In a chilling interview on Thursday, a top Trump administration official refused to answer a question on whether or not he believes protesting U.S. actions is grounds for deportation — instead deflecting by labeling pro-Palestine protesters as terrorists. Speaking with NPR’s Michel Martin about the administration’s arrest and “disappearance” of pro-Palestine protester Mahmoud Khalil…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
The Israeli military has systematically committed sexual, reproductive, and other gender-based violence in its siege of Gaza, including attacks so horrific that they amount to “genocidal acts” against Palestinians, a new UN report has found. The report by an independent UN human rights commission released Thursday finds that Israel has systematically destroyed Gaza’s sexual and reproductive…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
A devastating new report on Israel from UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory demonstrates widespread Israeli sexual, reproductive, and gender-based violence. The report features the results of investigations since 7 October 2023, and compiles verified digital material, as well as victim and witness testimonies.
Navi Pillay, Chair of the Commission, said:
There is no escape from the conclusion that Israel has employed sexual and gender-based violence against Palestinians to terrorise them and perpetuate a system of oppression that undermines their right to self-determination.
The report did not receive any response from Israeli authorities after requesting information. And, they found that of the deplorable gender-based violence they uncovered, there exists a culture of impunity amongst Israeli forces and settlers as inaction from authorities:
send[s] a clear message to members of the Israeli Security Forces that they can continue committing such acts without fear of accountability.
The commission collected testimony from an obstetrician in Gaza who explained:
This is a war against women. Thousands of women have been killed and hundreds of thousands are living in extremely precarious conditions.
The commission also examined how men have been treated by the Israeli Security Forces (ISF), and more precisely, how they have been targeted:
The ISF claimed in October 2024 that it had killed about 17,000 Hamas operatives and members of other armed groups.
However:
Given that the number of adult male fatalities since 7 October 2023 has been around 16,735, this would mean that the ISF considers all adult male Palestinians in Gaza to be members of armed groups and so legitimate targets.
This analysis from the commission reveals what many have already suspected. Namely, that the ISF have been treating everybody as indiscriminate targets. And, as the commission found, this extended to:
intentionally destroying and causing suffering to the civilian population has been an increased impact on women and children. Entire families in Gaza have been killed together in their homes in unprecedented numbers.
Even by the ISF’s own demented logic, it’s simply not possible that every single person is a member of Hamas. Thus, the commission concludes that:
specific gendered harms have been suffered as a result of starvation as a method of warfare, forcible transfer, extermination and collective punishment.
They explicitly state:
Statements documented by the Commission asserted that everyone in Gaza should be considered responsible for the attack on 7 October 2023. Palestinians in Gaza are considered complicit, despite age, gender or civilian status, and should be exterminated.
This is the very definition of collective punishment, and goes some way to formally establishing the intention to destroy Palestinian life without discernment between militants or civilians. Again, this is something that has informally been evidenced on social media, but the evidenced documentation in this report lays out a stark assessment of Israeli tactics.
The report goes into great detail about the impact deliberate Israeli destruction of medical infrastructure has on gendered violence:
The ISF’s destruction of healthcare infrastructure and facilities, including those providing necessary maternal, sexual and reproductive health services, violates the special protections under international humanitarian law provided to medical units and personnel.
They further detail how women and girls seeking out medical treatment by walking to hospitals were shot and killed by the ISF. The commission quote Eliyahu Yosian a commentator from the Misgav Institute for National Security speaking on a right-wing television show:
The woman is an enemy, the baby is an enemy, and the pregnant woman is an enemy.
As of April 2024, only two partially functioning hospitals out of a previous twelve were able to provide sexual and reproductive healthcare. The Al-Basma IVF Centre was bombed by Israelis in 2023:
destroying around 4,000 embryos, as well as 1,000 sperm samples and unfertilized eggs.
This was in spite of the fact that the commission didn’t find any information indicating that the building was used for any military purposes. Therefore, the commission found that:
the destruction of the Basma IVF clinic was a measure intended to prevent births among Palestinians in Gaza, which is a genocidal act under the Rome Statute and Genocide Convention.
