On Tuesday, May 20, a majority of representatives in the Spanish Parliament voted in favor of a motion calling for an arms embargo on Israel. Spearheaded by the progressive blocs Podemos, Sumar, and the Republican Left of Catalonia, everyone but the right-wing supported the motion – including Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE).
While the news undoubtedly marks an important achievement for the months-long grassroots Palestine solidarity mobilizations in Europe and beyond, many activists caution against interpreting it as a decisive sign of Spain’s concrete commitment to halting the genocide in Gaza.
Most of Mohammed Mohsen’s neighbors live in a state of deprivation and hunger, reliant on the World Food Programme for daily survival. When he is able to get donations from individuals abroad, Mohsen delivers food baskets to his community in the Al-Jawf governorate in northeastern Yemen. In pictures he sent me from his most recent distribution two months ago, thin children — one wearing a flower print dress, another a yellow beanie — stand next to large white sacks of flour, sugar and rice and yellow jugs of cooking oil.
When he makes these deliveries to families, he says, “they feel happy and joyful, especially the children, and they hope it will continue.”
Residents of northern Gaza began fleeing en masse on the morning of Saturday, May 17, as the Israeli military launched a wave of indiscriminate shelling and airstrikes on Beit Lahia and its surrounding areas. The bombardment marked the onset of Israel’s expanded ground invasion to “conquer” the Gaza Strip. That same night, as residents sensed the imminent threat posed by the indiscriminate…
When Dr. Mimi Syed returned from her first volunteer trip to Gaza in the summer of 2024, she started flipping through her notes and came to a shocking conclusion: In one month, the ER physician had treated at least 18 children with gunshots to the head or chest. And that’s only the patients she had time to make a note of.
“They were children under the age of 12,” she says. “That’s something I saw every single day, multiple times a day, for the whole four weeks that I was there.”
Syed’s not the only one. Other physicians who’ve worked in Gaza report seeing similar cases on a regular basis, suggesting a disturbing pattern. The doctors allege that members of the Israeli military may be deliberately targeting children.
This week on Reveal, in partnership with Al Jazeera’s Fault Lines, we follow Syed from Gaza to the halls of Congress and the United Nations, as she joins a movement of doctors appealing to US and international policymakers to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Dozens of City University of New York (CUNY) law graduates walked out of their graduation ceremony on Thursday, May 22, in solidarity with Palestine and in protest of their administration’s repression of pro-Palestine protest activity. Students donning keffiyehs and sporting Palestinian flags walked out of the ceremony which took place in the Apollo Theater in Harlem, and rallied together a few blocks away at the monument to Adam Clayton Powell.
“We’re walking out of our own commencement ceremony today in protest of CUNY law’s suppression of free speech, and the CUNY system’s investments in Israeli settler colonialism and genocide,” said CUNY law graduate Parima Kadikar at the Adam Clayton Powell monument.
With nuclear negotiations between the Trump administration and Iran’s Reformist government at a standstill, I held two separate, lengthy background conversations in Tehran this past week with a pair of seasoned Iranian diplomats with detailed knowledge of the talks in Muscat, Oman.
Like most Iranians, the diplomats were eager for a durable deal that would provide sanctions relief. But they said their side could not seem to break through to a Trump team they described as dithering, divided, distracted by other conflicts, and incapable of holding to a consistent position. Worse, as the negotiations drag on, the Trump administration is defaulting toward the hardline Israeli position which rejects all uranium enrichment, even for civilian purposes, violating a right Tehran considers sacrosanct.
As threats of an Israeli strike on Iran grow louder, the United States is making quiet but unmistakable moves of its own. Over the past month, Washington has quietly repositioned strategic bombers and fighter squadrons to Diego Garcia, a remote U.S. military outpost in the Indian Ocean, squarely within striking distance of Tehran.
The official rationale is force protection. But the scale and nature of the deployments have sparked speculation that Washington is laying the groundwork for potential military involvement in an Israeli-led operation, or, at the very least, sending a message to Tehran that it won’t stand in the way.
Microsoft has implemented a policy blocking employee emails containing the words “Palestine,” “Gaza,” or “genocide” on its internal Exchange servers, Drop Site News reported on 22 May.
According to No Azure for Apartheid, a group of pro-Palestine Microsoft employees, an automated filter silently prevents such emails from reaching recipients.
The filter became effective on Wednesday following Microsoft’s Build developer conference, which faced repeated disruptions by the activist group, Drop Site added.
Microsoft has faced internal dissent from employees upset over the company’s collaboration with the Israeli military in its ongoing war on Palestinians in Gaza, which scholars widely consider genocide.
Ms Rachel, an American children’s entertainer, is facing attacks from pro-Israel groups. Otherwise known as Rachel Accurso, the performer has used her massive following to call for the famine and murder of Palestinian children to be stopped. Incredibly, this has led to a number of Zionist lobbyists and mainstream media outlets to question if Ms Rachel is funded by Hamas.
When it’s controversial to advocate for children that have been killed in the thousands, are blocked from food and medical care, and have become the largest cohort of amputees in modern history, we have lost our way.
It’s my unwavering belief that children aren’t less valuable or less equal because of where they were born, the color of their skin, or the religion they practice.
Ms Rachel defends all kids
StopAntisemitism, a pro-Israel lobbying group breathlessly accused Ms Rachel of being a mouthpiece for Hamas:
Rachel Griffin-Accurso, known by her stage name Ms. Rachel, became a household name with her hit show engaging babies and toddlers. However, since her rise to fame, she appears to have transformed into a mouthpiece for Hamas. Now, she spreads vile propaganda against the Jewish state to over 20 million followers across multiple accounts – outnumbering the entire global population of Israelis and Jews.
Let’s take a look at the “vile propaganda” Ms Rachel has been spreading.
At the beginning of March she shared a picture of murdered Hind Rajab along with the caption:
Hind Rajab is her name.
Listen to her voice. Tell her story. Change the world for her and all the innocent children that deserved to live.
“I’m so scared, please come. Come take me. Please, will you come?”
Hind Rajab was a 5 year old Palestinian child who was trapped in a car when Israeli forces massacred her family. They used a tank to shoot at the ambulance coming to her aid. Whilst surrounded by her dead family members, and bleeding from her own injuries she infamously pleaded for help:
I’m so scared, please come.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society released audio recordings of the three hours that Hind spent on the phone to them. In the heartbreaking footage, she pleads for her life and asks for help. Her death is now being considered an Israeli war crime. There is no doubt over what happened to Hind. And yet, Ms Rachel responding to Hind’s brutal murder with compassion is a problem because Hind was a Palestinian child.
Basic humanity
The entertainer has also shared her heartfelt pleas for Palestinian children to be saved. In one post, she shared a video of children huddled together and waving at the camera:
They just want to stay alive, eat food and drink water, learn and play. It’s not controversial to want them to have these basic rights and it is a crime not to let them.
Unfortunately for Ms Rachel, a post of such basic human decency is apparently enough for Zionists to call into question her morals and values. In another of her posts, she shares footage of two Palestinian children, Celine and Sila, as they sit with their father on top of debris and rubble as they watch Ms Rachel’s videos:
My friends Celine and Sila in what used to be their home in Gaza. They deserve to live in a warm, safe home again. They deserve to be children.
Vile, right?
She repeatedly shares stories and footage of Palestinian children she has been in touch with. On one occasion, she shares a picture of Palestinian children and writes:
Food and water are blocked from them. Why don’t they have human rights like other children? Why are many leaders and people silent about their suffering? Either we take care of all children in this world or we don’t. All children’s futures depend on us doing the right thing.
Along with her husband, the entertainer has pledged $1 million to the World Food Programme to feed hungry children around the world. Zionists may be unfamiliar with this Hamas tactic of backing talk with actions. Or, perhaps it’s the feeding of hungry children rather than starving and bombing them which is confusing.
Humanisation
Continuing her rampage of “vile propaganda” Ms Rachel then did what most Zionists would consider to the ultimate crime: she made it seem like Palestinians are humans just like anyone else.
She shared footage of a Palestinian baby, like babies all over the world, watching her YouTube channel:
This is precious baby Amal in Gaza. She deserves everything my baby has. They are no different. Her mom and I are no different. Our love for our babies is no different.
Zionism is built on the abhorrent lie that Palestinians are “human animals” who do not deserve to live. Ms Rachel’s humanisation of Palestinian children is, heartbreakingly, a rarity particularly for Americans. Her caption continued:
I pray that Amal and all children have healthy food, clean water, medical care and a safe place to live. So many children don’t, but they could. That’s the part that hurts so much. We stand by.
In making it clear that it is a political choice to allow famine in Palestine, Ms. Rachel is doing more than many elected politicians have managed to do.
Propaganda against Ms Rachel
Even so, StopAntisemitism have written to the US Attorney General to demand an investigation into whether Ms Rachel is:
being remunerated to disseminate Hamas-aligned propaganda to her millions of followers.
