Palestinians they dispossessed in 1948 — the CA claims that the land was being “intentional[ly] neglecte[ed] by the landowners and the Palestinian authorities” before the occupation decided to ‘liberate’ it.

    The occupation claims this is all ok because it “is being done in accordance with the law” — which could be said about any number of atrocities by wicked governments.

    Sebastia’s archaeology covers periods from the Bronze Age to modern times, from the original Canaanite inhabitants, to the kingdoms of Israel, to the Phoenicians, to the Romans, to the Arabs, to the Crusaders and, of course — since the liberation from the crusaders — the Palestinians. But that inconvenient point is not, of course, being allowed to interfere in the latest land-grab.

    Featured image via LeMonde

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • The United Nations Embraces Colonialism

    More than two years into the genocide in Palestine, the UN Security Council has finally acted. But rather than acting to enforce international law, protect the victims, and hold the perpetrators accountable, it adopted a resolution that openly flouts key provisions of international law, disempowers and further punishes the victims, and rewards and empowers the perpetrators. 

    Most disturbingly, it hands control of Gaza and the survivors of the genocide over to the United States, a co-perpetrator of the genocide, and provides for the participation of the Israeli regime in decision making.

    The post The United Nations Embraces Colonialism appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Who Is Ready to Die for Trump’s Gaza Plan? So Far, Nobody

    On November 17th, 2025, the UN Security Council passed a resolution to endorse President Trump’s plan for Gaza, including a transitional government headed by Trump himself and an International Stabilization Force (ISF) that is expected, among other tasks, to disarm Hamas, a task that Israel has failed to do through two years of genocide and mass destruction.

    The ISF will be tasked with securing the borders in a way that confines Palestinians, stabilizing Gaza’s security environment by suppressing resistance, demilitarizing Gaza while leaving the Israeli regime untouched, and training the Palestinian police to control the population. Yes, the force is also mandated to “protect civilians” and assist humanitarian aid. But under U.S. supervision, can anyone honestly expect it to restrain Israel when Israel simply refuses to comply—as we see with the current so-called “ceasefire”?

    Hamas and other factions in Gaza have issued a joint statement that unequivocally rejects Trump’s plan and the Security Council resolution, saying it “will turn into a type of imposed guardianship or administration – reproducing a reality that restricts the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination and to managing their own affairs.”

    As for the foreign military force, the Hamas statement says, “Assigning the international force with tasks and roles inside the Gaza Strip, including disarming the resistance, strips it of its neutrality, and turns it into a party to the conflict in favor of the occupation.”

    The joint statement reserves its strongest condemnation for the Arab rulers who support Trump’s plan, calling their support “a form of deep international partnership in the war of extermination waged by the occupation against our people.”

    Trump has claimed that all sides agreed to his peace plan, but Hamas only agreed to the first stage of it, which involved returning the remaining Israeli prisoners in Gaza to Israel under a permanent ceasefire and resumption of humanitarian aid that Israel has still not complied with.

    Hamas always said clearly that it has no authority to negotiate over other parts of Trump’s plan, since they involve the future government of all of Palestine and require the input of many different groups in Gaza and the other occupied territories. Hamas said it would only disarm once a Palestinian state is fully established, at which time it will hand over its weapons to the new armed forces of the state of Palestine.

    In October, a number of countries told U.S. officials that they would consider sending their troops to participate in the proposed International Stabilization Force in Gaza. They included Egypt, Indonesia, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Malaysia, and Pakistan, as well as Australia, Canada, and Cyprus.

    On the other hand, Jordan, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia have all rejected sending troops to join the ISF. Azerbaijan has said it could only send troops once all fighting has ended, and Egypt has flip-flopped on taking part. As it became clear that Trump and his “peace board” might order the ISF to use force to disarm Hamas fighters, the UAE said its forces would not take part either.

    In fact, not a single country has so far committed to join the force, while Israel has said it would not allow Turkish forces to enter Gaza, and claims the right to approve or refuse any country’s participation. Israel has also been escalating its ceasefire violations since the Security Council resolution was passed, a sure way to deter countries from joining the ISF.

    Hamas and the resistance groups are not alone in rejecting Trump’s plan. Al Jazeera asked people in Gaza City for comments, and they were just as critical. “I completely reject this decision,” said Moamen Abdul-Malek. “Our people … are able to rule ourselves. We don’t need forces from Arab or foreign countries to rule us. We are the people of this country, and we will bear responsibility for it.”