Similarly to the IVF centre bombing,
The report also describes how:
the ISF controlled the entry, the content and the amounts of humanitarian assistance allowed into Gaza and that the ISF deliberately stopped humanitarian assistance which included items essential for pregnant women, new mothers and newborns from reaching Gaza, both through direct attacks and through the imposition of a total siege.
Their investigations paint a catastrophic picture for reproductive health in Gaza. The near-total destruction of medical facilities along with the purposeful throttling of aid has meant that the orchestrated lack of basic equipment for childbirth, menstruation products, and painkillers are resulting in avoidable illnesses and deaths. There has been a 300% increase in miscarriages since 7 October 2023. Many pregnant people are starving, and unable to breastfeed. Very limited access to water and menstruation products means that infections have been able to take hold and cause “miscarriage, loss of fertility, and in worse case, death.”
A significant section of the UN report on Israel focuses on sexual violence against women, men, girls, and boys. The commission writes:
Women’s bodies and sexuality are often perceived as linked with the dignity of the nation and other negative gender stereotyping, such as the collective’s honour and emasculation. Several experts have noted that allegations of sexual violence against Israeli women on 7 October 2023 have resulted in attempts to rebuild Israeli national masculinity through aggression and in retaliation for the attacks carried out by the military wing of Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups.
The commission paints a picture of depraved and persistent sexual violence against Palestinian men and women, both at checkpoints and in detention. And, they also note that whilst “sexual and gender-based violence is by no means a new element of the Israeli occupation” they documented a noted increase of aggression and violence since 7 October 2023. They note the existence of many videos and photos recorded and posted by Israeli soldiers of them:
searching homes in the Gaza Strip, deliberately humiliating and mocking Palestinian women based on their gender and ethnicity…The Commission notes that the videos and photos show a clear gender and racial bias by the perpetrators, who intentionally target Palestinian women and attempt to humiliate and degrade them publicly.
Both female and male detainees are often ordered to strip naked by Israeli soldiers, whilst:
hundreds of Palestinian men and boys have been photographed and filmed in humiliating and degrading circumstances while subjected to acts of a sexual nature, including forced public nudity and stripping, full or partial.
The commission details many instances where groups of men and boys were rounded up, ordered to strip naked, and then marched to a checkpoint or held naked in public. In one particular instance:
They were told to hold their identity documents high in the air and continue walking while undressed. The ISF said that anyone who did not follow orders would be shot. The men were completely naked while walking and the women were in their underwear.
Women were regularly forced to remove their veils, and the commission noted the culturally specific psychological torture this amounted to. Palestinian men were often forced to strip in front of Palestinian woman, and vice versa, in depraved humiliation rituals. They detail one instance where a 14 year old girl was forcibly strip searched and groped by two soldiers.
The report also finds that:
Acts of sexual violence documented by the Commission appear to have been motivated by extreme hatred towards the Palestinian people and a desire to dehumanize and punish them. Sexual and reproductive violence in detention has also been reported by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, B’Tselem, Addameer, Amnesty and Healthcare Workers Watch.
The commission documents the detail they uncovered:
The Commission documented cases of rape and sexual assault of male detainees, including the use of an electrical probe to cause burns to the anus, and the insertion of objects, such as fingers, sticks, broomsticks and vegetables, into the anus and rectum.
One victim told the commission:
They took me into an interrogation room and suspended me by my arms behind my back. My toes barely touched the floor. A male guard inserted a metal stick in my penis on several occasions, about twenty times in total. I started bleeding. The pain was excruciating but the humiliation was worse.
In at least two cases, the investigators found that victims “needed medical treatment and/or surgery due to the injuries caused by rape.”
They further detail well-known rape at Sde Teiman prison:
In one case, a detained Palestinian man was raped after he was transferred from Ofer prison to Sde Teiman detention facility. According to an indictment submitted to an Israeli military court, the man was physically abused by five soldiers, reservists in Unit 100, during a search at Sde Teiman prison.
