May 15 marked 77 years since the Nakba, which refers to the expulsion, destruction, and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians associated with the creation of Israel in 1948. While we advocate for the colonization of Palestine to be recognized by our leaders and institutions in Canada as an injustice, we are also witnessing the Nakba continue — and even accelerate — in Israel’s genocide in the occupied Gaza Strip and West Bank.
In Canada, even acknowledging the existence of the 1948 Nakba continues to be rejected. Nakba denial is a form of genocide denial and a mechanism for denying the Palestinian right of return. It is also a key element of anti-Palestinian racism, something that is consistently perpetuated by the Canadian media. In 2023, the Canadian government even boycotted the first ever event held by the United Nations to commemorate the Nakba, sending a message to Palestinians that their ongoing suffering is uniquely undeserving of recognition.
What makes Nakba denial especially absurd in 2025 is that Israel is currently causing a greater scale of dispossession in Gaza than in 1948, with at least 1.9 million Palestinians forcibly displaced from their homes. This cruelty is not an accident, but by design, as one step in a deliberate plan by Israel to permanently expel Palestinians from Gaza.
When Donald Trump announced his plan for the United States to take over Gaza and permanently expel the population, Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu praised it — and told lawmakers that forcing Palestinians out of Gaza was the “inevitable outcome” of his military strategy. They are blocking aid from entering Gaza, deliberately using starvation as a weapon of war — a practice strictly prohibited under international law and codified as a war crime — with the genocidal intent of ensuring that Palestinians die, if not by bomb, then by hunger. This is a way of coercing those who survive to leave Palestine.
In a chilling message to world leaders, UN experts recently warned that we are at a “moral crossroads” in Gaza, and that states “must act now to end the violence or bear witness to the annihilation of the Palestinian population in Gaza.” Similarly, this week the UN Relief Chief challenged states: “what more evidence do you need? Will you act now – decisively – to prevent genocide in Gaza and to ensure respect for international humanitarian law?”
How will Canada respond to this call? Prime Minister Carney has said that “President Trump’s proposed forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza is deeply disturbing,” but he has taken no concrete steps to address it. No sanctions, no pressure, nothing that could ever hope to stop the genocide that is being openly plotted by US and Israeli leaders.
Last year, CJPME submitted policy recommendations outlining how Canada can acknowledge and rectify the historical tragedy of the Nakba. Some of our recommendations included:
Canada must officially recognize the Nakba and our role in the partition of the Mandate of Palestine.
Canada must recognize Nakba denial as a form of anti-Palestinian racism and as having a direct impact on Canadians’ right to free speech and academic freedom.
The Nakba is ongoing and Canada must play a role in halting it and reversing its consequences. To halt it, Canada must pressure Israel to change course by implementing boycotts, divestments, and sanctions.
Canada must insist upon the right to return, restitution, and compensation for Palestine refugees, consistent with UNGA Resolution 194 and general principles of international human rights law and refugee law, and acknowledge that these rights are distinct, they are not mutually exclusive and must not be pitted against one another.
Canada must play a role in demanding accountability and reparations for the Nakba (past and ongoing) by calling on the international community to set up an International Criminal Tribunal for Palestine, and by providing support to the International Criminal Court’s open investigation into war crimes committed in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Acknowledging the Nakba is not just about the past, it is about the present and the future — and addressing Canada’s complicity in an ongoing genocide. As Israel advances the Nakba in Gaza while annexing the West Bank, what will Canada’s legacy be?
Massive explosions shook the Gaza Strip in the first hours of Saturday morning as Israeli warplanes launched intensive airstrikes on north, south, and central Gaza, in what the Israeli army called “preparations to expand operations” in the Strip. Israeli airstrikes hit Khan Younis, Deir al-Balah, several parts of Gaza City, and Jabalia. A resident of the Shati’ refugee camp in Gaza City told…
Israel’s inclusion in the Eurovision song contest has always been controversial. The geographers among you may recognise that Israel isn’t even part of Europe (much like Australia). Beyond that, the nation of Israel has been repressing and murdering the Palestinian people for decades, and as such there’s a movement to boycott their cultural outputs.
The Israeli government has likely been very happy with its inclusion in Eurovision. Now, however, it looks like the competition is just another area in which they’re suffering one PR nightmare after another:
At the end of the Israeli performance, a man and a woman tried to get over a barrier onto the stage.
They were stopped. One of the two agitators threw paint and a crew member was hit. The crew member is fine and nobody was injured. The man and the woman were taken out of the venue and handed over to the police.
After the Holocaust, people said “never again.”
In 2025, 80 years after the Holocaust, Israel finishes second place in #Eurovision whilst committing the most documented genocide in history.
Raphael, who attended the Nova Festival which was attacked by Hamas in October 2023, sang a ballad titled New Day Will Rise. As those who support the boycott have pointed out, Palestine is facing one new day after another in which more of Gaza is reduced to rubble while Israel carries on as if that’s all normal:
Russia: banned from Eurovision, Olympics, global sports. Israel: accused of genocide by the ICJ, still getting standing ovations at song contests. So it’s not about war crimes. It’s about who’s allowed to commit them. Shame on you #Eurovision
Belgium’s broadcaster VRT appeared to make a U-turn during Saturday evening’s Eurovision final after their choice to air an anti-Israel, pro-Palestine VT during the semi-finals.
It comes after Spain risked a huge Eurovision fine by displaying a statement ahead before the show, showing a black screen with white text in both Spanish and an English translation about “justice for Palestine”.
Prior to the final, the Eurovision Broadcasting Union (EBU) had warned Spain’s broadcaster RTVE of “punitive fines” if their commentators repeated references of the Gaza conflict, as they had done during the semi-final on Thursday.
Another controversy comes from Israel allegedly running targeted ads for its own entry during the official stream – something which is pissing off people who take Eurovision seriously and people who take genocide seriously:
By the way, Israel PAID FOR ADVERTS to vote for them in the Final, DURING the final, on the official YouTube broadcast. This should outright be illegal. Their tele vote win was categorically unjust #Eurovisionpic.twitter.com/OkixomHoCc
#With Israel’s entry achieving second place, some are also accusing the nation’s far-right supporters of abusing the voting system:
"The UK voted for Israel", no the "UK" didn't, a bunch of far-right bellends hammered the phones. THIS is what the UK really thinks of Israel. #Eurovisionpic.twitter.com/UsMrChqxKi
Another point of interest was the accusation that Eurovision obscured the reaction to the Israeli performance:
Reminder that the Eurovision have: – anti-booing technology – turned off the audience mics for Israels performance – have fake cheering audio for Israels performance
“Not sure what you’re hearing at home, slightly mixed response in the hall” – Graham Norton after Israel’s performance. YEAH YOU EXPOSE THAT ANTI BOOING TECHNOLOGY FOR US GRAHAM #Eurovision#Eurovision2025
Let’s not forget that Israel is generating far worse headlines than those related to Eurovision. The following is the front page of Al Jazeera’s hub for Israel-Palestine news stories:
The Israeli military has killed at least 125 Palestinians, including children sleeping in tents, as it unleashed a wave of air strikes across the Gaza Strip in the early hours of Sunday.
At least 36 people were killed and more than 100 wounded after Israeli warplanes bombed a tent camp sheltering displaced Palestinians in the al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, medical sources told Al Jazeera.
Horrific verified videos from the scene showed many bodies, including some on fire. The dead and wounded were taken to a nearby field hospital and the Nasser Medical Complex.
At least 125 people were killed on Sunday morning, including 42 in the heavily-bombarded northern parts of Gaza, medical sources told Al Jazeera Arabic. Three journalists were also among the victims.
The death toll has been rising sharply in the past four days, with hundreds massacred as the Israeli military prepares to significantly intensify its ground invasion of the Palestinian territory despite international criticism.
