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Category: israel

  • Freedom Flotilla and Thousand Madleens refuse to stop sailing to Gaza

    The Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), which has sent humanitarian vessels on earlier attempts to reach Gaza with aid, and the new Thousand Madleens mass group of boats – named after one of the FFC vessels attacked and seized by Israel – have said they will not stop sailing to Gaza, despite Israel’s mass, criminal attack on the Gaza Sumud Flotilla’s fifty ships and their volunteer crews on Wednesday night.

    In a joint statement, the groups said:

    Israel has illegally attacked the Global Sumud Flotilla, sailing to challenge Israel’s illegal blockade of Gaza. Communications have gone dark, cameras are offline and the flotilla’s boats are being boarded by armed and masked commando forces. This is yet another breach of international law – an attempt to silence those who dare confront Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people, while governments shield Israel with diplomatic cover and military aid.

    We name this for what it is: impunity, made possible by political cowardice and complicity.

    The Freedom Flotilla Coalition and Thousand Madleens to Gaza stand firmly in solidarity with the Global Sumud Flotilla and every human rights defender aboard. Their actions are part of a collective refusal to accept the siege of Gaza as normal. Their presence on those boats is a reminder that silence is not an option, and that people across the world are choosing to act.

    We will not stop.
    We will keep sailing.
    We will continue challenging Israel’s illegal blockade.
    We will keep confronting genocide, apartheid, occupation, and mass starvation— until Gaza is free, and justice is no longer a dream but reality.

    Featured image via YouTube screenshot/Freedom Flotilla Coalition

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Italy’s unions call new general strike over Israel’s attack on Sumud Flotilla

    The Italian government and navy have abandoned the Gaza-bound humanitarian ‘Global Sumud Flotilla’ as Israel attacked the aid boats overnight. But the Italian working class has reacted in outrage at the scandal, gathering in the streets in protest across Italy and announcing new industrial action in response:

    Workers, let by Genoa’s Dockworkers’ Union (CALP) have called a new nationwide general strike for Friday like the twenty-four hour 22 September strike that paralysed the whole country and forced Italy’s far-right government to send two naval vessels in the first place. The unions had promised to “block everything” if Italy failed to protect the flotilla from Israel.

    Featured image via YouTube screenshot/Reuters

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Israeli attack on the Global Solidarity Flotilla sparks furious protests

    Israeli occupation forces have attacked 13 boats from the Global Solidarity Flotilla as they headed towards the Gaza Strip. The flotilla is carrying activists and humanitarian aid aimed at breaking the blockade imposed on the Strip for years. Overnight, the flotilla organisers confirmed that 30 other boats are still sailing towards Gaza, despite the Israeli attack.

    Flotilla attack sparks widespread global anger

    The Israeli attack has sparked widespread anger in several countries around the world. Emotional mass demonstrations in Europe, including Greece, Spain, Sweden, Belgium and Italy, have spread organically. In Germany, protesters closed the main train station. Meanwhile, in Geneva, Switzerland, there were widespread calls for demonstrations. In Britain, hundreds of people are expected to take to the streets of London and marched to the Prime Minister’s residence, chanting slogans condemning the attack.

    The protests also spread to Latin America, with marches in Mexico and Argentina, while regional governments condemned the attack in the strongest terms. In Turkey, a demonstration in Istanbul quickly took hold.

    Official condemnations and diplomatic moves

    At the official level, reactions condemning the Israeli attack poured in, with Bolivian President Luis Arce describing the attack as “brutal” and “a flagrant violation of international law,” stressing that “silence is complicity” and calling for global mobilisation to confront “this new brutality.”

    In a notable diplomatic escalation, Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced the expulsion of all remaining members of the Israeli diplomatic mission in his country, considering what happened to be an “international crime.” He also revealed that Israel had detained two Colombian women while they were aboard the flotilla in international waters and demanding their immediate release.

    This move is an extension of Colombia’s hardline stance, having previously severed diplomatic ties with Tel Aviv in 2024 in protest against the war on Gaza, while maintaining limited consular representation.

    For its part, the French Foreign Ministry announced that it was closely monitoring the movements of the Steadfast Fleet, stressing that the safety of French citizens participating in the convoy was a “top priority.”

    Venezuela condemned the Israeli attack as “cowardly piracy” and a systematic means of starvation and extermination, noting that “the real threat to world peace is Zionism,” which it described as “a racist colonial ideology that violates international law.”

    For its part, the Chilean government expressed its deep concern, considering the interception of the ships a violation of freedom of navigation and the law of the sea, and called on Israel to respect international humanitarian law and protect the fleet’s crews and volunteers.

    The Iranian Foreign Ministry also condemned the attack, calling it an “act of terrorism” and a “flagrant violation of international law,” asserting that the occupation continues its policies of ethnic cleansing, which must be held accountable internationally.

    Arab positions: Calls for criminalisation and urgent action

    In Tunisia, Hamma Hammami, secretary-general of the Workers’ Party, called for escalating popular pressure, including surrounding the US embassy in the country, demanding the immediate criminalisation of normalisation and asserting that what happened was “a crime that began in Tunisia,” in reference to the participation of Tunisian activists in the flotilla.

    In Algeria, the Algerian Coordination for the Support of the Palestinian People called for urgent official action by the government and the need to intensify diplomatic efforts to confront repeated Zionist attacks and support the Palestinian right to end the siege and occupation.

    Featured image via YouTube screenshot/Guardian News

    By Alaa Shamali

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Global Sumud Flotilla Boats Being Stolen By Israeli Occupying Forces

    Below are Instagram posts from the Global Sumud Flotilla regarding their interception by the Israeli Occupying Forces. This is an evolving situation. Below those is an article from The Cradle about an earlier failed attempt to intercept the Flotilla. In response to this illegal attack on the Flotilla, masses of people are protesting throughout the European Union. Here is a call to action for people in the United States from Veterans For Peace (VFP). Members of VFP are on the Global Sumud Flotilla.

    Veterans For Peace has put together a Rapid Response toolkit, and we encourage EVERYBODY to start taking action NOW, or to be preparing your chapter to take action.

    VFP members have prepared THREE levels of Rapid Response- Green, Yellow and Red.

    The post Global Sumud Flotilla Boats Being Stolen By Israeli Occupying Forces appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • The Gaza ‘Peace Plan’: A Neo-Colonial Takeover

    After nearly two years of the most horrific live-streamed genocide in history, the majority of the world’s eight billion people, shocked and appalled to varying degrees, want nothing less than an end to the ceaseless murder of Palestinian civilians and the total eradication of the Gaza Strip, the provision of humanitarian aid and medical supplies in vast quantities, and the reconstruction of Gaza.

    They — we — also want the establishment of Palestinian autonomy so thorough that Israel can no longer treat Palestinians as vermin to be slaughtered in the pursuit of the malignant dream that has been the driver of its existence since its blood-soaked founding 77 years ago — the total control of all Palestinian land, and the complete subjugation, disappearance or extermination of the entire Palestinian population.

    The post The Gaza ‘Peace Plan’: A Neo-Colonial Takeover appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Internal Power And External Dependency In The Recognition Of The State Of Palestine

    Two years on from Al Aqsa Flood, and its historic significance only deepens. The question of Palestine assuming centre stage at the 2025 UN General Assembly cannot be delinked from the crisis that Al Aqsa Flood has imposed upon zionism and the broader Western world order.[1] The prominence of Palestine at this year’s UNGA is all the more striking given that, just two years earlier, Netanyahu stood before the same body to gloat about the supposed “end” of the Palestinian question and the normalization of zionist relations with Arab states.[2]

    The Palestinian question at the UNGA centered, most notably, on the recognition of the State of Palestine by several major Western powers.

    The post Internal Power And External Dependency In The Recognition Of The State Of Palestine appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Exposing JFK Airport’s Hidden Arms Pipeline To Israel

    On July 16, 2025, a Boeing 747 operated by Challenge Airlines lifted off from JFK Airport in New York. The cargo manifest listed a 347-kilogram shipment from Lockheed Martin. Inside was a BRU-68 bomb release unit, a mechanism that allows an F-35 fighter jet to drop 2,000-pound bombs.

    The flight’s final stop was Nevatim Air Base in southern Israel, home to the F-35I fleet bombing Gaza.

    This was not an isolated transfer. Internal shipping records shared by the Palestinian Youth Movement, and cross-referenced with public flight-tracking data, reveal a steady flow of U.S.-made weapons components moving from New York to Israel. Parts for fighter jets, missile launchers, and ammunition have routinely left JFK on commercial cargo flights while Israel’s air campaign destroys homes, schools, and hospitals.

    The post Exposing JFK Airport’s Hidden Arms Pipeline To Israel appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Dockworkers Across Europe Meet To Call A General Strike For Gaza

    In a union hall overlooking the sea and stacks of shipping containers in the Port of Genoa, delegations of dockworkers from both sides of the Mediterranean gathered — answering the call of their colleagues in Genoa — for an international assembly. The objective: to organize against the genocide in Palestine and Israel’s rearmament, building on the day of strikes and mobilizations that shook Italy on September 22.

    It was with emotion that Giovanni Ceravolo, a leader in the Unione Sindacale di Base (USB) for the port of Livorno, concluded this international meeting:

    We will be able to call for a first day of Europe-wide mobilization against weapons, against genocide, against rearmament. All this embodies our future tasks. The assemblies that brought us together these two days are the first step.

    The post Dockworkers Across Europe Meet To Call A General Strike For Gaza appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • US veterans’ final message from the Global Sumud Flotilla before being intercepted by Israel

    Peace activists sailing to Gaza with the Global Sumud Flotilla reported Wednesday evening that Israeli naval ships had begun intercepting vessels in their fleet and arresting flotilla members. On Tuesday, just hours before the flotilla entered the “high-risk zone” near the shores of Gaza, Marc Steiner spoke with Phillip Tottenham and Jessica Coltfelter, two US Marine Corps veterans sailing with the flotilla. In this episode of The Marc Steiner Show, Tottenham and Coltfelter discuss why they, as veterans, felt compelled to join this humanitarian mission, and what message they wanted to share with the world in the event of their capture—or worse—by Israel.