The man was so violently raped that:
The assault resulted in the fracture of several of the victim’s ribs and a punctured lung. The victim was also stabbed in the rectum with a sharp object. The victim’s rectum was raptured due to the assault, and he required surgery to the rectum. Following the assault, the victim was required to use a stoma bag due to the gravity of the injuries. A video filming the assailants were taken by a soldier.
With many of the rape cases the commission describes, they were able to geo-locate the locations via Israeli soldiers recording and posting the sexual assaults.
The report concludes that:
The Commission finds that there is a clear culture of impunity within the ISF and soldiers believe that they will never be held accountable for the crimes they have committed. This results in an implicit or tacit encouragement by the top civilian and military leadership to the soldiers who commit these crimes.
They explain how in July 2024 when ten Israeli soldiers were arrested for raping a Palestinian detainee at the Sde Teiman facility:
Knesset members from the coalition, right-wing activists and soldiers participated in demonstrations to protest the soldiers’ arrest, showing them support and legitimizing their actions. They attacked the Sde Teiman camp, including soldiers of the military police tasked with investigating the rape case, and occupied part of it.
This goes beyond a culture of impunity and is instead a culture of active facilitation and celebration of Israeli soldiers and settlers raping Palestinian men. The commission itself finds that the Israeli justice system:
cannot ensure fair trial guarantees as it is inherently discriminatory in its application of the law; domestic legislation continues to be used to persecute Palestinians and exculpate perpetrators who violate the rights of Palestinians. The Israeli justice system should not be relied upon to deal with accountability for Israeli civilian and military personnel in relation to Palestinians.
The report is a meticulous evidencing of reproductive violence, sexual harassment and violence, rape, and sexual humiliation rituals.
Women and girls in Palestine have been, and are continuing to suffer disproportionately with “outrages upon personal dignity.”
Palestinian men and boys are sexually harassed, raped, and tortured by the ISF. Repeatedly, the commission concludes that these acts meet the legal threshold for crimes against humanity based on gender, inhuman and degrading treatment, and severe deprivation of fundamental rights.
Featured image via the Canary
On 6 February, Glasgow university student Hannah Taylor sprayed paint over a building because the institution had “blatantly ignored the will of the majority of its students and staff, and insisted on continuing to invest in Israeli linked arms research” amid the Gaza genocide. She and Strathclyde student Catriona Roberts took this action in solidarity with Youth Demand.
Taylor told the Canary that they were “arrested and held for four hours, charged with vandalism”. The police banned her from Glasgow University buildings and some surrounding areas, but later lifted the ban. The university, however, has prevented her from accessing “lectures, tutorials, or lecture recordings”. She said university bosses “intend to enforce this ban until the end of the criminal proceedings which I expect to last several months/over a year”.
She has a plea hearing on 1 May, but insisted:
It is clear that they are using my campus ban as a threat to other students to deter further protest. They know they do not have student or staff consent to continue investing in arms so rather than listen to our voices they have chosen to enforce their policies through fear. It is a tactic that goes directly against the values which Glasgow University purports to stand for and highlights the hypocrisy at the heart of their institution. Students must continue to fight for the right to an education free from complicity in genocide.
As the Canary previously reported:
In November, the University of Glasgow refused to prohibit its endowment fund managers from investing in companies that earn more than 10% of their income from arms manufacturing.
The University of Glasgow has £6.8 million worth of shareholdings in arms companies such as BAE systems and QinetiQ. They have also received around £600,000 in research funding from BAE systems and Rolls Royce since 2017. QinetiQ, a supplier of military robotics, has been criticised for their active export of arms to Israel and involvement in the British Army Watchkeeper Programme which allegedly tested the drones on Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
This is despite overwhelming opposition from both student groups and staff. A survey of 2,400 staff and students at the university found that 81% of staff and 84% of students were in favour of divestment.
