The Israeli military is arming gangs to combat Hamas in Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed on Thursday. The revelation comes to light after right-wing Israeli lawmaker Avigdor Lieberman accused Netanyahu on Israeli public broadcaster Kan yesterday of arming a gang of hundreds of men in Rafah as a counterweight to Hamas influence in the Strip. The Prime Minister’s office responded by saying that it was combating the Palestinian resistance group “in various ways, on the recommendation of all heads of the security establishment.”
Later, Netanyahu officially confirmed the reports in a video posted on X.
French dock workers in Fos-sur-Mer, near Marseille, are blocking the shipment of military equipment bound for Israel, protesting the Israeli military’s ongoing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, France 24 reported on 6 June.
The action, led by members of the CGT trade union, halted the loading of 19 pallets of bullet links—metal components used to enable rapid machine gun fire—onto a cargo vessel on Thursday.
Christophe Claret, a union representative, confirmed that the shipment was identified and set aside after workers were notified of its contents.
“Once dockers refuse to load a shipment, no one else can do it for them,” Claret told AFP. The remaining cargo for the vessel was loaded as scheduled.
The international community has failed Palestinians, who have suffered violence, oppression, and domination at the hands of Israel since 1948. In Gaza, a blockade which started in 2007 has prevented many essential items from entering the strip, including medical and educational supplies, while ensuring that Israel can limit the calorific intake of Gazans, mandating that they should only receive just the amount of food to avoid malnutrition, and nothing more.
Gaza: a man-made starvation campaign
Fast-forward to the last 20 months, and Israel has now manufactured a campaign of deliberate starvation in Gaza, which is not only a war crime, but is being used as a genocidal tool and a mechanism to forcibly displace the population, not only from the North of the Strip but, eventually, out of Gaza altogether. To facilitate this plan, Israel’s Security Cabinet recently approved the establishment of a ‘Voluntary Emigration Bureau for Gaza residents interested in relocating to third countries’.
Rana Yassin, 27, lives in Tel al-Hawa in Northern Gaza, and is the mother of a two and a half year-old child. She has lost 10kg since the start of the genocide.
Yassin confided:
We used to be able to buy most things, when the borders were open, as Gaza’s products are normally cheap, but now people can’t get even the simplest things. If you have some money you can sometimes buy fish, but it is expensive because fishing is very risky. Fishermen are forbidden, by Israel, to enter the sea, but they risk their lives and go in anyway, so they can have something to eat and also get some income.
Most people here suffer from malnutrition, including me, my son and my husband. There is really no food, but the rare times when you find any it is so expensive. We have some money, and went looking for food today but found nothing. My family are hungry all the time, and low glucose levels means it’s really difficult to do normal everyday tasks, and we feel fatigued most of the time.
I am a person that normally remembers details, concentrates and am very good at studying, but now I have a lack of concentration and forget everything!
The flour that is available in the markets, costing US $35 for 1kg, is now rotten. There are parasites in it, and it smells, so we shouldn’t use it, but we have to. Most of us have bad stomachs and diarrhea all the time because of rotten flour and food. We depend on canned food, but it is so expensive and very difficult to find now. Those who have no money are really truly starving in these days in Gaza, and some have become criminals just to be able to get food for their children.
The number of crimes has increased a lot and now we have a curfew- after 7pm we cannot go to the streets because there are people that will kill you, if you have flour or any type of food. They are only aggressive because they have no other choices. They are just watching their children dying in front of their eyes and they cannot even provide them with bread. Before the war, even the people who had no money could eat well, because food was cheap and people helped each other. But now, even the rich can’t help the poor people, because they don’t have food either. It’s so difficult to stay OK in these conditions.
18.5kg: the average weight loss during the first seven months of the genocide
A study explored food insecurity and weight loss during the first seven months of the genocide among almost 500 residents of the Northern part of the Gaza Strip, aged between 13 and 83 years old. It found that the average weight loss was more than 18.5kg.
According to the study, not only was there a near-total lack of vegetable, fruit, and protein intake, which accelerates muscle-wasting, and may also cause deficiencies in vital minerals and vitamins, but the reduced quantity and quality of food will:
present a risk for a host of potentially serious and irreversible future complications.
More than a year since this study took place, the situation has become so much worse, with the UN now calling Gaza the “hungriest place on Earth”, and warning that the entire population is at risk of famine. Yet, waiting at the Rafah border there is enough food to feed one million people for up to four months. However, Israel has not allowed its entry into Gaza. The slow deaths of starving Palestinians is entirely intentional.
Dr Abed El Harazin says there are currently not enough medical staff in Gaza. He did what he could, working in both Al-Awda Hospital in the North, and Al-Aqsa Hospital in the South, for about 48 hours in each at a time when they were open.
El Harazin explained that:
Malnutrition rates are rising in Gaza, and emergency treatments to counter it are running out. Hunger could have a lasting impact on an entire generation, with more than one in five children malnourished at some sites.
The deliberate obstruction of food and relief aid to civilians in Gaza has been condemned by the United Nations human rights office, stating that such actions could amount to a war crime. As a physician witnessing these conditions firsthand, I can attest that the long-term effects of malnutrition are profound. Children are particularly vulnerable, facing risks of stunted growth, cognitive impairments, and increased susceptibility to diseases.
The blockade and ongoing conflict are not only causing immediate suffering, but are also jeopardising the future health and development of Gaza’s population. Immediate and unimpeded access to food, water and medical supplies is essential to prevent further loss of life, and to mitigate the long-term health consequences of this crisis.
Failing to actively prevent and punish genocide is complicity
Although in January 2024 the International Court of Justice (ICJ) found it “plausible that Israel’s actions in Gaza amount to genocide” and, in July of that year, that its “illegal occupation amounts to apartheid”, Western governments are silent over Israel’s genocide in Gaza, its military control of the West Bank, and its systematic violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law. They not only allow the illegal occupier to act with complete impunity, but also provide military and financial assistance.
The UK also fly spy planes over Gaza, from its air base in Cyprus, Akrotiri. But even those who are not actively supporting Israel are violating their legal obligations if they are signatories to the Genocide Convention – which the UK, Germany, the US, and others are – but fail to take all measures within their power to actively prevent and punish acts of genocide.
An initiative, collectively led by Palestinian civil society, and joined by almost 900 humanitarian and human rights organisations worldwide, has called for the immediate deployment of a Diplomatic Humanitarian Convoy through the Rafah Crossing, so states can adhere to their international legal obligations, and try and break the inhumane illegal siege of Gaza.
International ‘inaction will lead to mass death in Gaza by starvation’
It urges the international community to halt Israel’s manufactured famine in Gaza, by sending official diplomatic missions to accompany the aid trucks which are waiting at the crossing, and to enter into Gaza with them.
Backed by a coalition of European and Arab states, with full UN support, and an international media presence to bear witness, the Diplomatic Humanitarian Convoy could deliver urgent assistance where needed, while offering a workable, peaceful way to break the siege, end the starvation, and affirm the world’s rejection of hunger as a weapon of war”, since:
inaction will lead to mass death by starvation, enable further grave illegalities, and undermine the international legal system.
Individual diplomats, ministers, and MPs of complicit states are urged to come forward and participate in a personal capacity. The proposed date range for the convoy is June 10-15, but this has not yet been confirmed, as state approvals are still pending, and consultations with the UN are still ongoing.
States legally obliged to not only stop Israel’s war crimes, but to end its illegal occupation
Law for Palestine and other organizations took up the task of organising and coordinating the call for this Convoy.
Nourhan Fahmy is coordinator for the Convoy and also the Jurists for Palestine Forum at Law for Palestine, and says states bear the primary responsibility for taking action to stop Israel’s crimes, and confront the ongoing famine in Gaza.
She said:
Legally, according to the 2024 ICJ Advisory Opinion, which concluded that the Israeli presence in the oPt is in itself unlawful and it must end as soon as possible, states bear obligations to bring this occupation to an end in addition to their obligation to stop the ongoing violations of international law, including genocidal acts.
In December 2024, a UN General Assembly Resolution called on Israel to comply with the Court’s Opinion and all other states to comply with their respective legal obligations under international law, including international humanitarian law and international human rights law.
Morally speaking, states must not remain bystanders to a deliberate, man-made starvation inflicted upon the people of Gaza by deliberately preventing thousands of tonnes of humanitarian aid from entering the Strip & devising an alternative scheme that has failed to deliver aid in a dignified and protective manner to the Palestinians.
Diplomatic Humanitarian Convoy: a direct challenge to the unlawful blockade on Gaza
Other signatories of the Diplomatic Humanitarian Convoy Now Initiative include:
Al-Haq is a Palestinian human rights NGO, based in the West Bank.
The organisation’s spokesperson told the Canary:
As Israel continues to weaponise food and aid distribution, subjecting Palestinians in Gaza to death by forced starvation and disease, it is long past time for states to fulfil their legal obligations: to end Israel’s siege, ensure unimpeded humanitarian access, and prevent this genocide from continuing.
Participating in this convoy is one concrete step they can take towards upholding these binding obligations. This convoy is not only a response to the mass starvation in Gaza – it symbolises a collective assertion of international law, a rejection of impunity, and a direct challenge to the unlawful blockade imposed on an entire vulnerable and occupied population. Sending senior diplomatic delegations signals that states will not remain silent in the face of such grave violations.
It confronts the use of starvation as a method of warfare and a genocidal act intended to create conditions of life calculated to destroy Palestinians in Gaza. As we are likely witnessing the final stages of Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza, it represents action before it is too late.
Global Legal Action Network (GLAN) is an independent organisation which uses lawyers and investigators to help communities fight for justice across borders.
Gearóid Ó Cuinn, founding director of GLAN, highlighted the importance of states taking action against Israel. He said that:
For over 18 months, international law and the standards supposed to protect us all, have been steadily and recklessly dismantled with each atrocity committed in Gaza by Israel – in full view of world leaders. As the entire population is starved – it cannot be down to courageous individuals to break the siege.