    Guests:

    • Philip Tottenham is a US Marine Corps veteran, a member of Veterans For Peace, and a peace and human rights activist.
    • Jessica Coltfelter, is a US Marine Corps veteran (2008-2012) who served as security detail for Presidential Helicopter Squadron Marine One and, upon End of Active Service, worked as a defense contractor for Triple Canopy. Refusing to perpetuate imperialism, Coltfelter became an activist, educator, and an anti-fascist librarian serving rural and marginalized communities in pursuit of mindful liberation.

    Additional resources:

    Credits:

    • Producer: Rosette Sewali
    • Studio Production: Cameron Granadino
    • Audio Post-Production: Stephen Frank
    Transcript

    The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.

    Marc Steiner:

    Welcome to the Marc Steiner Show here on The Real News. I’m Marc Steiner. It’s great to have you all with us as of this taping, the Gaza Sumud Flotilla has been at sea for 47 days, over 50 ships with people from 45 countries, bringing food, necessities and solidarity to the people of Gaza. And it’s called Sumud because Sumud means steadfastness and perseverance in Arabic. It’s a central theme and concept in the Palestinian identity. And as we begin this interview, Israelis are preparing to intercept and arrest all of the Flotilla participants evenly in Spain are sending military ship to provide assistance and possible rescues if needed. So the Flotilla activists are literally putting their lives on the line to end the slaughter in Gaza, to bring needed food and medicine to break the blockade. And we’re joined today by two of them. Philip Tottenham is a Marine Corps veteran member of Veterans of Peace, a human rights activist. He was leader of the 40 day veterans and allies fast for Gaza and reports regularly from the 46 foot sailboat Oela. Jessica Coltfelter also served in the Marines. She was part of the security detail for the Presidential Helicopter Squadron Marine One, and worked as a defense contractor for Triple Canopy. She refused to participate to perpetuate imperialism, became an activist, an educator, and serves as an anti-fascist librarian in rural and marginalized communities in the pursuit of mindful liberation. So both join us. They’re both serving on the 46 foot sailboat Oela whose crew are mostly veterans.

    Once again, Jessica and Philip, thank you for joining us today. It’s really an honor and a pleasure to have you both with us putting our lives on the line for the God and people and to end the madness and the slaughter. And I really want to know from the both of you as us veterans, as peace activists, why you put your life line here to join this flotilla to go to Gaza.

    Philip Tottenham:

    Great question. A lot of unpacking for me personally, after having been brainwashed in the Marines and bootcamp, as we’re 18 year olds, our prefrontal cortexes aren’t fully developed and they break us down for two months and then build us back up in their image, singing chants, basically ready to fight, ready to kill, ready to die, but never will. And so for me, it took about 10 years after I got out, I got out in 2002, a little bit sooner. 2010 is when I started unpacking and everything and following the money and realizing that our country, that we are in the belly of the beast, that we are, the empire that we are together with Israel and some other countries, the axis of evil. And me especially being a descendant of original Texas settler, the old 300 that came along with Stephen F. Austin and slaughtered and murdered thousands of indigenous people. It was personal for me and I couldn’t stand to watch another genocide unfold of indigenous peoples on our watch. And so that’s why I’m here. And just, I’ve been to the West Bank and seen and felt the beauty of the Palestinian people, their genuine hospitality and how much more alike we are with them than anybody in our government and the billionaire class.

    Marc Steiner:

    And Jessica, what about you?

    Jessica Coltfelter:

    Quite frankly, my heart was not going to let me joy, peace. I think if you’ve been paying attention even a little bit at all for not just the last two years, but for several, you will not have peace in your heart. And I learned very quickly what imperialism looked like in the Marine Corps. And I learned very quickly what it meant to be a woman on the side of imperialism with the violence that is done to women’s bodies. And I could no longer stand perpetuated. I went to Kuwait in 2014 as a Defend contractor. And even though we were not a military unit, I worked with a lot of ex-military members and I saw the same level of imperialism there, the same violence against women’s bodies. And it was in 2014 that Michael Brown was shot and killed in the streets of Ferguson, Missouri. And my buddies at the time that were all former military there in Kuwait were making light of it, making jokes, making some horrific memes. And that was after what I had seen in the Marine Corps. And I knew right then and there, I can never do this again. I will never do this again.

    Marc Steiner:

    As I get to this next thought, I want to tell you both that I spoke to a number of my Jarhead friends last night and they all sent their best in solidarity with what you two are doing. Thank you. A bunch of ’em are Jewish Marine Corps Vietnam vets, and they’re sending their best

    Philip Tottenham:

    Oh wow.

    Marc Steiner:

    To both of you.

    Philip Tottenham:

    Thank you. Please. Thank

    Marc Steiner:

    You. So coming back, I really want to know what you all mean when you talk about refusing to perpetuate imperialism and why you take that stance, what that means to you all both as veterans.

    Jessica Coltfelter:

    Sure. Yeah. Imperialism is an annexation of resources that are not yours and a killing of culture. And when I speak specifically about women’s bodies, our agency was taken away in the military, sexual assault, sexual violence. It’s so ENT that there’s its own term military sexual

    Marc Steiner:

    Trauma.

    Jessica Coltfelter:

    And I don’t know a single female marine that I served with, but that I was friends with that did not have that happen to them. So when I specifically talk about that and the female body, that’s what I mean. And in Kuwait, again, I was working for a defense contracting agency. It was the same thing that these men were perpetuating against women who were there from the Philippines and Ethiopia to work and left with trauma and with scars. So for me, that’s what I mean.

    Marc Steiner:

    That could be a whole conversation on itself. I mean, absolutely. Yeah, that’s horrendous. And what were you about to say? I’m sorry.

    Philip Tottenham:

    For me, it was unpacking major general Smedley Butler. In bootcamp, they taught us about all his medals and that he’s the most decorated marine of all times. But then you go to find out his political stances and his book that he wrote that wore his racket and saying that he was a front man for capitalism for oil companies. And also growing up as I did, my great-grandfather was good friends with LBJ before my great-grandfather owned Lone Star Brewery. He sold preens and they drove around from ranch to ranch and LBJ was his gate boy and he would pay LBJ in P liens. But it’s that proximity to power that I’ve seen. The good old boy club that I grew up in with my family and my older sister is good friends with Ashley Kavanaugh, who as you know is Supreme Court Justice. Brett Kavanaugh’s wife. My nephew’s godmother is Ashley. My brother-in-law is the head of government relations for ExxonMobil.

    Marc Steiner:

    Damn.

    Philip Tottenham:

    Yeah. And so it was George Bush that George w that introduced Ashley to Brett. And so the country life, just watching and seeing the good old boy club, the connections that are spread throughout the country to Washington DC that are among the wealthy and the privileged, it is a good old boys club and nobody else is invited.

    Marc Steiner:

    Sounds like your butt’s going to get disowned

    Philip Tottenham:

    Already bad,

    Marc Steiner:

    But lemme talk about what you think you both think this flotilla is going to accomplish and why you decided to do this. I mean, A, you’re putting your lives on the line that you haven’t done that before as Marines, but to put your life on the line, we don’t know what’s going to happen. We’re not sure how the Israeli Navys Israel is going to intervene and what they might do. So talk about what drove you to do this act, this particular act. Jessica, why don’t you start? I

    Jessica Coltfelter:

    Had seen the previous Flotillas that launched not just this summer, but in past years including the 2010 Flotilla where participants were murdered.

    Marc Steiner:

    Right.

    Jessica Coltfelter:

    And when I saw the call to action for veterans over the summer, my heart already knew that I was going before my name was even on the manifest. And I just followed my heart with that. I let it lead me like a compass. And I ended up here. And I’m from a rural area in Illinois where Palestine is not on the people’s lips. Palestine is not a topic of conversation. And I thought if I could come here, maybe I could bridge the gap of understanding and education the folks back home who are good people, but who are misinformed by design and by policy. And so that was a huge motivation for me to come here. I’m a mother as well, and I think it’s important that my son sees that I would go and this that other kids, my students from third and fourth grade that I taught see that their teacher, Ms. Jess would come out here, that those weren’t just words that I said that I taught, that I meant them.

    Marc Steiner:

    Wow. You teach second and third graders?

    Jessica Coltfelter:

    Yes, sir.

    Marc Steiner:

    Whoa. Okay. Philip, what were you about to say? I’m sorry.

    Philip Tottenham:

    Yeah, for me, it’s when I went to Palestine for the first time in 2023. It was during Ramadan actually when all the three Abrahamic face Holy Weeks overlapped. I was there for five weeks and went there on my own. And just the suffering, I went there to see with my own eyes what I had been researching for nine to 10 years, starting with in 2014 with the massacres in Gaza. But what I saw for the first time in my life were two dead 15-year-old boys that were shot dead by the IOF for throwing rocks against them when they had full riot gear on. And to see that, to see the throwing the apparentness of the occupation and apartheid, that immediately reminded me of the Texas Mexico border, how the border had crossed the indigenous people, just the amount of suffering because of white settler colonialism and the US War machine and empire inspired me and just out of sheer desperation to make a wave, I took a sledgehammer to the apartheid wall in Bethlehem being told by all my Palestinian friends that I’d be shot and I wasn’t. So after about two minutes of swinging the sledgehammer, I was just exhausted from doing it and dropped it and walked away. And so coming back from that and just going to protest and protest after protest after protest, and not seeing anything change or getting anywhere, I knew I had to put my life on the line again because in my heart that I was called to Palestine for the first time in 2023 and my heart is called again and I can’t not answer my heart’s call.