Israel overtly uses culture as a form of propaganda to whitewash, or artwash, its genocide in Gaza and underlying regime of settler-colonialism, apartheid, and military occupation over the Indigenous Palestinian people. Israel’s genocide has included a deliberate obliteration of archeological sites and cultural heritage across Gaza.
Just as South African anti-apartheid movements had called on international artists, writers and cultural institutions to culturally boycott South Africa, the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) urges international cultural workers and cultural organizations, including unions and associations, to boycott and/or work towards the cancellation of events, activities, agreements, or projects involving Israel, its lobby groups or its complicit cultural institutions.
International venues and festivals are asked to reject funding and any form of sponsorship from the Israeli government or complicit entities. Since Israel’s cultural institutions are implicated in genocide, apartheid and military occupation, international artists and arts organizations have a profound ethical duty to do no harm to the Palestinian struggle by working to end links of complicity with those institutions. Accountability for Israel’s oppression against Palestinians is more urgent than ever.
Tens of thousands of artists across the world and a rapidly growing number of arts organizations have publicly endorsed the cultural boycott of apartheid Israel.
Why?
The case for a cultural boycott of Israel
Israeli government officials have summed up how Israel instrumentalizes culture to cover up its grave violations of international law. “We are seeing culture as a hasbara [propaganda] tool of the first rank,” one official admitted, “and I do not differentiate between hasbara and culture.”
Israel’s cultural institutions are part and parcel of the ideological and institutional scaffolding of Israel’s regime of settler-colonialism, apartheid and military occupation against the Palestinian people. These institutions are clearly implicated, through their silence or active participation in supporting, justifying and whitewashing Israel’s systematic oppression and denial of Palestinian rights.
According to the BDS movement’s Guidelines for the International Cultural Boycott of Israel, in order for Israeli cultural institutions to end their collusion in Israel’s regime of oppression and become non-boycottable, they must fulfill two basic conditions:
Publicly recognize the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people as enshrined in international law (including the three basic rights in the 2005 BDS Call) and
End all forms of complicity in violating Palestinian rights as stipulated in international law,including discriminatory policies and practices as well as diverse roles in whitewashing or justifying Israel’s violations of international law and Palestinian human rights.
When international artists perform at complicit Israeli cultural venues and institutions or at events sponsored by Israel, its lobby groups or its complicit institutions, they help to create the false impression that apartheid Israel is a “normal” state. The absolute majority of Palestinian writers, artists and cultural centers have endorsed the cultural boycott of Israel, and there is a growing number of anti-colonial Israelis who support BDS, including the cultural boycott of Israel.
Israel losing the culture war even at Eurovision
We’re at a point now where Israel has completely destroyed its reputation internationally. While it still enjoys the support of world government’s and institutions, those relationships are increasingly in peril, with even the United States showing some signs that it’s growing tired:
Trump's envoy: "We want to bring the hostages home, but Israel is not willing to end the war. Israel is prolonging it.” So why isn't Trump arm twisting Netanyahu by suspending U.S. arms sales and military aid? https://t.co/eLDFZcekaU
It’s clear that history will not look kindly on those who turned a blind eye in this moment.
Hopefully Eurovision will come to understand this and get back to its original mission of spotlighting the worst music that Europe has to offer – not genocidal Israel
A plan reportedly under consideration by the Trump administration to send up to one million Gazans to the divided country of Libya was met with criticism on Friday and Saturday, with several observers calling it part of a plan to carry out ethnic cleansing. On Friday, NBC News reported that the Trump administration has broached the plan with Libya’s leadership, though no final agreement has…
Once a year, activists from Belgium join a solidarity trip to Palestine at the invitation of Viva Salud, bringing students, trade unionists, and movement organizers to the occupied territories to witness the impacts of the Israeli occupation firsthand. This year, half a dozen activists spent a week in the West Bank, learning from local organizations and observing how the situation has further deteriorated since October 7, 2023.
“In Jerusalem, for example, you can no longer find the word ‘Palestine,’” one of the activists, Victor, told Peoples Dispatch. Two years ago, during a previous visit, shops sold souvenirs such as tote bags, postcards, and “Visit Palestine” posters. “I went to all the same tourist stores, and not a single one had them anymore,” they said.
In the early hours of Wednesday 14 May, activists fromPalestine Action targeted Edwards Accountants in Birmingham, and JP Morgan at Victoria Embankment in London. The action drew attention to the two companies dripping in complicity with Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
JP Morgan and Edwards Accounting get the Palestine Action treatment
Activists covered both firms were covered in red paint. The dripping paint splatters were symbolic of the companies’ bloodstained complicity in Israel’s ongoing genocide:
They also completely shattered the front glass doors of JP Morgan:
Activists sprayed messages to Edwards Accountants across its walls:
Financiers and accountants complicit in genocide
Both firms directly enable the operations of Israel’s biggest weapons producer, Elbit Systems. Edwards Accountants are the listed accountants for Elbit Systems UK and its subsidiaries. Meanwhile, JP Morgan hold Elbit shares worth over $22m.
On 12 May, financial reports showed JP Morgan had reduced their investment in Elbit Systems by over 53%. However, they still remain a major investor in the company which is a major supplier of weapons for the Israeli military, which is committing genocide in Gaza.
Elbit supplies over 85% of Israel’s military drone fleet and land based equipment, as well as missiles, bullets, targeting gear, digital warfare and surveillance technology. The Israeli weapons maker also market their weaponry as “battle-tested” on Palestinians, as they are first developed during attacks on Gaza.
Commenting on both actions, a Palestine Action spokesperson said:
Palestine Action is committed to the liberation of the Palestinian people. As part of our commitment, it is crucial to disable the operations of Elbit Systems, which involves targeting all those who profit from and enable the Israeli weapons maker. Our actions will cease against JP Morgan and Edwards Accountants once they end their ties to Elbit Systems.
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.
The majority of these licenses are for military radars, components and software as well as targeting equipment. The licenses were granted after the government’s announcement of a temporary arms suspension on 2 September 2024.
Labour: defending the indefensible
These new figures come as the Labour government attempts to defend its decision to exclude the open license for F-35 combat aircraft components from its temporary arms suspension in a legal case brought by GLAN and Al-Haq.
UK industry makes 15% of every F-35 in contracts Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) estimates to be worth at least £500m since 2016, and is the most significant part of the UK arms industry with Israel. It is the only tier 1 partner with at least 79 companies involved in manufacturing components. For example, BAE Systems makes every rear fuselage for the F-35 and also makes its active interceptor system. Leonardo makes its targeting lasers and L3 Harris makes the weapons release cables. Israel is using F-35s to drop 2000lb bombs on Palestinian people in Gaza.
Despite the government admitting that there is a clear risk that F-35s could be used to violate International Humanitarian Law (IHL), and that Israel is not committed to upholding IHL, it refused to include F-35 components in its partial arms suspension.
The Labour government is arguing that “the impact of suspending F-35 components on operations in Gaza is likely to be minimal” given the “IDF is one of the most significant and well-equipped militaries in the world”. Meanwhile, Defence Secretary John Healy claimed that suspending F-35 exports would cause a “profound impact on international peace and security”.
Nonsense claims
However, Labour claims that the impact of the suspension would be “minimal” is contradicted by the evidence. Israel is using its 39 F-35s at five times the normal rate which has led to a very high demand for spare parts. According to Freedom of Information requests obtained by CAAT, the open license for spare parts was used 14 times more in 2023 than in any other year.
The Labour government is also claiming that “no evidence has been seen that Israel is deliberately targeting civilian women or children”. It further claims that “there is also evidence of Israel making efforts to limit incidental harm to civilians”.
These claims come as the impact of Israel’s blockade of aid, imposed since March, deepens. According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, “71,000 children and more than 17,000 mothers will need urgent treatment for acute malnutrition”.
According to the UN, 57 children have died from malnutrition since the start of the blockade in March. It has also described the blockade as a “weapon of war”.