Israel’s weaponisation of aid delivery is undermining the very foundations of humanitarianism. States around the world must stop preparing statements of outrage and finally take meaningful action to save lives. They must uphold their obligation to prevent genocide and deliver urgent, coordinated humanitarian assistance now.
An immediate humanitarian response needed by all governments
The Peace Cycle advocates for peace and justice in Palestine through cycling, and aims to raise awareness of the illegal occupation of Palestine.
Laura Abraham, founder of the Peace Cycle said:
The suffering in Gaza is horrific beyond anything I can imagine. After almost 18 months of incessant bombing and destruction of life and the means of life, the Gazan people are now being deliberately and systematically starved.
It is the responsibility of all people, of all nations, to respond with urgent aid and the demand for an immediate ceasefire. This is a man-made humanitarian catastrophe and the governments of the world must provide an immediate humanitarian response.
If governments do not respond, what are they for? What is the point of having leadership if it doesn’t protect people, if it allows people to be maimed and starved by the hundreds of thousands? To save our own humanity, we have to act now! I salute and support all those involved in the humanitarian diplomatic convoy to Gaza.
The crime of genocide has continued for more than 600 days in the Gaza Strip, and has spread to the West Bank. Israel’s ban on the entry of food and medicine, the closure of all crossings, and the continued international silence have made a catastrophic situation for civilians under siege in Gaza.
It means a death sentence by starvation for more than one million Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip, in addition to more than 1.3 million Palestinian adults.
Israel has not complied with the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice, or the appeals of international institutions and the United Nations operating in Palestine, while killing hundreds of humanitarian workers, doctors, and journalists without deterrence.
So Palestinian human rights organisations, and those around the world, have called for international intervention to force the state of Israel to respect international law and stop its mass killing of Palestinians. This is why the Diplomatic Humanitarian Convoy is so important.
It’s all about destroying the Palestinians
Shahd Hammouri is an academic and international lawyer, and acted as a legal consultant on the ICJ Advisory Opinion on the Legality of the Israeli Occupation of Palestine. Hammouri is one of hundreds of international lawyers and legal experts who endorse the urgent and unified demand for a convoy.
She said:
Palestinian officials have declared Gaza’s man-made mass starvation to be a famine. Mothers cradle skeletal infants, scouring rubble for scraps. Fishermen shot dead for casting nets, chronically ill patients left without access to medication, aid trucks looted under the watch of Israeli drones. This is not collateral damage—it is a deliberate strategy to create conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of Palestinians in Gaza in whole or in part.
Currently, the only aid distributed throughout Gaza is by the US-Israel backed Global Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a shady organisation of US mercenaries which has been accused, by the UN and other humanitarian organisations, of weaponising and politicising aid, of ‘drip-feeding food into an area on the verge of catastrophic hunger’, while Israel continues intensifying its airstrikes and ground operations.
The GHF is failing to meet even the most basic humanitarian standards, and is forcing desperately hungry Palestinians to endure interrogation and bullets at its chaotic distribution sites.
According to the Gaza government media office on Tuesday morning, 102 starving Palestinians accessing the GHF aid distribution sites have been killed, and 490 injured in just the first eight days of operation. It said that:
These so called ‘aid distribution centres’, established in exposed, dangerous red zones under full Israeli military control, have turned into ‘mass-death traps’. Starving civilians, driven by suffocating famine and a severe blockade, are lured into these locations only to be deliberately shot at in cold blood – a scene that epitomises the malice of this project, and exposes its true objectives.
The media office called on the United Nations, the Security Council, and all human rights organisations to:
act immediately and exert all available pressure to open official crossings unconditionally, without Israeli interference, and to ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid through UN agencies and neutral international organisations- far from this deadly American-Israeli model.
It warned that the continued international silence is:
a stain on the conscience of humanity’ and ‘grants a green light for further atrocities.
Netanyahu: without international support ‘we won’t be able to complete the mission of victory’
The sole purpose of GHF is not to provide life-saving food for the malnourished and starving population of Gaza, but to quieten the growing international concerns, and ultimately to keep the war going until Gaza’s ethnic cleansing has been completed. Last month, Netanyahu explained his decision to allow ‘minimal humanitarian aid’ into Gaza by saying:
We must not reach a state of hunger – not for practical reasons, and not for political ones. They simply won’t support us, and we won’t be able to complete the mission of victory.
Hammouri said that:
This is not just about Gaza. It is about to what extent nations care about international law. Participation in the diplomatic convoy fulfils the bare minimum of state responsibility in the face of an illegal occupation and an ongoing genocide. If the world accepts Israel’s blockade—if we outsource morality to algorithms and private military contractors—we greenlight a future where might makes right. A humanitarian diplomatic convoy is not just about delivering food. It is about reclaiming the principle that no government has the right to decide who eats and who starves. The time for handwringing is over. The time for action is now.
The more states that join this initiative, the greater the likelihood this tactic of diplomatic pressure will succeed. So we need to show our support not only by raising awareness using social media, but also bringing up the call for the convoy to our representatives in parliament. In addition to the participation of states in a diplomatic humanitarian convoy, Palestinians are also demanding a complete embargo of the buying, selling, and transfer of arms and energy to Israel, suspension of all trade agreements and the sanctioning of Israeli officials.
Other international solidarity initiatives also aiming to break the seige in Gaza
Two civilian-led initiatives will also aim to break the illegal siege in Gaza this month.
The Freedom Flotilla’s Madleen is sailing from Sicily, towards Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid and raise international awareness about the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza, while the Global March to Gaza will see activists and health care professionals from more than 30 countries put pressure on international bodies to take action.
Participants will gather in Egypt on 12 June, and march to the Rafah border, where they will be as part of a week-long protest. The aim of the march is to negotiate the opening of the Rafah crossing with the Egyptian authorities, in collaboration with NGOs, diplomats, and humanitarian institutions.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and European Commissioner for Defence and Space Andrius Kubilius believe Russia could launch a full-scale attack on Europe by 2030, a fear that has prompted governments across the continent to prepare for war. As European citizens stockpile food and governments ramp up military readiness, one country sees opportunity in that fear: Israel.
The European Union is planning to increase its military budget by €800 billion ($900 billion) over the next four years. With the United States pulling back military support for NATO, EU member states are seeking new defense partners, and Israel is stepping in, offering weapons tested on occupied and besieged populations.
With over 54,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip killed by the Israeli assault and the 2 million survivors suffering from the ongoing bombings and blockade on essentials, nearly two dozens progressives in the U.S. Congress came together Thursday to call for passage of a bill that would withhold offensive weapons from Israel. Like former Democratic U.S. President Joe Biden…
A week ago, MintPress News reported that Israel had been supporting extremist criminal militias in Gaza, with links to Daesh (Isis), as they looted humanitarian aid. And now, Israeli politicians – including war criminal prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself – are essentially confirming that. This comes amid a genocidalstarvation campaign aiming to push Palestinians into despair and out of Gaza.
Netanyahu: ‘We did that. So what?’
Images have shown the Daesh-linked extremists, which oppose Hamas in Gaza, “brandishing automatic weapons” and “wearing Israeli military tactical vests”. MintPress described them as “an infamous criminal network responsible for looting humanitarian aid”, further worsening the already dire situation for people in Gaza. Even the UN has previously suggested Israeli involvement in supporting these criminals’ actions, especially since May 2024.
Yesterday (5 June), meanwhile, Israeli politician Avigdor Lieberman claimed Netanyahu had arranged arms transfers to “clans associated with ISIS“. Netanyahu’s office stressed that his regime was trying to undermine Hamas in “diverse ways”. The Diplomatic-Security Cabinet added that “Israel does act to create conflict between Hamas and other forces”. Later, Netanyahu said:
we activated clans in Gaza that oppose Hamas. What’s wrong with that?
There have been dozens of deaths as Israel has reluctantly allowed small amounts of aid into Gaza in recent days. And some of those may have links to the extremists Israel has supported. As a senior humanitarian official toldMintPress:
Anyone telling you the gangs are helping the people is a liar
Daesh hates the coalition of Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas. And because Israel does too, it always considered Daesh less of a threat. For that reason, there have been manymoments where Israel and Daesh strategically coexisted or avoided conflict. Some high-profile figures in the region even hinted at links between them.
But now, amid the globalscholarly consensus that Israel has been committing genocide in Gaza since October 2023, it seems Netanyahu doesn’t care what the world thinks anymore. So he’s essentially happy to admit backing Daesh fanboys in Gaza.
On a holiday that reminds the world of faith, sacrifice, and joy, Gaza enters the holiday as if it were straight out of a book about forgotten famines and long wars. No meat is bought, no animals are slaughtered, and no children are dressed in new clothes. In Gaza, there is no sound of takbir, because the only sound is the groaning of empty stomachs, the silence of abandoned homes, and the crying of mothers in displacement tents. Talk of the decline of Eid rituals in Gaza is no longer a matter of poverty or temporary economic decline, but rather an accurate description of the total collapse of life under siege, bombardment, and organised famine.
Here, rituals are not performed because human beings themselves are no longer able to survive, and all that concerns the people of Gaza today is physical survival… even if only for another day.
In a sector that has been besieged for years, starved for months and targeted for decades, Eid is no longer a time for joy, but rather a time for disappointment and a stark reminder that Gaza is not only a besieged city, but also a people deprived of the bare minimum of existence.
Eid without sacrifices – just relentless hunger
In other parts of the world, Eid al-Adha is an occasion for loved ones to gather, to draw closer to God by slaughtering sacrifices, for markets to bustle with the smell of fresh meat, and for children to rejoice in the joy of the holiday. But in Gaza, no sacrifices will be slaughtered this year. There will be no markets teeming with livestock, no meat to cook, and no joy to speak of.
The Israeli blockade and the ongoing war since October 2023 have destroyed all components of economic life. Livestock farms have been burned or rendered unusable, and commercial and community infrastructure has been completely destroyed. Purchasing power no longer exists, and prices have risen dramatically, exceeding 50 times their previous levels, making meat and basic goods affordable to only a very small percentage of the population.
