Category: israel

  • Hundreds of activists are set to protest outside an emergency cabinet meeting in Downing Street on Tuesday 29 July to demand the government takes immediate, meaningful action to halt Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

    Cabinet meeting to face protest over Gaza

    As the Cabinet meets for a rare emergency meeting during the summer recess to discuss the Gaza genocide, hundreds of protestors will be noisily demonstrating outside Downing Street to demand immediate, meaningful sanctions against Israel. They will be banging pots and pans to symbolise the famine that Israel is using to kill Palestinians.

    The recent scenes of starving babies and children from Gaza, as well the shooting of those seeking food aid at Israeli controlled distribution points, have sparked global outrage. The government has found itself politically isolated in its support for the genocidal regime in Israel and has been forced to change track by the constant stream of protest and condemnation around the UK.

    So far it has made only cosmetic attempts to present itself as a humanitarian actor, such as the pitifully meagre and ineffective proposed use of air drops. Now the pressure is on the government to take concrete steps such as

    • Immediately introduce a comprehensive military embargo to end all arms trade and military collaboration with Israel.
    • End all trade negotiations with Israel and introduce a total ban on all trade which aids or assists Israel’s violations of international law including but not limited to trade with Israel’s illegal settlements.
    • Introduce immediate and wide-ranging sanctions, including travel bans and asset freezes, against all Israeli government ministers, including Benjamin Netanyahu.

    Protesters will meet at 1pm.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Israel is meticulously following a textbook model of instigating unrest in the occupied West Bank.

    The latest such provocations consisted of stripping the Palestinian-run Hebron (Al-Khalil) municipality of its administrative powers over the venerable Ibrahimi Mosque.

    Worse, according to Israel Hayom, it granted these powers to the religious council of the Kiryat Arba Jewish settlement, an extremist settler body.

    Though all Jewish settlers in occupied Palestine can be qualified as extremists, the approximately 7,500 inhabitants of Kiryat Arba represent a more virulent category.

    The post West Bank On The Brink appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Two leading Israeli human rights organizations issued reports on 28 July accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, marking the first time any major Israeli group has made such a declaration.

    “An examination of Israel’s policy in the Gaza Strip and its horrific outcomes, together with statements by senior Israeli politicians and military commanders about the goals of the attack, leads to the unequivocal conclusion that Israel is taking coordinated, deliberate action to destroy Palestinian society in the Gaza Strip,” B’Tselem wrote.

    The post International And Internal Pressure On Israel Building; Concentration Camp Stalled appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • A Palestinian activist who helped film the No Other Land documentary highlighting Israel’s violent occupation of the West Bank, Awdah Hathaleen, was shot and killed by an Israeli settler on Monday, according to one of the film’s directors. Israeli co-filmmaker Yuval Abraham posted about Hadalin’s death on social media on Monday. “An Israeli settler just shot [Hathaleen] in the lungs…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • For the second time in as many months, Israel has raided a civilian ship in international waters to stop it from reaching Gaza to deliver much-needed humanitarian aid. The Handala was sailing toward the besieged Palestinian territory with baby formula, diapers, food and medicine on board when Israeli forces boarded it on Saturday and detained 21 crew and passengers. “Their blockade is…

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    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Support for Israel’s genocidal slaughter of Palestinians has become a critical political dividing line, not just in the United States, but in countries around the globe. At a recent pro-Donald Trump rally in São Paulo, Brazil, for instance, a protester waving an Israeli flag fought with a man in a Palestinian shirt. In this on-the-ground report, Brazil-based journalist Michael Fox shows how Israel’s US-backed war on Gaza and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians is playing out in South America’s largest country.

    Additional resources:

    Filming / Post-Production: Michael Fox

    Transcript

    Michael Fox [Narration]: This is a pro-Donald Trump rally on Avenida Paulista in São Paulo, Brazil. It’s an example of how Israel’s US-backed war on Gaza is playing out in South America’s largest country: the left staunchly in defense of Palestine, the far-right defending Israel and the United States. Both sides have become symbols for their separate causes inside Brazil…

    Mauricio Santoro, Political Scientist: In Brazilian domestic politics, people are becoming more identified with Israel or with Palestinian, with the Arab political movements. And it’s more or less a right-left wing fight.

    So conservative politicians in Brazil nowadays, they appear in public with Israeli flags of Israeli T-shirts, because Israel is very important to the Brazilian evangelicals, and we’re talking about 30% of the Brazilian population. It’s a very important political group for the presidential election next year. And on the left, the more traditional view is that Brazil should support Palestine.

    Michael Fox [Narration]: In mid June thousands of people hit the streets of Sao Paulo in defense of Palestine and in opposition to Israel’s inhumane war on Gaza.

    Just days later, evangelicals held the massive March for Jesus, on the same Paulista Avenue. Countless people wore Israeli flags. Among them was Sao Paulo state governor Tarcisio Genro. He is also the most likely conservative candidate to run for the Brazilian presidency next year.

    It did not go over well in the country’s Arab community. Brazil has the largest population of people descended from the Middle East in all of Latin America.

    Márcio França, Brazilian Minister of Entrepreneurship: The governor of São Paulo humiliated the entire Arab community yesterday. Syrians. Lebanese. We’re talking about millions of people. This is a grave mistake, which has nothing to do with the war. São Paulo is a Brazilian state.