DropSite News journalist Ryan Grim, among many others, objected to the New York Times’ coverage of the, frankly, fucking deranged, request:
The Times choosing to publish these ridiculous smears against Ms Rachel is stunning even by NYT standards https://t.co/SZCdg9JfuK
Even by the standards of mainstream media’s bizarre relationship with bias, Ms Rachel has advocated for Palestinian children as well as Israeli children, children from Sudan, and as she often says, all children. Even then, that’s not enough for Zionist lobby groups. Their fury at Ms Rachel is purely from being threatened by anyone behaving as though Palestinian children are humans that have a right to survive.
Arsenal face legal trouble from a former kit man who is suing the club for unfair dismissal. Mark Bonnick alleges that he was dismissed for his views on Palestine and his “philosophical anti-Zionist belief.”
According to Bonnick’s submission Arsenal’s investigation into the posts did not accuse him of antisemitism but said they could be “perceived as inflammatory or offensive” and had “brought the club into disrepute”. Bonnick is seeking damages and reinstatement.
Now, in an interview with Middle East Eye, Bonnick has vowed to keep supporting Palestine:
I regret nothing. Despite losing my job this close to retirement, I would still encourage people to speak up. We owe it to Palestinians, and to ourselves as humans, to oppose racism, colonialism and genocide, just like Arsenal did for Black Lives Matter and in solidarity with Ukrainians.
Questions for Arsenal
One of the tweets that Arsenal identified as potentially causing offence, according to Bonnick’s legal submission read as follows:
Yes it is all about Jewish supremacy & not wanting to share the land Ethnic cleansing.
Bonnick’s lawyer, Franck Magennis, said:
Mark’s reference to ‘Jewish supremacy’ is a mainstream political critique of Israel’s self-definition as a Jewish state, which prioritises rights and privileges for Jewish citizens over others.
The European Legal Support Center (ELSC) is supporting Bonnick’s case. The ELSC routinely support those advocating for Palestinian rights in European courts. Advocacy officer at ELSC, Tasnima Uddin, said:
Mark’s case is not isolated. Workers across sectors are being targeted for showing solidarity with Palestine. We must defend our right to speak up – and push back against anti-Palestinian repression.
You can’t claim neutrality while silencing dissent.
It is outrageous that Arsenal Football Club has chosen to treat a lifelong fan and loyal worker of 22 years with such contempt, firing him on Christmas Eve simply for expressing solidarity with Palestine.
Bonnick has now found employment as a labourer on a construction site. And, the difference between a club of Arsenal’s stature and someone like Bonnick was not lost on Uddin:
This is not only a personal injustice; it is a stain on football and a betrayal of the values fans hold dear. While the global football industry rakes in billions, working-class staff like Mark are punished for speaking out against injustice.
Defence of Palestine
A number of people on social media have spoken out to defend Bonnick. Sports journalist Leyla Hamed shared a banner outsides the Emirates stadium in support of Bonnick:
Banner outside the Emirates stadium today in support of Mark Bonnick.
The 61-year-old was kitman for Arsenal for over 20 years when he was fired on Christmas Eve last year for posts opposing Israel’s genocide against Palestinians. pic.twitter.com/LmP9P9qPFU
Hamed also defended Bonnick and asked for Arsenal to reinstate him:
After more than 20 years of service, Arsenal fired former kit man Mark Bonnick. Not for any wrongdoing but simply for standing with Palestine. There was no misconduct. No hate. Just solidarity.@Arsenal must apologise, reinstate Mark, and stop silencing support for Palestine. pic.twitter.com/zpRFJvTBR3
Jeremy Corbyn’s Peace and Justice Project said Bonnick’s dismissal was part of a “disturbing pattern”:
Mark Bonnick's dismissal is part of a disturbing pattern where football clubs and employers, under political pressure, have targeted and punished individuals for standing up for fundamental human rights.
— Peace & Justice Project (@corbyn_project) May 22, 2025
Host of Palestine Declassified, Chris Williamson, urged for people to keep resisting Zionism:
When high profile figures from Jeremy Corbyn to Gary Lineker capitulate to the Zionist lobby, it enables these racist monsters to target even more people like Mark Bonnick. NEVER apologise to Zionists. Fight them, expose them, and destroy their vile ideology. https://t.co/0oGEx7MLGw
Author Julian Sayarer called out the racism endemic in UK football:
Disgraceful behaviour from @Arsenal to fire kit man Mark Bonnick for his solidarity with Palestinians facing genocide. Contrary to claims of Kick It Out and others, UK football seems more riddled with racism than ever and it's obscene one can lose their job for opposing genocide. https://t.co/4YNjBByRiA
As the Guardian reported in 2024, activists have long been calling for Arsenal to divest from their longtime sponsors Emirates. The airline are based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), who are accused by Sudanese activists of arming the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The RSF themselves accused of war crimes by the Sudan Doctors Network.
Activists, including football fans, have repeatedly protested outside Arsenal’s stadium pleading:
Don’t let the UAE sportswash genocide in Sudan.
Genocide in Sudan is not unconnected to genocide in Palestine. It is entirely possible for global powers to intervene and halt the mounting accounts of death, torture, and famine. However, political will is not on the side of Palestinian or Sudanese people and therefore their deaths are seen as acceptable to Western powers.
Arsenal have bowed to potential public pressure to sack Bonnick. If only they could bow to public pressure and divest from UAE companies to demonstrate what they really think about genocide. Instead, they’ve chosen to target a longtime worker defending Palestinians at a time when no one in power cares to do so.
Every university in Gaza has been reduced to rubble. Thousands of students and hundreds of educators have been killed. The genocide is nearing its final, most brutal phase. Meanwhile, Israeli universities continue to develop the weapons and ideologies that made all of it possible. And the Technical University of Berlin (TU Berlin) still refuses to sever ties, 8 months after being confronted with the undeniable proof.
The call for an academic boycott of Israeli institutions is not merely symbolic. These institutions have never been neutral bystanders to state violence. They are engineers of it, embedded in the military-industrial complex, drafting demographic warfare strategies, justifying settler expansion, and persecuting Palestinian students and faculty.
Two employees of the Israeli embassy in the US were killed in a shooting attack in Washington DC early on 22 May, causing an uproar and accusations about “antisemitism” being the motive behind the killings.
Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, the two Israeli diplomats, were shot while leaving an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in the US capital. The two were reportedly set to be engaged, as Lischinsky had planned to propose to Milgrim in occupied Jerusalem next week.
The shooter has been identified as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez, who chanted “Free, free Palestine” as he was being detained by Metropolitan Police shortly after the attack.
A House Republican has called for Gaza to be “nuked” akin to the U.S. bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and said that “Palestinianism” is “evil” in genocidal remarks on Fox News following the shooting of two Israeli embassy workers on Wednesday. When asked about the killing of the two embassy workers in Washington, D.C., Rep. Randy Fine (Florida) launched into a tirade…
We speak with Dr. Victoria Rose, a British plastic and reconstructive surgeon who has been on three medical missions to Gaza since the start of Israel’s war on the territory. She joins us from Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, where she’s been treating patients for over a week, and describes horrific injuries amid Israel’s ongoing bombardment, limited medical supplies and widespread malnutrition…
At this very moment, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip who have managed to survive Israel’s scorched-earth siege and bombing are being deliberately starved to death as a result of Israel’s 11-week blockade preventing food and aid from entering Gaza. As Jem Bartholemew writes at The Guardian, “The UN’s humanitarian chief, Tom Fletcher, told the BBC [Tuesday] morning that 14,000 babies could die in Gaza in 48 hours if aid did not reach them in time. Five aid trucks entered Gaza on Monday but Fletcher described this as a “drop in the ocean” and totally inadequate for the population’s needs.” In response to this dire humanitarian crisis, students at multiple university campuses in the US have launched hunger strikes in solidarity with the starving people of Gaza. In this urgent episode, we speak with four hunger strikers at the University of Oregon (UO), including: Cole, Sadie, and Efron, three undergraduate students who are all members of Jewish Voice for Peace – UO and who just completed a 60-hour solidarity hunger strike; and Phia, a Palestinian-American undergraduate student who has organized with JVP-UO on the hunger strike and who currently remains on hunger strike herself.
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.
Maximillian Alvarez:
Alright. Welcome everyone to Working People, a podcast about the lives, jobs, dreams, and struggles of the working class today. Working People is a proud member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network and is brought to you in partnership with In these Times Magazine and the Real News Network. This show is produced by Jules Taylor and made possible by the support of listeners like you. My name is Maximillian Alvarez and we’ve got an urgent episode for y’all today. As you guys know, we’ve been covering the Trump administration’s authoritarian assault on higher education and the people who live, learn, and work there. We’ve been speaking with faculty members and graduate students on this show as this new terrifying McCarthy’s crackdown has been unfolding in real time. But today’s episode is a pointed reminder that this climate of intense fear and repression is not achieving its primary goal of forcing people to retreat, hide, and silence themselves on campuses around the country.
People continue to stand up, fight back, and speak out. As Michael Aria reports at Mondoweiss, “In recent weeks, students across multiple university campuses in the United States have launched hunger strikes in solidarity with the people of Gaza enduring famine. The protestors are also calling on their schools to cut ties with weapons manufacturers and other companies connected to Israel. More than two dozen California students began a fast on May 5th with more schools joining in the proceeding days. San Francisco State University students recently ended their strike after obtaining several commitments from their school. The administration said it would expand the implementation of the divestment policy and work toward a partnership with Palestinian universities. Six students at Sacramento State, which also previously adopted a divestment policy also recently ended their hunger strike at UCLA. Student activists Maya Abdullah was hospitalized on the ninth day of her hunger strike.