On the first of this month, at least 1.9 million people, or about 90% of the population, have been displaced on 10 times or more.
He continued:
On 7 May the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that every single one of Gaza hospitals has been damaged or destroyed and, as of this month, only half were partially functional.
Official reporting from the ministry of health, cited by UN agencies, indicated that between 23 October and 25 April over 50,000 Palestinians [were] killed, including at least 15,000 children and a further 214,000 injured.
Labour: shameless
Emily Apple, CAAT’s Media Coordinator, said:
This is a truly shocking increase in military exports to Israel. This is the Labour government aiding and abetting Israel’s genocide in Gaza. It is sickening that instead of imposing a full two-way arms embargo, Keir Starmer’s government has massively increased the amount of military equipment the UK is sending to Israel.
The government’s claim that stopping the export of F-35 components is a risk to peace and security is untenable, illegal and immoral. We are watching a genocide. We are seeing Palestinian children blown apart by bombs dropped by F35s. Everyday we see images of starving children, the victims of Israel’s deliberate policy to deny aid into Gaza. These are war crimes.
Our government is complicit in the death of every Palestinian child. Our government is complicit in genocide. This cannot be allowed to continue. We hope the legal action is successful but these new figures show that we need to increase the pressure and take action to stop the UK’s genocide profiteers.
May 15 marks the 77th anniversary of the Nakba — the destruction of historic Palestine, the catastrophe of dispossession, and the mass ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian population in 1948, which continues to this day.
The Arabic word ‘Nakba’ means ‘catastrophe’, with this day designated as Nakba Day.
The Balfour Declaration, a pledge by British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour in November 1917, is regarded as one of the main catalysts for the Nakba.
The pledge came in the form of a letter written on behalf of the British government by the then Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour to Lord Walter Rothschild, “a figurehead of the British Jewish community, for circulation among the Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland,” according to the Geneva International Center for Justice.
The U.N.’s humanitarian affairs chief held nothing in reserve on Tuesday at the U.N. Security Council as he unloaded on the State of Israel for deliberately starving the civilian population of Gaza.
“The ICJ is considering whether a genocide is taking place in Gaza,” Tom Fletcher said, “It will weigh the testimony that we have shared. But it will be too late.” With the Israel and U.S. representatives sitting opposite him, he demanded:
“What more evidence do you need now? Will you act – decisively – to prevent genocide and to ensure respect for international humanitarian law? Or will you say instead that ‘we did all we could?’”
Video: 20min, 12sec. Below is the full transcript of Fletcher’s remarks
In the aftermath of a broken ceasefire, Palestinians in Gaza speak out about the trauma, loss, and fear they live with daily. Families recount the horrors of bombings, life in tents, and the silence of a world that watches but does not act. Through raw testimony and haunting imagery, this short film captures the reality of survival under siege—and the enduring dignity of a people who refuse to be erased.
Producers: Belal Awad, Leo Erhardt Videographers: Ruwaida Amer, Mahmoud Al Mashharawi Video Editor: Leo Erhardt
Transcript
MAMDOUH AHMED MORTAJA:
More than 500 days have passed and this unjust world has watched our bodies being burned alive.
SUHAILA HAMED SA’AD:
A girl asleep. In a tent, also. An air strike hit, her brain spilled out—she died on her mattress. What did this girl do? What crime did she commit?
MUKARAM SA’AD MUSTAFA HLIWA:
Two billion Muslims. Two billion Muslims are watching us. They could do something, but they do nothing. Where is the Arab world? Where is the Islamic world? Where is the Western world? While we are being killed daily.
MOHAMED DARWISH MUSTAFA SA’AD:
Destruction, terror, fear, humiliation. Faith only in God. As for faith in the end of the war—sadly, we’re not hopeful.
SUHAILA HAMED SA’AD:
We were in the refugee camp, when we heard gunfire, bombs and the chaos that followed. We didn’t need anyone to tell us, at night, we woke up to gunfire and bombs. There were assassinations, and the whole world turned upside down. My feelings when the ceasefire happened: we were truly pleased, we thought it was over and thought we were going to go back to normal life, like everyone else. Or do we not have the right to live? After that, war returned, worse than before. Now our feelings are different from before. At first, when the ceasefire happened, we were happy and thought we could go back to our lives. But for the war to stop and then return? That’s terrifying and fills us with anxiety. We didn’t expect the war to start again, at all. We couldn’t even believe it when it ended. We were waiting for relief, supplies and aid. We heard the promises on the news, about trucks entering—we didn’t expect the war to return.
MOHAMED DARWISH MUSTAFA SA’AD:
For me? Yes, I expected it. I expected it. Because they are treacherous, they don’t want peace. We had almost finished the first stage, but at the beginning of the second phase, they turned everything around. They don’t want it to succeed. They don’t want it to succeed. It’s not possible for the war to end. It’s not possible.
MAMDOUH AHMED MORTAJA:
Rings of fire, flying body parts, surprise attacks, abductions—the stuff of nightmares is happening in this war, and now, the resumption of war has renewed our feelings of intense fear. Everyone’s only demand is an end to this war and this curse, so we can have safety,
and tranquility, so we can rest our heads on our pillows and know that we will wake up the next day without drones, bullets, or artillery strikes.
Interviewer:
– This is not normal, it’s really loud.
MOHAMED DARWISH MUSTAFA SA’AD:
– It’s like this 24/7.
SUHAILA HAMED SA’AD:
Of course, Gaza is used to wars, but not like this. It’s not a war; it’s genocide: the child, the young, the girl, the wealthy, the poor—everyone. I’ll tell you a story: Yesterday, a ten-year-old girl was sleeping in her bed when an airstrike hit and killed her. What did this girl do? She was only ten years old. A girl sleeping. Also, in a tent. An air strike hits, her brains spill out. She dies on her mattress. What did she do? What crime did she commit? It’s a scary thing. The person sitting in his tent is scared, the person in his house is scared. We feel complete exhaustion, there is no stability, and we are mentally drained. When we sleep, we don’t expect to wake up. With the jets and the strikes, no one expects to wake up. We are living day to day, when we sleep, we don’t think about waking up. Death has become normal. What can we do?
MUKARAM SA’AD MUSTAFA HLIWA:
To me, the war hasn’t stopped. We have been living in destruction since October 7, 2023. I was injured on October 11, 2023, and until now, there’s been complete ongoing destruction in the Gaza Strip. Martyrs, orphans—destruction, destruction, destruction, more than you can imagine.
MOHAMED DARWISH MUSTAFA SA’AD:
Unfortunately, we expected the war to end, but it didn’t. They don’t want to end it—they want to end us: completely. We don’t want wars, it’s enough. We’re exhasted. Displacement, displacement, displacement. I lost three homes, and I have lost family as martyrs. We’ve been humiliated as you can see, living in a refugee camp and the situation is miserable. A worn out tent, frankly the situation is not good.
SUHAILA HAMED SA’AD:
The children here, when they hear explosions, develop psychological problems. They wet themselves. If a glass falls, they panic—they’re psychologically broken. They’re still children. What do they know? Anything that moves, they think it’s an airstrike or tank fire. They’re living in fear.
MUKARAM SA’AD MUSTAFA HLIWA:
One of my grandsons has a heart condition, we worry his heart will stop from terror. He screams and cries when he hears a rocket or an airstrike, or the quadcopter fire. The children can’t sleep because of what’s happening here in Gaza.
MOHAMED DARWISH MUSTAFA SA’AD:
The kids wet themselves. That’s one thing. The second? The fear and terror—like this child next to you. They are terrified and have no reassurance. The children roam the streets. There are no schools, no education. The Jews demolished the schools, they demolished kindergartens, the hospitals, the dispensaries, and the infrastructure. Buildings, houses: there is nothing left. The children are broken. The children? Childhood is over here.