    Michael Fox [Narration]: The numbers of evangelicals in Brazil have been rising almost exponentially in recent years. They were a huge force in the election of former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro. And they’re playing an increasingly prominent role in far-right politics in Brazil. For them, the Israeli flag is a symbol. It was front and center at last year’s CPAC Brasil conference.

    Jose Fabio Faustino, Devout Evangelical: This Israeli flag… We are from a country, Brazil, that is more than 80%, more than 90% Christian. And the word of God, which is the Bible, says that I will bless those who bless you. So we use the Israeli flag because we bless Israel. We believe that is the Holy Land. That they are the Lord’s chosen people. And we are descended from the olive tree. And we love Israel.

    Michael Fox [Narration]: Brazilian Middle East analyst Monique Goldfeld says that in Brazil, the Israel-Palestine conflict has really become a question of internal politics over the last 10 years. 

    Monique Sochaczweski Goldfeld, Senior Fellow, Brazilian International Relations Center: We have a political right that is closely linked to evangelical groups that have appropriated an image of Israel that doesn’t necessarily reflect the reality of Israel. I lived in Israel long enough to believe it’s quite different. But they’re using its symbols… The Star of David, the Israeli flag, and political demonstrations. And this has become associated with Jair Bolsonaro.

    Michael Fox [Narration]: Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro is the face of the far-right movement in Brazil. He’s Catholic, but he has deep ties to evangelicals. His wife is devout. While in office, Bolsonaro boasted of opening up a new era of relations with Israel. He traveled there, met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and opened up an office for Brazilian trade in Jerusalem.

    Bolsonaro, however, is now wearing an ankle bracelet. He’s accused of attempting to orchestrate a coup to remain in power, and is currently standing trial in Brazil. U.S. president Donald Trump responded in defense of his ally, slapping Brazil with 50% tariffs for its lawsuit against Bolsonaro. 

    In a shocking partisan attack on Brazil’s independent judicial system, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has stripped U.S. visas from the eight Supreme Court justices the United States believes are antagonistic to Bolsonaro. Rubio left Bolsonaro’s allies on the court untouched. 

    Meanwhile, many Brazilians have been marching in the streets against the United States, Donald Trump and in defense of Palestine.

    Monique Sochaczweski Goldfeld, Middle-East Analyst: Above all, since the war in Gaza, but even before that. It was very common to see keffiyeh or the Palestinian flag at left-wing demonstrations.”

    Barbara Sinedino, Rio de Janeiro State Union of Professional Educators: They are annihilating a people through the use of force. Today the Gaza Strip is a humanitarian calamity, because of the Israeli state, which was always supported by U.S. imperialism. But now, it’s even worse. The Trump administration has just opened it all up. Trump wants to make a luxury resort out of the Gaza Strip and he wants to kill the people. He wants to destroy the Palestinian people. So we are here, standing up in the streets.

    We need to break political, economic, military relations with Israel. We have to break diplomatic, cultural and sporting relations with Israel. We did this in the era of Apartheid in South Africa and the international blockade was really important in ending apartheid.

    Michael Fox [Narration]: President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva hasn’t broken relations with Israel. But ties between the two countries are at a low. Lula has repeatedly condemned the violence in Palestine.

    SOT9: Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazilian President [CLIP]: Absolutely nothing justifies the terrorist actions perpetrated by Hamas. But we cannot remain indifferent to the genocide perpetrated by Israel in Gaza, the indiscriminate killing of innocent civilians, and the use of starvation as a weapon of war. The solution to this conflict will only be possible with the end of the Israeli occupation and the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state within the 1967 borders.

    Michael Fox [Narration]: Analyst Monique Goldfeld explains how Israel’s war on Gaza is shaping domestic Brazilian politics, similar to the United States… Support for Israel or Palestine lines up along political lines. There’s a powerful evangelical lobby pushing a pro-Israel agenda.

    But there are many differences. The number of Brazilians descended from the Middle East is three times larger than in the U.S. And the Jewish population is tiny. 

    Monique Sochaczweski Goldfeld: The United States has 300 million people, and 6 million Jews. Brazil has 200 million inhabitants, and 120,000 Jews. It’s a very small community and it’s a community that doesn’t have a lot of political weight, although there are some Brazilian politicians, who are Jewish who are very prominent.

    Michael Fox [Narration]: But far beyond the Jewish community… for evangelicals and the country’s far-right, Israel has become a symbol for Jesus, God, religious devotion, and the evangelical movement.

    [CLIP]
    Reporter: Why are you wearing the Israeli flag?
    Protester: Because we are Christians, just like Israel.

    Michael Fox [Narration]: While the Left is waving the flag for the Palestinian cause. In a June poll, over half of Brazilians had a disfavorable opinion of Israel. The same month, activists held the largest marches in defense of Palestine that Brazil had ever seen. Tens of thousands in the streets. They say they will not be silent. The situation in Gaza is too dire. The suffering is too great. The thousands of innocent deaths… too many. 

    While Brazil has long defended the right of both Israel and Palestine to exist… that does not mean the country will be silent over Israel’s violence in Gaza. Brazil recently announced plans to join the genocide case against Israel in the International Court of Justice. It’s a sign of Brazil’s support for Palestine, both in and outside the government. 