Total economic collapse
During last year’s Eid al-Adha (2024), less than 1% of Gaza’s population was able to secure a sacrifice through hard-to-reach external donations. This year, the situation is even more dire. Thousands of families are searching for their daily bread amid severe food shortages and an almost complete loss of electricity and clean water.
The talk is no longer about religious rituals, but about physical survival in the face of the worst conditions in the history of the Strip. With no effective humanitarian aid coming in since March 2025, hunger is spreading to infants and children, and Gaza is turning into an open prison where there is no difference between the cruelty of occupation and the cruelty of slow death.
Children without joy and mothers without hope this Eid
In displacement camps and mud huts, stories abound of mothers forced to tell their children that Eid has been postponed. No games, no laughter, just pale faces and lost eyes searching for a moment of safety in the darkness.
A mother from Rafah said in a broken voice to me:
How can I explain to them that this year’s Eid is waiting for bread that will never come? And that the lamb has become a dream we cannot afford?
These words represent the real tragedy that cannot be conveyed through pictures or reports, but is engraved in the hearts of those who have nothing but memories that fade with each difficult day.
International silence… and the ongoing Israeli siege
Despite appeals from international organisations and statements of condemnation, Israel has continued to refuse to open the crossings to allow food and medical aid to enter since March 2025. Even frozen meat, which used to arrive through the limited efforts of international organisations, no longer arrives.
The international community is moving very slowly, and aid is beset by complex political conditions, while the people of Gaza are being slaughtered by hunger and disease, and their holidays are buried under the rubble.
Gaza without a holiday, and a world without conscience
In a city where sacrifice was an act of devotion to God and a source of joy for its people, the people themselves have become the real sacrifices. The siege, the bombing, the hunger, and all forms of systematic violence have killed joy and turned the holiday into another day of pain and fear.
Gaza is not only a besieged city, but also a people deprived of their right to life, whose holidays have been stolen from them long ago. And the global conscience, despite all the cries, remains silent.
After the US vetoed yet another UN call for an Israel ceasefire in Gaza, the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention has insisted that:
There can be no doubt now that the #UnitedStates is a perpetrator of genocide in Palestine.
This isn’t just Israel’s genocide
The US has a long record of settler-colonial genocide at home and abroad. But both the blue and red wings of the country’s establishment – with the support of the mainstream media – have perhaps outdone even their own country’s awful record since October 2023 by fuelling Israel’s genocide in Gaza, which has killed at least one Palestinian child every hour for 20 months. Even Israel knows US support is essential for its crimes to continue.
It is not surprising that many Americans would embrace genocide. The country was founded on genocide and institutionalized a genocidal form of slavery… The enduring mainstream institutions of the state and society remain comfortable with the genocide of non-white people.
However, it noted that “the majority of the ordinary people of the United States… are not comfortable with genocide”, stressing:
We hope Americans will pull together to eventually hold their leadership – in both parties – accountable for the PERPETRATION of genocide in Palestine.
The @LemkinInstitute continues to be horrified by US vetoes of ceasefire proposals at the UN Security Council (@UNSC_Reports).
There can be no doubt now that the #UnitedStates is a perpetrator of genocide in Palestine.
— Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention (@LemkinInstitute) June 5, 2025
The United States was the only country on the UN Security Council to vote against the new draft resolution on 4 June, and there were no abstentions. The resolution sought “an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire, the unconditional release of hostages held by Hamas and others and the immediate lifting of all aid restrictions”.
Polish-Jewish lawyer Raphael Lemkin proposed condemning the crime of genocide back in 1944. And eight decades later, the institute carrying his name asserted in 2024 that:
One might even say that Lemkin’s definition fits the situation in Palestine for the past 76 years.
Academics from Israel itself, meanwhile, have joined the globalscholarly consensus that the apartheid state has been committing genocide since October 2023.
I was privileged to be in Catania over the past week to see the Madleen embark on its mission to deliver vital humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.
The Madleen is one of the boats of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, which hopes to bring about an end to Israel’s blockade of Gaza. The boat departed Sicily on Sunday carrying a dozen activists along with food, medicine and other supplies.
Two million Gazans have suffered under siege by Israel for many months now. I arrived at the port and was met with a feeling of hope, care and bravery. There is no freedom without solidarity, and the Freedom Flotilla is solidarity.
Hamas condemned the US decision to veto a UN Security Council (UNSC) Resolution for a ceasefire in Gaza on 4 June, labeling it a “green light” for Israel to continue its genocidal war against the strip.
“The US veto embodies the US administration’s blind bias towards the fascist occupation government and supports its crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip,” the Palestinian resistance movement said in a statement on Wednesday evening.
The decision is “a green light for the war criminal Netanyahu, wanted by the International Criminal Court, to continue his brutal war of extermination against innocent civilians, including children, women, and the elderly,” the statement added, stressing that it confirms Washington’s “full complicity in this ongoing crime.”
Twenty months into its livestreamed and accelerating genocide in Gaza, it would hardly be controversial to conclude that Israel is one of the world’s most hated countries.
But a new global survey from the US-based Pew Research Center indicates just how unpopular it has become, especially in the North American and European states where Tel Aviv has always drawn its main sources of financial, military and political support.
“In 20 of the 24 countries surveyed, around half of adults or more have an unfavorable view of Israel,” Pew reported on 3 June. “Around three-quarters or more hold this view in Australia, Greece, Indonesia, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Turkey.”
The headline is written in such a passive, amorphous way that it sounds like the aid deliveries themselves are deadly. Like the bags of flour are picking up assault rifles and firing on desperate Palestinians queuing for food or something.
The sub-headline is no better: “Israel’s troops have repeatedly shot near food distribution sites.”
Oh? They’ve shot “near” food distribution sites, have they? Could their discharging their weapons in close proximity to the aid sites possibly have something to do with the aforementioned deadliness of the aid deliveries? Are we the readers supposed to connect these two pieces of information for ourselves, or are we meant to view them as two separate data points which may or may not have anything to do with one another?
The article itself makes it clear that Israel has admitted that IDF troops fired their weapons “near” people waiting for aid after they failed to respond to “warning shots”, so you don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to figure out what happened here. But in mainstream publications, the headlines are written by editors, not by the journalists who write the articles. So, they get to frame the story in whatever way suits their propaganda agenda for the majority who never read past the headline.
This was a story that provoked outcry and condemnation throughout the Western world, but look at the lengths the New York Times editor went to in order to frame the IDF’s actions in the most innocent way possible. They were firing into the air. They were firing “to disperse western diplomats”—like that’s a thing. Like diplomats are crows on a cornfield or something. Oh yeah, ya know ya get too many diplomats flockin’ around and ya gotta fire a few rounds to disperse ’em. Just normal stuff.
It’s amazing how creative these freaks get when they need to exonerate Israel and its Western allies of their crimes publicly. The IDF commits a war crime, and suddenly these stuffy mass media editors who’ve never created any art in their lives transform into poets, bending and twisting the English language to come up with lines that read more like Zen koans than reporting on an important news event.
It’s impossible to have too much disdain for these people.
Game of Thrones star Liam Cunningham has criticised the BBC‘s “jaw-dropping” bias towards Israel during its genocide in Gaza as akin to asking a Nazi official to comment on the Holocaust.
Liam Cunningham pulls no punches
Speaking to journalist Mehdi Hasan, Liam Cunningham stressed that BBC News has approached him but that “there is not a hope in hell of me going on the BBC at the moment”. The reason is that BBC coverage of Israel’s genocide is “like watching a movie”, due to its apparent attempts at ‘evenhandedness’ and ‘impartiality’. And he asked the question:
Are we saying, due to impartiality, that if this was 1944 or 1945 when we discovered the horrors of Auschwitz, would we be contacting Heinrich Himmler for his take on the genocide? Because that’s what’s going on now. I find it astonishing.
Hasan agreed, saying:
It’s a tragic scene that we’re in where, as you say, people want to be evenhanded in a genocide.
“If this was 1944, 1945, when we discovered the horrors of Auschwitz, would we be contacting Heinrich Himmler for his take on the genocide?”
And it’s not just the BBC. Because most mainstream media outlets continue to provide a platform for genocide-supporters or genocide apologists to spout propaganda even as the settler-colonial state they’re defending is starving children to death to get what it wants.
This behaviour is all the more disgusting, Hasan pointed out, because of the hypocrisy mainstream outlets display on Israel. As he said:
I don’t think the BBC wait for the Russian military response every time they report on a missile attack on Kyiv.
Things only change when people stand up and resist
In recent days, Liam Cunningham has shown his support for the Freedom Flotilla campaigners currently seeking to take aid to Gaza by boat. And in one video, he criticised governments for failing to stand up for international law, adding:
The only things that have changed the world radically have not come from the seats of government. it’s come from people standing up and saying ‘we’ve had enough’.
We’re sick of weasel words. We’re sick of appeasement with people saying ‘oh, we’re going to think about sanctioning, we’re gonna think about this, we’re gonna stop a trade deal’. Not enough! The words are not enough. Action is required.
Actor @liamcunningham1 was among a huge crowd of local and international supporters who gathered in solidarity as they bid the #Madleen farewell from Catania, Sicily.
He highlights the inaction of governments worldwide in response to overwhelming and unambiguous proof of… pic.twitter.com/NsiLXCRIij
— Freedom Flotilla Coalition (@GazaFFlotilla) June 3, 2025
We speak to political scientist Neve Gordon and medical anthropologist Guy Shalev about their new article, “The Shame of Israeli Medicine,” which looks at the “complicity of the Israeli medical establishment with Israel’s egregious violations of international law.” The article’s third author, Osama Tanous, is a Palestinian citizen of Israel and has not been able to make media appearances for fear…
Campaigners are taking Grampian Pride to task over its sponsorship by oil majors, including BP and Shell.