    Marc Steiner:

    So I want to come back to the Illa here, and for our listeners that don’t really have a sense of why you’re there and what’s going on, let’s just start with this. What’s the underlying reason? What’s the pull and passion of this flotilla? What it wants to accomplish, and how many ships do you have? How many people are involved?

    Philip Tottenham:

    There’s three things. We want to bring in aid, immediate aid, which we all have on board, all of our ships and as many places that we can store it as possible. So to break the siege and to establish a humanitarian corridor for governments, right? Because we’re civilian led and we don’t have nearly the resources that governments do, that our governments have failed us to establish that humanitarian corridor for ships to come in and be able to sustain and provide that much needed aid to Gaza.

    Jessica Coltfelter:

    I also want to speak to the magic of the participants that are here. There are over 45 tributes that are represented here with hundreds of participants. And we’ve all taken and believe in nonviolence. We’ve taken an oath of nonviolence, but we’re mothers and fathers, there’s grandparents here, retirees, teachers. I’ve met electricians, firefighters, natural builders, professors, reporters. I mean, every service industry that you can think of is represented here and it’s across the globe who all see the light of God in our siblings in Palestine and who refuse to allow this apathy and appeasement from our governments to continue. And our training in Barcelona, it was really magical to meet all of these delegates who believe in the same thing as we do and who are willing to do the same thing and break this illegal siege on Gaza. And we set sail

    Marc Steiner:

    When people in movements do certain things. They put their lives in the line. When I was really young and a civil rights worker in Mississippi, we could have been killed at any moment. But so you’re putting yourselves out there in a situation that could take your own life, and that’s a huge step to take that you all took. And I want to talk just about a little bit from the two of you about what pushed you into this. I mean, you’re not directly involved in Israel Palestine, you both served our country as Marines, but you’re not involved in that struggle. You’re neither Palestinian nor Jewish. So what drove you to do what you’re doing?

    Philip Tottenham:

    Yeah, we’re human, right? It’s

    Marc Steiner:

    Humanity.

    Philip Tottenham:

    We don’t let the pride that we were instilled with in bootcamp and in the Marines affect us anymore. We shed that pride and that ego and that pride causes apathy, right? Love is not proud. We serve humanity. We serve love unconditionally, we believe, and I think I speak for everybody. I mean I can’t, but no human life is more valuable or less valuable than the other. And we’re sitting here watching human lives and children and innocent men and beautiful men and women and elderly getting slaughtered and starved to death. If we believe that nobody else’s life is more important than why not put our lives on the line?

    Jessica Coltfelter:

    Absolutely.

    Marc Steiner:

    What do you want to add to that, Jessica?

    Jessica Coltfelter:

    Every soul alive right now, we exist in the same crux and time. And that’s got to mean something. It means something to me. There is no distinction of separation that exists between us. And for those of you or listeners who think that we are different, I just want to ask who got to you? Why do you think that it’s important that we’re all here at the same time that we’re siblings in humanity and this disease of apathy is so pervasive, especially in my culture, that it’s akin to toughness and that is the opposite of evolution. I don’t know what kind of perverse evolution prevents you from hearing screams and scenes of suffering. I won’t be a part of it. My heart won’t allow me. Bill is essentially saying the same thing. It was a must. It was compulsory. To be quite honest. I didn’t think twice about it. And I think that you will find that same thing with a lot of the participants here. Over 26,000 people applied to be in this flotilla,

    Marc Steiner:

    26,000

    Jessica Coltfelter:

    People. Yes, and a couple hundred were selected. And I know that there were many, many more around the globe who wanted to come, but because of the demands of capitalism and the demands of our lives, were unable to do that. And so I’m honored and privileged to be among those ranks. And I want my friends and family in Palestine to see not just me, but all of these people, all of these strangers who are coming together out of love, out of loving kindness and loving awareness, willing to do this.

    Marc Steiner:

    26,000. Let me just stop there for just a second. So that’s a lot of people. So strategically, what do you two think this means if there are 26,000 people willing to put their lives on the line in a flotilla to stop the slaughter and Gaza, does this mean A, that what you two and the others are doing now will continue and happen again with all these other people wanting to go? And how does this fit into the strategy to stop the slaughter and killing in Gaza and destruction of Palestinian people? What do you both think? Granted,

    Jessica Coltfelter:

    One of the points of this mission was establish a humanitarian aid corridor. So maybe some of those 26,000 couldn’t be selected for this one, but the next one will come. Hopefully there won’t be another need for a next one. But if there are, we’ve got the ranks ready.

    Philip Tottenham:

    Yeah, I think it shows that we’re seeing through the world is seeing through the lives of the empire of the American Israeli axis of Evil empire. And I just want to say that as Marines we’ve and served, and in the military, we serve the empire. So why not serve humanity? And I just want to add that before I found Veterans for Peace and about faith and Code Pink, I was kind of doing this on my own. And it’s really through plugging into these organizations and getting organized. The way that the war machine is organized and has been organized is how we combat this. And so I really, we encourage people to sign up for and plug into whatever organizations that they align with. But for military veterans, for Peace, and you don’t have to be a member or a veteran, you can be an associate member, but about Face is also veterans and then Code Pink obviously. And other organizations like Fsna that help me get plugged in with bringing my idea of the veterans and Allies 40 day fast for Gaza that we did a couple months ago. And just how that grew. I wouldn’t have been able be here right now without plugging into those organizations and veterans piece specifically for me.

    Marc Steiner:

    So just before I walked in the studio, I was just checking the latest news about what’s happening and it appears as if Israel’s about to take on the Flotilla. So talk to all people listening today about what that means for two of you and for the rest on the Flotilla and how you respond to that. If that Israeli navy in fact attacks and takes over the Flotilla, what will your response be? Jessica?

    Jessica Coltfelter:

    We have trained for a lot of contingencies. There’s a lot of things that can happen. And I think one aspect that veterans bring to this is that we can plan and we can adapt, improvise. So we’ve been pretty fluid with our contingency plans. We do drills every day. We get in meetings every day and discuss what the plan of attack, what our exercise plan looks like.

    Marc Steiner:

    I understand, right? Yep. And what’s the situation right now that you’re in, just in terms of the actual threat? And you must have to be on a constant alert.

    Jessica Coltfelter:

    Absolutely. We post a pretty vigilant two man fire watch every night. Sorry, what we’re posting fire watch. We have our daily briefs. The last that I heard was that Israel had called for civilians to get out in their own civilian boats and form a blockade and meet us. So we’ll see what that looks like if that comes to fruition.

    Marc Steiner:

    So I want to ask you two very specific things here. Things that you both, that have been said out of the flotilla and that you’ve said, and one is, you had mentioned earlier in our conversation that you’re looking at the Israelis at this moment who were in the Army about to attack the Flotilla as cowards. What do you mean by that?

    Philip Tottenham:

    Yeah, right. They have all the weapons in the world. They’re the most advanced military because of the United States and the access of evil. And they’re pointing and fighting against unarmed, innocent civilians and us as a humanitarian organization and flotilla, right, that they’re threatening us. So how hard is it to not have fear to go against someone that’s unarmed the Palestinians, the courage that they have inspire us. They’re the reasons that we’re doing this to face what they faced not only for the last two years of the genocide, but for 77 years that this has been going on under the guise of American lies and Israeli lies, white settler colonial lies.

    Marc Steiner:

    Did you want to add to that, Jessica? We only had,

    Jessica Coltfelter:

    Sure. It’s not an accident when children are showing up with bullets in their head. It’s not an accident when a hospital gets bombed and the rescue workers that come to the hospital to rescue those under the rubble also get bombed. These aren’t accidents. We see a lot of violent action. And then apologies later, just like with the Qatari delegations targeted and attacked. You can’t tell me that that wasn’t without the approval of United States, but just within the last 24 or 48 hours, the entities, Lord Ruler has apologized for it, but he didn’t apologize for the violence, then he apologized that he misses Target. That’s not an accident.

    Marc Steiner:

    And when you both talk about follow the money, what does that mean to you? What does that follow the money?

    Philip Tottenham:

    Follow the money really is simple as far as following the donors of our congressional that are supposed to be our representatives, but they serve money. They’re narcissists that serve their own. And so you look across both aisles and you see the same donors time and time again. And like I said, I’ve had this inside view from my brother-in-law being the head of government relations with ExxonMobil. They write the bills and have ’em pass ’em. And the majority of the time of what our representatives are doing are raising money for themselves and for the DNC and RNC machines that are the two wings of the same bird.

    Marc Steiner:

    So with this approaching attack on the Flotilla A, I’m curious what you think your next steps are, and when they come to block you from going into Gaza, what are your next moves when you get back? Should do this again? So what do you think your next moves are in all of this? Because they’re clearly about to stop you all from getting the Gaza.

    Philip Tottenham:

    I mean, we were trained before this in nonviolence, and so that’s what we are going to do when and if they decide to interdict us, which we anticipate that they likely will, that’s what we’re going to do. We’re not going to resist. We’re going to be do our training, get up on board, let them illegally kidnap us as a war crime, and we anticipate that they’ll be waiting for us there. I think tonight at 4:00 AM we reach the red zone and we think that they’re waiting for us closer to shore. And we’ve heard that there’ll be a floating prison basically for us this time, since this is the biggest flotilla in history. And so in the past where they’ve escorted a ship in to the immigration jails, they may do that, but I think that’s what we’ve heard is a floating prison to get us there. And then there’s the Looming terrorism charges. And so there’s a lot of conversations that I’ve had with my sons preparing them one way or the other, uncomfortable tearful conversations, heartfelt conversations, just in case they do decide to get violent and attack us and go and take their masks completely off. Have had to have those conversations. But yeah, so those are the options that we’re preparing for. Oh, sorry, the boat really rocking right now.

    Marc Steiner:

    That’s okay. I’m going to let you all go in just, I know you have things to do. But Jessica, I mean, because one of the things that after reading about this and listening to the two of you, I think people have to understand the courage, what it takes to be a nonviolent military warrior, which is what you are.