    Despite the far-right’s embrace of Israel and the United States, the majority of Brazilians are standing against Israel’s attack on Gaza and the on-going occupation. They are standing in defense of Palestine.

    This post was originally published on The Real News Network.

  • Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan) has denounced a bill advancing through the House that threatens sanctions on South Africa over its genocide case against Israel in the Hague and other actions against Israel, calling it an “extremist disgrace.” Last Tuesday, the House Foreign Affairs Committee overwhelmingly voted to advance a bill that requires the U.S. to reexamine its relationship with South…

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    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • As Israel’s military campaign in Gaza inflicts unprecedented levels of human destruction, two leading Israeli human rights organizations have at last called their nation’s actions in the enclave a “genocide.” Many international human rights groups — such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch — have long described Israel’s 22-month assault on Gaza in such grave terms…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • The “aid” airdrops that Israel authorized in Gaza did little to nothing to alleviate Israel’s starvation catastrophe while also injuring roughly a dozen Palestinians, with reports that they even collapsed homes and landed on tents in the region. The UN-backed Global Protection Cluster reported on Sunday, a day after the drops began, that Palestinians across the Strip were reporting “injuries…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Columbia University announced on July 23 that it had accepted an unprecedented “deal” with the federal government to settle claims brought by the Trump administration that it had discriminated against Jewish students. While the settlement did not include an admission of wrongdoing by the university, Columbia has agreed to meet a wide range of demands, which include paying more than $200 million to…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Israeli forces intercepted the Handala in international waters at around midnight (Israel time) on 27 July 2025 and contact with the activists was lost. This peaceful civilian mission was dedicated to the children of Gaza and named after the Palestinian national symbol Handala, created by political cartoonist Naji al-Ali, who represents a barefoot refugee child who turned his back on injustice and vowed not to face the world again until Palestinian refugees are allowed to return to their homeland. This ship, which sailed as part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FCC), is part of the coalition’s ongoing efforts to break Israel’s illegal and deadly blockade on the Palestinian people in Gaza, amid the ongoing genocide and deliberate starvation imposed on Gaza’s population.

    The post Adalah Demands Immediate Release Of 21 Activists Aboard The ‘Handala’ appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Two leading human rights organisations based in Israel, B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights, say the country is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and that its western allies have a legal and moral duty to stop it. In reports published on Monday, the two groups said Israel had targeted civilians in Gaza only because of their identity as Palestinian over nearly two years of war, causing severe and in some cases irreparable damage to Palestinian society. A number of international and Palestinian groups have described the war as genocidal, but reports from two of Israel’s most respected human rights organisations are likely to add to pressure for action

    Continue reading…

    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • Anas Al-Sharif, Al Jazeera Arabic’s Gaza correspondent and one of the few journalists still reporting from Northern Gaza, is being targeted by a long running smear campaign led by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF).

    Al Jazeera: Speaking the truth is a threat to Israel in this time of genocide

    Talking about this intimidation, Al-Sharif, 28, said on social media:

    Once again, the Israeli army spokesperson has launched a campaign of threats and incitement against me because of my work as a journalist with Al Jazeera. I reaffirm: I, Anas Al-Sharif, am a journalist with no political affiliations. My only mission is to report the truth from the ground — as it is, without bias. At a time when a deadly famine is ravaging Gaza, speaking the truth has become, in the eyes of the occupation, a threat.

    The latest accusations directed at Al-Sharif from the IOF spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, have falsely accused him of being a member of Hamas’ military wing, Al-Qassam, since 2013. Adraee also accused him of moving during the war “to work for the most criminal and offensive channel” after he broke down live on air earlier this week, when a woman fainted in front of him from hunger whilst he was reporting on the occupation’s enforced starvation campaign against Palestinians.

    Since then, the IOF Spokesperson has also called Al Jazeera’s reporting on Gaza’s starvation “a fabricated drama starring Anas Al-Sharif, who sheds crocodile tears”, and his sadness “propaganda”.

    Al-Sharif’s life in acute danger

    On Saturday 26 July, Adraee posted the following statement on X:

    To the self-proclaimed journalist, the mouthpiece of Hamas’s intellectual terrorism, it is truly astonishing that you are speaking today about the suffering of the people of Gaza, while in reality you are part of the lying media machine that promotes propaganda and distorts the facts. Let’s be frank: you do not represent Gaza or its suffering, because you are part of the Hamas family and refuse to hold this Muslim Brotherhood movement responsible.

    The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has issued a statement saying it is “gravely worried” about the safety of Al-Sharif, who believes this campaign against him is a precursor to his assassination. CPJ and human rights organisations have called urgently for international protection for him due to the acute danger to his life.

    Israel has murdered more journalists than in any other conflict ever recorded

    Since the start of this modern-day genocide, 232 journalists have been targeted and killed by Israel in Gaza, according to the Government Media Office last week. That is an average of 13 per month – making it the deadliest conflict for media workers ever recorded.

    At least six of these worked for Al Jazeera. This killing is intentional: an attempt by Israel to silence the truth and hide its many war crimes. Along with the rest of Gaza’s population, if the bullets and bombs do not kill the journalists, intentional starvation and disease will – yet still they risk everything to bring us the truth.