SUHAILA HAMED SA’AD:
The future? It’s black and bleak. We have no future—our future is with God. What future? We live in tents, and they have followed us even here! The tent is everything—the living room, the kitchen, the bathroom, everything. At the same time, the tent is an oven—not a tent. Even here, they won’t let us stay. They won’t leave us alone. The tents, the fear, the airstrikes—everything is crushing us.
MAMDOUH AHMED MORTAJA:
More than 500 days have passed, and this unjust world has watched our bodies being burned alive. Today, more than 50,000 human beings killed, burned alive in front of the world, and no one lifts a finger. So it’s normal that we in Gaza feel we face a deaf, blind, unjust world that supports the executioner standing over us, the victims.
MUKARAM SA’AD MUSTAFA HLIWA:
After losing my son, after what’s happened to Gaza? No. There is no hope, none at all. Only God stands with us. Hope in any country? There is none. I don’t trust the international community. They haven’t helped us. On the contrary. They sit and discuss as they destroy us. They haven’t found a solution for Gaza. They are destroying us here and in the West Bank. No one has stopped the war. Why? Only God knows. The blame is on them. There is a conspiracy against the people of Gaza.
MOHAMED DARWISH MUSTAFA SA’AD:
Doesn’t the international community see the victims every day? Thirty, forty victims a day, while they watch. No. Only God is our hope. No one else. God will deliver us from this war. He who is capable of anything. As for the international community, the Arab world, the Muslim world? There are 56 Arab and Muslim nations, yet they do nothing. Two billion Muslims. Two billion Muslims are watching us. They could act, but they do nothing. Where is the Arab world? Where is the Islamic world? Where is the Western world? We are being killed daily. They could act, but they are complicit—their hearts side with Israel. In the end, we’re battling the U.S. We are not equals. And the entire world supports Israel. We’re
exhausted. We are seeing horrors, tragedies, and no one stands with us. The International Court of Justice ruled for us, but where’s the action? We’re alone.
Interviewer
– Do you think you will survive this war?
SUHAILA HAMED SA’AD:
– No. Zero chance. I told you: I sleep feeling like I won’t wake up. It’s normal. Thanks be to God. If He wills us to be martyrs, it’s better than this torture. Because, I’m telling you, we are not living—we are dead. These tents are graves above the earth. What’s the difference if we’re buried under it? Nothing. We’re being tortured, watching the explosions, the despair—it’s destroying us mentally and physically.
MOHAMED DARWISH MUSTAFA SA’AD:
Honestly, it’s difficult. We’ve faced death repeatedly. May God save us. I don’t expect to survive. I’m not optimistic. Destruction, terror, fear, humiliation. Only faith in God. As for faith in the war ending? Sadly, we’re not hopeful.
SUHAILA HAMED SA’AD:
Who can we have faith in? In whom? There’s no one. We’ve lost everything. Everything. Only our breath remains. And we wait, minute by minute, for it to leave us.
MOHAMED DARWISH MUSTAFA SA’AD:
Frankly, we are beyond exhausted. We lost our children, homes, livelihoods, work—Gaza has no life left. Life is over. I mean it. I’m 73. I’ve seen many wars, but never like this. This is genocide.
MUKARAM SA’AD MUSTAFA HLIWA:
I hope to walk again after my injury. I have a broken hip, I need a replacement. They approved my transfer, but I’m afraid if I leave, I’ll be exiled. They’re saying that those who leave can’t return. But why? I’m leaving for treatment—why exile me? I am from this land. I am Palestinian. I want my country. I want treatment, but I must return. I’m not leaving to emigrate. I don’t want to abandon my country. That’s what I fear.
When Palestinian resistance forces broke free from their open-air prison in Gaza on October 7th, 2023, many did not realize the events that would unfold–that we were all about to bear witness to the world’s first live-streamed genocide. Israel thought this would be business as usual, that they could continue their brutalization of the Palestinian people, and the world would go about its business—as it has for decades. Not only did they have to contend with the resistance on the ground in occupied Palestine, but the groundswell of support around the world, and specifically from within the imperial core that is the U.S.
Since the last installment of this newsletter, two students detained by the Trump administration have been released on bail.
Mohsen Mahdawi, the Columbia University student who was kidnapped by agents during a citizenship interview, was released from a Vermont correctional facility on April 30.
“The two weeks of detention so far demonstrate great harm to a person who has been charged with no crime,” said U.S. District Judge Geoffrey Crawford.
Mahdawi addressed a crowd of supporters and reporters upon his release.
“For anybody who is doubting justice, this is a light of hope and faith in the justice system in America,” Mahdawi told a crowd outside the courthouse after his release.
Pewaukee, WI – On the afternoon of May 13, dozens of anti-war and pro-Palestine activists held a rally outside the Wisconsin Defense Industry Council (WDIC)’s inaugural conference at the Ingleside Hotel in Pewaukee, a suburb of Milwaukee. The rally spoke out against the WDIC’s stated mission, to increase the influence of defense manufacturing in Wisconsin.
The Wisconsin Defense Industry Council was founded in December 2023, mere months after the genocide ramped up in Palestine – and just in time to capitalize and profit off the mass deaths of the Palestinian people. This timing has not gone unnoticed in Wisconsin.
In the early hours of Wednesday 14th May, activists from Palestine Action targeted Edwards Accountants in Birmingham and JP Morgan at Victoria Embankment in London. Both firms were covered in red paint, and the front glass doors of JP Morgan were completely shattered.
Both firms directly enable the operations of Israel’s biggest weapons producer, Elbit Systems. Edwards Accountants are the listed accountants for Elbit Systems UK and its subsidiaries, whilst JP Morgan hold Elbit shares worth over $22million in the Israeli weapons maker. On 12th May, financial reports showed JP Morgan had reduced their investment in Elbit Systems by over 53%.
Fourteen pro-Paelstinian student protestors were arrested at Brooklyn College following a brutal police raid where students were beaten up, dragged, and tased. Those students, who were entirely peaceful , were viciously attacked by police at the command of the CUNY administration and now seven face charges of disorderly conduct and trespassing and risk punishment from Brooklyn College.
The Brooklyn College administration recklessly endangered all of their students, staff, and faculty, protesters and non-protesters alike, by bringing cops on campus to protect a genocide and attack the right to protest. The cops, in the name of genocide and as enemies of democratic rights, punched, kicked, and tased students for practicing their right to speak out.
When the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) was established in 1949, it started its operations in Jerusalem. Nobody expected that it would be forced to shut down its activities in the face of Palestinian refugees in the city who still needed its services. Even more perversely, Palestinians could never have imagined that the only institution that bore witness to their forced…
Police have banned a regular protest by the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN) from gathering near genocide–supporting Israeli ambassador Tzipi Hotovely’s residence in London. A letter from the group and a comment from a holocaust survivor have responded to the ban and the misinformation surrounding it.
IJAN: peaceful anti-genocide protests vs aggressive agitation from genocide-supporters
IJAN insisted that:
In almost 20 months of peaceful protesting, the International Jewish Antizionist Network has never “intimidated” anyone, Jewish or not, attending prayer services. As a Jewish organisation we would never do that. But the police have caved in to pressure from the Board of Deputies of British Jews who are well connected with Parliament and the Prime Minister. Any “hate speech” came from them.
It explained that:
As our outspoken, well-informed Jewish-led opposition to genocide grew in numbers, the Zionist establishment orchestrated provocative and threatening counter-demonstrations to shut us down. The Board of Deputies [BoD] called on Zionists to turn up and they did, shouting and dancing to loud music with banners claiming “There is no genocide in Gaza”! Holocaust denial would likely be prosecuted, but denying today’s genocide against Palestinians seems to be entirely acceptable. They are responsible for the police having to close the Finchley Road to move them away.