    Jessica Coltfelter:

    Yes, sir. It takes a paradigm shift. It takes perspective shift, but it’s a higher vibration, quite frequency. It’s a higher resonance. It’s easy to tap into those lower level emotions of wanting to fight back. But I’m compelled by the consciousness of Christ. And when I say consciousness of Christ, I mean the person that he was, the decisions that he made. And I can’t say that if I’m not willing to do it myself. And I just want to add that the, we’re called the Global Saud Flo Tillis. Saud means perseverance, it means steadfastness. And it was named after our siblings in Palestine. And it’s something that I take to heart and that I’ve adopted.

    Marc Steiner:

    We’re going to stay close as we can to you all and keep this story alive and keep following up and not letting it go. And you’re putting your lives on the line to stop the slaughtering Gaza at this moment. So I want to thank you both so much for the work you’re doing. Thank you for being out there. So please stay safe and we will stay in touch. But thank you both so much for your bravery and for your putting your lives on line and fighting for the Palestinian people. Thank you.

    Philip Tottenham:

    Thank you. Thank you for what you do.

    Marc Steiner:

    Once again, thank you to Jessica Coltfelter and Philip Tottenham for joining us today and for putting our lives on the line for the people in Gaza. And thanks to Cameron Granadino for running the program today. Our audio editor, Stephen Frank, and producer Rosette Sewali, we’re making it all work behind the scenes and everyone here at the World News, we’re making this show possible. We’ll keep following the Flotilla, bringing you updates, and you can follow them at www.freedomflotilla.org. So please let me know what you thought or what you heard today, what you’d like us to cover. Just write to me at mss@therealnews.com and I’ll get right back to you. So for the crew here at The Real News, I’m Marc Steiner. Stay involved. Keep listening, and take care.

    This post was originally published on The Real News Network.

  • Israeli Official: Palestinians Who Don’t Evacuate Gaza City Deemed “Terrorists”

    The Israeli army just announced that it won’t allow Palestinians in central and southern Gaza to travel north to Gaza City. Movement will only be allowed to leave the city for the south, the Israeli army said in a statement. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz also said that this was the Palestinians’ “last warning” to leave Gaza City, adding that anyone who remains will be considered “terrorists…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Computer Science Lecturer at Berkeley Is on Day 36 of His Hunger Strike for Gaza

    In the fall of 2023, Peyrin Kao was teaching one of his giant computer sciences (CS) courses — classes with a capacity cap of 800 people that students often compete to enroll in, hoping to springboard six-figure careers in the tech industry. Kao had completed his formal lectures for the semester when he projected an announcement onto the classroom’s screen. “At this point, C16B lecture is over…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Israel Has a New $6M Plan to Flood Gen Z Platforms With Pro-Israel Content

    The government of Israel has hired a new conservative-aligned firm, Clock Tower X LLC, to create media for Gen Z audiences in a contract worth $6 million. At least 80 percent of content Clock Tower produces will be “tailored to Gen Z audiences across platforms, including TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, podcasts, and other relevant digital and broadcast outlets” with a minimum goal of 50 million…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • BREAKING: Israeli attack on flotilla underway ‘within the hour’

    The volunteer crews of the Global Sumud Flotilla of humanitarian boats has announced the likely imminent illegal attack by Israel’s naval commando unit on the flotilla ‘within the hour’. GSF radars currently show a concentration of roughly 12 unidentified vessels, 5-15 miles from the flotilla.

    Israeli attack on flotilla underway

    Contact has been disconnected with some GSF vessels, with some experiencing signal jamming.

    A live feed is currently showing flotilla radio operators warning approaching interceptors that they are breaking international law.

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Judge’s Ruling Will Help Mahmoud Khalil Against Ongoing Attempt to Deport Him

    A Reagan-appointed judge has issued a scathing ruling rebuking the Trump administration’s targeting of pro-Palestine students. Judge William G. Young called the case AAUP v. Rubio “perhaps the most important ever to fall within the jurisdiction of this district court” and ruled that contrary to the State Department’s claims, “non-citizens lawfully present here in [the] United States actually have…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Mass murderer Tony Blair set to administer post-genocide Gaza

    “War criminals are proposing a war criminal as head of…. Gaza.” That was the verdict of former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis responding to the mooted role of mass murderer Tony Blair in leading a transitional authority in the devastated territory.

    The former British prime minister (PM) has been selected by US president Donald Trump as part of a ‘Board of Peace’, which will be chaired by the latter. The group will be responsible for governing Gaza, should Hamas accept a 20 point plan put forward by the US genocidaire-in-chief. The proposals envisage a complete cessation of the genocide, referred to as a “war” in the text, with a phased withdrawal of Israeli forces. However, in textbook style, Netanyahu immediately addressed his deranged society to emphasise the permanence of Israeli Genocide Forces (IGF) within Gaza. Hebrew apparently exists in a frequency outside the hearing range of Western journalists, and therefore like all such comments, these remarks have largely gone unreported in the mainstream press.

    Fawning Streeting talks up potential Blair role

    One person Britain’s highly admired journalists have been listening to is health secretary Wes Streeting, who salivated at the prospect of Blair, a man despised across West Asia, taking on a governance role in Palestine. Streeting cited the former PM’s role in the Northern Ireland peace process as grounds for his suitability, telling LBC:

    I also think about Tony Blair’s other legacy, great legacy, which is Northern Ireland, and there he showed that he could bring together sworn enemies to broker a lasting peace.

    So if Tony Blair can put those skills to use, if he’s got the confidence of both the Israelis, the Palestinians, and the regional players, as seems to be the case, then great. If he can make that contribution, and that can be another legacy, a positive legacy under his belt, then so much the better.

    It’s correct that Blair did play a positive role in forging the Good Friday Agreement, as one of successive British leaders who had finally recognised the dead-end centuries of colonial violence represented. The peace deal has proven far from perfect, however, with 55% of the Six Counties population saying it needs to be modified. The deal has effectively institutionalised the sectarian divide, with the enforced representation of both ‘communities’ – nationalist and unionist – in government posts often creating fractious stand-offs. Non-aligned parties end up sidelined, and the bitter hostility between the primary opposing factions has led to multiple collapses of the Stormont executive.

    Streeting acknowledged the incongruity of Blair taking up such a role in West Asia, saying “it would raise some eyebrows.” He also recognised that the decision to invade Iraq was a “catastrophic error” that had “devastating consequences.” Up to 1 million Iraqis are estimated to have been murdered by Blair and his co-conspirators, which a reasonable person might say leaves open to question his respect for the wellbeing of Arab people.

    Blair’s disastrous plan revealed in full

    The plan concocted by Blair for running Gaza ought to reinforce that notion. Revealed in full for the first time by Haaretz on Sunday September 28, the document imagines a Gaza International Transitional Authority (GITA) with a board populated mainly by assorted super-rich ghouls, with perhaps the most nauseating being the proposed role of Aryeh Lightstone. The head of the Abraham Accords Peace Institute was a key figure in the creation of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a vehicle for sadism that stood out even amidst the Zionist’s entity’s other cruelties. Troops at its death traps disguised as aid sites have gunned down 1000s of starving Palestinians, as they sought food.

    Blair’s plan sees various additional layers of government, with Haaretz describing an:

    …Executive Secretariat of GITA, which will be the “central administrative hub and implementing organ.” Below that will be five commissioners – one each for humanitarian affairs, reconstruction, legislation and legal, security oversight and coordination with the PA.

    At the bottom of the heap would be a Palestinian Executive Authority, responsible for actual policy implementation and service delivery within Gaza., though even this limited involvement for Palestinians would feature a board-appointed CEO.

    The plan does at least seem to diminish the IGF’s role in the territory, with security control mainly falling within the remit of an “international stabilisation force.” Nonetheless, the document as a whole appears to be another colonial imposition that blocks Palestinian self-determination.

    Elements of the plan appear to have been incorporated into Trump’s 20 point vision, with item nine referencing Blair’s involvement in:

    …temporary transitional governance of a technocratic, apolitical Palestinian committee, responsible for delivering the day-to-day running of public services and municipalities for the people in Gaza

    Point 15 refers to the “international stabilisation force” from the Blair GITA proposal.

    Varoufakis denounces sidelining of UN, ICJ and Palestinians

    Varoufakis followed his broadside against the criminal Blair by denouncing the Trump proposals. He cited near absence of UN involvement (they will be confined to aid distribution) and the failure to release all 15,000 Palestinian prisoners held by the Zionist pseudo-state among his objections. Most crucially perhaps, he pointed out how the agreement:

    – nullifies the International Court of Justice (which in June 2024 ordered Israel to withdraw immediately and completely from East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza), and
    – abolishes both International Law and the United Nations’ obligation to enforce it

    These more substantive objections trump the musings of the moronic Streeting on Tony Blair, whose role – among 1000s of others – in a flawed peace deal 27 years ago can’t disguise his many crimes since.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Robert Freeman

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Lawyers Without Borders supports flotilla’s accusations over Italy and Spain’s betrayal

    International law advocacy group Lawyers Without Borders (LWB) has publicly supported the accusation by the humanitarian Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) fleet of volunteer-crewed aid boats that Spain and Italy – which provided ships to escort the flotilla but are not offering it military defence – have refused to give it the protection it needs to reach Gaza with its cargo of baby food, medicines and other essentials during Israel’s criminal starvation blockade.

    Spain backs down on its supposed commitment to the flotilla

    In a statement, LWB said:

    We support the Flotilla’s complaint, which issued a statement overnight stating that it believes Madrid has refused to provide it with “the protection necessary to reach” the shores of Gaza with humanitarian aid. “Through action and omission, the Spanish government becomes complicit in what may happen.”