The Aberdeen-based Pride is the last in the UK to accept money from fossil fuel companies. Over 45 Prides across the country have stated they will never accept money from the industry on climate grounds.
Grampian Pride sponsorship: oil money out
Campaigners have directed particular criticism towards BP due to its role as a major supplier of fuel to Israel. The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline supplies almost one third of Israel’s fuel and BP is the operator and largest shareholder. The Israeli Ministry of Energy has also granted gas exploration licenses to BP. Campaigners claim that these are in “occupied Palestinian waters” during a period that has been described as “genocide” by international diplomats.
Eight artists, around one-third of the original Grampian Pride lineup, have withdrawn from performing. This was after Queers for Palestine, Fossil Free Pride and Energy Embargo For Palestine called for a boycott over BP’s sponsorship of the event. Several performers gave statements explaining their withdrawal.
Catriona Molver Entertainment said that:
I knew I couldn’t in good faith put my face and name to something that associates with industries that fund this genocide. I haven’t taken any of this lightly but ultimately this feels like the correct decision for me.
Nushka stated:
I really, really wanted to play Grampian Pride. They were the first pride parade I’d ever been to. It meant the world to me. But it’s 2025. BP and Shell are comfortably complicit in the genocide in Gaza. Their sponsorship of Pride is deeply saddening, and I just can’t do this.
Erin Main said:
Grampian Pride being funded by zionist oil and gas companies has always rubbed me the wrong way but I hoped they would eventually come to their senses, which it seems like won’t be happening until there are consequences for their actions.
Pinkwashing fossil fuel companies
In the run up to Grampian Pride, a ‘Queers Against BP Pride Protest Bloc‘ has been organised as part of the march. An organiser from Fossil Free Pride commented:
BP’s cynical use of Grampian Pride as a pinkwashing opportunity cannot go unchallenged. If the sponsorship will not be dropped, we must oppose their image-cleansing moment loudly. There is no flag big enough to hide the blood on BP’s hands.
An Energy Embargo For Palestine organiser commented:
While BP and Shell executives attempt to launder their images by sponsoring a community event celebrating queer joy and resistance, they continue to fuel and profit from the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people. We are taking a stand against BP and Shell’s sponsorship of Grampian Pride because these sponsorships legitimise BP and Shell’s destructive operations against our communities, under the guise of ‘corporate responsibility’. Grampian Pride must drop BP and Shell as sponsors going forward.
In Islamic culture, Eid al-Adha carries deep meanings of compassion and solidarity. This celebration, which begins this year on June 6 and lasts four days, commemorates Prophet Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son Ismail in obedience to a divine vision, before God intervened and provided a ram instead. When we distribute the meat of the sacrificed animals, a share must go to the poor and the…
Campaigners in Enfield worked hard for months to collect and submit over three thousand signatures calling for the local council to divest from companies complicit in Israel’s genocide against Palestinians. The council, however, has so far failed to commit to voting on the matter. But pressure is building in the London borough, as campaigners refuse to back down.
Enfield: thousands back the petition, but the council drags its feet
At least 81 local government pension funds invest in complicit companies. And a Freedom of Information request revealed in 2024 that Enfield Council “invests more than £53 million of workers’ pension funds in companies complicit in human rights violations, apartheid and genocide in Palestine”. Subsequently, a grassroots effort from Enfield Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Enfield Solidarity with Palestine, and Enfield Stop the War Coalition managed to collect over 3,500 signatures for a petition calling on the Enfield Council Pension Fund committee to “divest all Local Government Pension Scheme funds from companies complicit in Israel’s violations of human rights and International Law”.
Enfield4Palestine told the Canary that campaigners haven’t yet received a response to the petition from the council, saying:
Despite the submission on the 7th April we are disappointed to be still waiting for confirmation of presenting the petition at the June 24th council meeting.
They had previously asked for a rough timeline of what to expect and received a response asserting that, upon receiving the petition:
We will then need to verify the signatures – this normally takes about 2 weeks. If the verification process confirms that you have triggered a debate at either OSC or Council, we will place the item on the next meeting date that suits all parties.
Although they expected an update after “about 2 weeks”, two months have now passed. And they’re calling on Enfield residents:
to contact their local councillor to make their views known about the situation in Gaza and for the councillors to fulfill their fiduciary duty and vote to divest pension funds from unethical companies complicit in the atrocities that we see.
This is the link for residents to contact the council.
Grassroots power is growing
The council recently refused to let campaigners use a local council hall for educational meetings on Palestine, claiming this “had the potential to raise community tension with the event dealing with a delicate and emotional topic”. This was the topic in question:
This week commemorates the 77 anniversary of the Nakba- come and hear about how it began and what is still happening today.@PSCupdatespic.twitter.com/D68Wszg9kV
This obstacle hasn’t stopped campaigners from organising, however. And they will host an event on 5 June:
The context surrounding the campaigning is one of increasing community engagement in Enfield.
In 2024, Khalid Sadur ran as an anti-war, anti-austerity independent to challenge Labour in the general election. Later in the year, in an Enfield Council by-election race for which he received Jeremy Corbyn’s endorsement, his low-budget community movement became the main opposition to Labour-Tory domination in the area.
Sadur has been supporting the calls for divestment. And he told the Canary:
Since the Independent challenge at the General Election last year, we have seen a growing number of people becoming more involved in local activism.
From by-elections to divestment, library closures to the felling of the 500 year old oak tree in Whitewebbs park, Enfield residents are coming out and making their voice heard.
He added:
There is a growing understanding that campaigning and protest is necessary to hold elected officials to account, especially when these same represenatatives fail to reply to emails or attend local surgeries.
The local elections in May 2026 will certainly provide a real alternative to the mainstream parties.
Why won’t Enfield council respond?
Councillors’ silence has so far disappointed campaigners, in an area that is increasingly standing up for what it believes is right.
With thousands of local residents asking the council to divest from unethical companies, holding a vote at the meeting on 24 June would seem like the most appropriate course of action. The question for the council to answer, then, is ‘why won’t you commit to a vote?’
On 4 June, former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn challenged MPs to back an “inquiry into the UK’s complicity in genocide”. His Gaza (independent public inquiry) bill was a chance for MPs to support accountability, or to “block our attempts to uncover the truth”. And while it passed its first reading in a quiet parliament, the vast majority of Labour MPs were nowhere to be seen. This was despite Israel’s ongoing genocidal attempts to starve Palestinian children into inconsolable despair.
Corbyn: Israel starves children
Outside parliament, protesters (and some MPs) insisted that “starving children is a red line”. One British surgeon, meanwhile, told journalists about witnessing Israel’s campaign of “mass murder and mutilation” in Gaza, calling it “the most appalling humanitarian catastrophe of our young century”. Another said children were entering hospital as if on a “conveyor belt“. She added that:
I was running an operating list and everyday at least half of the people on it were under the age of 11
Israel’s genocide has taken a massive toll on Gaza’s children, killing around one per hour since October 2023. And in this context, it’s hardly surprising to hear Save the Children’s humanitarian director Rachael Cummings saying:
Children are sharing with us now that they wish to be dead… [they] see no hope, they see no future.
This is, indeed, the mission for many politicians leading Israel’s settler-colonial project in Palestine. Finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, for example, wants to “kill the de facto Palestinian state”. And he promised last month that people in Gaza:
will be totally despairing, understanding that there is no hope and nothing to look for in Gaza, and will be looking for relocation to begin a new life in other places.
Most Labour MPs have no red line, apparently
Despite Cummings’s comments, Save the Children emphasised that:
the UK continues to transfer arms to Israel.
In fact, the British government is currently in court trying to defend its actions. Because under both Conservative and now Labour rule, the UK has consistently offered Israel the politicalandmaterialsupport it has needed to commit genocide.
Jeremy Corbyn’s bill to investigate Britain’s role in Israel’s genocide got cross-party support. But only a “small number of MPs” were in parliament to vote it through. Only 10 Labour MPs signed the letter co-sponsoring Corbyn’s call (they were Diane Abbott, Jon Trickett, Imran Hussain, Richard Burgon, Kim Johnson, Nadia Whittome, Ian Byrne, Neil-Duncan Jordan, Steve Witherden, and Brian Leishman). Bell Ribeiro-Addy also said she was supporting it. The second reading will take place on 4 July.
However, there are currently 403 Labour MPs in total. So the overwhelming majority stayed silent, while a handful even opted to visit Israel’s genocide-cheerleading head of state recently. And as the independent socialist left gearsup for the creation of a new party, most Labour MPs have shown they prefer to go down with a sinking ship siding with genocide.
Keir Starmer’s government – which, just hours after the first reading passed, allowed a US military plane to fly from RAF Akrotiri to Israel and a UK spy plane to fly over Gaza – is unlikely to allow time for debating Corbyn’s bill or make it law. But what the challenge does is it draws a line in the sand. Which MPs are willing to stand against genocide, and which aren’t? Because that is something we should never forget.
"This issue is not going away – and we are not going anywhere."
UK military aid, arms, intelligence and decisions by government ministers have enabled Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
That’s why I’m proud to co-sponsor @jeremycorbyn’s bill for a full, independent public inquiry, like the one for the Iraq War. Truth matters. So does accountability. pic.twitter.com/WkZEs9s3g9
Staggering new polling that Opinium carried out on behalf of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) has revealed strong majorities in favour of a full arms embargo and sanctions on Israel.
Notably, respondents supported a full arms embargo on Israel by over 4 to 1. This includes 72% of those who voted for the Labour Party in the 2024 general election.
British public overwhelmingly back an arms embargo on Israel
There were also clear majorities in favour of sanctions against Israeli government ministers and for Israel to be expelled from the United Nations, with only 16% of respondents opposed to Israel’s expulsion.
Additionally, the poll showed strong support for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS). In particular, respondents backed local government pension scheme divestment from companies complicit in Israel’s violations of international law by over 3 to 1.
Moreover, respondents supported supermarkets taking Israeli goods off the shelves by 2 to 1. This follows the vote at the AGM of the Co-op to cease all trade with Israel
Thousands of Palestine solidarity activists will surround Parliament with a red line on Wednesday 4 June at 12pm. This will coincide with Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs), which will be taking place in the House of Commons.