It accused the police of consulting with local people who objected to the protest while ignoring those who supported it. And it added:
The claim that Swiss Cottage is a Jewish area is also false. The most recent census shows: 27.7% Christian, 28.6% no religion, 16.4% Muslim and 8.5% Jewish.
‘Criminalising pro-Palestinian protest on behalf of the Zionist establishment’
Criticising prime minister Keir Starmer’s regime for its genocide apologism, IJAN stressed that:
This government, like the previous Tories, refuses to recognise the genocide in Gaza despite international pressure and court rulings so it can continue its lucrative arms sales and other support for Israel. They are determined to criminalise pro-Palestinian protest on behalf of the Zionist establishment. The BoD is even “investigating” dissent within its own ranks – 36 members objected to Israel’s slaughter of Palestinian children (after 18 months!) Financial Times (LINK).
And it insisted:
As Jews who remember the genocide against us, and like millions around the world, we will never be silenced about the genocide of Palestinians. Never.
Holocaust survivor says BoD agitation “made me anti-Zionist”
Jewish holocaust survivor Dr Agnes Kory, meanwhile, released a statement saying:
Prior to the Friday 2nd May 2025 protest, the Board of Deputies [of British Jews] issued a call to their members, allegedly asserting that these IJAN protests were anti-semitic. As a result of the Board of Deputies call, the twenty or so IJAN protesters were confronted by about sixty or more BOD protesters who shouted abuse at the small IJAN gathering, blocked Finchley Road and played amplified loud music to drown out IJAN speeches.
She argued that:
The undue influence of the Board of Deputies over the British police is likely to increase antisemitism.
And she said:
As a Jewish Holocaust survivor, by default I have been a life-long Zionist although critical of some of Israel’s policies. The abusive behaviour of the 2nd May 2025 BOD counter-protesters tipped the balance and made me anti-Zionist.
Israel has imposed a complete block on humanitarian aid into Gaza since March 2, with hundreds of trucks with lifesaving aid waiting at the border. Now many of Gaza’s kitchens have closed, and Palestinians face mass starvation as rations run low. We speak with Alex de Waal, executive director of the World Peace Foundation at Tufts University, author of Mass Starvation: The History and Future of…
Ben and Jerry’s co-founder Ben Cohen has been arrested after disrupting a senate hearing alongside fellow protesters. The group disrupted proceedings at the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing. Speaking at the time was Donald Trump’s health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr (RKF Jr).
Cohen himself posted footage of the incident:
I told Congress they're killing poor kids in Gaza by buying bombs, and they're paying for it by kicking poor kids off Medicaid in the US. This was the authorities' response. pic.twitter.com/uOf7xrzzWM
RFK Jr. jumps in fear as protesters jump and begin to shout. Outside the hearing, Cohen is shown handcuffed as he says:
Congress kills poor kids in Gaza by buying bombs and pays for it by kicking kids off Medicaid in the US…Congress and the senators need to ease the siege. They need to let food into Gaza. They need to get food to starving kids.
Ben and Jerry’s push back
The two founders of the ice cream company, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, have previously advocated for various social justice issues. In November 2024, Ben and Jerry’s began legal action against their parent company, Unilever. As the Guardian reported, the lawsuit involves a claim that Unilever has not respected Ben and Jerry’s social mission:
Ben & Jerry’s said in the lawsuit that it has tried to call for a ceasefire, support the safe passage of Palestinian refugees to Britain, back students protesting at US colleges against civilian deaths in Gaza and advocate a halt to US military aid to Israel.
The ice cream makers said:
Unilever has silenced each of these efforts.
For their part, Unilever have said they will “defend their case.”
Cohen’s latest actions demonstrate individual agency in stark contrast to his company’s ongoing battle to maintain their attention to social justice. Earlier this month, Cohen appeared on a US show and said:
Right now, what it means to be American is that we are the world’s largest arms exporter, we have the largest military in the world, we support the slaughter of people in Gaza.
If somebody protests the slaughter of people in Gaza, we arrest them. What does our country stand for?
Starvation looms
Several organisations, including the United Nations (UN) have issued grave warnings this week over a serious risk of starvation in Gaza. On 12 May 2025, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC Global Initiative), who are responsible for measuring the risk of famine, published a report which said:
Over 60 days have passed since all humanitarian aid and commercial supplies were blocked from entering the territory. Goods indispensable for people’s survival are either depleted or expected to run out in the coming weeks. The entire population is facing high levels of acute food insecurity, with half a million people (one in five) facing starvation.
The report laid out in stark detail that if Israel continues to block the entry of food into Gaza:
there would be a critical lack of access to supplies and services that are essential to survival.
The initiative predicted further mass displacement, the collapse of any health services that may have been able to address malnutrition, and further severe deterioration of other services essential to survival. They explained that:
Only an immediate and sustained cessation of hostilities and the resumption of humanitarian aid delivery can prevent a descent into Famine.
But:
Food assistance alone will not prevent Famine.
Instead, they explain that “unhindered” humanitarian access” must be put in place. In other words, Israel must stop attacking aid workers who are attempting to save lives.
The World Food Programme’s head Cindy McCain, said:
It’s imperative that the international community acts urgently to get aid flowing into Gaza again. If we wait until after a famine is confirmed, it will already be too late for many people.
Ben and Jerry’s: optics
If anyone should be advocating to stop Israel from starving people to death, it should be the US health secretary. However, because US government is little more than official sanctioning for Israel’s genocide, it’s down to the co-founder of Ben and Jerry’s to make sure famine in Palestine is on the news agenda.
It should be an absolute disgrace that someone protesting against the starvation of children is arrested for doing so. But, it should also be a disgrace that Israel is purposefully putting Palestinians on the brink of famine and killing anyone who attempts to help.
We conclude that Israel’s treatment of Palestinians, including mass killing, arbitrary detention and torture, meets the legal threshold for the term
We are university professors and human rights advocates who teach and write about Palestine and Israel. We have collectively taught thousands of classes on human rights law, international law and government repression. We have defended death row prisoners in Malawi, documented forced labor in Brazil, helped women seeking gender equality in Burma, chronicled the struggle of the Sahrawi people for self-determination in Western Sahara, and advocated on behalf of families of disappeared immigrants in the United States. As human rights defenders, our job is to expose government abuses of power where we find them. And that includes Israel.
It has never been easy for scholars in the United States to publicly criticize Israel. Now, anyone who does so risks professional suicide. The Trump administration deliberately conflates criticism of the government of Israel with antisemitism and has pressured universities to discipline students and fire faculty who express concern over the slaughter of Palestinians. This has chilled speech on our campuses and is a direct assault on academic freedom. It is also an attempt to stamp out all opposition to US foreign policy with respect to Israel.
Sandra L Babcock is a clinical professor and director of the International Human Rights Clinic at Cornell Law School. Susan M Akram is clinical professor and director of the International Human Rights Clinic at Boston University School of Law. Thomas Becker is the legal and policy director at the University Network for Human Rights and teaches human rights at Columbia Law School. James Cavallaro is the executive director of the University Network for Human Rights and a visiting professor at the Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs
Global solar geoengineering funding reached a record high in past two years (2023-4). And who’s happens to be funding it? That would be the Global North governments and wealthy philanthropists who are driving the climate crisis.
This is according to new analysis by a solar geoengineering research non-profit.
Significantly, Anglosphere countries provided three-quarters of global funding. At the same time, funders funneled more than 50 times more funding to the Global North than to Global South countries.
Solar geoengineering: now we who’s funding the controversial technology
Sunlight reflection methods (SRM) are a set of theoretical ideas to reflect a small fraction of incoming sunlight to reduce global temperatures. They would not be a solution to the climate crisis, but governments and researchers see it as one that could help to reduce some of its impacts. Purportedly, this would be while governments accelerate efforts on the essential work of decarbonisation. They would, however, introduce novel risks and are highly controversial.