    The same applies to the hypocritical Italian government, which, by violating international law, shifts responsibility for the criminal actions that may be carried out by the terrorist government of Israel onto the victims. This is the only true terrorist and fascist organization in the Middle East, which claims to dictate even Palestinian territorial waters by preventing anyone from crossing the exclusion zone designated by Israel in international waters 120 nautical miles (193 km) from Gaza.

    The Spanish government has indicated it will do no more than rescue survivors of any attack, while the Italians tried to pressure the flotilla into surrendering its cargo and abandoning its voyage; Greece said it would protect the flotilla, but only while it was in Greek waters.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Israel has just cut off North Gaza from the South by shutting the Al-Rashid Coastal Road

    Israeli occupation forces have committed a new crime against civilians in the Gaza Strip by closing Al-Rashid Coastal Road, one of the last vital arteries connecting the north of the Strip with the south, exacerbating the suffering of the besieged population and cutting off the last safe passage available to them.

    Al-Rashid Coastal Road, which runs along the western coast of Gaza, is the only remaining road after the destruction and restriction of most other crossings and main roads. It was used by citizens fleeing the bombing in search of safer areas.

    With the closure of this road, hundreds of thousands of residents in northern Gaza are now under a double siege: continuous bombing from the air and land, and forced starvation and isolation from land and sea, at a time when the humanitarian situation is deteriorating day by day. Observers describe this move as part of a systematic policy to divide the Strip into isolated areas, impose a new demographic reality, and deepen the humanitarian catastrophe for more than two million Palestinians.

    Stories from the field: resilience and pain

    In the heart of Gaza City, amid the rubble of neighbourhoods under constant bombardment, resident Abdelkader Khalil refuses to leave his home despite the imminent danger. ‘We will not go south, we will stay here no matter how intense the bombing gets. This is our homeland, and we will not leave it,’ he says.

    Abdul Qader moves from neighbourhood to neighbourhood within the city in search of temporary shelter, but he insists on not leaving the northern Gaza Strip. He sees his decision to stay as an expression of resilience and a rejection of attempts at forced displacement, emphasising that the closure of Al-Rashid Street has exacerbated people’s suffering and restricted their movement, even to secure food or reach their relatives. “We are trapped within the siege, and every step is fraught with death… But we will not give up,” he says with determination.

    Abdul Rahman Alian, on the other hand, has had a different experience. He was forced to flee with his family to the Al-Zawida area in the centre of the Strip, while his family remained in the north under bombardment. Abdul Rahman recounts the pain of separation from his loved ones: ‘I am here physically, but my heart is in the north. The closure of Al-Rashid Street cut the last thread between me and my family. I cannot reach them or even check on them.’

    Despite his displacement, he does not see the central area as truly safe, but rather as ‘a transition from one danger to another,’ as he puts it. ‘We live in crowded tents and lack the most basic necessities of life, but my greatest suffering is thinking about my brothers who are trapped there. I don’t know if they will survive,’ he said.

    Closing the Al-Rashid Coastal Road: a complete crime by Israel

    In the same context, the Government Media Office in Gaza accused the Israeli occupation of committing a ‘new crime’ by closing Al-Rashid Coastal Road, considering it part of the policy of siege and genocide against the civilian population in the Strip.

    The statement issued by the office emphasised that this measure aims to deprive civilians of their freedom of movement and disrupt their ability to seek safe areas or secure their basic needs, pointing out that the occupation’s claims of allowing ‘free’ passage to the south are merely pretexts to mislead public opinion and conceal its crimes.

    The media office noted that the occupation, along with the US administration, bears full legal and humanitarian responsibility for the catastrophic consequences of closing the road, calling on the international community and the United Nations to take immediate action to protect civilians and guarantee their right to safe movement.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Alaa Shamali

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Israel spending millions to ‘train ChatGPT’ to be more pro-Israel

    Israel has awarded a $6 million contract to a US company named Clock Tower X (CTX) to create and spread content on digital platforms, manipulate algorithms – and also to ‘train’ (manipulate) ChatGPT and other ‘artificial intelligence frameworks’ to make them more favourable toward the Zionist entity and its actions.

    Israel training ChatGPT to be pro-Israel

    CTX is the company of Trump’s former campaign manager Brad Parscale. According to a Responsible Statecraft report:

    At least 80 percent of content Clock Tower produces will be “tailored to Gen Z audiences across platforms, including TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, podcasts, and other relevant digital and broadcast outlets” with a minimum goal of 50 million impressions per month.

    Clock Tower will even deploy “websites and content to deliver GPT framing results on GPT conversations.” In other words, Clock Tower will create new websites to influence how AI GPT models such as ChatGPT, which are trained on vast amounts of data from every corner of the internet, frame topics and respond to them — all on behalf of Israel.

    The news comes hot on the heels of the Israel lobby’s multi-billion-dollar purchase of TikTok, which the Zionist propagandists say they will ‘train’ to promote Israel. The platform has been on Israel’s and the US’s hit-list since the beginning of Israel’s genocide because the popular Chinese-owned social was allowing US and other western youth to see Israel’s genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza within moments of Israel perpetrating them.

    During his visit to the US last week, Netanyahu admitted that Israel weaponises social media for its propaganda and identified TikTok as “the most important purchase going on right now”:

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Israel is recruiting Palestinian families to form armed gangs under threat of airstrikes if they refuse

    Israel intelligence has repeatedly been trying to recruit Palestinians in Gaza to form armed gangs. There have been reports of the Israeli Security Agency, or Shin Bet, approaching community elders from prominent Palestinian families in Gaza, pressuring them to form local armed groups, and to manage aid distribution, police neighbourhoods, fight Hamas, and pass on information to the occupation.

    Israel recruiting armed gangs in Gaza to turn Palestinians against each other

    Yesterday, in the southern neighbourhood of Gaza City called Tel Al-Hawa, houses belonging to the Abu Hasira family were bombed after they refused recruitment attempts by the Israeli occupation to become part of the operations against their fellow Palestinians.

    A Palestinian, called Motassem Baker, has also spoken of the pressure his family have been facing from the Israeli occupation forces (IOF), who guaranteed their security in their homes if members of his family joined the armed gangs which are backed by the occupation.

    Baker said:

    Yesterday, the elder of our family left after deciding, along with the rest of the family, to abandon their homes in Western Gaza. This came following a phone call in which he was asked to stay, with a promise of safety, on the condition that the family’s sons act as a militia like ‘Abu Shabab’ and commit to the army’s policies.

    Palestinians who reject the occupation’s advances pay a heavy price

    But his family chose to reject the occupation’s offer. They left their homes, preferring to sleep on the streets rather than betray the Palestinian community. Just hours after the refusal, Israeli occupation forces bombed the family block, committing a massacre against Baker’s cousins.

    The aim is to divide Gaza into clan-controlled regions, blocking the emergence of a unified Palestinian leadership, or the foundation of a future Palestinian state. When these Palestinians refuse to collaborate, the Israeli occupation retaliates with brutal airstrikes: In the al-Sabra area of Gaza City, 30 members of the Doghmush family were killed, with at least 20 more still under the rubble, near Al-Shati camp.

    Yasser Abu Shabab, a gang leader and convicted criminal thought to have links to Isis, is an Israeli occupation collaborator and head of the Popular Forces. This is an Israeli occupation-backed criminal gang, operating in the Rafah area and armed by Shin Bet . It has been responsible for systematic looting of humanitarian aid bound for Gaza’s starving population, and also forced displacement and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza.

    Occupation weakening the social cohesion of Palestinian community in Gaza

    The Israeli occupation has openly confirmed that local clans and gangs opposing Hamas have been “activated” and armed on the recommendation of security chiefs, justifying this as a means to “save the lives of Israeli soldiers”. This policy has profound social and humanitarian consequences, as it not only intensifies lawlessness in Gaza, but also undermines traditional sources of authority and unity.

    Traditionally, local families and community leaders have been stabilising forces that maintained order and resolved disputes. But now weapons and external backing are involved, these groups become competing power centres, fueling internal rivalries, spreading violence, and weakening unity in Palestinian society.

    Since late 2024, the occupation has not only approached influential Palestinian families, offering support and arms in exchange for their opposition to Hamas and cooperation in new political arrangements, but has also deliberately assassinated Hamas government personnel as part of a concerted campaign to create a social and political vacuum in Gaza. This vacuum is then filled by armed groups and looters.

    Hamas has responded by establishing special units tasked with combatting the rise of these gangs, but such forces have repeatedly come under direct attack by Israeli drones and military units, underlining the Israeli occupation’s active protection and encouragement of criminal chaos.

    Shin Bet has used blackmail and coercion to recruit individuals, forcing them to act as informants or agents within Gaza. These agents engage in looting and trespassing, often with explicit orders to target resistance members and contribute to general lawlessness, and the proliferation of weapons among these groups has only made the violence and mistrust worse.

    Israel is breaking Gaza’s social fabric by recruiting armed gangs

    Gaza is being pushed into intentional disorder, as once tightly-knit families grounded in loyalty and solidarity are being undermined by outside forces and internal conflicts. Those who refuse recruitment, such as the Baker family, face the certainty of airstrikes, while those collaborators accepting the occupation’s offers of ‘safety’, lose all credibility among their people.

    Israel’s policy of arming clans, gangs, and criminal networks in Gaza erodes the foundations for any stable political future. By dismantling traditional leadership structures and fueling rivalries between clans, the Israeli occupation is creating a fragmented landscape where no credible authority can emerge. This fragmentation undermines prospects for a unified Palestinian state and prolongs instability, ensuring that any post-genocide arrangement will only be shaped by manipulation from outside forces.

    Feature image via Al Jazeera English/Youtube. 

    By Charlie Jaay

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • It wasn’t only Galloway Israel just lied about – it literally made up a Hamas group as well

    Israel has tried to escalate its propaganda attack on the humanitarian Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) of volunteer-crewed boats heading with vital aid to Gaza, with a deranged smear claiming to “prove Hamas’s direct involvement in the funding and execution of the “Sumud” flotilla to Gaza”.