    Al-Sharif, who has not stopped reporting for the past 22 months, said last week:

    Today I say it outright, and with indescribable pain- I am drowning in hunger, trembling in exhaustion, and resisting the fainting that follows me every moment…. Gaza is dying and we die with it.

    Al-Sharif and other journalists: tired and starving, but won’t be silenced

    Al-Sharif, who comes from Jabalia refugee camp in the North of the Gaza Strip, has become a target for repeated intimidation and threats from the occupation.

    In November 2023, he was repeatedly harassed by the military, who phoned him up multiple times, and ordered him to stop reporting, and to leave Northern Gaza. In December 2023, his father, Jamal, was killed by an Israeli strike which also destroyed his home, while last year he was one of six Al Jazeera journalists accused of being affiliated with Hamas, by the IOF.

    But although he faces constant threats, and fears for his family’s safety, Al-Sharif says he remains determined to continue reporting on the suffering of the people in Gaza. He told CPJ:

    These threats won’t silence me.

    Featured image supplied

    By Charlie Jaay

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Reports detailing intentional targeting of Palestinians as a group, and systemic destruction of Palestinian society, add to pressure for action

    Two leading human rights organisations based in Israel, B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights, say Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and the country’s western allies have a legal and moral duty to stop it.

    In reports published on Monday, the two groups said Israel had targeted civilians in Gaza only because of their identity as Palestinians over nearly two years of war, causing severe and in some cases irreparable damage to Palestinian society.

    Continue reading…

    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • Israelis do not see the images of skeletal corpses of Palestinian children who they have starved to death as a curse. They do not see the slain families they gun down at food hubs — designed not to deliver aid but lure starving Palestinians into a massive concentration camp in the south of Gaza in preparation for deportation — as a war crime. Israelis do not look at the savage bombing and shelling that kill or wound dozens of Palestinian civilians, where an average of 28 children die daily, as anything extraordinary. They do not see the wasteland of Gaza, pulverized by bombs and methodically being torn down by bulldozers and excavators, leaving virtually the entire population of Gaza homeless, as barbaric.

    The post The Gaza Riviera appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • The U.S. envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, said on Monday that the U.S. will consider “alternative options” to negotiating with Hamas following the breakdown of ceasefire talks between Israel and the resistance group. Witkoff’s statements came as part of his announcement of Washington’s withdrawal from the talks in Qatar, only a day after Hamas presented its response to the latest Witkoff proposal.

    Witkoff’s statement that the U.S. would find another way of securing “stability” in Gaza and the release of Israeli hostages in the Strip was later backed with a similar statement from President Trump, who said on Friday that Hamas “didn’t really want to make a deal.”

    The post United States Pulls Out Of Gaza Ceasefire Talks appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • On Saturday 26 July around 10pm UK time, Israeli occupation forces violently and illegally intercepted activist boat the Handala and kidnapped its peaceful, unarmed crew. Contact with the crew was then lost.

    The Handala: illegally intercepted by Israel

    This civilian mission was dedicated to the children of Gaza and Handala, which sailed as part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, was en route to Gaza, from Italy, to break through Israel’s illegal genocidal blockade of Gaza.

    The Handala was in international waters about 40 nautical miles from Gaza, so was intercepted in violation of international maritime law. It was carrying life-saving humanitarian aid, including baby formula, nappies, food and medicine, which was intended to be directly distributed to Gaza’s population who is starving, and whose medical system has collapsed because of Israel’s intentional total blockade of the Strip, which has been going on since 2 March and has so far caused death by famine and malnutrition of 127 people in Gaza, including 87 children.

    Handala’s crew consists of 21 members, from 10 countries – the US, France, the UK, Italy, Tunisia, Iraq, Morocco, Norway, Australia, and Spain – and includes parliamentarians, lawyers, and two Al Jazeera journalists. Two are Jewish.

    Israel’s illegal blockade of Gaza has been going on since 2007. So, in response to this the Freedom Flotilla Coalition has been carrying out many direct actions. Under the Genocide Convention states have a legal obligation to do everything they possibly can to prevent genocide. However, they are failing to do this. So the Freedom Flotilla Coalition is now using public outrage to try and force governments around the world to act.

    Lawyers meeting with come of the crew

    The crew of the Handala, who are on hunger strike, were forcibly detained after Israeli naval forces seized the boat, which was then towed to Ashdod Port.

    Ann Wright, a member of the Freedom Flotilla’s steering committee, said:

    Israel has no legal authority to detain international civilians aboard the Handala. This is not a matter of internal Israeli jurisdiction. These are foreign nationals operating under international law in international waters. Their detention is arbitrary, unlawful and must end.

    Adalah is the Legal Centre for Arab Minority Rights in Israel. The Canary has been told that its lawyers are now meeting with 19 of the detained Handala volunteers at Ashdod Port, to provide legal advice. The remaining two activists , Bob Suberi and Huwaida Arraf – both dual Israeli and US citizens – have been transferred to the police, where an Adalah lawyer is also present to provide legal support.

    This is the third violent attack by the occupation forces against Freedom Flotilla missions this year alone.

    Featured image supplied

    By Charlie Jaay

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • In a scene dripping with pain, Israel’s manufactured famine in the Gaza Strip continues to claim lives with a heavy silence that the world cannot hear. The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza announced on Friday that nine new deaths had been recorded, and on Saturday another five – all caused by hunger and malnutrition in areas suffering from a suffocating siege and a severe shortage of food, water, and medical care.