The kilometre-long red fabric they will be holding symbolises the demand for the UK to finally take meaningful action on the Gaza genocide. Crucially, this entails stopping all military support to and imposing sanctions on Israel.
Growing condemnation for the UK government propping up genocide
There has been growing condemnation of Israel’s actions as it continues to bombard the Gaza Strip on a daily basis. It continues to destroy the infrastructure essential to life, having already killed more than 60,000 Palestinians, including approximately 20,000 children.
For nearly three months, Israel has imposed a total blockade preventing all humanitarian assistance. This is resulting in deaths by starvation, widespread malnutrition, and hunger amongst 2.3 million people. Israel has now imposed a severely limited and militarised aid operation, that international aid organisations have condemned. It has resulted in Israel shooting dead scores of Palestinians as they queue up for food.
In the UK, MPs and peers from all parties have made urgent calls for the government to take action. At the end of May, 828 UK-based legal experts, among them former Supreme Court justices, signed a letter to prime minister Sir Keir Starmer warning that “genocide is being perpetrated in Gaza”.
They said the UK and all countries were legally obliged to “prevent and punish genocide”, but that:
the UK’s actions to date have failed to meet those standards.
They called on the UK government to impose trade sanctions. On top of this, they urged the government to suspend the UK’s “2030 Roadmap” with Israel – an agreement on defence, technology, and other areas.
Labour’s support to genocidal Israel: crossing a red line
Despite Foreign Secretary David Lammy calling Israel’s latest offensive “morally unjustifiable” in a Commons statement two weeks ago, the UK government has failed to recognise Israel’s actions as constituting genocide. Moreover, it continues to provide a range of military, diplomatic, and economic support to Israel.
The High Court is now examining legality of the UK’s decisions concerning arms sales to Israel.
Ben Jamal, PSC Director, said:
The polling released this morning speaks to Israel’s growing isolation and the significant public support for sanctions. By continuing to arm and support Israel even as it enacts a genocide and a policy of forced starvation, the British government is holding on to an increasingly fringe position, completely out of sync with public opinion, and with the views of those who supported it at the last election.
Those bringing the demand for an arms embargo to Parliament today in a symbolic red line are doing so knowing that the demand is supported by the majority of their fellow citizens.
Many people, armed only with moral and political convictions, would be too intimidated to confront an army or navy directly. But not all.
Twelve nonviolent human-rights activists with the international Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) are currently sailing a small boat, the Madleen, to Gaza. They hope to create a humanitarian sea corridor through Israel’s illegal blockade. If all goes well, they should arrive this weekend, with “baby formula, flour, rice, diapers, women’s sanitary products, water desalination kits, medical supplies, crutches, and children’s prosthetics.”
The major Australian city of Sydney saw one of its largest pro-Palestine rallies to date when a sea of red flowed through the streets in the heart of the city. On June 1, thousands of Australians holding Palestinian flags and placards marched outside Town Hall in Sydney’s central business district (CBD) against Israel’s actions in Gaza.
On the same day as the protest, over 30 Palestinians were shot while seeking aid in Gaza, and the region’s only dialysis hospital in the north was destroyed. Meanwhile, mediators Qatar and Egypt renewed talks for a 60-day truce.
The demonstration in Sydney began with a stream of fiery speeches by the organizers of the mobilization, including leaders from the Palestinian diaspora, student and teacher activists, and the Indigenous Aboriginal activists of Australia.
An Israeli officer who reportedly ordered soldiers to “shoot to kill” people in Gaza holding a white flag has been promoted to the rank of battalion commanding officer, meaning that he may be directing hundreds or thousands of soldiers. Haaretz reports that, in 2024, the unnamed officer ordered soldiers to shoot two people spotted by a drone walking toward a corridor in Gaza who were carrying…
There is a boat sailing to Gaza right now. It carries aid for the people of Palestine. And it is called the Freedom Flotilla.
It is a sign of solidarity. A sign of resistance. Against Israel’s war on the people of Palestine. Against the death, and destruction and pain. A sign of international resistance against the Israeli genocide.
On board is Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, and 11 others from around the world.
“12 people are here on board, to break the siege and to create a people’s humanitarian corridor. To take whatever aid we can carry. And to say that we do not accept a genocide. We do not accept ethnic cleansing. And we will not stay silent.”
That’s Brazilian activist Thiago Ávila.
The goal is to break Israel’s siege of Gaza and deliver much needed humanitarian aid. Israel has maintained a blockade on Gaza since 2007, strictly controlling the entry of supplies, goods, and aid into the region.
On board the ship is rice, flour, baby formula, diapers, women’s sanitary products, water desalination kits, and medical supplies.
This is not the first time they have tried to sail to Gaza.
One month ago, another ship, also sailing as part of the Freedom Flotilla, was attacked by drones. 15 years ago, another group of ships were attacked. Israeli forces killed 10 people on board. Injured dozens. And arrested everyone.
Greta Thunberg spoke to the public shortly before they set sail on June 1.
“We are doing this because no matter what odds we are against, we have to keep trying. Because the moment we stop trying is when we lose our humanity. And no matter how dangerous this mission is. It is no where near as dangerous as the silence of the entire world in the face of a live-streamed genocide.”
“We just want to say that this isn’t just about getting food into Gaza. It’s also about breaking the medical seizure of doctors. Bringing in doctors and medical equipment. And I just have a few messages to all of the doctors and nurses in Gaza that are doing amazing work. Not just the local doctors, but the international doctors. We see you. We see the work that you’re doing on there and the reporting that you’re doing on the ground.”
The Freedom Flotilla left from Sicily, Italy, on June 1. It’s a seven-day voyage. If all goes as planned, they will arrive to Gaza this weekend.
“We need you to keep all eyes on deck. To follow the mission. And to keep putting pressure on your respective governments and institutions to demand an end to the genocide and occupation in Palestine.”
###
Hi folks, thanks for listening. I’m your host Michael Fox.
I have no words to describe the dire situation in Gaza. We’ll be following the progress of the Freedom Flotilla closely over the coming days.
If you liked this story, please consider signing up for the Stories of Resistance podcast feed, either in Spotify, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. I’ll add links in the show notes.
You can support my work and this podcast, plus check out exclusive pictures, videos and stories on my Patreon. That’s Patreon.com/mfox.
This is Episode 42 of Stories of Resistance, a podcast series co-produced by The Real News and Global Exchange. Independent investigative journalism, supported by Global Exchange’s Human Rights in Action program. Each week, I bring you stories of resistance and hope like this. Inspiration for dark times. If you like what you hear, please subscribe, like, share, comment or leave a review.
As always, thanks for listening. See you next time.
###
“We know that for 78 years, not a single bottle of water, not a single piece of bread enters Gaza. So we are going on a small boat called Madleen that fits 10-12 people, carrying whatever humanitarian aid we can carry, carrying all the people that wants to go there, and go into Gaza, not because we think that a few boxes we will be able to take will make a difference… we know that this is just a drop in the ocean, but we are going to open a people’s humanitarian corridor.”
This is episode 42 of Stories of Resistance—a podcast co-produced by The Real News and Global Exchange. Independent investigative journalism, supported by Global Exchange’s Human Rights in Action program. Each week, we’ll bring you stories of resistance like this. Inspiration for dark times.
If you like what you hear, please subscribe, like, share, comment, or leave a review.
And please consider signing up for the Stories of Resistance podcast feed, either in Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Spreaker, or wherever you listen.
Visit patreon.com/mfox for exclusive pictures, to follow Michael Fox’s reporting and to support his work.
Liberal mainstream media outlets are increasingly calling for Europe to take action to hold Israel to account for its genocide in Gaza. But that’s not because it’s a genocide – a word they still refuse to use. Instead, it seems to be because they fear Europe will lose international legitimacy over its clear hypocrisy on Israel.
Failure to act could over Israel see Europe “slide into irrelevance”
The more likely reason for the current handwringing is to buy Israel more time, while trying to fool citizens into thinking they’re acting.
Media outlets like the Guardian and the Financial Times (FT), meanwhile, have other reasons to push for action.
A piece in the Guardian, for example, argued that – after 20 months of death and destruction – “Israel’s actions finally became too severe to ignore, deny or justify”. As a result, Europe “faces a moment of truth”, and should “follow through on trade sanctions on Israel – or slide into irrelevance”. Explaining that “a human rights review of EU-Israel ties is under way”, it insisted that “the results will be significant for both the war and Europe’s reputation”.
If Europe had anyone’s respect in the world before October 2023, that has suffered irreparable damage through these many months of woefully inadequate action.
“Hypocrisy is part of it”
The FT, in all fairness, correctly noted the role hypocrisy has played in Europe’s uselessness since 2023. It called for sanctions on Israel, if only to “make threats of sanctions more credible” by finally being consistent. The inconsistency, of course, could hardly be clearer if we compare Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Israel’s genocide in Gaza. And the FT admitted:
No doubt the west has treated Russia and Israel differently, and hypocrisy is part of it.
It even said:
the UN has found overwhelming evidence of Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza and in connection with the increasingly brutal occupation of the West Bank.
But in its call for consistency in Europe’s dealings with Israel, it still omitted the word genocide and sought to ‘both sides’ the settler-colonial slaughter, which it chose to call:
Benjamin Netanyahu’s war in Gaza
And it added:
It is possible — indeed sensible — to think Israel is entitled to wage war against Hamas in Gaza
This is not about Netanyahu, though. It’s about Israel as a decades-old occupying power which Western governments arm to the teeth with a side serving of near-total impunity. And no, Israel doesn’t have an ‘entitlement’ to destroy Gaza. As Jewish academic Norman Finkelstein has insisted:
Israelis have only one right, to pack up their bags and leave the State of Palestine.