    Another man in Gaza City told Al Jazeera that the plan violates the Palestinians’ right to armed resistance. “It would strip the resistance of its weapons,” said Mohammed Hamdan, “despite the fact that resistance is a legitimate right of peoples under occupation.”

    And Sanaa Mahmoud Kaheel said she doesn’t trust Trump, who previously threatened to ethnically cleanse Gaza and steal its land to build a U.S.-Israeli beach resort. “Things will be unclear with the international forces, and we do not know what might happen tomorrow or the day after tomorrow with them being in Gaza,” she said. “This could help Trump tighten his grip on Gaza and work towards establishing a ‘riviera’ there, as he himself said before. Nothing is guaranteed.”

    The Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy (PIPD), based in Al-Bireh in the West Bank, rejects the false choice that the United States has presented to the world: “either accept their plan with all its flaws and non-guarantees, or accept going back to a live-streamed genocide.”

    Instead, PIPD and the global Palestinian solidarity movement are working to end the Israeli occupation and the impunity that sustains it, and to hold Israel accountable for its illegal occupation and crimes against humanity. On its Global Accountability Map, PIPD charts the progress of “concrete and approved actions by governments, local authorities, civil society, the private sector, courts and academia to hold Israeli colonial entities and interests accountable.”

    More and more of the world is supporting the Palestinian struggle and the movement to hold Israel accountable for its decades of illegal occupation and ever-escalating international crimes. While the U.S. uses its veto to corrupt the UN Security Council, people and governments have come together to hold Israel accountable in the UN General Assembly, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), and the International Criminal Court (ICC).

    Instead of passively accepting subservience to the Security Council, the General Assembly asked the ICJ to rule on the legality of the Israeli occupation and its legal consequences, and the ICJ ruled in 2024 that the occupation is illegal and must therefore be ended as quickly as possible.

    Instead of making further demands on the occupation’s long-suffering victims, as the U.S.-controlled Security Council does in its Trump plan resolution, the ICJ and the General Assembly have flipped the U.S. script to make demands on the perpetrator, Israel, including the demand, in September 2024, that Israel must end the occupation within a year.

    The ICJ issued a new ruling on October 22, 2025, that Israel must allow all humanitarian aid into Gaza and allow UNRWA (UN Relief & Works Agency) to reenter Gaza and do its work there without obstruction.

    The UN General Assembly can and should respond to Israel’s failure to comply with any of these rulings and resolutions by meeting in an Emergency Special Session to organize a UN-backed arms embargo, trade boycott, and other steps to enforce them, until Israel ends its illegal occupation and starts complying with international law and UN resolutions.

    More and more countries are cutting trade and military ties with Israel, and 157 countries now recognize Palestine as an independent nation with the same rights as others. People in many countries are rising up to protest Israel’s genocide and occupation, and to boycott Israeli products and companies that are complicit in its crimes.

    The Israeli and U.S. governments are feeling the pinch. If the world were passively accepting Israel’s genocide in Gaza, Trump would not have felt compelled to conjure up his fake peace plan. It is a victory for people of conscience everywhere that he felt he had to try to change the narrative. So this is not the time to give up on the real solutions to this crisis: justice and freedom for Palestine, and accountability for Israel.

    We shall see in the coming days whether the corrupt governments that hope to profit from the genocide in Gaza will send their own troops to fight the Palestinian Resistance and perpetuate the Israeli occupation. Are they really ready to sacrifice their own young people’s blood to mix with the blood of innocent Palestinians in the rubble of Gaza?

    We hope that they will instead make common cause with the people of Gaza and insist that Israel must comply with the demands of the ICJ and the UN General Assembly and immediately end its obscene, decades-long, illegal occupation of Palestine.

    The post Who Is Ready to Die for Trump’s Gaza Plan? So Far, Nobody first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • Israel is annoyed that a different murderous regime is getting advanced US jets

    Say one thing about Israel. Say it loves to bomb things. Refugee camps, hospitals, houses, kids — it doesn’t really care. And it has a particular taste for doing so with American equipment. But now with the American – Saudi F-35 deal, it isn’t the only country in the region which will get to enjoy the American war machines.

    Now Saudi Arabia looks to have secured F-35 fighter jets. And, despite the two countries being essentially aligned as allies of the US empire, Israel isn’t happy.

    But what’s unusual is the timing. Any Saudi F-35 deal was supposed to have conditions. And the biggest one was that the Gulf theocracy, Saudi Arabia, normalise relations with the genocidal settler state, Israel.