International funding for research into SRM has surged in recent years. This marks intensifying international interest in this controversial set of potential ideas to cool the planet.
The research found that global funding for SRM has risen sharply in recent years. Notably, funding allocated to SRM was around three times greater in the five years from 2020-2024 ($112.1m) compared to ten years earlier in 2010-2014 ($34.9m). With $164.7m of funding already committed for 2025–2029, it seems likely this upward trend will continue.
The findings emerged from the first global analysis of funding flows in the field by SRM360.org, a new knowledge broker that informs people about the latest developments and trends in SRM research and governance. It launched the findings at the Degrees Global Forum in Cape Town, the world’s largest gathering of SRM experts.
SRM360’s new funding tracker provides the best available information to track SRM funders and recipients by country, sector, and activity. SRM360 will continue to update the tracker as more information emerges.
Global North gets the bulk of the funding
Funders have funneled the vast majority of SRM funding to date to the Global North. SRM researchers and organisations in the Global North have received more than 50 times more funding than those in the Global South. Global North researchers took $188.2m through 2024, compared to $3.5m in Global South countries. The leading recipients of SRM funding through 2024 were in the US ($102.8m), Australia ($22.6m), the UK ($17.5m), Israel ($16.1m), and Canada ($12.0m). Recent announcements put the UK into second place going into the future.
Anglosphere countries have contributed three quarters of all SRM funding, and this is set to grow to 85%. The US has been the world’s largest source of SRM-related funding through to 2024, giving around $102.2m from public and private sources. Australia is close behind ($22.6m), with the UK ($17.5m), Israel ($16.1m) and the European Union (EU, $6.7m) following.
Some EU member countries have provided an additional $12.9m. For funds committed through 2030, the anglosphere is projected to move further into the lead, accounting for 85% of all funding. This is in large part due to recent UK commitments that will push the UK’s total from $17.5m to $121.1m, making it the world’s second largest funding source. This takes into account both governmental and philanthropic contributions.
Philanthropic sources and governments driving SRM
Philanthropic sources contribute half of all SRM funding for solar geoengineering. Up to 2024, these provided has come around $92.6m (48%).
Governmental funding takes a close second place with $80.2m (42%). Commercial investment – with for-profit motives – account for considerably less at $17.7m (9%). However, these only became a significant contribution in 2023. Major philanthropies outspend most nations on solar geoengineering.
There is no evidence of private fossil fuel funding for SRM. Nonetheless, anonymous sources and incomplete data raise questions.
SRM360’s research did not find evidence that private fossil fuel interests are funding or promoting SRM. Moreover, many recipients of SRM funding explicitly state that they will not accept funding from fossil fuel sources. However, several organisations did not respond to requests for details about their funding sources, and it identified at least $1.1m of anonymous donations in the field.
Commenting on the findings, SRM360 editorial director Peter Irvine said:
There has been growing interest in solar geoengineering from some governments and philanthropies, but it’s been very difficult to get an overall picture. Our new analysis presents a comprehensive overview of the funding for the field, and it makes it clear that most funding comes from only a handful of countries and philanthropies.
SRM360 external relations director Mark Turner added:
As solar geoengineering research funding increases around the world, it is more critical than ever for people to have a clear accessible source of information about latest developments. Critical and difficult decisions await, and people across society should have the information they need to understand what is at stake.
The Palestine Solidarity Campaign has called on people to:
Take action in advance of the upcoming FIFA Congress on 15 May by e-mailing the UK’s Football Associations represented at the Congress, along with the FIFA President and Secretary General, to ask that they ensure genocidal Israel is banned.
And it insists that FIFA should stop giving Israel:
a platform to cynically present itself as a normal country, obscuring the truth that it is carrying out a genocide, and imposing a regime of settler-colonialism, military occupation and apartheid.
In has created a form that “only takes 2 minutes to complete” and allows people opposing Israel’s ongoing participation in FIFA events to write to the heads of the English, Scottish, and Welsh football associations, along with FIFA president Gianni Infantino and secretary general Mattias Grafström.
Take action ahead of the FIFA Congress on 15 May by e-mailing the UK’s Football Associations represented at the Congress, along with the FIFA President and Secretary General, to demand they act to ban genocidal Israel. (1/8)https://t.co/G4YhX4rNDupic.twitter.com/VHuZIz27CW
— Palestine Solidarity Campaign (@PSCupdates) May 13, 2025
Israel has murdered “many hundreds of Palestinian footballers” and “annihilated Gaza’s footballing infrastructure”
In the suggested email, the group writes that a ban would be:
in line with FIFA’s obligations not to be complicit in Israel’s genocide, military occupation and apartheid against Palestinians.
And it points out that:
Israel’s genocide in Gaza has killed many tens, if not hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, including many hundreds of Palestinian footballers. It has annihilated Gaza’s footballing infrastructure such as stadiums, training facilities and pitches.
At the same time, it laments that FIFA has so far
ignored and sidelined the voices of Palestinian organisations, including the Palestinian Football Association, who are clear that the Israel Football Association must be banned.
FIFA’s double standards are clear, because it banned Russia “within days of invading Ukraine”. But as activist Coll McCail pointed out in a recent video:
the world’s terraces wave the Palestinian flag
Indeed, from football to Eurovision events, people have been consistently showing solidarity with Palestine. And that must extend to demanding all institutions hold Israel to account for its crimes by ending its attempts to use culture to whitewash its crimes. So if you have two minutes for a quick message to FIFA decision-makers, you know what to do.
Just last week, 70 former Eurovision contestants called for Israel and its national broadcaster to be excluded.
Yesterday we began our hunger strike. In every slowed minute we remember the children of Gaza, now surviving on boiled weeds and muddy water. It is now day 584 of the genocide in Gaza, and more than 60,000 Palestinians have been murdered by the Zionist entity. Just last week, at least four separate massacres have occurred in Gaza, leaving hundreds murdered and wounded. Two months have passed since Israel’s total siege of the strip on March 2nd, completely blocking all food and aid from entering Gaza. Israel has completely weaponized food; aid convoys remain blocked, grain silos stand empty and parents barter wedding rings for flour that never arrives.
A Massachusetts court ruled that the detention of a former student who expressed pro-Palestine views was unconstitutional and that it was a punitive measure triggered almost solely by a complaint from the Zionist militant group Betar.
Late last week, a judge ruled that a former student at the University of Massachusetts (UMass), detained unlawfully by ICE, be released, providing the first court admission that Zionist extremist groups are working with U.S. authorities to violate free speech rights.
The former student in question is Efe Ercelik, a Turkish national who entered the U.S. on an F-1 student visa. After a physical altercation with a Jewish student during a protest in late 2023, the American corporate media and pro-Israel groups pointed to his case as evidence of rampant attacks against Jewish students on campus.
On October 13, 2023, a group of well-marked journalists transmitting a live feed of an Israeli military outpost from Lebanon came under fire. An Israeli tank shell struck their location, severely injuring AFP photojournalist Christina Assi. In this same attack, Al Jazeera correspondent Carmen Jokhader was severely injured and Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah was killed. Issam Abdallah’s death marked the first of a series of Lebanese journalists killed by Israel. TRNN reports from Lebanon, speaking with journalists who continue to report on Israel’s war crimes even after they have been targeted and injured and their colleagues have been killed.
Producer: Belal Awad, Leo Erhardt Videographer: Kamal Kanso Video Editor: Leo Erhardt Fixer: Bachir Abou Zeid
Transcript
Narrator: On October 13, 2023, a group of well marked journalists transmitting a live feed of an Israeli military outpost from Lebanon came under fire. An Israeli tank shell struck their location, severely injuring AFP photojournalist Christina Assi.
Her AFP colleague, Dylan Collins, was also present alongside teams from Reuters and Al Jazeera.