    This brings the number of famine victims since the beginning of the crisis to 127, including 85 children, whose childhood did not spare them from becoming victims of the blockade and global neglect.

    Death without blood in Gaza

    The gaunt faces, sunken eyes, and bodies that wither day after day need no words to describe the disaster. In the exhausted hospitals, all that can be heard are the whispers of broken mothers and the cries of children who do not have enough strength in their chests to cry.

    The tragedy in Gaza is no longer just numbers in a statement, but a reality experienced by more than two million people left to their fate, under the weight of bombing and famine, while humanity stands by, helpless or complicit.

    This hunger is not merely a lack of food, but a direct result of a long siege, the systematic destruction of infrastructure, and the continued prevention of aid from reaching the area. While international appeals continue without sufficient response, children are paying the highest price.

    Urgent appeals… and a lackluster response

    Despite mounting humanitarian appeals for aid, the international response remains inadequate, raising serious questions about the moral and political responsibility of the countries involved.

    In Gaza, children are dying of hunger, not because there is no food in the world, but because it is being prevented from reaching them.

    “All I want is to feed my son a piece of bread,” says Umm Ahmad, cradling her baby who has lost the ability to cry. Her voice does not reach the world’s screens… but it echoes in the hearts of every mother in Gaza, struggling to survive with no hope in sight.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Alaa Shamali

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Bob Geldof has spoken out against Labour’s inaction on Israel’s continuing genocide of the Palestinian people:

    It’s an important message that more people need to hear, because some may be fooled into thinking that Labour is backing away from supporting Israel.

    Cynical politicians

    As a result of Israel cutting off aid, famine is now wiping out the Palestinian population of Gaza:

     

    This dark turn of events means that even supportive Western politicians feel forced to speak out. While you could argue there’s no practical difference between using bombs to eradicate Palestinians and using starvation, there’s something about the latter that cynical Western politicians find harder to defend. This is why politicians like Keir Starmer are now releasing messages like the following:

    You’ll notice that Starmer isn’t clear on who or what is causing the famine, treating it like a natural disaster (“humanitarian catastrophe”) rather than the ideological genocide it is. Consequently, many believe that Starmer and others simply want Israel to return to the more easily-ignored form of genocide that we saw over the past few years.

    Many Labour MPs have now called for the government to recognise the Palestinian state, but unlike France’s Emmanuel Macron, Starmer seems unwilling to even make this gesture.

    One person cutting through Labour’s cynical bullshit is Bob Geldof, who responded as follows when Trevor Phillips asked what he thought of Labour’s response:

    this is a distractive thing about, ‘oh, let’s recognise the state’. Absolutely. It should’ve been done ages ago…  it’s not going to make any material difference. Please, Labour MPs, stop signing your letters.

    He continued:

    Guys, focus on the issue to hand. It isn’t the recognition of the state that will come inevitably, and the sooner, the better. But that isn’t the issue with what you are telling us nightly, Trevor. …

    [As the Financial Times] reported today, children are taking a teaspoonful of salt and as much water as they can drink to fill their bellies. Who are we? Who are we? In Bristol this week, they created the fourth largest computer that can do 23 quintillion deductions in a second. And children are taking a teaspoonful of salt and a belly full of water down the road.

    Shut up. What have we become that we can do this miracle and perpetuate this agony. Honestly, Trevor, seriously like, you know beyond our arguments, can we all just focus on what’s important?

    Bob Geldof: lying politicians

    Bob Geldof also cut through the constant propaganda being spewed by Israel:

    As reported by Sky News:

    Sir Trevor asked the Live Aid organiser: “The Israeli view is that there is no famine caused by Israel, there’s a manmade shortage, but it’s been engineered by Hamas.

    “I guess the Israelis would say we don’t see much criticism from your side of Hamas.”

    In response, Geldof said “that’s a false equivalence” and “the Israeli authorities are lying”.

    The singer then added: “They’re lying. [Benjamin] Netanyahu lies, is a liar. The IDF are lying. They’re dangling food in front of starving, panicked, exhausted mothers.

    “And while they arrive to accept the tiny amount of food that this sort of set up pantomime outfit, the Gaza Humanitarian Front, I would call it, as they dangle it, then they’re shot wantonly.

    “This month, up to now, 1,000 children or 1,000 people have died of starvation. I’m really not interested in what either of these sides are saying.”

    He added: “If the newsfeeds and social feeds weren’t so censored in Israel, I imagine that the Israeli people would not permit what has been done in their name.”

    False impartiality

    As many have said before, the job of a journalist isn’t to publish that one person said it’s raining and another said it isn’t; it’s to cut through the noise and figure out if it’s actually raining. This is why it needs to be called out every time a journalist utters a phrase like “the Israeli view” in relation to Israel’s ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people.

    It doesn’t take a genius to work out that Israel is the cause of this problem, and nearly two years into the genocide even shit-for-brains British media figures should be able to figure that out. And it’s not just cutting off aid, either – Israel Defense Force (IDF) troops are literally massacring Palestinians seeking aid:

    And this isn’t even something they’ve just started doing:

    The point of the ‘boy who cried wolf’ is that if you keep lying, no one will believe you. This is a story that children readily understand; why can’t big boys like Trevor Phillips grasp the concept? How far does Israel have to go before the British media will stop both-sidesing the situation? At this point, so-called British journalists are unarguably participating in genocide denial, and while we’ve long been critical of these people, this is a level of perversity that shocks even us.