    As CNN reports:

    Israel would normalize relations with Saudi Arabia, paving the way for ties with the wider Muslim world. In exchange, the Saudis would get a US security package that includes F-35 stealth fighter jets — fifth-generation aircraft that would cement Riyadh’s relationship with Washington as it opened a new chapter with Israel.

    But now that core condition seems to have been dropped.

    On 17 October, US president Donald Trump said:

    We will be doing that. We will be selling F-35s [to Saudi].

    Saudi F-35—Air superiority eroded

    The announcement caused concern in Israel — it is feared the regime’s regional air superiority could be eroded.

    The Times of Israel reported that on 18 November the IDF has presented a report to the US raising their objections:

    The Israeli Air Force presented an explicit objection to the US’s potential sale of F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia in a formal position paper submitted to political leaders on Sunday, saying Israel’s air superiority in the region could be damaged by the deal.

    The Times added:

    Israel has operated the aircraft for nearly a decade, building multiple squadrons, and remains the only Middle Eastern country to possess it.

    Keeping the edge

    Despite internal concerns, Israel commented publicly on 20 November. A spokesperson insisted the Saudi jets would not be as advanced as the Israeli version:

    The United States and Israel have a long-standing understanding, which is that Israel maintains the qualitative edge when it comes to its defense.

    That has been true yesterday, that has been true today, and the Prime Minister (Benjamin Netanyahu) believes that will be true tomorrow and in the future.

    The F-35 is a highly advanced and stealthy fifth-generation fighter. Israel has 45 in service and a further 30 on order.

    Lockheed Martin call the plane the “most lethal, survivable, and connected fighter aircraft” in the world “integrating air, land, sea, space, and cyber operations to lead the fight and deliver a decisive advantage”.

    The Irish Times reported that Saudi’s keenness to push through the deal came from Israel’s 9 September attack on Qatar:

    Riyadh decided self-defence is the best guarantee of security after Israel bombed Qatar on September 9th, targeting a Hamas facility authorised by the US which maintains its main regional air base in the emirate.

    Saudi Arabia has long insisted normal relations with Israel would require an Israeli commitment to a Palestinian state. Needless to say, Israel’s leadership rejects the notion.

    Once again Trump has shown he is willing to operate outside established foreign policy norms. By arming Saudi Arabia, he is changing the balance of power in the colonised Middle East. What the outcomes will be remains to be seen. But the chief victims of the US practice of arming and playing off its vassal states and regional allies will most likely still be those with least power.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Joe Glenton

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • They knew we were journalists — Israel bombed us anyway

    On 21 November 2023, Farah Omar stood in the shade of a tree after finishing her live report for Al Mayadeen TV. Beside her were cameraman Rabih Maamari and their local guide — Hussein Akil, a resident of Ter Harfa — only a few kilometers from the Lebanese–Israeli border. None of the three knew that this live broadcast would be their final one. Minutes later, an Israeli drone fired a missile at the marked journalists, killing them all. If history has taught us anything: It’s never by accident, Israel kills journalists deliberately.

    Farah (25), Rabih (44), and Hussein (26) were killed while covering exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and Israel during the first year of the war — the incident condemned by the head of UNESCO. Their murders came just one month after an Israeli Merkava tank shot and killed Reuters photojournalist Issam Abdullah (37) in Alma al-Shaab on 13 October 2023. The same strike injured six other journalists working for AFP and Al Jazeera. A year later, on 25 October 2024, another deliberate Israeli strike targeted journalists as they slept in Hasbaya, killing three and injuring several others.

    Israel kills journalists with full knowledge

    All three incidents share the same pattern — the journalists notify the UN and military personnel of their presence, clearly identifying themselves to both warring sides, but Israel shoots to kill anyway. The targeting was intentional and far from “exceptional.” Israel has repeatedly killed journalists — during the genocide in Gaza and in its aggression against Lebanon. The United Nations reports that Israel has killed at least 248 journalists in Gaza — more than in any conflict in modern history — in addition to 13 journalists in Lebanon, six of them on duty — since October 7. Israeli forces also struck a media center in Sanaa, Yemen, killing 31 journalists and media workers — according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

    Elsy Moufarrej — head of the independent Union of Journalists in Lebanon — tells The Canary that:

    targeting journalists is not surprising from an enemy that represses the image exposing its crimes. That’s a war crime! Israel goes far with it because the international silence indirectly grants it impunity… There was no accountability for Israel, and that gives it a green light to continue.