UN expert Francesca Albanese has added to this by asserting that, legally, “Israel didn’t have the right to wage a war against the Palestinians in Gaza”, clarifying that:
It cannot claim the right of self-defence against a threat that emanates from a territory it occupies
Mainstream media still not doing their job
Papers like the Guardian and FT aren’t ignorant. They know the context, but consciously choose to omit key words or information from their coverage. In doing so, they cover for Israel by helping to conceal its genocidal behaviour. So just as establishment politicians in Europe lose international legitimacy over their inaction in the face of genocide, so too should their mainstream media counterparts.
May 22, 2025, was the last day of life as they knew it for the Bedouin community of Maghayer al-Deir, which until recently used to reside east of Ramallah, in the central occupied West Bank. The 24 Palestinian families who made up the community were forced to gather their belongings and leave their home in the eastern slopes of Ramallah overlooking the Jordan Valley. After three days of intense harassment and attacks on the community, Israeli settlers now have complete control over the little valley.
Ahmad (not his real name), a father of 6 children from Maghayer al-Deir who spoke to Mondoweiss on the condition of anonymity, said that he had called the valley home all his life. “I was born in Maghayer al-Deir and have always been there,” he said.
Major U.S. firm Boston Consulting Group (BCG) has pulled out of its involvement in the U.S. and Israel’s supposed humanitarian aid scheme in Gaza as human rights groups have warned that the operation is actually a “death trap” that has led to hundreds of casualties so far. BCG withdrew its ground operation team from Tel Aviv on Friday, The Washington Post reports, and has terminated its…
After an Israeli drone attack on the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) mission to take aid to occupied Gaza, the unarmed civilian boat once again set sail on 1 June. It is aiming to take aid to help the Palestinian people that Israel has been starving since 2 March as part of its ongoing genocide. And as a result, hardcore Israel supporters have been making thinly-veiled threats against the activists on board, and in particular against Greta Thunberg.
The ship is carrying urgently needed supplies for the people of Gaza, including baby formula, flour, rice, diapers, women’s sanitary products, water desalination kits, medical supplies, crutches, and children’s prosthetics.
This humanitarian mission, however, is something genocide apologists can’t stomach.
A 22-year-old girl tries to feed the starving. And they threaten her life — publicly.
UN expert Francesca Albanese reacted to the behaviour of such “pro-apartheid minions” by calling for the ‘documentation and investigation’ of their “boundless hubris and deep contempt for human rights and basic decency”:
I trust @GretaThunberg—like anyone driven by the urgency to end genocide—has no time for pro-apartheid minions. But their boundless hubris and deep contempt for human rights and basic decency must still be documented and investigated. https://t.co/hXVKw93G31
— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) June 1, 2025
Greta Thunberg: “the moment we stop trying is when we lose our humanity”
Thunberg’s presence on the boat has helped to attract widespread media attention. And as the climate justice campaigner said before leaving:
No matter what odds we are against, we have to keep trying. Because the moment we stop trying is when we lose our humanity. This mission is dangerous, but silence in the face of genocide is far more dangerous.
“We are watching a systematic starvation of 2 million people. A live-streamed genocide and the world's silence is deadly. That is why we have to keep trying everything we can, even if the odds are against us.”
Thiago Ávila, also on board the boat, has added that “we are also preparing for land mobilisations, including a march from Egypt to Rafah in mid-June”.
Game of Thrones star Liam Cunningham, meanwhile, has openly supported the flotilla:
If Israel doesn’t attack the ship, it is due to reach Gaza within about a week.
You can call for the safety of the boat according to international law here:
Take one minute: go to https://t.co/qLOA6jZYpL and send a letter to the Israeli government, UN officials, and diplomatic missions demanding that Israel abide by international law and refrain from attacking, sabotaging or otherwise interfering with the #Madleen and her mission. pic.twitter.com/iP7OA0qrET
— Freedom Flotilla Coalition (@GazaFFlotilla) June 3, 2025
Caving to pressure from Zionist groups, Toronto’s City Council just passed a controversial new bylaw that will severely limit Canadians’ right to peacefully protest. In this episode of The Marc Steiner Show, Marc speaks with Toronto-based, award-winning journalist Samira Mohyeddin about the origins and effects of Toronto’s “bubble zone” bylaw and how it will provide a template for other jurisdictions across North America to undermine political dissent.
Guest(s):
Samira Mohyeddin is an award winning producer and broadcaster based in Toronto. For nearly a decade she was a producer and host at Canada’s National Broadcaster, CBC Radio. She is the founder of On The Line Media and the 2024 / 2025 journalism fellow at the Women and Gender Studies Institute at the University of Toronto
Studio Production: David Hebden Audio Post-Production: Alina Nehlich
Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.
Marc Steiner:
Welcome to the Marc Steiner Show here on The Real News. I’m Marc Steiner and it’s good to have you all with us. And we once again, go to Israel Palestine, to Palestine, Israel and talk about what’s going on and the horrendous war and slaughter taking place in Gaza at this moment. And we’re once again joined by Samira Mohyeddin, who hosts From the Desk, which is an incredible program and welcome. Good to have you with us.
Samira Mohyeddin:
Always a pleasure to speak with you, Marc.
Marc Steiner:
And Samira is an award-winning producer and broadcaster for nearly a decade. She was producer and host of Canada’s National Broadcaster, CPC Radio. She’s the founder of the online media and a 20 24, 20 25 Journalism Fellow at the Women and Gender Studies Institute at the University of Toronto. And Samir’s, always good to have you with us. And I really big sign. I mean, when we talked last, we focused on Palestine, Israel, but there’s something about this particular moment that is one of the worst in my 30, 40 years, 50 years. One of that’s been being involved in this from my time as a young Zionist to now. And one of the things I posited to a congregation, a synagogue a few weeks back was how can we be doing this after all that’s been done to us? And I just feel that we’re in a very dangerous moment worldwide because of all this. Well, let me let you jump in.
Samira Mohyeddin:
Yeah. The images that have been coming out, particularly in the last two weeks, children burned beyond recognition, sinned and charred bodies. We saw that young girl walking through a fiery inferno survival itself as a form of punishment. There’s 24,000 orphans now in Gaza, and it just keeps getting worse. And I’m sorry to have laughed at the start of the program, but when these images came out a couple of days ago of this Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, and you saw Palestinians lined up in these cages, I mean, it’s just horrendous what we’re seeing. And yet you have these governments, the US government, Canada, uk, Germany, just not acting. It just begs the question, where is the red line? Is there even a red line for Israel?
Marc Steiner:
That’s an important question. One of the things, I had a conversation the other day with some friends from Israel, one of whom lives in Canada, another one family who lives here in the states, old friends who were part of the world of maam, which was the Marx Zionist party back in the day in Israel, and the left in Israel itself has gone. They’re in Germany, they’re in Canada, they’re in the United States, they’re in Mexico, they’re in Argentina, they’re not there. And you’re seeing this kind of really brutal Neofascist government.
Samira Mohyeddin:
Well, they’re under attack. They’re under attack in Israel, right? I mean, they are being brutalized, they’re being imprisoned, they’re being silenced, they’re being censored. So a Netanyahu Smote Rich and Ben Gere talk about Israel being on a fight on eight different fronts. And one of those fronts is the enemy from within. And that enemy for them is anyone who is speaking out, anyone who’s even saying ceasefire is being seen as an enemy.
Marc Steiner:
So I’m just curious, in your analysis, you’ve been doing this for so long and it’s so deep in your consciousness and your work, as I alluded to earlier, what’s happening this moment in Gaza is different than I’ve seen in a long time. And I wonder where you think this is taking us.
Samira Mohyeddin:
I mean, there are a couple of things. I think one of them is that I don’t think people were paying attention when October 7th first happened, and then October 8th and ninth came, this government particularly, I’m speaking about the Netanyahu government, was very clear about what they intended to do, right? They said, we’re going to cut off all food, cut off all water, cut off all electricity, and get rid of the seed of Amalek so that there was this sort of invoking of biblical stories, biblical language. And to kill the seed of Amalek means to kill the women. And children just wipe out the entire group. And that’s what we’re seeing happen.
Norman Finkelstein refers to the mowing of the lawn that Israel says it does once in a while in Gaza. This is the entire burning of the entire fields happening. I was talking to a friend about this. There are no battlefields that you can really speak of in Gaza, the UN report that came out six months ago noted that more than 80% of people killed in Gaza were killed inside their homes. So what does that tell you? That means that people are just being targeted in the middle of the night while they’re sleeping. Entire families have been wiped off the registry. So yeah, you’re very right, mark, when you say that we’ve never seen anything like this. And I just feel like Israel is at a point where Netanyahu and its government, smote, rich, Ben Vere, they know that this is the moment that if they don’t wipe out Gaza now, they’ll never get another chance. And also, this is something else that I keep impressing upon people, and it also gives me a little bit of hope when I think about the history. So this isn’t the first time that Israel has wanted to get rid of Palestinians in Gaza, Israel first invaded Gaza back in 1956.
And in 1976, Israel wanted to remove all Palestinians from Gaza into the Sinai and put them on basically reservations. They built all these homes and they wanted to move them in there. So I get a little bit of hope from that knowing that they’ve tried to do it before and it didn’t work. And I’m hoping that it won’t work this time either. But they have made the entire landscape uninhabitable. That’s the difference
Marc Steiner:
They have. I think that we’re seeing, I think to the last, as we started this conversation, I maybe even under not seeing the right number, but I was reading 56,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza.
Samira Mohyeddin:
Those are the ones that are confirmed,
Marc Steiner:
Right?
Samira Mohyeddin:
And when I spoke with doctors, I realized what that means. That means that a doctor saw you in a hospital and that you died before their eyes. And so they mark that down. But you and I both know there are tens of thousands of people under the rubble that we actually have seen Israeli bulldozers going in and leveling entire towns. All of Rafa has been leveled. There are people under that rubble,
Marc Steiner:
Which you said earlier when you raise the name Amalek from the Old Testament, the heightened danger here for me is watching fundamentalists in Israel, religious fundamentalists, taking over the country, taking over the argument, taking over the language being used, and the imagery, which says a lot about the destruction of your enemy, whoever they are. That’s why I think this moment is so dangerous.