    Britain’s shame, as Bob Geldof highlighted

    Britain’s political establishment has provided ongoing political and financial to Israel’s genocide, and our media has been a willing disseminator of genocidal propaganda. Even now, when there’s no way for them to openly defend this situation, they are still doing what they can to lessen the resentment against Israel, but ultimately they’re failing to achieve anything besides turning more of the British public against them.

    Bob Geldof is right.

    It’s time for politicians to shut the fuck up and take action.

    Featured image via Alfred Weidinger (Wikimedia) / Number 10 (Flickr) – all images cropped

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • In a further indication of the chaos and confusion that the proscription of Palestine Action has plunged the police into, eight sign holders in Totnes (including George Monbiot) and three in Edinburgh on Saturday 26 July sat for sixty minutes without being arrested under the Terrorism Act after they joined a nationwide wave of protest as part of the Defend Our Juries’ campaign, Lift The Ban, opposing the Home Secretary’s classification of the direct action group as a ‘terrorist’ organisation.

    Protesters out again for Palestine Action

    The protesters were all sat peacefully holding the same signs reading: “I Oppose Genocide. I Support Palestine Action” that more than 200 people have previously been arrested for holding since the proscription order came into force on 5 July this year:

    George Monbiot Palestine Action

    In Totnes protesters were joined by dozens more holding signs with their own wording, as well as people holding trades union flags and hundreds of supporters singing “Lift the ban, now, for Gaza” and applauding speeches calling for the Home Secretary to Lift The Ban.:

    The proscription of Palestine Action has resulted in a chaotic policing response which has included an arrest for holding up a Private Eye cartoon and over a dozen peaceful sign-holders having their houses broken into and raided. In Kent a woman was threatened with arrest under the Terrorism Act, simply for holding a Palestinian flag and a sign saying “Free Gaza”.

    A spokesperson for Defend Our Juries said:

    The chorus of disapproval for Yvette Cooper’s barmy order grows louder by the day. Devon and Cornwall police were alerted to the demonstration in Totnes on Thursday, giving them plenty of time to prepare. But unlike some of their colleagues they have exercised discretion to leave peaceful protestors be, the people defending our ancient liberties in a small, rural town. The real crime is not the protest, it’s the horrific genocide they are protesting against.

    George Monbiot: not arrested

    Recently, UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk said the proscription of Palestine Action was a violation of international law. The high ranking official joins the widespread condemnation of the ban from five UN special rapporteurs, Home Office staff, human rights organisations, the former first minister of Scotland, and numerous artists and musicians.

    The award-winning author and journalist George Monbiot joined the protest in Totnes but chose to hold a different sign that said: “Palestine Action are protesters not terrorists”. Local police decided not to waste their valuable resources and reputation on arresting him either.

    Monbiot said:

    The proscription of Palestine Action is the most illiberal thing any Home Secretary has done for at least 30 years. The result is an Orwellian situation, in which people gently calling for peace are arrested under the Terrorism Act, while the government actively assists Israeli state terror, as it perpetrates genocide in Gaza. This is an assault on free speech, on logic and on human decency.

    He also commented after the event:

    In a letter to police ahead of the demo, the Totnes residents urged them to take action to stop the government’s complicity in genocide:

    In continuing to support the Israeli government in its genocide, including through the ongoing export of parts for F-35 fighter jets, the British government is committing crimes under the Genocide Act 1969, which is binding in UK law.

    As a senior law enforcement officer we urge you to apply your force’s resources to investigate and prevent the exceptionally grave crimes that are taking place, instead of using your powers to silence those who draw attention to these crimes, whether with cardboard or red paint.

    Similar sign-holding protests are scheduled to take place today in Derry for a third week where, so far, the local police have made no arrests. On Wednesday Derry City & Strabane District Council became the first elected politicians to openly defy the ban and call for it to be lifted.

    Widespread condemnation

    Saturday’s protests come ahead of a peaceful mass action in London on 9 August at which around 500 people are expected to hold the same signs.

    In a ‘permissions hearing’ for a judicial review of the proscription in the High Court on Monday, the government admitted that the advice it received from MI5 and elsewhere was that – unlike the 80 other groups on the proscribed list – Palestine Action does not advocate for violence against people, but only for damage to property used to support the Israeli Government’s assault on Gaza. The proscription of the group would therefore be “novel and unprecedented.”

    In the House of Lords earlier this week, former Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Lord Hain asked: “How have we got to the point where peacefully holding up a placard about the carnage in Gaza is equated with terrorism by Al Qaeda on 9/11 or Islamic State on countless occasions. And shouldn’t the police be concentrating on real terrorism and real crime, not targeting peaceful protesters?”

    “Ridiculous”

    Speaking to Al Jazeera, former chief political commentator of the Daily Telegraph Peter Oborne warned that Yvette Cooper’s controversial ban of Palestine Action could lead to her resignation:

    If the general populace comes to the conclusion that this is a stunt by the Starmer government … this legislation won’t take, people will regard it as ridiculous … you’ll end up having thousands of people coming out in support of Palestine Action, thousands of people declared terrorists. The law will suddenly look an ass, this government will lose a great deal of political credibility and in due course the Home Secretary might have to resign.