And that strong sentiment, Taylor told the Canary, came in spite of the survey being “worded in a very leading and offensive way implying the loss of funds due to divestment would inevitably lead to a loss of bursaries for some students”. Glasgow University’s disinterest in listening, however, was apparent when it “proceeded to ignore these results and continue to invest”. This, Taylor stressed, was “deeply disappointing”. And it led her to take direct action.
Israeli occupation forces have killed “at least 61,709 people, including 17,492 children“, in Gaza since October 2023. They have also destroyed most of the strip’s educational facilities, homes, businesses, healthcare facilities, and cropland. This collective punishment, which numerous genocide experts have called out as a genocidal campaign, came in response to Hamas breaking out of the ‘open-air prison‘ of occupied Gaza on 7 October 2023 to attack the Israeli military and take hostages. The fighting on that day led to the deaths of up to 780 Israeli civilians.
7 October happened in a context of longstanding Israeli efforts to starve Gaza’s highly concentrated population into submission via a brutal blockade. It also came amid the increasingly clear failure of a US-led peace process that empowered Israel and those complicit in its occupation while maintaining the subjugation of the Palestinian people.
And revelations about Israeli crimes continue to roll in. Just yesterday, on 13 March, the UN Human Rights Council received an independent report detailing how “Israeli authorities have destroyed in part the reproductive capacity of the Palestinians in Gaza as a group, including by imposing measures intended to prevent births, one of the categories of genocidal acts in the Rome Statute and the Genocide Convention”.
The brave resistance of people like Taylor and Roberts is essential for holding Israel and its supporters to account for their complicity in occupation, apartheid, and genocide.
Featured image supplied
By Ed Sykes
This post was originally published on Canary.
As Donald Trump looks for new methods to crush the Palestine solidarity movement some groups allied with his cause are suggesting potential targets. A coalition of 45 pro-Israel organizations, led by the Zachor Legal Institute, have sent a letter to the U.S. Treasury Department, asking that it sanction six Palestinian nonprofits that they allege either directly or indirectly support the Popular…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
If the secretary of state can simply declare a legal permanent resident deportable based on their constitutionally protected activities, the First Amendment no longer applies to noncitizens.
This post was originally published on Dissent Magazine.
As the Trump administration’s effort to deport Mahmoud Khalil sparks legal battles and demonstrations, Columbia University announced Thursday that it has revoked degrees from some other pro-Palestinian campus protesters. A campuswide email reported by The Associated Press and shared on social media by Drop Site News says that “the Columbia University Judicial Board determined findings and…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
Tens of thousands of demonstrators will gather in London this Saturday 15 March to demand an end to Israel’s siege of Gaza and continuing violations of international law. It is, of course, the latest Palestine march.
Israel has cut off electricity and all external supplies of aid to 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza since March 2nd , including food, potable water and medicine. The UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Michael Fakhri, has described these actions as “the fastest starvation campaign in modern history.”
Deliberately starving Gaza violates the International Court of Justice’s orders in January 2024 to prevent genocide.
Israel has also continued to mount attacks in Gaza despite the agreed ceasefire, killing more than 150 Palestinians since 19 January 2025. Before blocking all aid it allowed only restricted supplies that did not meet the ceasefire requirements. It has also refused to engage in negotiations for the agreed second phase of the ceasefire.
At the same time, Israel has ramped up attacks on occupied Palestinian territory in the West Bank, destroying infrastructure and laying siege to refugee camps. Israeli soldiers and settlers have attacked Palestinians in their homes and on the streets, killing more than 100 people including children, as well as displacing 40,000 people according to the UN.
The reaction of the British government to these events has been shamefully subdued. The UK remains complicit in Israel’s actions through the supply of weapons as well as providing diplomatic and military support.
You can find all the details of the march here.