Students with the group Yalies4Palestine recently met with Yale College Dean Pericles Lewis amid an ongoing hunger strike at the school. The demonstrators are demanding that Yale divest from weapons manufacturers adopt a human rights based investment strategy and end its academic partnerships with Israel and grant amnesty for student protestors.” At the University of Oregon. Students also initiated a hunger strike this week as Nathan Wilk writes for KLCC, which is Oregon’s NPR affiliate, “Protestors at the University of Oregon began a hunger strike Monday in an effort to bring attention to starvation in Gaza. Around 470,000 people in Gaza are facing catastrophic hunger. According to a Unbacked report released last week in Eugene, some WO students and employees announced that they would stop eating starting Monday morning in order to pressure local leaders to respond to the crisis the protesters want you owe to divest from companies with ties to Israel and provide more protections for pro-Palestinian activists on campus.
Protesters are also asking the public to call Oregon’s elected leaders in congressional delegation demanding they speak out against Israel’s blockades. In an email to KLCC Monday, UO representative Eric Howald said The university respects students’ right to express their views, but advise caution about their methods. “We urge them to choose forms of expression that prioritize their health, safety, and overall wellbeing,” said Howald, “while adhering to UO freedom of speech guidelines.” Now as we speak, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip who have somehow managed to survive Israel’s scorched earth siege and bombing are being deliberately starved to death. As Jem Bartholomew wrote on Tuesday at The Guardian, “The UN’s humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher told the BBC this morning that 14,000 babies could die in Gaza in 48 hours if aid did not reach them in time. Five aid trucks entered Gaza on Monday, but Fletcher described this as a quote, drop in the ocean and totally inadequate for the population’s needs.”
It followed the director General of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus saying yesterday that 2 million people were starving in the Gaza Strip while tons of food is blocked at the border by Israel. This is all happening now. As I read this, this is urgent, dire, unbearable and unconscionable, and that is why we are seeing students escalating their protest tactics and engaging in these hunger strikes. And on Wednesday night, May 21st, I spoke with four hunger strikers at the University of Oregon, including Cole, Sadie and Efron, all undergraduate students at the University of Oregon and members of Jewish Voice for Peace-UO and Phia, a Palestinian American undergraduate student at the University of Oregon who is organized with JVP on the hunger strike and is currently on hunger strike herself. Cole, Sadie, and Efron had just completed a two day solidarity hunger strike before we recorded our episode. Here’s my conversation with Phia, Cole, Sadie, and Efron recorded on May 21st.
Well, Phia, Cole, Sadie, Efron, thank you all so much for joining us today, especially with everything that you’ve got going on over there, everything that is going on in the world right now. It’s a crazy time, but y’all are out there putting yourselves and your bodies on the line standing up for what’s right, and our listeners want to know more about this, who you are, why you’re doing this, what it feels like and what they can do to help. So I want to just jump right in and ask if we could go around the table here and just introduce yourselves to folks listening to this right now. Can you tell us a bit more about who you are and why you’re doing this and what exactly it is that y’all are doing right now?
Phia:
Yeah, for sure. I’m Phia. I’m a Palestinian American student, as was mentioned, and it is the third day of my hunger strike where I’m just drinking water and taking electrolytes. So haven’t had food since 9:00 AM on Monday morning. And this is all to raise awareness around the blockade currently happening on the border of Gaza with Israel, refusing to let any aid in. So the motivation, the goal, all of it is to raise awareness for Gaza’s for the situation in Palestine and to stand in solidarity with students who are speaking up for the right thing.
Cole:
I’m Cole. I am a Jewish student here at UO and I just completed the first segment of our hunger strike and we’ll resume next week. Yeah, I mean, we’re doing this because our school is sending funds through their investments to the Israeli war machine, and that’s not acceptable how they’re using our money. So we have tried various tactics throughout the year. We’ve tried protests, we’ve tried showing up at board meetings, we’ve tried an encampment, we’ve tried a massive petition, and they won’t listen. So this is the next step and we just have to keep trying tactics until they listen. We did a 60 hour hunger strike and next week we will do an indefinite one if they haven’t listened by then and we just have to keep going.
Sadie:
Yeah, my name is Sadie. I’m also a Jewish student at the University of Oregon. Like Cole and Phia said, the seige on Gaza has continued, and right now it’s more crucial than ever that we do everything that we can to stop what is happening to Palestinians in Gaza. Also, as a Jewish person, it’s really important to leverage our identities since a lot of this is being committed in our name. And yeah, I think our university is continuously complicit and refuses to listen to us or to meet our demands, which is why we’re continuing to do this hunger strike.
Efron:
My name is Efron again. I’m also Jewish student. Why we’re doing this is once again, our university is complicit in this genocide. They specifically refuse to disclose and refuse to divest, yet they’re a public university and they have to uphold that. According to Oregon law, this is not us as organizers speaking, this is us speaking on behalf of we would like them to divest from this genocide, this ethnic cleansing and the continued starvation. And it is being done in our name. Why don’t we stand up for what’s right and stand in solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza?
Maximillian Alvarez:
Well, and as I read in the introduction to this episode, right, I mean the United Nations has warned that nearly 500,000 people in Gaza are facing catastrophic hunger right now. And the latest report from yesterday was that the UN was warning that 14,000 babies could die in Gaza in the next 48 hours without aid let into Gaza, which Israel has had a total blockade on for months at this point. So I wanted to kind of connect that to what y’all are feeling right this second, fia, of course, the hunger strike that y’all have all engaged in and that FIA continues to engage in at this very moment. We’re recording this on Wednesday night, May 21st. As you guys said, you were doing this both in protest and in solidarity with our fellow human beings who are being starved to death, if not bombed to death among so many other catastrophic horrors. Could you just tell listeners a bit more about what it feels like, the hunger? I mean, what does your body go through and what is that, I guess, what do you want to communicate about that that is helping you at least understand a bit more what so many are going through in Gaza right now as we speak?
Phia:
Yeah, it’s been interesting. We’re only three days in which, or I’m only three days in, which is the average amount of time that people in Gaza go between meals, meals, so meals. What I am experiencing, I’ve been putting it in the context of this, has been people’s every day for months and it’s really unimaginable in the West. We don’t really have to contend with this type of hunger and starvation, especially used as a weapon in a lot of cases. We have the privilege to not have to experience that, but that doesn’t mean that the symptoms of hunger don’t exist. And I think that that’s what the purpose of this type of action is. I feel it in my body. I wake up and I’m tired every single mealtime because it’s ground into us or it’s drilled into us since we’re young, that morning is breakfast, afternoon is lunch, and nighttime is dinner, and something feels immensely off when there’s not that consistency.
And on top of that, out of culture has a very specific connection to food as it relates to hospitality. And I think that Israel’s starvation of Gaza is not only harming them physically, but it’s starving their souls in a way that is cultural erasure, not allowing them to participate in their food practices and culture while also just starving them to death. It is an erasure of people and an erasure of culture, but sorry, a little bit of a tangent on that, but physically, yeah, I have been experiencing headaches. I’ve noticed when I brush my hair, more of my hair falls out. I’ve noticed my voice is going a little bit. My whole body is responding to the lack of nutrients and yeah, I can’t imagine being in this state also under the constant home of drones, under the constant threat of bombing, with occupying soldiers constantly threatening to murder you in the streets. It’s truly just unimaginable.
Cole:
Yeah, I had an experience last night that I’d been thinking about where I was moving a trash can and I hit my ankle on it, not particularly hard, and it hurt so badly, not eating changed how I felt, the physical sensation. And I cannot imagine that pain from a trash can hitting your ankle. I cannot imagine being in an actual war zone with bombs flying and buildings crumbling and bullets flying. It’s genuinely unimaginable. So that’s been something I was thinking about. And then just functioning gets difficult. Thinking about things in detail. Making plans is hard. The brain fog sets in headaches were probably the most common thing all day headache and your muscles ache walking around. Your muscles hurt as if you had worked them out even though you’re just walking. And I mean, yeah, imagining running from something like that is just unbearable.
Sadie:
Yeah. There was another person who was organizing with us who was talking about a moment that they had while we were organizing the hunger strike and before we started about putting their groceries away and thinking about how food is so expensive and it’s so scarce. And I had a similar moment last night where I was feeding my cat and I got her food out of the fridge and I was looking at the groceries that I have, and I just got this kind of overwhelming wave of, I just felt very emotional, honestly, because I feel so lucky to have access to fresh food and nutrients and everything to keep me healthy. And I feel like that’s something that a lot of people take for granted and I don’t think we should because I think food also, it shouldn’t be a privilege. I think everybody should have access to fresh food and vegetables and anything. So yeah, I don’t know. That was just very emotional for me. And I think physically as well, I just felt a lot more sensitive in a lot of different ways physically and emotionally. Like Cole said, headaches were very consistent for me. And also sleeping too, going to sleep, it was really difficult, especially last night, which was the second night or third night? Second night, yeah, I was laying in my bed and my stomach hurt and I just was thinking, I also couldn’t imagine if there were bombs being dropped right now or if I was sleeping on rubble and things. So yeah, it was very eyeopening for me, for sure.