    Moufarrej and her colleagues have tried to pursue justice — since the killing of Issam Abdullah — through the International Criminal Court (ICC). This has been in coordination with Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, CPJ, and Reporters Without Borders (RSF) — yet progress remains stalled.

    Moufarrej tells us:

    We blame the Lebanese government for not taking any measures to ensure accountability. There should be a serious investigation here. Internationally, the ICC must be authorised to investigate the war crimes committed in Lebanon since 7 October — including the direct killing of journalists.

    Had this happened, journalists today would not be facing increasing restrictions, nor would the population of the south be systematically displaced from their homes even after the ceasefire.

    Ramzi Kaiss, a Lebanese researcher at Human Rights Watch, echoes this sentiment saying:

    Israel’s apparently deliberate killing of Issam Abdullah should have served as a crystal-clear message for Lebanon’s government that impunity for war crimes begets more war crimes…

    Since the killing of Issam, scores of other civilians in Lebanon have been killed in apparently deliberate or indiscriminate attacks that violate the laws of war and amount to war crimes.

    On the ground, Lebanese journalists describe a climate of constant fear.

    Constant state of fear

    Reporter Rola Atwi recalls the moment she and her colleagues were targeted during a media tour in Yaroun— 300 meters away from the Lebanese border with ‘Israel’ — while accompanying UNIFIL and the Lebanese military on 14 November 2023.

    Atwi tells The Canary:

    I felt like life stopped. I felt direct danger. I was afraid I would never see my colleagues again.

    Even after the ceasefire, reporting from the south has become extremely difficult:

    There isn’t a single moment of safety. Roads are sometimes blocked or monitored by drones. Even gathering information is harder because people are afraid and under psychological pressure… We’re reporting about our own people and our own households.

    Local journalist Dalia Bazzi, who lives in Bint Jbeil — about three kilometres from the border — tells The Canary:

    We want to impose the law. There have been thousands of Israeli violations since the ceasefire, while Lebanon has fully abided by the agreement. The truth is evident.

    She describes the horror she witnesses:

    It kills me to know that a little girl has witnessed death. A 12-year-old once described to me the dismembered bodies of civilians after a massacre. She ran toward the site when she heard the strike, wanting to help. No child should have to live with that.

    About 45 kilometers north, in Nabatieh, journalist Tarek Mrouwe describes the same reality:

    We’re cautious but not afraid. We’ve gotten used to the situation. You start asking yourself: when will this end? Why are our areas always targeted? It’s sad that the government isn’t doing much, and those opposed to the resistance are indifferent.

    Covering Israeli violations across the south, Tarek notes that:

    Israel targets civilian cars and structures while claiming they’re military targets—but that’s false. They strike forests, and after the fires burn out, we see there was no military site.

    Dalia confirms this with a recent example:

    In Bint Jbeil, Shady Sharara and his three daughters were killed, while his wife and another daughter were wounded. It’s a massacre. Are these military targets?

    She adds:

    We woke up one day to two airstrikes on a civilian car in a crowded street as everyone was heading to work. The first strike was a few meters from my house. Have you ever replaced ‘good morning’ with ‘airstrike’? I ran to cover the news before even washing my face.

    Despite this reality, international bodies remain largely indifferent. Israel’s long history of targeting journalists — in Lebanon, Palestine, Yemen, and elsewhere — continues with impunity. As Elsy Moufarrej put it: Israel is “oppressing the image” of those who expose its crimes—especially the journalists who dare to report them.

    Featured image via LBCI

    By Mohamad Kleit

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Security Council Shamefully Grants Colonial Domination Over Palestine to the US

    In 1947, the United Nations General Assembly committed the UN’s original sin when it partitioned Palestine to create Israel. This launched the Nakba, the ethnic cleansing of the Indigenous people, and the establishment of a settler colonial state. Now, 78 years later, the UN Security Council has committed the UN’s second cardinal sin. It enshrined Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Out for blood: Israel ramps-up sweeping military assault on West Bank refugee camps

    The Israeli occupation launched Operation Iron Wall on 21 January 2025. It targeted West Bank refugee camps of Jenin, Tulkarem, and Nur Shams, displacing 32,000 Palestinians and obliterating homes and civilian infrastructure.

    Israel continues to deny displaced populations the right of return, making this the largest West Bank forced displacement since 1967.

    Operation Iron Wall: Israel’s goes after refugee camps

    A new Human Rights Watch report, documents this military campaign.