Ben Jamal, Palestine Solidarity Campaign Director, said:
The genocide in Gaza has not ended. It continues by other means – by blocking supplies which are essential to human life. Israel’s desire to ethnically cleanse and colonise Gaza has not disappeared, it remains a clear and present danger, which is now evident in the West Bank also. These are grave crimes in international law – genocide, ethnic cleansing, starvation, occupation – and Israel’s Prime Minister remains a fugitive from justice as he evades the warrant for arrest issued by the International Criminal Court.
In these circumstances we might expect that a democratic government that adheres to the rule of law would refuse to be complicit with these crimes and indeed to take active steps to end their commission.
But shamefully the UK Government continues to believe it can be a key ally of Israel, providing military, diplomatic and financial support, whilst also pretending to abide by international law. This charade fools no one and MPs in Parliament that have called for a full scale inquiry into this country’s complicity in one of the greatest crimes of our time are right to do so. One day there will be accountability and it will implicate UK politicians and officials.
Featured image via the Canary
By The Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.
Award-winning British playwright and poet Peter Oswald will undertake a 150-mile fasting pilgrimage from Bristol to London, beginning on 18 March and culminating in Parliament Square on 30 March.
The thirteen-day journey, undertaken in solidarity with the Palestinian people, will raise awareness of Israel’s ongoing apartheid and genocide and support educational initiatives in Gaza and the West Bank.
Peter Oswald, 59, was the resident playwright at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre from 1998 to 2009 and is widely recognised for his verse drama. As part of his “Pilgrimage4Palestine”, he will fast from dawn to dusk, marking the holy month of Ramadan in solidarity with the Palestinian people and the global Muslim community.
“While leading this walk, I will be calling to the soul of Britain through the soles of my feet,” said Oswald:
Though there is a fragile ceasefire in Palestine, the persecution of the Palestinian people continues. Israel’s decision to ban UNRWA from Gaza is a clear signal that it will resist efforts to rebuild the region. Injustice flourishes when the world looks away, and as long as we remain unaware, peace remains elusive.
The route will follow the Kennet and Avon Canal towpath to Reading before continuing through quieter roads into central London.
Supporters and well-wishers are encouraged to walk alongside Peter Oswald at any stage, and poetry readings, public discussions, and solidarity events are planned along the way. His wife, Alice Oswald, former Oxford Professor of Poetry and BBC Radio 4 Poet-in-Residence, will join him for part of the journey.
The pilgrimage is organised by the Bristol Palestine Alliance and the Palestine Solidarity Movement Bournemouth, raising funds for the Hands Up Project, which connects Palestinian schoolchildren with teachers and students worldwide through drama and storytelling.
In Bristol he will be presented with the key of a house in Palestine to carry to Parliament Square.
Featured image via the Canary
By The Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.
Nine organisations who had previously engaged in good faith in Goldsmiths’ Inquiry into Antisemitism have published a statement publicly withdrawing their participation from the Inquiry, which has been ongoing since May 2023.
The groups include the Goldsmiths’ Students Union, Goldsmiths UCU Executive, and the Goldsmiths research group Forensic Architecture, as well as civil society groups including the Muslim Association of Britain, and legal organisations including the European Legal Support Centre (ELSC).
Their public statement cites ‘incoherent and contradictory statements’ from the College and the Chair of the Inquiry, and a ‘lack of transparency’ over ‘who and what is being investigated’ that has led to a widespread loss of confidence in the Inquiry from students, staff and civil society.
One example they say is the Inquiry’s refusal to confirm even what definition of antisemitism it is applying to inform its work.
The signatories say that the Inquiry has failed to meaningfully engage with the political context of Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza, and the legitimate question of how unfounded accusations of antisemitism are used to silence Palestinian voices and those who stand with them.
They say the two-year process “marginalises Palestinians and adopts an approach which discriminates against them, and appears to target those who criticise Israeli policies and Zionism.” Goldsmiths has recently apologised and paid damages to a lecturer they wrongly suspended after complaints that constituted part of this inquiry.