    Those who read on are then taken down a twisting path of almost-certainly faked ‘documents’ that then lead to a destination that would be hilarious were the Zionist regime not trying to use it to justify physically attacking the peaceful volunteers – and has indeed already started doing so:

    The regime that has lied about bombing hospitals, lied about murdering journalists, lied about the deaths of its own people that it killed in ‘immense’ numbers on 7 October 2023, lied about the UN, lied about rapes, lied about baked and beheaded babies – lied about everything, non-stop, for the last two years – asks us to believe that it “discovered” “Hamas documents” proving a link between the so-called “Palestinian Conference for Palestinians Abroad” and Hamas.

    Palestinian Conference for Palestinians Abroad literally doesn’t exist

    Palestinian Conference for Palestinians Abroad has no website, no Wikipedia entry and, judging by a complete absence of mentions on Google before the current propaganda campaign, seems to be an entity that only exists in Israel’s fevered ‘hasbara’ and only even that in the last few weeks, according to Google. The older links that come up supposedly quoting the ‘organisation’s name on the search engine don’t in fact mention it – and any mentions that do pop up are quotes in new comments about Israel’s claim.

    From that bizarre starting point, we’re then meant to believe that a ‘letter’ from assassinated Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh asking Palestinian Conference for Palestinians Abroad to unite with Hamas is evidence that it’s part of Hamas – and that another ‘document’ lists the non-existent group’s ‘operatives’, who conveniently include leading GSF figures Zaher Birawi and ‘Saif Abukashk’, apparently a reference to well-known Sumud March organiser Saif Abukeshek.

    When they joined the non-existent group isn’t made clear, but the allegation was immediately added to the flotilla’s Wikipedia page – by an Israeli user account set up some years ago that has made anti-Palestinian edits on a number of other pages that have been picked up and corrected by Wikipedia editors.

    From that, we’re then asked to believe the unreferenced assertion that Abu Keshek runs a company that owns many of the flotilla boats – and that “Thus![!] the company is “secretly owned by Hamas”.

    From hasbara to farce

    But now we descend from the usual baseless ‘hasbara’ (pro-Israel propaganda) into outright farce – because the Israel foreign ministry then provides images it claims prove the links to Hamas by showing the flotilla’s Birawi with Hamas leaders.

    But it’s not him in the photo with the Hamas figures.

    Not only is it not him, but it’s George Galloway, a politician well known to the British people and many internationally, not only for being a seven-times elected member of Parliament but as a participant in a notorious season of TV’s Big Brother.

    And the two don’t even look alike:

    Zaher Birawi, circled by Israel.
    George Galloway, circled by Israel.

    Israel’s propaganda is famously shoddy, but this is plumbing new depths. As a self-own it’s hilarious and highly revealing about its methods and arrogance – not just Galloway, but also when it comes to the non-existent Palestinian Conference for Palestinians Abroad.

    As a threat to peaceful people trying to stop babies and others from being starved to death by Israel, it’s grotesque, sinister, evil. It needs to be widely circulated as well as heavily mocked and condemned.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Jewish fast for Gaza will begin on Westminster Bridge to mark holy day of Yom Kippur

    Jewish peace campaigners have been preparing a Fast for Gaza for the 2025 holy day of Yom Kippur. This will begin on Westminster Bridge tonight at 6pm and then move to gather outside parliament.

    A Yom Kippur act of solidarity

    As the Canary previously reported, Jewish Peaceniks UK wanted to express their “horror and outrage” over Israel’s genocide in Gaza with a public fast on Yom Kippur, which is an opportunity to “reflect on the past year” and “put things right”. The day of atonement is “the most sacred and solemn day in the Jewish calendar”.

    The older Jewish women of conscience from Jewish Peaceniks have planned the event together with Jewish Anti Zionist Action – a cross-generational group of Jewish people. And they’ve called on other Jewish people to join them. They have already assembled:

    a cross section of Jewish men and women, many of whom are descendants of Holocaust survivors deeply disturbed at the horrific irony of a genocide being perpetrated ‘in our name’ by a Jewish state.

    In a statement, they explained what will happen, saying:

    At dusk, a large gathering of Jews will line up on Westminster bridge to symbolically cast Israel’s sins of genocide into the Thames. They will then process to the location for the fast, in front of Parliament. The lighting of memorial candles at 6.30 pm will mark the beginning of Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish Calendar when we fast for 25 hours and consider our misdeeds over the past year. This will be followed by the cantorial chanting of the opening Hebrew prayers followed by a silent vigil.

    They added:

    Israel is currently committing the grotesque misdeed of starving an entire population. We are therefore dedicating our fast on this Yom Kippur to the starving population of Gaza.

    Through their action, they explained, they hope to:

    draw attention to the powerful and growing Jewish opposition to the actions of a Jewish state against the Palestinian people in Gaza and to demand immediate action: stop the enforced starvation of Gaza, stop the genocide.

    A growing movement of Jewish people saying ‘not in our name!’

    The fast will continue on 2 October and “some people will be staying overnight”. As Carolyn Gelenter, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, said:

    We will be doing our own version of the Yom Kippur Day of Atonement service, including something called a Tashlich, where we name our sins over the year and cast breadcrumbs into a body of water (the Thames) from Westminster Bridge before moving outside parliament.

    She insisted that:

    Many Jews coming to this event have foregone going to synagogue in order to show their opposition to Israel’s genocide on this most auspicious of Jewish holy days.

    And she added:

    There is a growing movement of Jews who will attend synagogue dressed in black instead of white to show their opposition to what’s happening in Gaza.

    She also asserted:

    we, as anti-Zionist Jews, are extremely distressed about the genocide being committed in our name. We are also concerned about the rise in real anti-semitism as a result of the conflation of Judaism and Zionism and by publicising this event you can show that there is no one kind of Jew and that many of us do not support Zionism or Israel’s actions.

    During Israel’s genocide, and before, countless Jewish voices around the world have also insisted on a religious duty to fight for peace and oppose the apartheid state’s crimes against the Palestinian people. This includes some voices inside Israel itself.

    By Ed Sykes

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • The Defend Our Juries mass action this Saturday could surpass historic records for the number of Met arrests

    Defend Our Juries is announcing today, Wednesday 1 October, that the mass action defying the Palestine Action ban will take place in Trafalgar Square this Saturday 4 October. Over 1,500 people have signed a pledge making a firm commitment to join the action and therefore risk arrest.

    Defend Our Juries to turn out in defiance again over Palestine Action ban

    The action confirmation comes after prime minister Keir Starmer’s conference speech. In it, he ignored the Labour membership’s demand that his government recognise Israel is committing a genocide – as confirmed by the UN Commission of Inquiry report – and takes action to stop it by imposing sanctions on Israel and a full arms embargo. Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ speech was also disrupted by a protester asking why the government is still arming Israel, saying:

    Labour is complicit in the mass starvation of Palestinians.

    Although 1,500 have pledged to risk arrest for peacefully holding signs saying “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action”, hundreds more are expected to join the action on the day without registering in advance. It will make this the biggest ever mass action defying the ban on Palestine Action.

    Police have arrested over 1,500 people for peaceful sign-holding under the Terrorism Act 2000 since the government brought the Palestine Action ban into effect on 5 July. This is more than six times the total number of counter-terror arrests in the whole of last year. The mass action in Trafalgar Square could see the total number of people arrested so far nearly double.

    Surpassing historic protest mass arrests

    This marks the first of the mass actions defying the Palestine Action ban that activists have held in Trafalgar Square. It’s where in 1961, the Met Police made a record 1,314 arrests during the Committee of 100’s anti-nuclear demonstration. The protest was the largest number of arrests ever made at a single event. This Saturday’s action could surpass that historic figure and set a new record of mass arrests by the Met.

    This is the first time protesters have carried out a week of ‘Lift The Ban’ mass actions defying the proscription. It began at Labour conference in Liverpool and will end in Trafalgar Square, the epicentre of the 1990 Poll Tax uprisings. Defend Our Juries describes the public backlash to the Palestine Action ban as “Labour’s Poll Tax moment”.

    Mass arrests overshadowed the Labour Party conference on Sunday. Protesters confronted Labour ministers with the consequences of the ban on Labour’s own doorstep. Despite deploying hundreds of officers, Merseyside Police took over nine hours to arrest 66 people out of about 100 people taking part in the action. It later de-arrested two people, bringing the total to 64. Arrestees included an 83 year-old woman, and another elderly woman who had to have oxygen delivered for her breathing apparatus while she was holding the sign.

    Companies complicit in genocide lobbied for the ban

    The Home Office has published new transparency data confirming a meeting took place between the Minister of Policing and Crime Prevention Diana Johnson MP with insurance giant Allianz UK on 3 June 2025, to discuss:

    protest activity and the destruction of property.

    Palestine Action had targeted Allianz dozens of times as it provides insurance for Elbit Systems UK, a UK subsidiary of the Israeli weapons giant Elbit Systems. This included a recent action targeting Allianz’ city headquarters office in March 2025. Weeks after the meeting between the Home Office Minister and Allianz, Palestine Action was proscribed as a terrorist organisation.

    In addition to the Home Office data release, a new letter obtained through an FOI request from the ADS Group’s chief executive Kevin Craven to the Scottish Government’s cabinet secretary confirms that he would be meeting with the Home Office minister, Diana Johnson, soon to discuss a “structured nationwide response” to Palestine Action protests targeting arms factory sites. ADS Group is the UK trade association which lobbies government on behalf of weapons manufacturers. Its members include Elbit Systems, Palestine Action’s primary target.

    A recent UN report named both Elbit Systems and Allianz as companies both profiting from and enabling genocide in a recent UN report.