    The timing is difficult to ignore.

    Two days after a temporary ceasefire in Gaza was reached, Israeli occupation forces (IOF) undertook massive raids. They deployed Apache helicopters, drones, armoured vehicles, bulldozers, and hundreds of ground troops to clear the three refugee camps.

    Soldiers stormed homes, ransacked possessions, interrogated civilians, and issued evacuation orders via drones and loudspeakers, giving little time or explanation.

    Displacement occurred under active military operations and threat of sniper fire. Vulnerable groups, including wheelchair users, faced extra hardships. Occupation forces often cruelly forcing them to abandon their assistive devices.​

    Plans to permanently displace 32,000 Palestinians

    Satellite imagery analysed by Human Rights Watch and the United Nations Satellite Centre confirm the scale of destruction.

    Israel has demolished and damaged more than 850 buildings across Palestinian refugee camps. Meanwhile, extensive bulldozing of roads cleared the way for military access.

    The IOF claim these measures are necessary “to reshape and stabilise” the area and combat “terror”.

    They failed to justify the displacement and demolition as crucial military necessities, and did not take appropriate measures to safeguard displaced populations. They provided no shelter, food or water, nor evacuation routes, as required under Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.​

    Statements by senior Israeli occupation officials made clear their intent to make displacement permanent. Defense Minister Israel Katz told the IDF:

    not to allow residents to return and terrorism to grow again.

    Meanwhile Bezalel Smotrich threatened that camps:

    will be turned into uninhabitable ruins.

    Forced displacement constitutes a war crime when the displacement is the result of illegal attacks. But when it is part of a widespread or systematic attack on a civilian population, it is classified as a crime against humanity. The scale, organisation, and deliberate nature of Operation Iron Wall’s forced displacement fulfil these criteria.

    A campaign of ethnic cleansing

    According to Human Rights Watch the campaign amounts to ethnic cleansing. The policy is specifically designed to violently remove an ethnic or religious group from a geographic area.

    Displaced Palestinians are living in terrible conditions.

    Médecins Sans Frontières has reported worsening health, unmet needs, and inadequate access to healthcare, food, and water supplies.

    The occupation’s restrictions on movement and limited humanitarian access make these challenges worse. Israel’s closure of camps has barred UNRWA school access for thousands of children.

    Many families live in cramped makeshift shelters, where privacy and dignity are strained.

    They face repeated forced relocations and Israeli occupation authorities have failed to meet their obligations under international law.

    Unspeakable terror

    The report’s testimonies speak of the terror experienced.

    Nadim M. from Tulkarem described being zip-tied and threatened by snipers while being forced out with his family. Anoud C., who was undergoing intensive treatment for lung cancer, was at home in Jenin camp at the time of the raid. She said:

    I could hear explosions, there were four explosions first, before the helicopter began to shoot over our heads and at the people.

    Anoud and her family fled from their home with nothing, holding a white cloth. Fatima B. escaped the Jenin raid under airstrikes and warnings broadcast by drones. There were also fatalities, including the pregnant Rahaf al-Ashqar, who the Israeli forces killed when they detonated an explosive at her home in Nur Shams.

    Since the camps’ evictions, the IOF has consistently barred residents from returning. They have made sure the damage has been long lasting damage. These actions breach Article 147 of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibiting “wanton destruction”. But the occupation’s military has failed to justify demolitions or prove an operational need. Civilians continue to suffer the consequences.​

    Israel must answer for its crimes

    UNRWA established the three refugee camps in the early 1950s. They were to house Palestinians expelled from their homes following ‘Israel’s’ creation in 1948.

    Those refugees, and their descendants, had resided in these camps since then.

    The occupation’s military campaign against these refugee camps perpetuates a familiar pattern of repression and dispossession. Israeli occupation policies reflect apartheid and persecution. ‘Israel’ has carried out decades of settlement growth and violence against Palestinian communities. Administrative detentions have reached record highs since the genocide started.

    Human Rights Watch is urging governments to investigate and prosecute the growing litany of Israeli war crimes — and they must act now.

    Governments must also use sanctions, arms embargoes, trade suspensions, and enforcement of ICC arrest warrants to pressure Israel to stop its crimes. Without international intervention, human rights violations and ethnic cleansing risk becoming entrenched and normalised, worsening the humanitarian catastrophe, and prolonging injustice.​

    Featured image via Electronic Intifada/Mohammed Nasser.