Efron:
For me, I have a specific moment of I was walking to school and I could feel it. I had a 20 minute walk from my house and every step I had super low energy, so my calves, specifically my calves, I’d feel it a lot and it felt super painful. And all I could think when I was walking was, oh my God, what would it feel like to be running to pick up the martyrs or transport them to the hospital or just trying to get food and flour? I could not imagine that pain. And then another time that was super transformative for me was sitting in my classes and everybody was super normal and talking, and my brain was completely out of it. I was like, I cannot sit and read for two minutes. It hurts. And psychologically speaking, not physically. And that was a defining moment for me, and I just was like, we got to do more. That is what I came to the conclusions of.
Maximillian Alvarez:
Yeah, I mean you don’t want to trivialize it, but your brain, it reaches for the experiences that it can find that can help us understand and empathize with what our fellow human beings are going through. And everyone listening to this knows what it’s like to be hangry, right? I mean, yeah, you’ve missed a meal or here and there, or maybe there’s one day where you were just really burning a lot of calories and not eating many, and by the end of the day, your head’s pounding. You’re short with people. That is a drop in the goddamn bucket. Pardon my French. And we all understand that, but as you guys are all pointing out, we don’t know what it’s like for that to be our normal state and for that to be an imposed violently imposed state on us and everyone around us effectively trying to kill us.
I mean, I don’t know what that’s like. I do know what it’s like to not know where my next meal’s coming from and how I’m going to pay for it. And I think people listening to this show can also understand that because there’s a real psychological component with that as well. The feeling of fear, terror, anger, shame, all the things wrapped up in once when you don’t know how you’re going to get your next meal, let alone have you got children or other family members to try to provide for the mental load that puts on you compounds the physical exhaustion, and your body’s literally starting to eat itself after a while because that’s the only way it’s going to get energy. And I’m feeling so many things and thinking so many things, talking to y’all because what you’re saying is so powerful. What you’re doing is brave and dangerous.
I mean, it was just earlier this week that, what was it at UCLA, Maya Abdullah, one of the hunger strikers was hospitalized after nine days of hunger striking. And so Sophia and all of y’all, I got to imagine that’s also on your minds. This is not just a protest. This is putting your body on the line until something happens and really trying to force others to make something happen. I wanted to just ask in that vein where this goes, and if you could just say a little more about the demands, the hope that of what you can get the university to do by taking this drastic action and what you see happening here with hunger strikes occurring, not just on your campus, but on campuses increasingly around the country.
Phia:
Yeah, seeing other students go on hunger strike across the country has been absolutely inspiring, especially as it relates to food as a human right. And Palestine specifically has a long history of hunker striking prisoners. And Israeli prisons used to be called salt and water in Arabic because that’s what they would sustain on. So it’s been incredible to see this tactic specifically just take off among the student movement. And I think it also is for the reason of tactical, logistically, it is a good move because it allows us not only to talk to admin and negotiate with them on some of the things, at least on our campus, we’ve already achieved like scholarships, but it also allows us to leverage this power to connect our struggle and our movement and this action to our state representatives. So right now, one of our biggest demands is that we really, really want to meet with Val Hoyle, Merkley and Wyden, all Oregon State, sorry, state of Oregon representatives who do have the political power to put pressure in the right places to get an arms embargo and to get the blockade ended. So we are encouraging every single person that is in support of what we’re doing to reach out to Oregon representatives, your state representatives, any of your elected officials, and urge them to take action and use their political power.
Cole:
Yeah, I mean the interesting thing about this tactic in addition to its long, specifically Palestinian history, is I think sometimes it comes off as an emotional appeal. This is not an emotional appeal to administrators. They do not care if their students are hungry. They do not care if they call the police in riot deer on their students. What they care about is their bottom line and the publicity that the hunger strikes brings is what’s so essential to hurting that bottom line. And so that’s why this tactic now we hope will work. So far, they’ve agreed to meet, but only with administrators who do not have the power to meet our demands. So we’re in the process of forcing those upper level admin to come down from the ivory tower to meet with their students who they supposedly represent, supposedly care about and supposedly care about. And yeah, I mean it’s truly not an emotional appeal to them. It is a publicity and bottom line strategy, and that’s necessary because we’re asking them to change their finances, which is what they care about the most. We’re asking them to disclose their investments and to divest from the Israeli war machine, from these companies that are making and sending these bombs from these companies that are supporting the settlements. And they will not divest from that unless we can provide some counter pressure that hurts them more.
Sadie:
Yeah, definitely. Agreed. I think publicity is a big thing that they have made it clear that they don’t want on this, and I think it’s very telling how they’re responding to this and where in what ways they truly care about their students. In response to a lot of previous actions we’ve done, including the encampment or rallies and protests just in general, they often respond and say that they’re only in disagreement because they support students’ rights of free speech, but in the name of Jewish safety, this shouldn’t be something that we should allow on campus. And I feel like by using this tactic, it’s a good way to show them that this isn’t about Jewish safety. This is about them investing in the fact that, or investing in the genocide of so many Palestinians and also the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. And yeah, I think they really just care about their finances and publicity, and I think that’s a big reason why they were quick to respond to meet with us, but not with the right people. So
Efron:
Yeah, to bounce off of that, they say it’s in the name of Jewish safety. It’s not even a little bit, it’s the name of antisemitism. It’s not. So the board of trustees, they’re like the head of the ivory tower, I like to call them. They can continue to make their money, they can continue to profit off genocide. They can continue to profit off ethnic cleansing. I want to bring up a new target. We have, it’s called DUO Mobile. It’s directly connected to the apartheid system in Israel. The Cisco mobile helps, it uses ai, other things to promote settlements and under international law, this has been declared by the ICJ that is illegal, but our university continues to invest in that. They’ve already shown that we use Duo Mobile, this app every single day, all 20,000 students use this app. They have made their priorities very clear. So as a Jewish student, I say, this is not in the name of Jewish Safety. This is in the name for you to continue to profit off genocide, colonialism, imperialism.
Maximillian Alvarez:
Well, I wanted to ask if we could maybe go back around the table, but in reverse order, let’s stick with Sadie Colon nephron for a second, and then Sophia, we’ll go back to you. But as we mentioned at the top, y’all are members of Jewish Voice for Peace. You were just touching on how you are doing this in opposition of the narrative that is coming all the way from the White House and beyond down that campuses are rife with antisemitism. I mean, we’ve been on this very show. I’ve been interviewing graduate students at Columbia where Mahmoud, Khalil and others were abducted by ICE under that premise where encampments were squashed and people beaten by tons of police under that premise to protect Jewish students and preserve Jewish safety and to stop antisemitism, right? I mean, there is a draconian McCarthyist crackdown on free speech across higher education and beyond right now, ostensibly in the name of fighting antisemitism and protecting the safety of Jewish students.
I interviewed one of the, if not the foremost scholar on McCarthyism, Ellen Schreker on the Real News podcast earlier this month, and I asked her, how does this compare to McCarthyism? She said, it’s worse, it’s way worse. It’s much broader than what McCarthyism was in the early fifties. And this is a top down effort coming from, like we said, the White House coming from university administrations themselves coming from lobbying groups like apac, I mean media that are facilitating this narrative and amplifying this narrative while suppressing coverage of protests like yours and voices like yours. I know we only got about 10 minutes here, but I really wanted to ask if we could address that question, and if you guys could speak to listeners out there who are hearing this stuff, who are being told this narrative about what’s going on on campuses, what would you as three Jewish undergraduates, members of Jewish Voice for Peace who just engaged in the solidarity hunger strike for Gaza, what would you want folks to know about what’s really happening on campus and what else they need to correct their thinking on here?
Cole:
Yeah, I mean, I get Unspeakably disgusted thinking about this and angry because this administration is the same administration that works with Elon Musk who did a Nazi salute on tv, and they want to use antisemitism as an excuse to crack down on protests that are fighting to end an ongoing genocide. They want to use antisemitism as an excuse to deport immigrants when Jewish Holocaust refugees were turned around at the US border. It’s disgusting. It has nothing to do with protecting Jews. It has everything to do with enshrining power and preventing protest and preventing free speech.
Sadie:
Completely agreed. I also find it really disgusting, and it’s also not reflective of all Jewish students on campus. They don’t listen to all Jewish students on campus. They pick and choose. They pick and choose. There are multiple Jewish organizations on campus, including Halel and Habad and Jewish Voice for Peace and Halel in particular, at least the University of Oregon. Halel often, I guess kind of works in tandem with the university and they, that’s where the university sources their reports from. But they don’t consider the fact that there is an organization on campus that is an anti-Zionist Jewish organization and they don’t listen from us or ask us or consider the fact that maybe not all Jewish people think that this protesting on campus in solidarity with Palestine is antisemitic.
Cole:
Can we add J Street there?
Sadie:
Oh, yeah.