    Former First Minister of Scotland Hamza Yousef, in a statement circulated on social media earlier this month said:

    The UK Government isn’t just complicit, it’s actively enabling genocide abroad and criminalising resistance to it here at home. They’ve weaponised anti-terror laws to silence dissent, not against violence, not against extremism, but against people trying to stop war crimes. If speaking out against war crimes makes you a terrorist, then the real danger isn’t the protesters, it’s a system that protects the killers and punishes those who stay silent. Silencing protest doesn’t make the truth go away, it only makes it clearer who’s on the wrong side of it.

    George Monbiot and other protesters: on the right side of history

    Saturday’s protests take place as evidence of mass starvation of the Palestinian people in Gaza by the Israeli government has been splashed across the front pages of our national newspapers and TV screens. Over 100 aid agencies signed a joint statement urging governments to take urgent action.

    80-year old Mary Light who was sign-holding in Totnes today said:

    I am a retired nurse. I am horrified to see the utter cruelty unleashed by the Israeli government and army. Parents are having to watch their children die from starvation, children seeing a dearly loved parent lying dead, waiting to be buried in a mass grave. As a nurse, I’m also appalled by the targeted destruction of hospitals and the torture, imprisonment and killing of medical staff. Over 1,400 healthcare workers have died—this is a war on Gaza’s healthcare.

    Artist and grandmother Ruth Ben-Tovim who was also sign-holding in Totnes said:

    Resistance is lawful, resisting genocide is not wrong—it is a moral and legal obligation. Palestine Action have been labelled “terrorists” for protest actions including spray‑painting military aircraft to highlight UK arms complicity with Israel’s genocide. Once “terrorism” means “economic damage” or “embarrassment, freedom of expression ceases to exist. We are just ordinary people, but we can’t be bystanders and ignore what is happening. We stand to show solidarity, to make visible the brutal implications of this law, and to oppose our government’s role in genocide.

    Featured image and additional images supplied

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Had Israel been nearly any other country on the face of planet earth — particularly a predominantly Muslim nation — a global task force, led by the United States, France, and little Britain, would bomb the country back into the Middle Ages with zero fucks given for international approval.

    Israel’s disgusting actions in Gaza over the past week have been a bloody and disturbing continuation of a brutal and morally indefensible campaign of death, destruction and ethnic cleaning stretching back to the 1940’s.

    This didn’t start on October 7th, 2023.

    The Israeli murderers’ relentless airstrikes and ground operations, which have indiscriminately killed hundreds of innocent, desperate Palestinians, including children — and targeted civilian infrastructure like hospitals and aid distribution points — are not just entirely disproportionate but a deliberate escalation of extreme violence against an already devastated population.

    Israel’s callous, criminal collective punishment must not go unanswered. Words are no longer sufficient. The world must act, with or without the approval of the satsuma-faced-fascist that had a small part in Home Alone 2, Wrestlemania, and the Epstein files. Allegedly.

    Israel can be stopped – but who will?

    Writers with far greater skill than I will ever possess will undoubtedly bring you captivating and euphonious ways to describe the genocidal madness of the Israeli state, and I stand in awe of the power and purpose of their craft.

    They’ll talk of sanctions, how terrible Israel is behaving, and they’ll want to give Binbag Netanyahu a sharp slap on the wrist for vaporising the children of Gaza and using the besieged enclave and its battered population as a testing ground for the United States’ latest weaponry.

    Me? I hate war. I hate fighting. Whether it’s your next door neighbour or an American colonial outpost such as Israel, peace is the only way to get through life.

    An eye for an eye may well leave the whole world blind, eventually, but if anyone deserves a swift index finger to the pupil, it’s Tel Aviv.

    How do we deal with Israel? I’m not sure we can deal with the Zionist ideology, now it’s cancerous roots have spread throughout the corridors of power around the world.

    But we can do the following.

    End it now

    Stop the flow of Israeli cash that is so blatantly prevalent in our political parties. The Israel lobby has funded one in four MPs. Why does any British political party or politician need to take these hefty paydays from a foreign donor? The only conceivable answers are access and influence. This has to stop.

    Recognise the state of Palestine. British politicians voted to do so, eleven years ago. France is about to do so.

    Who are we, of all people, to deny the Palestinian people their absolute right to statehood? Stop this fucking disgusting behaviour.

    End ALL arms sales to Israel and reduce trade with any nation that refuses to comply with the will of the world’s people. Germany’s historic guilt complex is not our responsibility.

    There are 100,000 personnel serving the United Nations peacekeeping forces. Why not deploy a number of them to Palestine, not just to protect the Palestinian people from the Butcher of Gaza, but to ensure international law is enforced?

    It’s all very well the United Nations — who have witnessed their own staff being murdered by Israel — routinely complaining about Israel’s campaign of mass starvation through various press releases, but it is the United Nations that possess the only possible solution to end the bloodshed and criminality that is being live-streamed to an aghast global audience.

    Hope is on the horizon

    Of course, you need a government that is willing and able to take the necessary measures to prevent the suffering and brutality that we have witnessed in Gaza and across the occupied territories, and that government isn’t the one that is currently falling apart, thanks to its ideological assault on poor and disabled people in our communities.