Christina Assi:
We didn’t understand at first what happened, it’s when I looked at my legs that I knew that they were gone. I started screaming for Dylan. Because I couldn’t find him because of the smoke and the chaos, you don’t understand anything at first. Suddenly you can’t stand, even though you were just standing just now. And you’re thinking about your team too: “Where are they?” So, Dylan runs up to me, and says: “OK, OK, I want to tie a tourniquet.” I’m just screaming, after seeing my legs. So he’s trying to help me and Ilia from Al Jazeera comes too. He says “now you have the tourniquet, stay near the wall.” He wasn’t able to finish his sentence before they hit us the second time. And it hit the Al Jazeera car directly, and here Elie gets injured too, and Dylan disappears and the car next to us starts burning. And I don’t understand that I’m going to burn. It’s all right next to me. I say to myself: “OK, just move away from the fire.” I couldn’t stand so I started shuffling with my body. My vest was a size too big and it was very heavy, the camera was strangling me, and the helmet. I couldn’t get anything off, I just needed to get away. The last thing I remember, we got to the hospital, they opened the door and asked “What’s your name?” I told them my name, and that’s it, nothing after that. Blank.
Narrator: In this same attack, Al Jazeera correspondent Carmen Jokhader was severely injured and Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah was killed. Issam Abdallah’s death marked the first of a series of Lebanese journalists killed by Israel.
Christina Assi:
Issam was one of the first people to support me after I decided I want to be a photojournalist because in Lebanon it’s mostly men in this domain. Issam was one of the first people to support me in this. He used to love to joke, and he loved life. He loved to go out and to eat. He loved to go out and about on his moped and wander and do stuff.
Narrator: Nour Kilzi is a Legal Researcher from the Lebanese non-profit Legal Agenda. She has been documenting attacks on civilians and journalists in Lebanon since the start of this latest war.
Nour Kilzi:
The Israeli aggression on Lebanon was targeting in a clear way, a huge number of civilians, among them journalists who were doing their jobs documenting the crimes that are taking place. The worst attacks, we can say, was the attack that resulted in the martyrdom of Issam Abdallah, the attack on the Al Mayadeen team where Farah Omar and Rabih Me’mari were martyred and the attack in Aalma El Chaeb on a centre of journalists in Hasbaya.
Mohamed Farhat:
Sadly, there are martyrs among our colleagues who have fallen as a result of this targeting. It’s clear the Israeli enemy is terrified of the word. It is terrified of the voice of the Lebanese people that is exposing its crimes. This is a new view of its crimes. We were sleeping in the journalists house, as you can see. This is the bedroom that I was in when it was targeted.
Narrator: Mohamed Farhat, is a senior reporter at the independent Lebanese TV channel Al Jadeed.
Mohamed Farhat:
You look up and you don’t see the roof, you see the sky. Around you everything is black, dust and everything is smashed. Outside we found the car smashed, the SNG truck was completely overturned, closing off the road. We understood there was an attack. The first thing we thought to do was to shout out to the guys to check who was alive. We didn’t get response from three people. As I told you, we were staying in 8 buildings. We looked and found that one of the buildings had completely disappeared. We know that three guys were staying in this building, the three that were killed. We looked for them and found them dead. The strength of the explosion meant they were thrown far from the house, so it took a long time to find them. That’s how it happened: Israel hit us while we slept. Frankly. Everyone present in that residential area was a journalist. From local channels, Arab channels and international channels too.
Christina Assi:
It wasn’t a mistake. It’s possible for one missile to hit you by mistake, but not two missiles. And bullets: a machine gun opening fire, on top. So… it was an intentional targeting and they didn’t stop there. We have seen this is being repeated with many journalist colleagues, here or in Gaza. Yesterday they killed five in Gaza, they targeted them. And the colleagues who they killed in Hasbaya who were asleep: they were asleep! They weren’t even “on the ground”: they were asleep. There’s something unnatural happening, we can expect anything to happen—the crimes—and no one cares. It’s become that if you wear a press vest that’s it, you’ve become a target. Because you have worn this thing that’s supposed to protect you, it’s become the thing that actually puts you in danger.
Either they [Israel] say yes it was a mistake, because of the fog of war. Or they accuse the journalist of belonging to a political party. They just bring any old reason to excuse their crimes. They can say what they want, but nothing excuses what’s happening. For them this kind of thing is allowed—so: why not?
Nour Kilzi:
The number of journalists that have been killed in Gaza is more than the number of journalists killed in any conflict on the planet in the last 30 years. So of course, it’s not by mistake that they’re killing journalists. There is a targeted killing. Of course the goal is the silencing of journalists, the narrative is shifting, disallowing the transmission of pictures of the
crimes that are happening. Especially because the narrative is shifting and people are becoming more aware of what Israel really is, its crimes and its brutality.
Narrator:
Ali Shouaib has been covering news in South Lebanon for 32 years. For many people here, he has become a familiar face. His news channel, Al Manar, is widely seen as sympathetic to Hezbollah.
Ali Shouaib:
The cameraman with me was sleeping in a different room with journalists from Al Mayadeen. I was sleeping in a room next door. The rocket hit the room they were sleeping in directly. All three of them were killed. The whole compound was damaged. A large number of journalists were injured. The Cairo channel was also present with the cameramen, they also suffered serious injuries. MTV was present, Al Jadeed was present, Al Jazeera was present. Many different journalists were present.
Narrator:
Working at Al Manar, makes Ali Shouaib even more of a target, and not only for the Israeli military.
Ali Shouaib:
I have covered every war that south Lebanon witnessed. Every single war. Direct threats have been constant via the spokesperson of the Israeli Army and also there were multiple statements quoted in Yedioth Ahronoth and Haaretz. It got to the point that they were saying “the eyes and tongue of Al Manar,” and they mean by that, Hezbollah. As you can see, I don’t own anything other than a camera, a phone and a mic. These are the weapons that I use. I am a citizen, a civilian and even if I was speaking in the name of the resistance, no one can say that I own any weapons apart from the weapon of the word. The weapon of principle.
Nour Kilzi:
There were direct threats from the spokesperson of the Israeli Occupation Army towards media and political personalities, close to or affiliated with Hezbollah. In an attempt to create a narrative in people’s minds that these people, because of their political beliefs or because they have opinions or positions that intersect with Hezbollah, that they are legitimate targets. This is completely contradicted by international law. Civilians—and journalists—do not lose the protection afforded them by international law because they have a political opinion or even if they support one side of the warring parties.
Ali Shouaib:
Israel is afraid of the truth. It’s afraid of reality. It’s true it’s a channel that opposes [Israel], we speak in the name of the nation. We are an occupied nation, it’s our right to defend ourselves with the word, against what we are being subjected to.
Narrator:
Fatima Ftouni, is a journalist working for Al Mayadeen, a Lebanese based pan-Arab news channel.
Fatima Ftouni:
I feel I have a responsibility towards my family and my people to document the aggression and crimes of Israel because wherever you step in the South there are crimes and the effects of the aggression. You can hear the sounds of explosions that the Israeli occupation is doing, that you can hear. We hear the sounds of the attacks, without any reaction—this is the natural reaction—we finish. As long as there’s no response to the Israelis, and as long as they are not held to account for these crimes, as long as the international community keeps looking away, it will not only continue its crimes, it will go further and further, in its intentional, purposeful, clear and open criminality. We’re talking about clear aggression—even medical crews, even nurses, even paramedics haven’t escaped these crimes. They killed everything. It’s got to the stage that they are bombing hospitals… Is there something worse that this?
Mohamed Farhat:
I’ve become convinced that Israel will never be held to account. For anything. From the first days of conflict between the various Arab countries and Israel, until today. Shireen Abu Akleh—does anyone doubt that Israel killed her? Israel has not been held to account. What’s happened in Gaza, what’s happened in Lebanon. The Israelis announced that it was them that targeted us in Hasbaya. They announced it! OK, so where is the accountability? Today: Israel is always above the law, and it always has excuses. Israel is protected internationally, and the powers that protect Israel are stronger than the law, stronger than the courts, stronger than everything.