The Inquiry, which is investigating the period 1 September 2018 to18 May 2023, has not indicated when it is due to complete. Freedom of Information requests sent by Michael Rosen (Goldsmiths Professor of Children’s Literature) in May 2024 found that the Inquiry had cost Goldsmiths £128,872 up to that point.
Ed Nedjari, Goldsmiths SU Chief Executive said:
It is crucial to address the rise of antisemitism; however, these efforts must not violate the rights of other marginalised groups, such as Palestinians, nor hinder the free expression of those who criticise Zionism and Israeli state policies, particularly against a backdrop of an ongoing Genocide in Gaza and an expansion of Settler Colonialism in the West Bank. The growing list of concerns, including the lack of transparency and questionable decisions made by the inquiry, has eroded any remaining confidence in its fairness and impartiality, ultimately leading to our decision to withdraw our support and participation.
We cannot, in good faith, support this inquiry while it advances without proper regard for the fundamental principles of equality and justice. Goldsmiths Students’ Union has consistently supported students’ critical engagement in their academic studies and civic activities. This inquiry contradicts our core values; we cannot risk complicity in restricting the freedoms of our members.
Ben Jamal, Director of Palestine Solidarity Campaign said:
It is deeply concerning to see universities attempting to intimidate students who are engaged in campaigning for Palestinian human rights, or who make legitimate criticisms of Israel’s apartheid system and genocidal attacks. British universities collectively invest almost £430million in companies complicit in Israeli violations of international law. Instead of targeting those speaking out against these grave violations of international law and undermining academic freedom, universities should be working to divest their money from apartheid and genocide.
Dr Lewis Turner, Chair of the BRISMES Committee on Academic Freedom, said:
BRISMES is deeply concerned that this Inquiry’s approach threatens freedom of expression and academic freedom on the question of Palestine, which have been under sustained attack on UK campuses, especially since October 2023. It is particularly concerning that the Inquiry has refused to confirm whether it will use the widely-discredited IHRA definition of antisemitism and its examples, which have been shown, in our September 2023 report with the European Legal Support Center, to clearly undermine freedom of expression and academic freedom in universities.
Featured image via the Canary
By The Canary
Any account of the decades-long occupation of Palestine from a Palestinian is immediately expected to be refined within a specific lens to appeal to the pathos of Western society. Well meaning activists, journalists and politicians may intend to share the stories of Palestinians, but too often end up curating them into a digestible format, one adjacent to the truth rather than one that embodies the whole of it. In other words, society forces Palestinians to justify and format their identities, experiences and traumas in order to be seen. Yet through this process, crucial pieces of their stories are sacrificed.
The post Chris Hedges Report: Perfect Victims And The Politics Of Appeal appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.
This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.
A new report by United Nations experts says Israel has carried out “genocidal acts” against Palestinians in Gaza, including the destruction of women’s healthcare facilities, intended to prevent births, and the use of sexual violence as a strategy of war. This comes as talks on resuscitating the ceasefire deal continue in Qatar and as Israel continues its total blockade of food, fuel…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
Mahmoud Khalil, a permanent US resident, is facing deportation via a rarely used foreign policy law. He is a Palestinian student who has been organising along with fellow pro-Palestinian supporters. Mahmoud has US residency via a green card which are rarely revoked without a criminal conviction. Khalil has no such criminal conviction and is instead facing deportation regardless because the US government:
has reasonable ground to believe that your presence or activities in the United States would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.
Convicted felon Donald Trump has promised that there will be “many more” arrests to come and said:
We will find, apprehend, and deport these terrorist sympathizers from our country – never to return again. If you support terrorism, including the slaughtering of innocent men, women, and children, your presence is contrary to our national and foreign policy interests, and you are not welcome here.
The “terrorist sympathisers” Trump is referring to here appear to be students like Khalil who have organised and protested against Israeli genocide. It does appear that Trump is not, in fact, referring to American terrorist sympathisers who have facilitated and sanctioned the Israeli genocide of Palestinians.