Efron:
And J-Street, yes. I’m just going to repeat myself what they just said. I also find it disgusting because all Trump and this administration, and this includes Biden too. Biden has facilitated this genocide. He is not guilty. He is just as guilty as Trump. They use the guise of antisemitism to further their own power to further Christian Zionism, to further their idea that Jews must immigrate to Israel so the rapture can happen. These politicians genuinely believe this. This is factual also to continue on that Trump just wants to inherent power. He’s more than okay to use Jews as a ploy to use this to continue his fascism and white supremacy. This isn’t new. We saw this in his previous administration. He’s just using this as a way to continue. In my mind, I wish I was surprised by what I’m seeing, but I’m not. They’re obviously showing who they are. We should respond back to show who we are as Jews. I will not stand for this, and I have to put my body on the line. The rest of my fellow friends here, I will do that. If that’s what it takes for our universities to listen, then we’ll do that.
Sadie:
I think they also just weaponize any identity that seems to serve them in that moment. And that’s kind of, Trump is antisemitic. We’ve seen that multiple times. And Elon Musk and everybody who he works with, most of them have had very clear situations where they have been antisemitic openly, like the Nazi salute that Cole mentioned. So yeah, I think it’s just like whatever works to their advantage in that moment to uplift themselves.
Maximillian Alvarez:
And Phia, I want to also give you a chance to hop in here as well. I mean, we’re literally all sitting here on a call with you, a Palestinian American, and with your three fellow students from Jewish Voice for Peace, all y’all engaging in a hunger strike. You guys have mentioned the student encampment, the organizing that you’ve been doing on campus together. What do you think that says, or what do you want that to say to folks out there who are pushing this narrative, that this movement in solidarity with Palestinians in opposition to the ongoing genocide and the violent occupation and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, what do you want people to take away from this to counter that narrative? That this movement represents a threat to Jewish safety and identity and all the things that we’re hearing in the media right now?
Phia:
Yeah, I think I truly can’t say it better than my fellow students did, but I think that there’s a real danger in the conflation that we see right now between Zionism and Judaism, and it’s important to remember that Judaism has always been a part of Palestinian land as much as Islam, as much as Christianity. Jerusalem has always been a hub for all three of the Abrahamic religions. That was never an issue until Zionism. Zionism was the thing that fractured the diversity of religion that was working for generations. And I think that isolating Zionism as the root cause and identifying the ways that we can criticize Zionism for its use or its weaponization of Judaism as a shield and a weapon, the ways that we can criticize it for that are important for protecting our Jewish students sincerely.
Maximillian Alvarez:
And in that vein, with the last few minutes that I have you guys here, I wanted to just ask if we could zoom out here and again, put these hunger strikes, both the one that Phia continues to be involved in right now, the one that Sadie, Cole, and Ephron, unless the university makes some movement, are going to be engaging indefinitely in next week. Students around the country are engaging in hunger strikes as we speak. I wanted to ask with the last few minutes, if we could just again, place this in the context of the broader student movement that we’ve seen over the past year or two years, and if you had any final messages for folks out there, folks on your campus and beyond, what do you want to communicate to them about what they can do to help?
Sadie:
Yeah, I think in the broader picture, our primary goal by doing this hunger strike, yes, we do want the administration to meet with us, and we do want them to meet our demands, but our primary goal is that all who bear witness to our hunger strike also bear witness to the humanity of Palestinians who are being starved to death in Gaza, because that is something that has continued. And last year we had, after, during our encampment, there was so much energy and there were so many people, and I think one big problem over the past year is that people just stopped paying attention. And I think by doing this, it’s bringing that reality, not that it will ever match up to what is really happening and what Israel is doing to Palestinians, but bringing that into our own community so everybody can see how horrible it is, what Israel is doing, they’re intentionally starving people in Gaza, and they don’t seem to intend on stopping anytime soon, which I think is why it’s so important that people continue to pay attention. And if we have to sit at a table on our campus and not eat for multiple days up to weeks, then that’s what we’ll have to do. Because in the broader picture, this is all about Casa and our university is complicit in it, but we also have to continue to pay attention to what is happening.
Cole:
Yeah, I think nationally this shows the terrain of struggle has changed, and we need to continue to adapt our tactics to what works. And I think the effectiveness of the hunger strikes speaks to the success that Israel’s had with dehumanizing Palestinians because the outrage about college students not eating for a week is much larger than the outrage about hundreds of thousands of Palestinians not eating for days for over a year. And we need to, I mean, that’s just how it is, and we need to draw attention to that however we can. And if that’s by utilizing the fact that people care about college students here more, then that’s what we have to do. And people hopefully will take that and use it as a sign to keep going to join whatever group is near them. If it’s an SJP or a JVP, Palestinian Youth Movement, PYN, anything that is doing something about Palestine, then that’s what we need right now.
Efron:
Honestly, when I think about the national student movement and how these hunger strikes have occurred, the amount of cross student solidarity that I’ve seen is insane. People are reaching out to us. I never expected this, but then I thought, okay, this solidarity between us is amazing, but how can we create solidarity among people in the west because clearly they’re not paying attention and we need to bring it back to Palestine. I mean, as we’re speaking, the occupied West Bank is being annexed. It’s about Palestine and Gaza, and we really need to bring that back to the people of the west because clearly they’ve shut their ears and are like, I don’t want to hear about this. I don’t want to listen about this. They need to listen, and they need to act. And like my friends just said here, I think they should follow through and I cannot wait to hear what VS says.
Phia:
Yeah. Gosh, that’s hard to follow. I think I would finish with the reminder that we will never understand what it feels like to be under constant bombing, under constant threat of displacement and murder, but we can understand a fraction of what the hunger feels like, and we can echo the emptiness of their stomachs and use that as our power and our advocacy. And I’d also just encourage people not to look away. It is really, really difficult to be completely conscious and aware of what we are responsible for as Americans and what the United States of America is culpable for, especially in Gaza. But to look away is complicity, point blank. And yeah, it is our moral imperative to make sure that we are not abandoning our fellow humans while they are undergoing the crime of all crimes. I’d also say that Israel isn’t only the most dangerous state for Palestinians. It is also the most dangerous thing for Jewish safety. It is the most dangerous thing for Judaism is the most dangerous thing for international order, for international law, for humanitarian law. So Israel is culpable of atrocities no matter how you look at it. And I encourage people to advocate against it in every single way. So thank you.
Maximillian Alvarez:
And just last question, I know you guys got to go, but just in case any of y’all had a final message here, I want to ask for folks listening to this who are still afraid to do what you’re saying to people who are scrubbing their social media right now, people who are giving into the understandable fear that engaging in this kind of protest is going to put them in danger as young people who are taking that step and continuing to speak up for what you believe in and for what you know and believe to be right. Do you have any final messages for folks out there listening who are afraid right now?
Phia:
Yeah, I had the exact experience that you were referring to. I was like, should I scrub my social medias? Should I be more quiet? Am I making too much noise? And I consulted one of my icons in the community space that I really look up to, and they reminded me this is exactly what the administration, the Trump administration, what our government wants. They want us to be paralyzed. They want us to be afraid to want to step back and be like, maybe I shouldn’t take this risk. That is their goal. And I think that even just saying, no, I’m going to stand firmly in what I believe, even if it’s becoming more dangerous, that’s a powerful act of resistance in itself. And I think that if you’re struggling to find ways to show your solidarity and get involved, your voice is one of the most important things that you have. And we underestimate what silencing ourselves really does. So keep speaking up is what I would say.
Cole:
What I would say is if you feel like you need to scrub your social media, scrub your social media, but then go to a median, do what you need to do to protect yourself, but don’t let that be the end. You need to be proactive while being safe. Use signal, use these platforms that are safer. Do the most that you can to protect yourself while still doing something.
Sadie:
Yeah, I think there are a lot of different levels you can engage yourself into. If you’re kind of in one of those moments where you feel nervous or scared and you don’t really, I don’t know, you’re nervous for your own, I want to say the word safety, but I feel like that’s not the right word. I just continue to remind myself that this is like I have to keep doing this. I am in a position of privilege where I can use my identity especially, but also just the things I’ve access to the university. And that might not be true for everybody, but there are still ways to access getting involved, and that could be community based. But yeah, I don’t know. I think it’s, I don’t know. I get those moments a lot where I get nervous and I feel like I need to censor myself or my social media and things, but then I don’t know. That kind of brings me back to thinking about what is happening and how urgent it is. And I don’t know if that has to stop for any reason. I don’t know. I just couldn’t see myself doing that because it’s very just deeply important and necessary that I continue doing it.
Efron:
I would say, I mean, what all my people have said here is very good. I would say for me, I’ve had some moments where I’m like, oh God, I’m a little freaked out because some people will docs and we’ll do these things, but in retrospect, they’re doing that out of hate. They have so much hate. I’d rather do what I’m doing out of love and had rather look at this fucking fascist government and Israel and be like, no, I’m going to stand up to you. And I also think people can do that in different ways. If people are really good at art, please do art. We need art. Or if you’re really good at writing, we need journalism out there, guys, or I don’t know, whatever skill you have, it could be used in the movement and it could be as small as like, oh, I want to make a poster that changes so much.