Samira Mohyeddin:
I mean, mark, just to pick up on what you’re saying, just look at the way the star of David has been used, the way it’s been desecrated, the way it’s been spray painted on people’s homes that have been destroyed and occupied in Gaza. It’s so dangerous for Judaism. Really, this Israeli government has ruined Judaism is causing antisemitism a very real scourge in our society. Not only have they hollowed out the definition of antisemitism, because anyone who’s criticizing Israel now is antisemitic, but they are also desecrating the very iconography of the religion for nefarious purposes.
Marc Steiner:
I agree. I think that when you look at how Judaism is being used at this moment, antisemitism has always been there. It lurks beneath the surface all the time. People have hated Jews forever. And what this does is unleash it. You can see it all across America. You can see it across Europe. You can see it across everywhere. I had this argument the other day where I said, no, I’m not saying that Jews are causing that. We’re causing antisemitism. I’m saying the actions of Israel are unleashing the forces of antisemitism and I that those contradictions are just abound. Let’s take it back home for a moment. I’m going to talk a bit about where you live in Canada,
Samira Mohyeddin:
Toronto. Yeah,
Marc Steiner:
Toronto. And many of our listeners here who don’t live in Canada, have no idea what this whole bubble thing’s about. So tell us exactly what’s happening in Toronto with quashing down any anti-ISIS Israeli protests at the moment.
Samira Mohyeddin:
Yeah, so we just recently, when I say we, I mean the Toronto City Council just passed what’s called a bubble zone bylaw. And in order to explain this to you, I need to take you back to March, 2024. So in March, 2024, there were real estate blitzes throughout North America, including in the us. One of them was in Teaneck, New Jersey. And so inside synagogues, they were selling stolen Palestinian land. These are settlements. So settlement properties were being sold in synagogues. And so inside those synagogues were real estate agents, mortgage brokers, and lawyers ready to sell you homes within illegally occupied.
Marc Steiner:
It happened here in Baltimore,
Samira Mohyeddin:
Palestine. Oh, it did? I didn’t know that. Everywhere.
Marc Steiner:
Everywhere.
Samira Mohyeddin:
Okay. Yeah. So here in Canada, we had one in Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, and I’m not sure if there was one in Vancouver. But anyways, as a result of this, people went and were protesting outside of that, of those synagogues. And as a result of this, a lot of the pro-Israeli organizations here in Toronto and in Canada, were calling for what they’re calling bubble zone bylaws, which means if you can classify your place as a vulnerable institution, which the city of Toronto has, so places of worship are considered vulnerable institutions, schools, recreational areas like art galleries and blah, blah, blah, these places can be excluded from people protesting in front of them. And so in March of 24, people had these real estate blitzers here in Toronto, people had gone and protested. And in December of 2024, after so much pressure being put on the Toronto City Council, the solicitor, so city solicitor was tasked with coming up for a plan for a bylaw, which would protect these institutions and create these areas. So that’s 3000 places where in Toronto, where you potentially cannot protest any
Marc Steiner:
3000 places, you can’t set up a pig line.
Samira Mohyeddin:
3000 places. Yes. So what ended up happening was that the city started public consultations about this bylaw. Now, they had three public consultations, and the report that came out of those public consultations was that 77% of the public were against this bylaw. They did not want it. However, they still went ahead with a vote in Toronto City Council. So last week they had a vote, 16 of the counselors passed, the bylaw nine were against it. So ultimately it passed. Now, what was interesting in the back and forth on this bylaw was that there were motions that were introduced. So 20 meters, 50 meters, 100 meters. How far away do you have to be from one of these institutions to be able to protest? And so initially the bylaw had said 20 meters, but they passed a motion so that now it’s 50 meters, you have to be 50 meters away from a synagogue or wherever else that something is going on that you want to protest about. And so I made this joke to my friend. I said, if a protest happens in the forest and no one is around to hear it, is that even a protest? The whole point of a protest is to be disruptive.
So this is what we’re seeing. We’re seeing this throughout North America, in particular, old laws being broken, new laws being enacted also that people who want to support Israel during this genocide can do so comfortably.
Marc Steiner:
I mean, people look at Canada in places like Toronto as being politically progressive. So what’s the political dynamic that allows us to happen in Toronto that allows us 16 people to vote for this line to oppose it on the city council? What is a dynamic politically in Canada that’s allowing this to happen?
Samira Mohyeddin:
I have to be honest, the Israeli lobby is very strong here. They put a lot of pressure on our lawmakers to act, and if they don’t, the accusations of antisemitism are sky high. And there is a real fear of being branded as antisemitic. And that’s really what it boils down to, because there is no reason why our lawmakers would sacrifice our charter of rights and freedoms, particularly the freedom of assembly, the freedom of expression, all of these freedoms in order to not allow people to protest in certain areas. Now, I will say for all the hoop law that this bylaw has caught, I was at a protest yesterday.
The former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations was being hosted here in Toronto by a pro-Israel organization inside one of Toronto’s landmarks. This is a public institution. And as you recall, GLA Adon, the former ambassador on his last day, said that he thinks the UN headquarters should be wiped off the face of the earth. So this is a man who was being hosted, and now people did go and protest and they didn’t care if there was a bylaw or no bylaw or so. People are really going to let bylaws be bylaws. I mean, no one’s going to care about this. They’re going to go protest. The only thing that this might do, and by the way, it’s cost taxpayers in this city, $2 million for this
Marc Steiner:
Bylaw. What do you mean cost $2 million?
Samira Mohyeddin:
It’s going to cost $2 million. The new bylaw officers, all the paperwork, all the bureaucracy that’s going to go into enforcing this thing, which is really unenforceable
Because what’s going to happen is it’s going to clog up our courts. People are going to bring so many charter rights infringements against this bylaw constitutional infringements. So it’s an absurd thing, but again, it’s an absurdity that goes to the times that we are living in right now, whereas it’s also a tragedy. There’s a lot of comedy involved in what you and I are seeing right now, mark, because we have the weight of history on our side. We’ve been here before, we’ve seen fascism before, and this is just another manifestation of it. And I really feel like people need to wake up and understand what’s happening around them.
Marc Steiner:
So I’m curious to pick up from the particular point about the growth of neo fascism all around us. We’re seeing in this country, in United States, Trump attacking Harvard and other universities threatening to take away their money, calling them Antisemites, which is just total bs. I mean, Harvard antisemitic. I mean, the percentage of Jewish kids at Harvard and the faculty. Give me a break. Anyway, so that’s happening and it’s also happening in Canada.
Samira Mohyeddin:
Yes.
Marc Steiner:
I’m curious about from your perspective, what is the political power and dynamic that’s pushing that it, it’s not just the Jewish community. I mean, it’s something beyond that. Something is happening here that’s pushing a very powerful Neofascist agenda across the globe.
Samira Mohyeddin:
I mean, it also has to do with money, right? It’s capitalism. Also, the University of Toronto, for instance, where I was a journalism fellow this year at the Women and Gender Studies Institute, you are seeing our professors at the University of Toronto being persecuted also, they’re being brought in to speak to the vice provost, the dean, et cetera, for things for, for social media posts, for literally just saying ceasefire or asking why their institutions aren’t divesting from Israeli genocide, asking why their pensions are going towards arms manufacturers. I mean, these are the basic things that people are being persecuted for, that they’re having their livelihoods put on the line. This is what we’re seeing. It’s not just in the us. I mean, it’s not to the extent that you’re seeing it in the United States, but there’s a lot of professors that are under a lot of threat here throughout Canada.
Marc Steiner:
So what is resistance to that? What’s the political dynamic taking place in Canada, let’s say, since we’re talking about your country at this moment, that resists that and builds a movement to stop it?
Samira Mohyeddin:
I mean, I can tell you one of the things that was a big victory at the University of Toronto is that the Professors Pension Federation Union voted to divest from weapons manufacturers. This was a big two.
Marc Steiner:
This is across Canada?
Samira Mohyeddin:
No, this is the University of Toronto.
Marc Steiner:
Toronto, okay. Yeah. Okay. Okay.
Samira Mohyeddin:
So the University of Toronto did this, and then the week after Toronto Metropolitan University did the same. So you’re seeing this happen, and another big thing that happened was that yesterday the Toronto District School Board finally recognized that anti Palestinian racism is a thing because they had been denying it for years. And there are teachers now who are pushing to have the nakba taught in the school system. Now, there is a lot of pushback on this from pro-Israeli groups here, but they are slowly trying to get this within the curriculum. And I always say, if history, if you are afraid of history or history is not your friend, there’s something going on there. So they are saying that some of the students would feel uncomfortable with teaching about Palestinian history. Who would feel uncomfortable about that?
Marc Steiner:
Right. It’s like saying in Canada, United States, no, we are not going to teach you about what happened to indigenous people in America. It might make you uncomfortable that your ancestors wiped out entire people. Right,
Samira Mohyeddin:
Exactly. I mean, when I went to school here in Canada in the eighties, we never learned about what this government and what this country did to the indigenous population. It’s only in the last, oh, I would say decade or so that students are wearing orange shirts, that there’s the truth and reconciliation that people are learning.
Marc Steiner:
What’s an orange shirt mean?
Samira Mohyeddin:
Oh, sorry. Orange shirt day is for the marking, the indigenous indigenous day here, and what happened to young people that were stolen from their parents and taken to residential schools, and we know what happened inside those schools. So that’s only been happening in the last decade. So that’s really what teachers now here are pushing for, but there is a real pushback on it.
Marc Steiner:
So taking a step back to where we are with Israel Palestine and what’s happening, and we’re watching what’s happening in Gaza, I think that this is a very pivotal moment. It’s a piece I’m working on now that says it’s not since 1948 that the power of this moment, and we are in a very dangerous place. I think you’re seeing antisemitism rise up. You’re seeing Israel just mass murdering Palestinian children and families all across Kaza, more land being taken in what’s called the West Bank and New Israeli and the right winging just taking power there and across the globe. So I’m curious, you are in the midst of this all the time. You speak about this, you fight about it, you’re on the front line, and I’m curious where you think this takes the organizing and fight against both what’s happening in Israel at this moment with Palestinians and the larger question of the rise of this kind of neofascist movement and how you stop it.