    Time to make the proscription unenforceable, says Defend Our Juries

    A Defend Our Juries spokesperson said:

    With over 1,500 people already pledging to take part and hundreds more expected to register by the weekend, this is set to be the biggest mass action yet defying the ban on Palestine Action. While Keir Starmer ignores the demands of his own Party members to recognise Israel’s genocide and take action – including sanctions and a full arms embargo – thousands are stepping up where his Government refuses to act.

    This Saturday could soon see the number of arrests nearly double from the current total of 1,600, setting a new record for the largest mass arrest – an extraordinary misuse of counter-terror and policing resources.

    This comes as new evidence of meetings between the Policing Minister and the weapons manufacturers’ insurer and lobbyist group make clearer than ever why Palestine Action has been banned as a ‘terrorist’ group: not because it posed any threat to the public, but because it threatened the profits of the arms companies enabling Israel’s genocide. These companies lobbied for Palestine Action to be banned, and Starmer’s Government delivered. The British public sees through this, and that’s why they are refusing to accept it.

    It’s nothing short of a scandal that thousands of people are being arrested – from vicars and priests to students and retired healthcare workers – as our fundamental rights to free speech and protest have been stripped away, not to keep us safe, but to protect weapons manufacturers’ interests and enable Israel to continue to slaughter Palestinian people.

    The new Home Secretary must urgently rethink what has become a Poll Tax moment for this imploding Labour Government. Their own party Conference has already been overshadowed by the sight of pensioners and former Labour councillors dragged away by police for peacefully protesting the ban. It took nine hours to arrest just 64 of 100 protesters at the conference gates – if they can’t enforce the ban on their own doorstep, how will they be able to respond to the biggest act of mass civil disobedience in Trafalgar Square this weekend?

    Feature image via Guardian/Youtube.

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Israel propagandists prepare for illegal attack on flotilla by targeting… George Galloway?

    Israel plans to attack people taking aid to the people in Gaza it has been killing and starving for two years. And to justify that assault, Israel has targeted… UK politician George Galloway.

    Two years into its genocidal crimes in occupied Palestine, the apartheid state’s ongoing impunity has normalised the idea that it will illegally attack humanitarians outside its territory without thinking twice. But going after Galloway ahead of its new assault on the aid volunteers in the Global Sumud Flotilla takes its propaganda into new territory.

    “An absurd but deadly smear” from Israel against George Galloway

    Israel’s propaganda machine is trying to justify it future crimes, as it always does, by painting the humanitarian aid mission as ‘Hamas‘ – and confusing George Galloway as someone else, while claiming he is part of Hamas. That might be funny if Israel hadn’t already murdered countless journalists and civilians using the same argument.

    Galloway, the former MP and current leader of the Workers Party of Britain, responded by calling the Israeli propaganda:

    an absurd but deadly smear against Greta Thunberg and the flotilla bound for Gaza

    He added:

    For the record: I have nothing to do with Hamas or the flotilla.

    Galloway’s party asserted:

    Keep your hands off our leaders, fascists…

    We warn you, this will be taken down and used in evidence.

    Israeli-British attacks on anti-genocide voices

    In recent days, as well as Israel the British state also targeted George Galloway by detaining him and his wife Gayatri at Gatwick Airport. He said authorities had told him:

    You’re not under arrest, but you are not free to leave, and that you have a legal obligation to answer any and all questions.

    His party added:

    The detention of our leader this weekend should worry everybody. Detention, discrimination, intimidation and interference in what is left of the democratic life of our country.

    It’s a battle for democratic freedoms. We are in the leadership of this historic fight. We must unite with everybody who is willing to sink this extremist Home Secretary and her genocide supporting colleagues.

    Galloway also referred to Britain’s draconian crackdown on anti-genocide voices, warning about how much politics has changed since he was a child:

    I grew up in a brief period of social democracy. Nobody would dream of telling you you were under arrest for holding a placard

    Galloway’s detention came as Richard Tice, deputy leader of Britain’s dominant far-right party Reform UK, was in Israel visiting war criminals.

    An Israeli attack on the humanitarian flotilla seems imminent. As Jewish campaigner David Adler insisted early on 1 October:

    Last night, several Israeli naval ships menaced our convoy. They attacked our vessels, intimidated our crew, and disabled our communications.

    We recognize these tactics from previous flotilla missions. We know that they are the precursor to what we have long feared: illegal Israeli abduction in international waters.

    As I write this, we are preparing ourselves for such an imminent attack.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Ed Sykes

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Value of UK arms imported by Israel reached record high in June

    An investigation from Channel 4 News has found that the value of UK arms imported by Israel reached a record high in June of this year. That’s in spite of the government announcing in 2024 that they had halted 29 export licences to Israel. Instead, the investigation found that:

    Our analysis of Israel Tax Authority figures shows munitions worth around £400,000 arriving from the UK and passing through Israeli customs in June 2025 – the highest amount in a single month since available records began more than three years ago.

    The exact nature of the items isn’t specified in the records, but they were listed under a category that includes bombs, grenades, torpedoes, missiles and mines. It isn’t possible to identify the end user of the munitions from these statistics.

    This is at direct odds with the United Nation’s recent determination that Israel has committed genocide in the Gaza strip. In May 2025, UN experts also warned that:

    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.

    UK arms Israel in genocide

    As the Canary previously reported:

    New export licensing figures show that the UK Labour Party government approved licenses for £127.6 million worth of military equipment to Israel in single issue licenses between October to December 2024. This is a massive increase, with the figure in this three-month period totalling more than 2020-2023 combined.

    During the course of their investigation, Channel 4 News examined almost 8 million rows of Israel Tax Authority customs data from January 2022 to August 2025.

    Iain Overton from Action on Armed Violence (AOAV) wrote that:

    International law is explicit: states have a duty not only to refrain from committing genocide but also to prevent it. The International Court of Justice has already ruled that there is a plausible case of genocide underway in Gaza. For the UK to persist with arms exports and military cooperation is to knowingly aid a state accused of the gravest crime in human history.

    Overton decried the denigration of the international order:

    For decades, British officials have spoken of a “rules-based international order”. Yet when the rules are most severely broken, Britain chooses expediency over principle. Arms sales trump human rights. Strategic alliances outweigh moral clarity.

    And, Human Rights Watch director, Yasmine Ahmed, said:

    If the UK has any spine on Gaza, it must at least use its political leverage and impose a total arms embargo on Israel.

    Featured image via Unsplash/Jonathan Xu

    By Maryam Jameela

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Trump’s 20-point plan for Gaza is colonialism dressed up like foreign diplomacy

    Although US president Donald Trump has aided and abetted the Gaza genocide, he has now proposed a 20-point plan for the Strip, which he claims will restore peace and economic stability to the enclave. But his plan – which the Israeli occupation has agreed to – is nothing more than a colonial project which is completely disconnected from the realities on the ground.

    Trump’s 20-point plan for Gaza: biased towards Israel

    Hamas is now said to be studying the proposal “in good faith”, but other resistance groups in Gaza have expressed concern, with Palestinian Islamic Jihad saying the plan is a “recipe to blow up the region”, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a leftwing group, saying it:

    will impose a formula of surrender on the resistance and our people.

    But the much hated Palestinian Authority, which the vast majority of Palestinians in both the West Bank and Gaza believe to be corrupt, has agreed to the proposal, which will see it undergo a reform programme, the details of which are so far unknown.

    Starmer supports Trump’s plan, having said:

    All sides must now come together to bring this initiative into reality.

    However, the plan not only fails to address the ongoing Israeli occupation – which is the root cause of the genocide, instead focusing on security measures benefiting Israel – but also offers no guarantees for Palestinian self-determination or rights. Without addressing these points, Trump’s plan is doomed to fail.

    There is also no stipulation for the withdrawal of occupation forces from Gaza, only a gradual withdrawal with no set timeline. Netanyahu has already claimed they will remain in Gaza, stating on X:

    Instead of Hamas isolating us, we turn the tables and isolated it. Now the entire world is pressurising Hamas to accept the conditions we set-the release of all hostages, while the IDF stays in most of the enclave.

    Trump’s Gaza plan: Hamas to demilitarise and Palestinian population to ‘de-radicalise’

    Trump’s plan not only talks about the “establishment of a process to de-radicalize the population”, but demands Hamas demilitarise, so it “does not pose a threat to its neighbours” – meaning the Israeli occupation.

    Resistance is all Palestinians have, and they have a legal right to defend themselves against their occupier, under international law. Hamas was formed as a reaction to the illegal occupation, and without occupation there would be no need for such a resistance group. Demilitarising means Palestinians will be unable to defend themselves the next time Israel carries out its genocidal actions against Gaza’s population.

    According to Hani Al Masri, director of Palestinian NGO Masarat – The Palestinian Centre for Policy Research & Strategic Studies:

    The only clear, binding, and immediate component of the plan is the release of Israeli prisoners, within 72 hours of a ceasefire coming into effect, and the provision of humanitarian aid.The rest of the clauses are vague and require negotiation, with no timelines or guarantees- serving the Israeli position.

    The proposal stipulates that after the Israeli prisoners are released:

    Israel will release 250 life sentence prisoners plus 1,700 Gazans who were detained after October 7. For every Israeli hostage whose remains are released, Israel will release the remains of 15 deceased Gazans.

    GHF ‘death traps’ to continue?

    Trump’s plan states that immediately after the prisoner swap has taken place, aid will be:

    distributed – without interference from either side – by the United Nations and the Red Crescent, along with other international organizations not associated with either Israel or Hamas.

    This could mean the GHF aid distribution sites, which are nothing more than ‘death traps’ run by US mercenaries and Israeli occupation forces, may continue distributing aid if Trump’s plan is implemented.

    According to the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza, as of 30 September, 2567 starving aid seekers have so far been killed, and 18,873 injured in Gaza.

    ‘No guarantees’ Netanyahu will not reactivate his ‘genocidal war’

    Mustafa Barghouti is a Palestinian doctor, activist, and politician, who co-founded the Palestinian National Initiative.