    But… hope isn’t just on the horizon, it’s finally landed in your living room, and the utter carnage that it is causing amongst Labour ranks is nothing short of astonishingly delicious.

    “You will split the left vote”, is a particular favourite. Red Tory tears do have a certain comforting effect.

    Chucking three billion quid a year to the Ukrainian regime, and the 21st century Nazi’s that occupy it, isn’t particularly left-wing.

    Targeting sick, poor, disabled, and vulnerable people with perpetual austerity isn’t particularly left-wing.

    You know the charge sheet by now. Barely a day goes by without the Labour government effortlessly managing to disgrace itself. The bottom of each and every barrel hasn’t just been scraped, but ploughed through by an appallingly dishonest prime minister and the Blairite tribute band that he has assembled in the background.

    Britain needs hope, not hate. And I’m not talking about that overtly mainstream ‘anti-racism’ organisation that aligns itself with establishment institutions and was entirely complicit in the establishment’s efforts to discredit Jeremy Corbyn (and Zarah Sultana) and the slightest sniff of a socialist policy.

    Sultana and Corbyn must deliver

    Is a new left-wing party likely to please everyone on the left? No, probably not. But we’re now at the critical point where slight ideological differences need to be put to one side for the greater good. Anything less would be an unforgivable abandonment of our responsibilities as decent, compassionate people.

    The last time I checked, around a half a million people had signed up for the fight of their lives, and this number is only set to grow as the party carves out their own identity within the political arena.

    It has been a delight to see so much genuine hope in the hearts of so many good people.

    So now it is time for Jeremy, Zarah and the future leaders to deliver, because it may well be our very last chance to bring together anywhere near the sort of numbers we need to keep the frog-faced fash, Farage, as far away from power as possible.

    Featured image via Rachael Swindon

    By Rachael Swindon

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Israel is planning a “major offensive” against Yemen and is waiting for a green light from the Israeli political echelon, Israel’s Channel 14 reported on 23 July.

    “The Israeli security establishment is working around the clock on a major offensive plan against the Yemeni Ansarallah group, which will put an end to the numerous terrorist incidents and rocket attacks on Israel,” the Hebrew channel said.

    “We are building capabilities, and we will know how to activate them once the political echelon makes a decision,” a senior official told the outlet.

    “What we accomplished in 12 minutes in Iran, we will also know how to do in Yemen,” the official added.

    The post Israel Planning ‘Major Offensive’ Against Yemen appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Over the last two years, Israel has run simultaneous military operations across an expanding array of fronts. Its armed forces have carried out a genocide in the Gaza Strip and expanded military operations across major West Bank urban centers. Cities including Jenin, Tulkarm, Nablus, Hebron, and areas near Jericho have experienced night raids, blockades, killings, demolitions…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Free speech advocates are raising concerns that a new bipartisan bill would force social media companies to censor criticism of Israel on their platforms. Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) and Don Bacon (R-Neb.) rolled out the bill, called the Stopping Terrorists Online Presence and Holding Accountable Tech Entities (STOP HATE) Act, at a press conference Wednesday, alongside Jonathan Greenblatt…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • I first learned about malnutrition from textbooks and documentaries in my medical school. I followed the scenes of hunger emerging from Somalia and South Sudan. I wholeheartedly felt them — with every sip of potable water I drank while theirs was polluted, with each bite of food I ate while they were reduced to skin and bones. Yet I never imagined that one day, I would be in their place…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.


  • This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Israel’s “precisely designed mass starvation” campaign in Gaza has caused at least 83 children to die of hunger, health officials say, with many deaths occurring just in the last week as human rights experts warn that humanitarian conditions have surpassed a “tipping point” and will soon result in mass death if not stopped. The Gaza Government Media Office reported on Friday that health…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • A second group of international activists with the Freedom Flotilla Coalition are en route to Gaza to challenge Israel’s blockade. Their ship, named the Handala, launched from Italy five days ago carrying humanitarian aid desperately needed by Gaza’s starving population. The Freedom Flotilla’s most recent attempt to deliver aid was prevented by the Israeli military when their ship was raided and…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • On Wednesday, Israel’s legislature overwhelmingly passed a non-binding measure calling for Israel to annex the occupied West Bank, projecting Israel’s intent to pursue the illegal plan that is in many ways already in motion. The motion, to declare the Palestinian territory as “an inseparable part of the Land of Israel” and proclaiming “Israeli sovereignty” in the region, passed 71 to 13.

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • CPJ joined 35 members of the International News Safety Institute in a July 25 letter calling for Israel to respect the freedom of movement of journalists. 

    The joint letter called for Israeli authorities to allow Gazan journalists and their families – many of whom, like the rest of the population, are starving and facing extraordinary challenges to their health and ability to report – to leave Gaza, and allow other journalists to enter Gaza to continue their work. Nearly two years into the war, no international journalists have independently been able to access Gaza.

    “Protecting those who report from conflict is a duty shared by all,” the letter said. “Our local journalists have done their jobs with unimaginable resilience and bravery. Letting them leave Gaza if they wish to do so and allowing others in to offer respite and continue their work is a humanitarian obligation we cannot ignore.”

    Read the full letter here.


    This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.