Samira Mohyeddin:
One of the things I’ve noticed, and I’m sure you have also, is that within the last two weeks, there seems to be a bit of a shift, particularly in mainstream media. You’re seeing journalists start to do their jobs, which means when an IDF spokesperson comes on the air and says, there are no starving people in Gaza, there are no starving Palestinians. In Gaza, you’re seeing journalists actually say, well, wait a minute. We just saw this 9-year-old die. I saw the bodies. I’ve seen the bones. So there’s a lot of that happening right now. There’s a bit of a turn happening. Everyone is starting to do their jobs, what they’re supposed to do. There are also backtracks from institutions, writers, artists, people who did not feel comfortable speaking out a year ago are starting to speak out now. And I have to say to all those people, bless you. Try and encourage others to do it. I really think that having the courage to speak out right now is contagious. And so come out, come out wherever you are. That to me is the first thing. It’s not too late. Remember, the screenshots are not going to be kind. This stuff wasn’t around during apartheid South Africa. We know who spoke out
Now and who didn’t, and so it’s never too late to do that. The other thing that I’m seeing is that there are some murmurings within even governments like Germany’s saying, maybe our full support for Israel isn’t such a great thing. I mean, Canada, the UK and France put out a statement last week saying they might be moving towards sanctions or an arms embargo if Israel doesn’t curb its military activities. We didn’t see statements like this last year. So there is some movement happening, but it’s not enough. It’s not enough. And I really see Israel’s spiraling right now. I mean, there are a lot of people within Israel right now protesting on the streets too. Let’s not discount these people in Israel who are getting arrested. And I’m speaking about Israelis, Jewish Israelis,
Marc Steiner:
Right? Yes, right.
Samira Mohyeddin:
Who are being arrested. All of these people, they are on the streets and they’re calling it what it is. It’s a genocide. And that takes a lot of guts, and I think we need to encourage those people. Also,
Marc Steiner:
There’s stuff going on inside of Israel now among Jews and others, but among Jews in Israel at this moment who were protesting, it reminds me of what they’re facing, the danger they’re facing physically for saying, no, reminds me a great deal of what I experienced as a civil rights worker in the South. The absolute fear that you’re going to die from standing up to say, we have to end segregation. The same thing is happening, and I think it’s not being reported or talked about enough, which I’m going to try to do much more of, is getting those Jewish voices on from Israel, talking about why they’re standing up, and actually the huge numbers of people who are saying no. That’s really kind of an undercover story. I think.
Samira Mohyeddin:
I agree with you. I think we need to highlight the Jewish voices in particular who go to places like Mata and provide, put their bodies on the line that get in between these settlers, these rab settlers that are completely unhinged and have the support of the army at every turn. They’re putting their bodies on the line. There was actually a woman here in Canada, Anna Lipman, who just returned last week. She was doing what’s called protective presence within the occupied West Bank. She was there for months, has been arrested numerous times by the Israeli army. So I think it’s important to highlight those people also.
Marc Steiner:
So just as we wrap up, I’m going to come back to Canada here at the Bubble Law and talk a bit more about, so we can conclude with that, where this is going, who’s standing up to it, and where do you think what effect this is going to have?
Samira Mohyeddin:
The thing is that Toronto was one of the last areas to invoke this bubble legislation. So there was a suburb called Vaughn, which had it first. Then we have another sort of area called Brampton, which had it also, what was really interesting during the debates around this bubble legislation was that the counselors, the city counselors that were for it, were making comparisons to abortion clinics. So Canada had enacted bubble legislation for women’s reproductive health clinics so that women who were going in to have abortions wouldn’t need to look at fetuses torn up and all that stuff. And doctors who were performing these surgeries wouldn’t have people surround their homes and all this stuff. And so I think it’s a very churlish comparison because one act is against domestic and international law, the sale of occupied Palestinian lands. The other is about women’s reproductive health. But they sort of jumped on this and said, we’ve had bubble legislation before.
We need to have it for this. Now, there was a one particular counselor, her name was Diana Sacks, who was the only one that spoke the truth. Because what is really interesting about this mark is that no one ever talks about the root causes of why we even had this legislation come about. We had this legislation come about because people were selling stolen Palestinian land inside synagogues. People weren’t ever protesting in front of synagogues willy-nilly. There was no reason to. But when you make your synagogue into a place of crime, well then people are going to protest in front of it. So that is the real problem that I have, that the root causes are never talked about. But I really firmly believe that this bylaw is not going to stop anyone from protesting. It really won’t.
Marc Steiner:
So you’ll be out there.
Samira Mohyeddin:
I’ll be out there covering it. I mean, this was the 85th protest held in Toronto since October 8th.
Marc Steiner:
Around is Israel Palestine, you mean around boron? Gaza,
Samira Mohyeddin:
Yes. Toronto has had more protests than any other city in the whole of North America.
Marc Steiner:
Interesting.
Samira Mohyeddin:
And it really is, in a lot of ways, I think people need to pay more attention to this city. It is ground zero for what is going on in Israel Palestine.
Marc Steiner:
So what we’re going to do is pay more attention to you. So we can talk more about this since it’s ground zero and you’re in ground zero, so there’s so much more to talk about. But we’re going to link to your broadcast where you really, so people can hear what you have to say and what you’re saying. It’s called From the Desk, Samira Mohyeddin. It’s just an amazing, great program, very animated, very deep. You’ll enjoy it. And Samira, I want to thank you once again for joining us. It’s always a pleasure to talk to you despite the heaviness of what we have to face in our conversations. So we’ll keep up the fight and we’ll stay in touch.
Samira Mohyeddin:
Thank you so much, mark. It’s really great speaking with you all. Take care.
Marc Steiner:
And once again, I want to thank Samira Mohyeddin for joining us today. And we’ll be linking to her work so you can see it for yourself. It’s really intense and deeply intellectual and dives deep into subjects. Be a well worth a watch for you. And we’re going to bring you more updates from Samira, and we’re going to be talking to her again, as we said during the end of our conversation. And thanks to David Hebdon for running the program today, and Alina Nek for working her magic and editing and the titleless killer of our for making it all work behind the scenes. And everyone here at Real News for making this show possible. Please let me know what you thought about, what you heard today, what you’d like us to cover. Just write to me at mss@therealnews.com and I’ll get right back to you. Once again, thank you to our guests, mayor. So for the crew here at The Real News, I’m Marc Steiner. Stay involved. Keep listening, and take care.
It is entirely unsurprising that Israel has yet again been caught out in a lie – a lie that the BBC once again spread far and wide on its news services.
Israel claimed that it had not fired at starving Palestinians queuing on Sunday morning to get food from one of its highly militarised “aid distribution hubs” – a system Israel imposed on Gaza in place of a long-established and successful aid network run by the United Nations.
More than 30 Palestinians are known to have been killed and dozens more injured in the weekend incident.
Israel blamed Hamas fighters for shooting Palestinian civilians, saying they were trying to stop the crowds from taking food boxes. The Israeli military dished up a video, taken by one of its drones, as supposed proof.
The BBC broadcast that video on its main shows, and then did one of its standard “Israel said, the Palestinians said. Who can really know the truth?” reports of the incident.
The BBC should never have taken Israel’s disinformation seriously, not least because Israeli claims are always shown to be lies when subjected to any serious independent scrutiny. The default position should be that Israel is lying until it can demonstrate convincingly that it is not.
Doctors treating the dead and wounded immediately pointed out that their injuries were consistent with Israeli gunfire. The victims had single shots to the head or chest, in line with targeting by Israeli snipers. Others suffered shrapnel wounds from tank shells. Hamas has no tanks.
Now, expert analysis of the video itself – paradoxically confirmed by BBC Verify – shows that the footage was filmed in Khan Younis, far from Rafah, where the Palestinian aid seekers were killed. It is also apparent from the shadows that the video was taken in the evening, not in the morning when the Palestinians in Rafah were shot.
Despite this, the BBC still writes: “The circumstances of this strike are unclear.”
No, it is entirely clear that the Israeli army disseminated lies, and that the BBC lapped up those lies and spread them to its audiences via its main news shows, before tentatively retracting the lies quietly on a live feed on its website.
The reality is that the video doesn’t show Hamas fighters shooting Palestinians to stop them from getting aid. Rather, it shows a criminal Palestinian gang – of the kind Israel has been cultivating and allying with – looting aid so that it can be sold back to Palestinians on the open market, where Israel’s blockade on food has massively inflated prices.
There are no police in Gaza maintaining law and order because Israel kills any Palestinian seen wearing a police uniform.
It was for these very reasons that international aid organisations refused to take part in Israel’s scheme. They understood that it was never about distributing humanitarian aid, as the UN was best placed to do so.
It was not even chiefly about weaponising aid to lure Palestinians into what are effectively Israeli military bases so that soldiers can use biometric data to snatch any Palestinians they want, disappearing them into Israel’s torture camps, as they have been doing.
Rather, it is about giving the appearance of providing food, most of it useless because it is dried staples that need cooking, when there is almost no water or fuel available, while continuing to starve the vast majority of Palestinians. And it is about using the aid hubs as another front for killing Palestinians.
In other words, after taking the aid system out of the UN’s hands, Israel is successfully enfolding the so-called “humanitarian effort” into its genocide.
If that sounds too cynical, mark this. Israel again shot at crowds gathering on Tuesday morning to get aid from one of its “distribution hubs”, killing at least 27 Palestinians and wounding more than 180.
Several witnesses say there was no aid available when they arrived.
There is no way to be too cynical about what Israel is doing. Israel is utterly committed to its genocide, and a genocidal state has no red lines.
(@Ema97n) 