You have no idea. Or, oh, I want to do a press release can change so much. So I think acts of resistance can be as small as I want to make a banner for this marcher rally that is still standing against this administration and Israel, even if it is really small, it is still something. And I think people should understand that, okay, this isn’t enough. It is enough. And as long as you continue, the administration will continue to have problems. And that’s okay with us because we’re going to keep going and going and going. So that’s what I would say. Whatever you can do is amazing.
Maximillian Alvarez:
All right, gang, that’s going to wrap things up for us this week. Once again, I want to thank our guests, Phia, Cole, Sadie and Efron from the University of Oregon. And I want to thank you all for listening, and I want to thank you for caring. We’ll see you all back here next week for another episode of Working People. And if you can’t wait that long, then go explore all the great work that we’re doing at The Real News Network where we do grassroots journalism that lifts up the voices and stories from the front lines of struggle. Sign up for the Real News newsletter so you never miss a story and help us do more work like this by going to the real news.com/donate and becoming a supporter today. I promise you it really makes a difference. I’m Maximillian Alvarez. Take care of yourselves. Take care of each other, solidarity forever.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed that Israel will not end its genocide in Gaza until it achieves its goal of the total forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza, as outlined by U.S. President Donald Trump in his “Riviera” plan that experts say would violate international law. In a press conference on Wednesday, Netanyahu said that the goal of the current offensive is…
The West’s shift in positioning on Israel’s genocide in Gaza isn’t groundbreaking. It’s barely even the minimum of what we should expect when a Western ally is committing war crimes and starving thousands of babies to death. And Israel has apparently been boasting that it ‘moderated’ its allies’ smokescreen response this week.
Prize-winning journalist Jonathan Cook has called on us to “ignore Starmer’s theatrics” on Israel, because it’s as “equally deceitful” as the narrative he has been feeding the public since the start of the genocide. Both the government and the establishment media, he insists:
are acting as if some corner has been turned in Israel’s genocide. But genocides don’t have corners. They just progress relentlessly until stopped.
Because colonial Israel is deeply integrated into the West’s war machine and therefore needs protecting, those same western leaders coordinated their seeming “ambush” of Israel with Israeli officials and the US. There was nothing spontaneous or genuine about Starmer and co’s “ambush”.
Israel “managed to moderate the outcome” of the West’s smokescreen actions
Britain seems to have no plans to stop regular flights to Israel from RAF Akrotiri, expel its genocide-supporting Israeli ambassador, or cancel all arms sales. So any new performative stances Starmer’s government takes essentially mean next to nothing for the people in Gaza whom Israel is starving to death right now. And as a senior Israeli official has revealed, that’s hardly surprising. Because as they told Haaretz, the seemingly strong announcements:
were all part of a planned ambush we knew about. This was a coordinated sequence of moves ahead of the EU meeting in Brussels, and thanks to joint efforts by our ambassadors and the foreign minister, we managed to moderate the outcome.
The current “handwringing”, Cook stresses, “is just another bit of stagecraft” aiming “to buy Israel time to “finish the job” – that is, to complete its genocide and ethnic cleansing of Gaza”. He continues:
It is all meant as noise, to distract us from the only pertinent issue: that Israel is committing genocide by slaughtering and starving Gaza’s population, while the West has aided and abetted that genocide.
And he asserts that:
The truth is that western leaders and establishment media are playing us for fools once again, just as they have been for the past 19 months.
For him:
Whatever they say or do, the trail of blood leads straight back to their door.
A senior Israeli official tells the Haaretz paper why European leaders shifted yesterday, after 19 months of silence about the Gaza genocide, to instant outrage. It was all coordinated with Israel in advance:
"The past 24 hours were all part of a planned ambush we knew about.…
A rally took place outside the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police in London on 21 May to “defend the right to protest”. Protesters, including Jeremy Corbyn, took to Scotland Yard to call for an end to police persecution of people who oppose Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Corbyn, Nineham under “a serious and deeply political attack”
Stop the War Coalition co-founder and vice chair Chris Nineham insisted at the protest that:
This movement has faced unprecedented harassment from the police from the start. Every single one of our national marches has had control orders placed on it – something never seen on peaceful protests before.
He added that:
Journalists have had their homes raided in the morning. Young activists are languishing in prison for the crime of putting graffiti on arms factories. And on January the 18th, in a major escalation, as you know myself and Ben Jamal and 13 other leading figures in the movement were arrested, charged, or have been called in for police interview.
And he stressed:
We should be under no doubt. This is a serious and deeply political attack on the right to protest and on free expression in this country. It constitutes a real moment of danger for anyone who dissents to the direction the government is trying to take this country in. And it is essential that we respond.
“It is only right that the police drop all the charges, release all the prisoners, stop harassing a movement that has been vindicated. This is a movement for justice, a movement for freedom and a movement for humanity!”@ChrisNineham at tonight’s defend the right to protest demo pic.twitter.com/piuEpneR6g
Jeremy Corbyn was present at the rally. And signs in the crowd included ones saying “Jews against ethnic cleansing”, “Jews against the occupation”, and calling for the UK to expel its highly controversial Israeli ambassador Tzipi Hotovely:
Emergency protest at Downing Street on Friday 23 May
An emergency protest, meanwhile, will take place outside Downing Street to call on the government to go beyond words and finally stop all arms sales to Israel.
Emergency Protest – Stop Arming Israel – Words are not enough Friday 23 May, 6:30PM Downing Street
Israel is starving Palestinians to death in Gaza. Meanwhile our government continues to send them arms and offers only words of condemnation.
This follows a slight increase of Labour’s criticism of Israel as its ongoing blockade of Gaza threatens the lives of thousands of babies in the occupied territory.
19 months into Israel’s genocide in Gaza, rising pressure has forced Keir Starmer’s government to take some small steps to hold the apartheid state to account. But in an apparent attempt to help Starmer save face for denying and participating in a genocide, the Independent has absurdly tried to blame this shameful behaviour on his predecessor Jeremy Corbyn.
Political editor David Maddox, a formerDailyExpress writer, is no novice. But his article on Why Starmer’s government has waited until now to take action on Israel sounded like amateurish propaganda. Whether it was intentional spin or naïve incompetence, though, it certainly was idiotic, offensive, and even antisemitic.
Maddox correctly explained that many MPs see the government’s “symbolic” and “limited” actions as “too late and not enough”. And he rightly pointed out that “there was no full suspension of arms sales nor sanctions against ministers in Benjamin Netanyahu’s government”. But his explanation of why Starmer has been so ‘soft’ and ‘unwilling’ to challenge Israel was utterly ridiculous.
Starmer’s support for genocide was all about Corbyn, apparently…
Politicians in the pockets of the pro-Israellobby dominate Starmer’s top team, which has received millions from a dodgy company potentially profiting from Israel’s war crimes. For most people, those would be important facts to consider when trying to explain the government’s participation in and denial of genocide. But apparently not for Maddox. Because he ridiculed claims that lobby influence has held Starmer’s team back from following Britain’s international obligations as “antisemitic”, saying “none of this is true”.
Would it be racist to highlight the influence of lobbyists for any other foreign state? Is Maddox equating Judaism and support for Israel? Isn’t that itself an offensively antisemitic suggestion?
He spoke about “the Jewish community” as if there was total consensus among Jewish people that Israel’s actions are above criticism. (That consensus doesn’texist, of course.) He argued that “a sense of shame” over the supposed marginalisation of this community under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership was what ‘held Starmer back’ from opposing genocide.
Maddox claimed, without a shred of evidence, that “under Corbyn’s leadership, Labour became so immersed in antisemitism”. Apparently, six years after this disgusting smear campaign helped to defeat Corbyn, the media can still repeat such lies with no consequences.
As Jewish academic David Graeber described, the weaponisation of antisemitism accusations against Corbyn was:
so cynical and irresponsible that I genuinely believe it to be a form of antisemitism in itself
Award-winning Israeli journalist Gideon Levy, meanwhile, stressed that Corbyn had faced a “systematic campaign” against him for ‘daring to criticise’ Israel’s brutal occupation of Palestine.
The lazy propaganda from Maddox didn’t include links to justify his claim, because it’s simply unjustifiable. But as the mainstream media has never faced punishment for its democracy-subverting smears, the lies continue.
As the BBC shelves films on Gaza and forces out @GaryLineker it's worth remembering that 3 yrs ago the AJ I-Unit comprehensively demolished its Panorama on Jeremy Corbyn and antisemitism.
Maddox said Starmer’s hard work licking war criminals’ boots in the last year has been an attempt to “restore” Labour’s “reputation”. And if Corbyn had forged a reputation of challenging warmongers and economic elites, Starmer has indeed decimated that reputation. Instead, the right-wing leadership has cultivated a reputation for enabling genocide, being corporate cronies, brutally targeting the people in Britain who most need support, and empowering the far right.
In a week where the UN’s humanitarian chief warned Israel’s ongoing blockage of aid into Gaza could kill 14,000 babies within 48 hours, Maddox suggested that the situation finally “outweighs the shame” of Corbyn daring to support international law and human rights. Finally, Starmer could justify slightly loosening the evil Corbynite chains that forced him to enable Israel’s genocide.