    By Charlie Jaay

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Israel will use military ‘seminar’ to lie about its genocide, UK military source claims

    Israel is hosting dozens of allies at a international military seminar. The Times of Israel reported that the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Finland, India, Greece, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Austria, Estonia, Japan, Morocco, Romania, Serbia, and Slovakia are participating.

    But now the UK has pulled out. Israel-supporting sources in the UK have attacked the government for putting “ideology over national security”. But a senior military source says Israel will use the event to spread propaganda.

    Needless to say, many others oppose the seminar too. Global Students for Palestine Network(GSPN) said:

    The event is intended as a platform that actively showcases and instructs military tactics used in Gaza, in order to share knowledge on how such genocidal methods can be deployed elsewhere

     

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    The Israeli military claims the event will:

    strengthen cooperation, enhance familiarity with diverse operational approaches, exchange professional knowledge and experience between the participating militaries, and reinforce understanding of the IDF’s activity.

    As with anything coming from the Israeli army, this needs to be taken with an industrial quantity of salt.

    UK pulls out

    And, according the Telegraph, the UK has pulled out of the event. The Ministry of Defence (MOD) reportedly told the paper that:

    despite the Army having received an invitation, it was decided that no British officers or officials would attend.

    The billionaire-owned paper said the aim of the conference was to use “case studies” from “two years of complex fighting in Gaza” to improve urban warfare skills.

    Which is a very long-winded way to say ‘explain how you carried out a genocide’.

    The Telegraph added:

    Topics covered included advances in the military use of data and AI, the co-ordination of drones and artillery to protect advancing troops, and how to increase the chances of injured soldiers surviving their wounds.

    Lots of guides for fellow genocide fanatics, then.

    Ideology over security

    One unnamed Tory source said the decision was a poor one:

    Israel is an ally. Whatever your view is of the conflict, they’re incredibly experienced and you would want to know what lessons they have learned.
    My gut says it is a completely naive view from a Government that puts ideology over national security.
    The comment is at odds with reality. The Starmer government has repeatedly backed the Israeli regime to the hilt. On 12 November, UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese told Middle East Eye:

    The UK is one of those interesting cases of manufacturing, where the political leadership has helped manufacture consensus around the war that Israel has unleashed against the population of Gaza.

    The UK has given Israel enormous military and intelligence support throughout the slaughter, while suppressing dissent at home. You can see how our own Hannah Sharland mapped the state crackdown here.

    Nothing to see here

    Even so, one senior military source told the Telegraph the event was “likely” to be seen as a chance for Israel to propagandize to allies:

    There are two things here, one is that Israel genuinely has stuff they want to pass on – which they have never done before.

    But what’s much more likely is they want to tell a story that vindicates them from the allegations they face. In terms of whether this is a loss of opportunity for the UK, no, not really.

    Israel’s reputation and soft power has vastly diminished in the last two years. It’s leaders are currently under investigation for genocide and crimes against humanity. Partly, this looks like desperate move to regain influence by marketing ‘expertise’ to a captive audience. And no country with a commitment to even basic human rights should attend this event.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Joe Glenton

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Harvard’s Israel archive reveals quiet fears about the state’s future

    A shocking report from Haaretz reveals that Harvard University has been quietly building an immense archive of Israeli cultural, scientific, and political materials — described as a “backup of Israeli culture in case Israel ceases to exist.”  

    Should I clean my computer screen? Is my vision ok? 

    This “alternative memory system” — as Haaretz describes it — forms a collection of private artefacts. Items include political memorabilia, from memorial booklets for fallen soldiers to political pamphlets, as well as kibbutz newsletters, synagogue pamphlets, telephone directories, radio recordings and much more.  

    The Harvard Israel archive is confession

    Haaretz uses the term “Archive of Israeliana” in case, as it states, “Israel Ceases to Exist.” The word Israeliana stuck.

    What does it mean? The term refers to Israelis or to ‘the modern inhabitants of Israel’. It feels reminiscent of Israelita used in Biblical contexts.

    They basically though it would be important to differentiate between the settler-colonialists and the folks from the Bronze Age.

    Back to the article in question. The existence of the collection speaks to the anxieties felt by its creators: the anticipated collapse of a state despite all it’s military might and colonial infrastructure.

    An Israeli archive official, quotes by Haaretz, concedes that:

    [officials] refused to hand over sensitive collections on the premise that the project appeared to accept that Israel might collapse.

    This is sobering acknowledgment — rarely admitted in Zionist discourse — suggests that the settler-colonial system contains the seeds of its own demise.