    He told the Canary:

    Israel failed in conducting the ethnic cleansing in Gaza, but they have destroyed it completely. They should have been forced to pay reparations for the inhuman destruction they have caused. It is important to stop the genocidal war and to alleviate the humanitarian suffering but Trump’s plan ignores the Palestinians and the root cause of the conflict which is the Israeli occupation and apartheid. The plan is full of mines that can explode the whole situation. There are no guarantees that Netanyahu will not reactivate his genocidal war after he gets back the Israeli captives. The Israeli troops will stay in Gaza for a long time and there are no guarantees of full withdrawal.

    Under Trump’s proposal, Gaza would be run on a daily basis by a ‘technocratic’ Palestinian administration made up of individuals without ties to any political faction. Palestinians would have no say in this leadership, which would instead be appointed by the ‘Board of Peace’ an international body created to carry out the ‘peace plan’, which would be responsible for guiding the plan’s implementation and coordinating efforts among key regional and global leaders. This ‘Board of Peace’ would not only be headed and chaired by Trump, but also another war criminal, Tony Blair, who led Britain into an illegal war which resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and caused widespread devastation, but has never faced justice for his crimes.

    Blair’s backing of Trump’s proposal, raises serious concerns about the credibility and intentions behind the plan of the president, who recently – along with Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner – had wanted to ethnically cleanse Gaza of its Palestinian population and turn the Strip into the ‘Riviera of the Middle East’. Kushner has now been involved in a behind the scenes meeting with Netanyahu and White House envoy Steve Witcoff, which lasted more than six hours, in which Netanyahu managed to negotiate several changes to the proposal concerning the Israeli occupation forces withdrawal from the Strip.

    Plan will undermine potential for independent Palestinian state

    A critical problem with this plan is its failure to secure meaningful self-determination for Palestinians. Despite references to Gaza governance reform, the plan does not guarantee a sovereign Palestinian state or provide a clear path toward political independence, and this interference of foreign powers – foreign powers who have been quick to recognise the state of Palestine in recent weeks – is described by Barghouti as the ‘worst mine’.

    He said:

    The worst mine is the imposition of foreign rule on Palestinians in Gaza, which will separate the Gaza Strip from the West Bank and undermine any potential of an independent Palestinian state.

    Hamas has been given “three or four days” to respond by Trump, after which Trump has pledged to give Netanyahu full backing:

    to do what you would have to do.

    In response, Netanyahu warned:

    But if Hamas rejects your plan, Mr President, or if they supposedly accept it and then basically do everything to counter it, then Israel will finish the job by itself.

    Trump’s proposal: illegal under international law

    Shahd Hammouri is an international lawyer and senior legal consultant at Law for Palestine, who has also acted as a legal consultant on the International Court of Justice (ICJ) Advisory Opinion on the Legality of the Israeli Occupation of Palestine.

    She told the Canary that Trump’s proposed Gaza plan violates the basic principles of international law, including the ICJ’s 2024 Advisory Opinion on the illegality of the Israeli occupation, and the provisional measures and findings in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel. States accepting this plan would be in breach of their own international obligations, because a new form of occupation would be unlawfully imposed on the population of Gaza, while coerced agreements are considered invalid.

    Hammouri said:

    The proposal to install a temporary foreign governance body that introduces a security regime constitutes a new form of foreign occupation, violating the Palestinian right to self-determination. The inclusion of some Palestinian representatives does not negate the body’s fundamentally foreign and imposed character, while agreements signed under physical duress are void under international law. Leveraging military superiority to inflict excessive suffering- which has crossed the threshold of a genocide – upon a colonized population under illegal occupation constitutes such duress. Any agreement reached under these conditions should be legally invalid.

    Trump’s 20-point plan for Gaza does not meet the requirements of international law, nor the fundamental conditions for a just and lasting peace. By leaving the Israeli occupation in place, denying Palestinians the right to self-determination, and imposing foreign control over Gaza’s governance, the plan effectively entrenches the very structures that fuel the perpetual conflict.

    Coerced agreements reached under conditions of mass displacement, siege, and ongoing military pressure carry no legitimacy, while the absence of binding guarantees on Israel renders the plan unenforceable. Unless the core issue of occupation is addressed, any arrangement – however it is presented – will remain unstable, unsustainable, and in violation of international law.

    Feature image via CBS News/Youtube. 

    By Charlie Jaay

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • BREAKING VIDEO: Israeli military attacks humanitarian flotilla boat the Alma

    Global Sumud Flotilla steering committee member Yasemin Acar has reported that the Israeli military is intercepting the Alma, the humanitarian fleet’s main boat, 120 nautical miles away from the shores of Gaza. You can read the Canary’s full report here.

    All communication with Alma, including the livestream of CCTV footage from the vessel, has been lost:

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • BREAKING: Israel directly targets the Global Sumud Flotilla off the coast of Gaza

    Early this morning, Wednesday 1 October, the Global Sumud Flotilla heading to the Gaza Strip was intercepted by Israeli warships in the Mediterranean Sea, in a move described by the fleet’s organizers as “maritime piracy” and a flagrant violation of international law.

    Suspicious movements and unlit naval vessels

    According to sources on board the ships, one of the Israeli naval vessels approached within five feet of the Alma, the flotilla’s flagship, and carried out electronic jamming operations targeting the communications systems on board a number of participating ships, temporarily disabling the engine of one of the ships before the warship withdrew.

    The technical team was then able to restore communication between the ships, and the flotilla resumed its course toward the Gaza Strip coast, where it is currently about 120 nautical miles from shore.

    Field correspondents aboard the Shirin, one of the fleet’s ships, reported seeing a large Israeli warship without navigation lights hovering near the fleet’s location amid continuous flights by reconnaissance drones in the skies above the area, prompting the alert level to be raised to the highest level.

    The fleet had temporarily lowered its alert level earlier, after receiving information that there was no imminent threat, but recent developments prompted the leadership to declare a state of emergency again in anticipation of any possible attack.

    Security measures and emergency protocols from the flotilla

    As the threat escalated, activists aboard the Alma implemented the approved emergency protocol, which includes throwing mobile phones and smart devices into the sea to prevent any attempt to seize or hack data in the event that the ships are intercepted by the occupation forces.

    Reports confirmed that Israeli jamming targeted navigation and communication systems in an attempt to isolate the fleet, a tactic that is repeated in every maritime attempt to break the naval blockade imposed on Gaza.

    In official statements, the coordinator of the flotilla said that details of the violations against the fleet had been documented, adding:

    For hours, we faced a dangerous maritime harassment operation, in which unidentified military ships without any lights surrounded the command ship ‘Alma’ from a dangerous distance, while Israeli drones continued to fly in the area’s airspace.

    A direct electronic attack was carried out, causing interference with our equipment and disrupting communication systems and the engine of one of the ships, forcing us to declare an immediate state of emergency and issue an urgent appeal to the international community to protect our humanitarian mission.

    He held the Israeli occupation authorities fully responsible for the safety of those on board the flotilla, stressing that intercepting relief ships sailing in international waters is a flagrant violation of international law and a crime that must be accounted for.

    An ongoing escalation

    The flotilla coordinator called for urgent international and popular pressure to ensure that we are not intercepted or interfered with, stressing that the mission is purely humanitarian and aims to break the naval blockade and deliver aid to civilians trapped in Gaza.

    The Global Sumud Flotilla is an international civil initiative comprising volunteers and human rights activists from several countries. It aims to break the naval blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip since 2007 by sending ships carrying humanitarian and symbolic aid, as well as delivering a political and moral message about the need to end the blockade.

    This attempt is part of a series of previous maritime initiatives, most notably the Freedom Flotilla in 2010, which was attacked by Israeli forces, resulting in civilian casualties.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Alaa Shamali

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Trump Says Israel Can ‘Finish The Job’ In Gaza If Hamas Rejects Latest Plan

    President Donald Trump says Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accepted the latest U.S.-backed “peace plan,” which is ostensibly aimed at securing a ceasefire in Gaza.

    Trump made the announcement during a joint press conference with Netanyahu, which followed a White House meeting between the two leaders. It’s Netanyahu’s fourth trip to Washington since Trump began his term in January.

    During the meeting, Trump facilitated an Oval Office phone call between Netanyahu and Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani, in which the Israeli leader apologized for the September 9 attack on Doha.

    Netanyahu expressed regret about the strikes and, specifically, “that, in targeting Hamas leadership during hostage negotiations, Israel violated Qatari sovereignty,” according to a White House readout of the phone call.

    The post Trump Says Israel Can ‘Finish The Job’ In Gaza If Hamas Rejects Latest Plan appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • ‘A Recipe For Igniting West Asia’: Palestinians React To Trump’s Plan

    Palestinian resistance factions in Gaza have condemned the “peace plan” introduced by US President Donald Trump on 29 September, calling it “vague” and accusing it of supporting Israeli aims to prolong the genocide in Gaza.

    “We will not accept any proposal that does not include the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and protection from massacres,” Hamas leader Mahmoud Mardawi declared, adding that Trump’s announcement “is an attempt to stifle international momentum and recognition of the Palestinian state.”

    Qatari and Egyptian officials delivered the US-Israeli plan to Hamas’s negotiating team overnight, according to Al-Jazeera.

    The Secretary-General of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), Ziad al-Nakhala, blasted the proposal, calling it “a US-Israeli agreement, reflecting Israel’s full stance.”

    The post ‘A Recipe For Igniting West Asia’: Palestinians React To Trump’s Plan appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Majority of Voters Oppose Sending Israel More Military, Economic Aid, Poll Finds

    As Israel’s bombardment of Gaza and starvation policy in the exclave nears the beginning of its third year, the assault that has killed more than 66,000 Palestinians has driven US support for Israel “off a cliff,” suggested one commentator in response to a poll released Monday by The New York Times and Siena College. The survey of 1,313 registered voters found that for the first time since…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.