Even amid all of the article’s absurdity, though, Maddox finished by inadvertently revealing the real reasons for Starmer’s small increase in criticism of Israel. One is the growing “pressure internally from Labour MPs over his harsh rhetoric on migration, welfare and winter fuel payments” following on from an awful local election and plummeting poll numbers. The other reason is that “even Donald Trump” is apparentlystruggling to stomach full support for Israel right now.
In short, Labour’s timid shift on Israel isn’t about suddenly growing a conscience or shaking off the shackles of Israel-lobby appeasement. It’s just a small acknowledgement that things are looking grim for Labour right now. And with US permission, a slight increase in criticism for genocidal war criminals is a way to ease a bit of the anger the party is rightly facing.
Kneecap member Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh has been charged with a terror offence by the Metropolitan Police. He’s accused of allegedly displaying a Hezbollah flag, a group who are a proscribed organisation. That means it’s a crime for anyone to express support for them as they’re considered a terrorist group.
In a statement on their social media, Kneecap said:
We deny this ‘offence’ and will vehemently defend ourselves.
This is political policing.
This is a carnival of distraction.
We are not the story. Genocide is.
Kneecap hit back
Kneecap continued:
Instead of defending innocent people, or the principles of international law they claim to uphold, the powerful in Britain have abetted slaughter and famine in Gaza, just as they did in Ireland for centuries. Then, like now, they claim justification.
The IDF units they arm and fly spy plane missions for are the real terrorists, the whole world can see it.
The UK government has licensed at least £500 million worth of military exports to Israel since 2015. About 15% of parts used in F-35 fighter jets are provided by the UK. These same jets are used to bomb Palestinians. As the Campaign Against Arms Trades (CAAT) noted in 2024:
The use of F-35s by Israel in the attack on Gaza has been confirmed since the beginning of the war, including their use to deliver 2000lb bombs.
Since coming into government in July 2024, this Labour administration have approved more arms licenses than the Tory government did in three years. Former Canary editor and current media coordinator for CAAT, Emily Apple, said:
This is the Labour government aiding and abetting Israel’s genocide in Gaza. It is sickening that instead of imposing a full two-way arms embargo, Keir Starmer’s government has massively increased the amount of military equipment the UK is sending to Israel.
The government’s definition of terrorism when it comes to proscribed organisations is:
the use or threat of action which: involves serious violence against a person; involves serious damage to property; endangers a person’s life (other than that of the person committing the act); creates a serious risk to the health or safety of the public or section of the public or is designed seriously to interfere with or seriously to disrupt an electronic system.
In order to specifically classified as terrorism:
The use or threat of such action must be designed to influence the government or an international governmental organisation or to intimidate the public or a section of the public, and must be undertaken for the purpose of advancing a political, religious, racial or ideological cause.
Israel have moved far beyond being a “serious risk” to the Palestinian public. They have flattened Gaza, destroyed basic infrastructure essential for human survival, bombed schools and hospitals, and terrorised Palestinians. Israeli ministers have repeatedly and consistently demonstrated intent to commit genocide. Intent is usually legally complicated to prove when it comes to determining if the threshold for genocide is met. However, Law for Palestine compiled 500 statements in 2024 which demonstrate intent:
The statements by people with command authority – state leaders, war cabinet ministers and senior army officers – and by other politicians, army officers, journalists and public figures reveal the widespread commitment in Israel to the genocidal destruction of Gaza.
The instances of powerful Israeli stakeholders communicating genocidal intent along with a stated desire to wipe out Palestinian life and culture are shockingly numerous. For example, in 2023 Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant said:
We are fighting against human animals.
And, Associate Professor of Law at University of Colorado Law School, Maryam Jamshidi, presented her legal analysis:
Alongside the steep death tool, other “heinous acts” it has committed against the population, as well as its extermination of Gaza’s cultural, religious, and intellectual leadership, Israel’s effort to annihilate Hamas serves as evidence of an intent to physically destroy the Palestinians of Gaza, as such.
Complicity in genocide – but Kneecap is the problem
Continuing to support Israel materially or politically, especially via arms transfers, and the provision of private military and security services risks complicity in genocide and other serious international crimes.
This warning could well be the reason that Western states are scrambling to reverse their despicable choice of both allowing and facilitating Israel’s genocide. And, they’ve got some fucking cheek to criticise Kneecap for support of a proscribed organisation. The fact the IDF isn’t a proscribed organisation is, as the group’s statement alludes to, “political policing.”
Kneecap have loudly called for Palestine to be free, and condemned the government’s support of Israel. That’s why they’ve been targeted by the police – for their political opinions. As Kneecap’s manager Daniel Lambert said:
You have a band being held to a higher moral account than politicians who are ignoring international law.
Israel aren’t considered terrorists because they’re strategic political allies of the US, the UK, and other Western states. However, it is possible for a member of Kneecap to be charged with a terror offence because policing is fundamentally political. The state is attempting to exert its control over a dissenting group who object to genocide. It’s that same state who have facilitated Israel’s genocide with political support and arms exports – who are the real terrorists here?
Britain, France and Canada issued a statement on Monday, demanding that the Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu cease its military campaign against the people of Gaza and halt its months-long blockade of food and medical aid, which has left the Strip on the verge of widespread famine. The three threatened Tel Aviv with “concrete steps” should it fail to do as they insist.
The three NATO powers went further than a 22-nation petition to Israel to halt its food and aid blockade issued on Monday, which they also signed. The other 19 countries apparently declined to go so far as to demand an end to the war, as well.
With over half a million people in Gaza on the brink of starvation and aid groups warning of an “imminent famine,” Israel has agreed to allow a token number of relief trucks into the besieged enclave. But what’s entering Gaza now isn’t humanitarian aid, it’s a Trojan horse.
A new, U.S.-backed private aid scheme staffed by former CIA operatives, ex-Marines, and mercenaries tied to Israeli intelligence and Wall Street elites has been deployed in Gaza under the guise of relief. The project is led by a shady NGO registered in Switzerland just months ago, and human rights groups are calling it what it is: a hostile corporate takeover of the aid sector, designed to militarize relief, displace civilians, and profit from Gaza’s agony.
Israeli forces opened fire “directly and heavily” toward a diplomatic delegation representing over 20 countries on an official visit to Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, as numerous countries have ratcheted up pressure on Israel amid an escalation of its genocide in Gaza. Israeli forces admitted to firing the shots, which it categorized in a statement as “warning…
In an unprecedented escalation of international pressure, the leaders of Britain, France, and Canada issued a joint statement expressing outrage at Israel’s continued blockade of the Gaza Strip, emphasising that allowing ‘meagre quantities of food’ in does not meet minimum humanitarian needs.
The leaders said Israel’s refusal to provide basic aid to civilians in Gaza is unacceptable, calling for an immediate cessation of military operations and full and unconditional humanitarian access.
The statement strongly attacked some of the rhetoric from members of the Israeli government, calling it ‘hateful’, expressing clear condemnation of the threat of forcible transfer of Palestinians, and emphasising that ‘forcible transfer is a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law’.
The leaders added ‘We will not stand idly by while the Netanyahu government continues its outrageous actions’, declaring their strong support for international efforts by the United States, Qatar, and Egypt to reach an immediate ceasefire and contain the humanitarian catastrophe.
Warnings from 22 European foreign ministers and officials
In parallel, the foreign ministers of 22 countries and prominent European officials issued a joint statement warning of an imminent humanitarian disaster threatening more than two million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, noting that the Strip faces the risk of starvation after Israel prevented adequate entry of humanitarian aid.
The statement stressed that aid must reach the people of Gaza urgently and without any politicisation or political conditionalities, stressing that the UN and NGOs have the logistical capacity to deliver relief to all areas of the Gaza Strip if Israeli restrictions are removed.
The statement also rejected any attempt to change the demographic or geographic map of the Palestinian territories, considering this a violation of international law and a threat to regional stability.
The beginning of a shift in the Western position on Israel?
Observers believe that these tough Western statements, especially from countries that are considered traditional allies of Israel, reflect a gradual shift in the international position towards Netanyahu’s government, amid growing criticism of Israel’s policies in the Gaza Strip.
Analysts point out that the strong statements on ‘forced displacement’ and its characterisation as a violation of international law represent an important precedent in Western political discourse, which may pave the way for more stringent measures, including legal or economic pressure if the humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate.
Starving civilians is a war crime
Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that the policies of starving the population and obstructing the entry of aid may amount to war crimes, calling for the opening of permanent humanitarian corridors under international supervision.
Amnesty International added that ‘the continued international inaction in the face of repeated violations in Gaza opens the door to total impunity, calling for urgent international action to stop the humanitarian haemorrhage’.
In light of the mounting international voices calling for a halt to military operations and an end to the siege on Gaza, the international community is facing a critical moment between mere verbal condemnation or taking practical steps to stop a humanitarian catastrophe that threatens the lives of millions.