With regards to me, if—God forbid—there was a return to war, of course, I will go and cover. I won’t back down. I won’t stop.
Christina Assi:
Before I knew all this I didn’t really want to live, I wanted to die. The pain was enormous, more than you can imagine. And the morphine wasn’t helping. Yeh, I didn’t want to, I didn’t want—I didn’t want to stay living like this—with all the injuries. The moment I discovered that we lost Issam, this changed everything. It gave me a push: He took the whole hit. If it wasn’t for him, both of us would be dead. The difference of a millimetre or centimetre would have killed us both. So I have to go back and speak and say what happened. Although there’s no point, we’ve been talking since a year now for Issam, for Elie, for all of us.
Amid President Donald Trump’s visit to the Middle East, we continue our interview with DAWN’s Sarah Leah Whitson and HuffPost’s Akbar Shahid Ahmed about Trump’s acceptance of a luxury plane gifted to him by the Qatari government, nuclear negotiations with Iran and Saudi Arabia, a less cooperative relationship with Israel and more. This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final…
We stand here today, as Americans who are fed up with the way the United States government has spent our tax dollars. While several programs across housing, education, and healthcare are gutted, our politicians think the better use of that money should be going towards killing children, massacring families, and leveling churches, schools and hospitals. Instead of taking care of our veterans, we are sending more of our soldiers to fight a population of civilians, putting them in the crosshairs of Israel’s indiscriminate bombing, and giving them a lifetime of PTSD that our government will refuse to treat.
Emojis are never more offensive than ACTUAL FUCKING GENOCIDE (unless you’re attacking Gary Lineker)
Gary Lineker reshared an Instagram post about Zionism. As Jewish Voice for Peace has explained:
Zionism is a form of Jewish nationalism, and is the primary ideology that drove the establishment of Israel.
It adds that:
While it had many strains historically, the Zionism that took hold and stands today is a settler-colonial movement, establishing an apartheid state where Jews have more rights than others.
The Instagram post focused on a powerful speech from lawyer Diana Buttu critiquing Zionism as “the idea of not only creating a Jewish state, but at the expense of the indigenous Palestinian population” – of “privileging and giving exclusive rights to one group of people at the expense of another group of people”. The account – Palestine Lobby – has insisted that:
every individual deserves the right to self-determination, freedom, and equality, regardless of their race, ethnicity, or religion.
However, it had apparently added a rat emoji on top of the video. And genocide apologists have jumped on that fact to go after Lineker, who later unshared it.
Nothing is more dehumanising than genocide itself
Genocide requires dehumanisation of the target population. Nazis famously did that by portraying Jewish people as rats before the Holocaust, and Zionists have done the same with Palestinians both before and during the current genocide in Gaza. Supporters of Israel’s actions have called Palestinians “roaches” and “rats”, for example. Israeli occupation forces actually ran a Telegram account which celebrated images of the massacres in Gaza with text saying things like:
Exterminating the roaches… exterminating the Hamas rats
Western mainstream media outlets have even joined in with dehumanising propaganda to support Israel’s efforts.
Language absolutely matters. And to truly take the moral high ground, we must refuse to dehumanise our enemies (even indirectly) despite the barbaric depths of their atrocities.
Gary Lineker has his heart in the right place, and rightly took action when he became aware of the rat emoji (and its negative connotations) on the post he’d shared. But as he’s previously stressed:
the mass murder of thousands of children is probably something that we should have a little opinion on
And that must absolutely be the focus. Because emojis don’t kill. Indiscriminate airstrikes from genocidal war criminals do.
Emojis haven’t killed at least one Palestinian child every hour in Gaza since October 2023. Israel has. Emojis haven’t murdered around 17,492 children in that time, including about 825 babies, 895 one-year-olds, 3,266 preschoolers, and 4,032 six-to-10-year-olds. Israel has. So if genocide apologists think we should get angry about emojis but not the actual mass murder of children, they can fuck right off.
Hundreds of British Jews from more than 65 synagogues have written to the main representative body of Britain’s Jewish community – the Board of Deputies of British Jews – to condemn what appears to be an attempt to stifle dissent over Israel.
Board of Deputies of British Jews: stifling criticism of Israel
In a letter they addressed to the president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews Phil Rosenberg, the signatories express their dismay at the Board’s very hostile response to a courageous letter critical of Israel. 36 deputies (around 10% of the Board’s elected membership) sent the letter last month to the Financial Times. That letter made:
powerful criticisms of Israel’s conduct of the Gaza war
It cited the:
breaking of the ceasefire, the blocking of food, fuel and medical supplies, and the killing of the 15 paramedics and their hasty burial in a mass grave
Moreover, it added that in the West Bank, extremist settlers, and accelerated settlement-building threaten the livelihood and the lives of Palestinians living there.
Well over 300 members of Liberal, Reform, Masorti and orthodox synagogues across Britain have signed the current letter. This states that:
the 36 deputies are speaking for us and for many other British Jews and that our voices cannot be silenced any longer.
It argues that the Board’s reaction to last month’s Financial Times letter threatens to bring the organisation’s name into disrepute:
Instead of answering their criticisms or even merely acknowledging the Jewish tradition of debate, the Board has chosen to investigate the 36 signatories for alleged breaches of the Board’s Code of Conduct. But it is not their courageous letter in the Financial Times that poses a threat to the good name of the Board or to Jewish communal unity; rather, it is the Board’s disproportionate reaction that is likely to undermine freedom of speech and to bring the Board’s name into disrepute.
Board claiming to represent UK Jewry, while shutting down dissent
The Board of Deputies has argued that the 36 are a tiny minority of the organisation. This is of course a body which claims to represent UK Jewry. In a statement on its website, president Rosenberg wrote that:
Ordinarily, we celebrate this diversity of opinion.
This case is different. Whether intentionally or otherwise, the impression that has now been put forward by certain national and international news outlets is that yesterday’s letter published in the Financial Times, signed by approximately ten percent of Deputies, is the position of the Board of Deputies as an organisation, and therefore the position of the UK Jewish community as a whole. This is emphatically not the case, and as president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, I speak for the organisation as a whole.
a Jewish Policy Research (JPR) poll showed that 56% of British Jews felt ashamed of Israel to some extent
They also highlighted that it showed how:
nearly half felt that the IDF had not done enough to protect Gazan civilians, more than the number who felt that they had done.
Progressive Jews for Justice in Israel/Palestine is a UK pro-peace pro-justice grassroots organisation. The group consists of members of Liberal and Reform synagogues throughout Britain. It has members in three-quarters of Liberal synagogues and a quarter of Reform ones.
So far, some 400 British Jews have signed the open letter. This includes more than 330 members of synagogues in 18 towns and cities across the UK – and from virtually every part of Greater London. The signatories are affiliated to a wide range of Jewish denominations. They are members of more than 65 synagogues (including 19 Reform, 24 Liberal, 14 Orthodox, and 5 Masorti).
Voices cannot be silenced by the Board of Deputies any longer
The Board of Deputies has initiated an investigation into the 36 deputies’ action in publishing last month’s letter in the Financial Times. The process is expected to take several weeks.
The open letter criticises the Board’s move to investigate them. It signs off with the powerful declaration that:
Whatever the outcome of this investigation, you cannot hide the true situation: British Jews are deeply divided about the behaviour of the Netanyahu government, with many of us strongly opposed to the conduct of the Gaza war, believing with good reason that it is being prolonged for political reasons at incalculable cost to the lives of the Gazans, and also to the chances of the hostages being returned. We maintain that this is contrary both to Jewish and universal values, that the 36 deputies are speaking for us and for many other British Jews, and that our voices cannot be silenced any longer.
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is what the UK really thinks of Israel. 
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