    This begs the question: are Harvard academics reading the Canary?

    What is being archived — and why it matters

    According to the report, the Harvard Israel archive now holds one million items. Among these are six million images and tens of thousands of hours of audio-visual recordings. The breadth of the collection matters.

    It is not just official state records but everyday ephemera. These are the building-blocks of collective memory — without which identity and memory would perish.

    By preserving that material, the archive implicitly acknowledges what many Palestinians, critics and scholars have long argued. The colonial regime is founded upon a fragile foundation of memory, not to mention, exclusion and displacement.

    When the custodians of ‘collective memory’ relocate and preserve the repository of that memory, the question arises: who is ensuring the cultural survival of the colonised, when the coloniser is hell bent on controlling the historical narrative.

    The political undercurrents

    The archive’s existence sidesteps official Israeli institutions. As Haaretz notes, the project is “independent of Israeli government institutions” and located in a “politically stable environment” abroad. I’m not sure how they can use these words when describing America, bu that’s fine for now.

    This detachment from the state reveals a profound insecurity: the architects of the archive recognise that the state’s institution are not considered fully reliable for preserving national memory.

    It also raises ethical questions: whose ownership, whose memory, whose future? If Israel’s cultural output is being preserved abroad, what happens when Palestinians seek archival justice or restoration of dispossessed memory? Who archives the the colonised’s archive? Will the presence of this archive perpetuate some type of ‘war on memory’ or the rewrite of history simply because one is archived and one’s archive has been deliberately wiped out?

    Epilogue to empire

    The Harvard archive is more than an elitist intellectual endeavour. Beyond highlights Israel’s paranoia, is it an admission that even the most enduring systems of oppression and racism have an expiry.

    For a state built on the denial of the local population’s rights, on indefinite expansion and exclusion, the insecurity of the memory-keepers may be the most telling weakness of all.

    The archive says: we may have won many battles, but we fear the war of narrative.

    In this sense, the archive is a ‘canary in the coal-mine’ — for settler-colonialism, for Zionism, and any supremacist regime that seeks to transpose the history of the population it violently occupies.

    Because when ‘archive mode’ is activated, the coloniser has already conceded defeat.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Jamal Awar

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Chris Hedges Report: The Palestine Laboratory: Exporting Occupation Technology

    Filmmaker, author and journalist Antony Loewenstein documents how Israel has used Gaza as a weapons showcase. Spyware, killer drones, robot dogs and other weapons are debuted in Gaza and field-tested on the civilian population, demonstrating their effectiveness to regimes around the world that await their chance to purchase them.

    Loewenstein joins host Chris Hedges on this episode of The Chris Hedges Report to chronicle what he has learned from writing The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel Exports the Technology of Occupation Around the World and producing The Palestine Laboratory, a documentary based on the book.

    The post Chris Hedges Report: The Palestine Laboratory: Exporting Occupation Technology appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Israel forcibly evicts two Palestinian families from their home of 55 years

    Last week, the Israeli occupation forcibly evicted the Odeh and Shweiki families from their East Jerusalem home after 55 years. Despite having legal purchase documents proving their ownership of the house in Batan al-Hawa, Silwan, the eviction went ahead. The East Jerusalem evictions are becoming far too common.

    East Jerusalem evictions

    Police evicted residents from their home, and a removal company loaded their belongings onto trucks. Jewish settlers moved in, raising the Israeli flag. The settlers had claimed Jews owned the land in the late 19th century. The court ruled in the settlers’ favour and dispossessed the families.

    In 1948, when ‘Israel’ was created, around 20,000 Palestinians fled homes in West Jerusalem. 2,000 Jews left East Jerusalem, mainly from the Old City’s Jewish quarter. The Legal and Administrative Matters Law allows Jews alone to reclaim property in East Jerusalem, allegedly owned by them before 1948, but denies the same right to Palestinians. Many Palestinians who lost homes in 1948 became refugees. They can never return. This law underpins ongoing East Jerusalem evictions in areas such as Silwan, and Sheikh Jarrah.

    Palestinians appealing a demolition order on their homes never win

    While Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state, the Israeli occupation regards the entire city as its capital. So these evictions form part of the occupation’s ethnic cleansing campaign, to increase East Jerusalem’s Jewish population and character. This process is known as Judaization, and ‘Israel’ achieves this through demolishing Palestinians’ homes, and through settlers taking them over.