How many Palestinian children, in the midst of displacement, have looked up at their fathers and asked, “Are we going somewhere safe?” — believing that safety means being with the people they love. They do not realize that safety may be an illusion. Among the places we once trusted as a haven was the Al-Rimal neighborhood. Never did it cross our minds that this beautiful, vibrant place would one…
The latest phase of slaughter and seizure on the part of Israeli forces in Gaza has commenced. Following relentless airstrikes that have left hundreds of Palestinians dead, Operation Gideon’s Chariots is now in full swing, begun even as Israel and Hamas concluded a second day of ceasefire talks in Doha. The intention, according to the Israeli Defense Forces, is to expand “operational control” in the Strip while seeking to free the remaining Israeli hostages. In the process, it hopes to achieve what has, to date, been much pie in the sky: defeating Hamas and seizing control of the enclave.
The mendacious pattern of the IDF and Netanyahu government has become clearer than ever. It comes in instalments, much like a distasteful fashion show. The opening begins with unequivocal, hot denial: famine is not taking place, and any aid to Gaza has been looted by the Hamas authorities; civilians were not targeted, let alone massacred; aid workers were not butchered but legitimately killed as they had Hamas militants among them. And there is no ethnic cleansing and genocide to speak of. To claim otherwise was antisemitic.
Then comes the large dollop of corrective, inconvenient reality, be it a film, a blatant statement, or some item of damning evidence. The next stage is one of quibbles and qualifications: Gaza will receive some necessaries; there is a humanitarian crisis, because we were told by the United States, our main sponsor, that this was the case; and there might have been some cases where civilians were killed, a problem easily rectified by an internal investigation by the military.
Just prior to the latest assault, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in leaked quotes, revealed another dark purpose of the new military operation. “We are destroying more and more homes. They have nowhere to return to,” he said in testimony before the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee. “The only inevitable outcome will be the desire of Gazans to emigrate outside the Gaza Strip.” Here was a state official’s declaration of intent to ethnically cleanse a population.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich was even blunter, something praised by Netanyahu. Israel’s objective, he revealed in a statement on March 19, was to destroy “everything that’s left of the Gaza Strip”. What was currently underway involved “conquering, cleansing, and remaining in Gaza until Hamas is destroyed”.
The Netanyahu government has also added another twist to the ghastly performance. On March 18, the provision of various “basic” forms of humanitarian aid into Gaza was announced. The measure was approved by a security cabinet meeting pressed by concerns from military officials warning that food supplies from UN sources and other aid groups had run out. The pressure had also come from, in Netanyahu’s words in a March 19 video address, Israel’s “greatest friends in the world”, the trying sort who claimed that there was “‘one thing we cannot stand. We cannot accept images of hunger, mass hunger. We cannot stand that. We will not be able to support you’”. How inconveniently squeamish of them.
That same day, United Nations aid chief Tom Fletcher said nine aid trucks had been cleared by Israeli authorities to enter Gaza through the Karem Abu Salem crossing. This was an absurd, ineffectual number, given the 500 trucks or more that entered Gaza prior to October 2023.
Fanatics who subscribe to the ethnic cleansing, rid-of-Palestine school were understandably disappointed, even at this obscenely modest provision of aid. “Any humanitarian aid that enters the Strip… will fuel Hamas and give it oxygen while our hostages languish in tunnels,” moaned National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir. “We must crush Hamas, not simultaneously give it oxygen.” He also wished that Netanyahu “explain to our friends in the White House the implications of this ‘aid’, which only prolongs the war and delays our victory and the return of all our hostages.”
Israel’s Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu, also of Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit party, was in a similar mood, making the farcical resumption of aid sound like criminal salvation for a savage people. “This is our tragedy with Netanyahu’s approach. A leader who could have led to a clear victory and been remembered as the one who defeated radical Islam, but who, time after time, let this historic opportunity slip away. Letting humanitarian aid in now directly harms the war effort to achieve victory and is another obstacle to the release of the hostages.”
The picture emerging from Israel’s latest mission of carnage is one of murderous dysfunction. It made little sense to Knesset member Moshe Saada, for instance, that a broader, ever more lethal offensive was in the offing with five new IDF divisions even as aid was being provided. This was implicitly telling. Did Palestinian civilians matter insofar as they should be fed, even as they were being butchered and encouraged into fleeing?
The extent of the horror has now reached the point where it is being acknowledged in the capitals of Israel’s close allies. A joint statement from the UK, France, and Canada affirmed opposition to “the expansion of Israel’s military operations in Gaza.” Israel’s permission of “a basic quantity of food into Gaza” was wholly inadequate in the face of “intolerable” human suffering. Denying essential humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian population in the Strip “is unacceptable and risks breaching International Humanitarian Law. We condemn the abhorrent language used recently by members of the Israeli Government, threatening that, in their despair at the destruction of Gaza, civilians will start to relocate.”
For a long time, the notion of consciously eliminating the Palestinian presence in Gaza, through starvation, massacre, and displacement, was confined to the racial, ethnoreligious fringes of purist lunacy typified by Smotrich and Ben Gvir. Their vocal presence and frank advocacy have now made that ambition a grotesque, ongoing reality.
The Co-op’s annual general meeting on 17 May announced that about 73% of the supermarket’s 6.5 million members had voted to stop the sale of Israeli products. The motion is non-binding, but the Co-op’s board says it will consider the vote during its summer sourcing review. Pro-Israel lobbyists have predictably been making noise, but there have also been calls for increasing pressure on the board to respect the vote.
Co-op: BDS Israel now
A petition on Avaaz calling on the Co-op’s board to follow through on the members’ motion already has over 30,000 signatures. Amid Israel’s genocide in Gaza, the petition says, the apartheid state’s “economy – and its ability to carry out these massacres – is dependent on the revenue from exports, many of which are produced in illegal settlements in the West Bank”. It highlights that “bans and embargoes on South African produce were pivotal in isolating and weakening Apartheid” in the 1980s. And for that reason, boycotting Israel now matters too.
Stressing that “the vote was non-binding, and the board will be under intense pressure to ignore it”, the petition insists:
That’s where we come in. Will you sign the open letter to Co-op bosses, celebrating the vote and urging them to implement it in full?
The message to Co-op board members says:
The Co-op has a long and proud history of doing the right thing: making ethical decisions in the produce they stock and sell. The vote to ban Israeli produce is just another example of Co-op members standing for peace and justice. Now, the board must follow through and implement it in full.
No more hypocrisy! No more genocide-stained products!
The Co-op motion referred back to how the supermarket responded almost immediately to Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine by removing Russian products. And it stated:
We urge the board to show moral courage and leadership, apply the same ethical principles and values it did to Russia, and take all Israeli products off the shelves
On average, Israeli occupation forces have killed at least one Palestinian child every hour in Gaza since their genocide began in October 2023. In total, they have murdered around 17,492 children. That number includes about 825 babies, 895 one-year-olds, 3,266 preschoolers, and 4,032 six-to-10-year-olds. And as Israel continues to use starvation as a weapon of war, UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher warned this week that “there are 14,000 babies that will die in the next 48 hours unless we can reach them”.
After 19 months of genocide, the Co-op decision to remove Israeli products would be long overdue.
The Co-op board has said the motion is merely “advisory”.
It must enforce the motion now in recognition of its profound responsibility not to be complicit in Israel’s genocide, military occupation and apartheid. (6/6)
— Palestine Solidarity Campaign (@PSCupdates) May 17, 2025
Bravo to Co Op members, they’ve made their views clear, now the Co Op itself needs to act – by removing all Israeli products from their stores. Don’t call this ‘just an advisory vote’ and try wriggle out of it. https://t.co/oNkJmpK9gwpic.twitter.com/q54bZ1Kxpp
On May 13, Trump announced he is ordering the removal of sanctions on Syria.
Some of the U.S. sanctions can be quickly terminated because they were issued by Executive Order. Other sanctions, including the extremely damaging 2019 “Caesar” sanctions, were imposed by Congressional legislation and may require Congressional action to terminate.
The Syrian people are joyous at the prospect of the end of their country’s economic nightmare. In 2010, before the conflict began, Syria was a middle-income country with free education, free healthcare, and no national debt. It was largely self-sufficient in energy and food. After fourteen years of war, occupation, and strangulating Western sanctions, the U.N. reports that “nine out of ten Syrians live in poverty and face food insecurity”.
The arrest of a group reportedly consisting of Iranian nationals, accused of planning an attack on the Israeli embassy in London, has coincided with an aggressive lobbying campaign to classify Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization in the UK. While details of the case remain sparse, previous such allegations suggest that linking this plot to Tehran without substantiated evidence is politically motivated.
On 7 May, The Telegraph claimed that five individuals were detained in what the UK Home Secretary described as one of the “biggest counter-terrorism operations in recent years.”
As Israeli leaders were split over a plan to allow a “minimal” amount of aid into Gaza on Monday, Palestinian and global civil society groups issued a call for an international humanitarian mission that would go much further in fighting the looming famine across the enclave.
With the World Food Program and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East having “exhausted their reserves,” more than 750 international groups joined “Unified Call to Confront Famine” and ensure the blockade stopping more than 3,000 food aid trucks and 116,000 metric tons of food are allowed into the enclave.
She deserves everything my baby has. They are no different. Her mom and I are no different. Our love for our babies is no different.
Sign the petition: 
Emergency Protest – Stop Arming Israel – Words are not enough
Friday 23 May, 6:30PM
Downing Street