    Israeli anthropologist, Jeff Halper, is Director of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD). He says: 

    It’s all political, and Palestinians have no way of defending themselves. They could go to court and try to appeal a demolition order, but it never succeeds, and costs lots of money.

    Similarly, settlers go to court claiming Palestinian properties once belonged to Jews. More than 75 percent of Palestinians in East Jerusalem live below the poverty line, lacking resources for expensive legal battles. Settlers always win in court, justified or not, even with forged documents.

    Palestinians pay the occupation around £20,000 to demolish their homes.

    There is no compensation for demolished homes. Instead, Palestinian families must pay the authorities around £20,000. If Palestinians demolish their own home, it costs less, so many are forced to do this.

    Settlers, working with the occupation’s police, target vulnerable Palestinians, whose homes face demolition. They often offer to buy homes and relocate Palestinians. But those Palestinians forced to sell by settlers are branded collaborators, and their safety becomes at risk.

    Halper explains:

    Once settlers move in, the house becomes legal, so doesn’t get demolished. But if you don’t cooperate with them your house will be demolished. So you lose your home anyway.

    Judaization of Silwan is also occurring via development of the so-called illegal “City of David” archaeological and tourist park. ‘Israel’ is constructing this colonial project on occupied territory, aiming to replace Silwan entirely.

    ‘City of David’ tourist attraction—a colonial project erasing neighbourhood of Silwan

     Halper says 88 homes have demolition orders to make way for the park’s tourist facilities. 

    As it moves down the hill, they are taking over a whole valley. It’s the use of planning for political purposes. It seems friendly. It’s all biblical and looks great, but the purpose is Judaization.

    The illegal city of david settlement photo

    In 1984, archaeologist and Hebrew University President Benjamin Mazar admitted: “Biblical archaeology was part of Zionist idealism”.  Zionist archaeologists use their selective archaeology to reinforce their claims to Jerusalem, and attempt to reshape and rewrite history. Although Jerusalem has a 5000 year archaeological record, Zionists are obsessed with finding archaeological remains from the “biblical era”, ignoring all others- including Roman, Persian, Byzantine, Islamic and Ottaman periods. They also erase the history of all other groups- including Palestinians- highlighting only the Jewish story. The park’s purpose is to reinforce false Jewish claims, and rewrite history.

    Settlers controlling Silwan aim to replace Palestinians with Jews

    Most settlers in Silwan are members of the wealthy, influential Elad settler’s association.

    Elad is licensed to run the park, so these settlers have a lot of authority. They also handle demolition orders and have the power to issue them, for the park’s expansion.

    During a 2020 court case against a Silwan resident, Elad’s founder, David Be’eri, confirmed: “We are a foundation whose goals are to house Jewish families in the City of David….This is a main part of the foundation’s goals”.

    Trump officially recognised Jerusalem as the capital of ‘Israel’ in 2017. According to Halper, this move gave Judaization political legitimacy internationally. The US does not consider East Jerusalem to be occupied, so home demolitions are treated as local issues not political ones.

    The Judaization of East Jerusalem is accelerating. Since the US accepts, recognises and supports this process, Europe will not sanction the criminal Israeli regime. Yet again, it continues its policies with impunity.

    Home demolitions: the preferable way to ethnically cleanse East Jerusalem

    ‘Israel’ prefers to ethnically cleanse Palestinians with demolition orders rather than directly raiding a Palestinian home, as legal proceedings are quieter. This strategy keeps demolitions less visible internationally and helps Israel avoid criticism. It is very effective.

    Halper says:

    We estimate that Israel’s demolished around 60,000 Palestinian homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since 1967. But it’s all under the radar, and Israel does not get criticised.

    Almost all Palestinian construction is illegal under Israeli policy. This is because the occupation refuses 99 percent of Palestinian requests for building permits in East Jerusalem and most of the West Bank. Unable to get permits, families have no option except building without them, so many homes become “illegal” by default. This lets the Israeli occupation demolish them at any moment, even after decades. The justification is based solely on planning law- part of the wider strategy to keep Palestinian communities insecure and vulnerable.

    Palestinians in East Jerusalem face ongoing threats. The Israeli regime blocks legal channels, declares homes to be illegal, and acts with impunity while the world is silent. But their fight to stay continues, despite increasing efforts to fracture their community and strip away their heritage.

    East Jerusalem evictions remain a stark reminder of how the occupation weaponises law to erase Palestinian presence in their efforts to ethnically cleanse the city.

    Featured image supplied via author

    By Charlie Jaay

    This post was originally published on Canary.