One of Mahmoud Khalil’s lawyers, Diala Shamas, succinctly summed up why Khalil is in prison:
Speaking out against what the Trump administration is doing does not give them the right to disappear our people … We need to fight as hard as we can for Mahmoud because of what this portends.
CLEAR – which stands for Creating Law Enforcement Accountability and Responsibility – are also part of Khalil’s legal team. They explained that the provision mentioned above, about acting contrary to American interests as a reason for deportation, is being applied inaccurately:
That provision is not only rarely used, it is certainly not intended by Congress to be used to silence dissent.
Bill Hing, a professor of law at the University of San Francisco, appeared to express a similar sentiment:
The government has to demonstrate by clear and convincing evidence that his presence or activities in the US has potential serious adverse foreign policy consequences. The question is, how will they prove that? If he has done nothing more than decry the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, or accuse Israel of genocide, and demand ceasefire, is that adverse to US foreign policy? I don’t think so. I think that is protected free speech.
Just yesterday, 12 March, a judge extended the ban halting the deportation of Khalil. However, whether Khalil does end up being deported or not, the move from Trump’s administration is clearly about creating a culture of fear around dissent and support of Palestine. Khalil has only met with his lawyers for less than one hour over phone – and with the government monitoring the call.
Mahmoud Khalil’s imprisonment and impending deportation is yet another cruel reminder that citizenship is always conditional for people of colour. Based on conventions of Western law, it shouldn’t be possible to deport a permanent citizen of a nation. It certainly shouldn’t be possible to deport a permanent citizen because they dissented against their government’s foreign policy. However, this is something which is a reality for Black, Brown, and Muslim people living across the West. We never fully belong, and all it takes is for a fascist leader to exert the pressure required to expel dissenters.
Trump, however, has not reckoned with the mobilisation behind Mahmoud Khalil. Those who are more able to dissent without being targeted for their identity have thrown their support behind Mahmoud. Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) have taken over the Trump Tower, as BreakThrough News reported:
BREAKING: Jewish Voice for Peace is leading a sit-in in the lobby of Trump tower to demand the release of Mahmoud Khalil. pic.twitter.com/8ZgZkeZdIp
— BreakThrough News (@BTnewsroom) March 13, 2025
Protesters can be heard chanting “We want justice, you say how. Bring Mahmoud home now!” and “Fight Nazis, not students!”
JVP encouraged others to come and support them, tweeting:
Hundreds of U.S. Jews and friends are taking over the Trump Tower to say: Come for one, face us all.
They continued:
Mahmoud’s abduction by ICE marks a new, severe escalation in the Trump administration’s attack on the movement for Palestinian freedom in the US, which has aimed its first crackdown at universities where students have organized.
As many Jewish allies have made clear throughout Israel’s genocide, Jewish safety is not contingent on harm to Palestinians:
But Mahmoud’s kidnapping has nothing to do with Jewish safety. The Trump administration thinks it can crush dissent and strip away constitutional rights. We know this playbook. We refuse to allow our neighbors to be abducted in our name.
They then shared more footage of their takeover with some poignant words:
As Jews, we are taking over the Trump Tower to register our mass refusal. We will not stand by as this fascist regime attempts to criminalize Palestinians and all those calling for an end to the Israeli government’s US-funded genocide of the Palestinian people. And we will never… pic.twitter.com/t2Ql8qRBgw
— Jewish Voice for Peace (@jvplive) March 13, 2025
JVP’s actions are exactly what is needed – a demand for Mahmoud Khalil to be released, and a reminder that we will not stand by as the US government attempts to disappear a Palestinian for dissenting to their genocide. Trump’s fascism will not go unanswered.
Featured image via screengrab
This post was originally published on Canary.
Suella Braverman has been met with jeers and chants during an appearance at the Oxford Union. The disgraced former home secretary was there to be interviewed in front of an audience. However, protests both outside and inside the venue quickly showed the disdain for Braverman.
Campaign group Oxford Action for Palestine released a statement reading:
The former Home Secretary, Suella Braverman is a known racist, Zionist, and xenophobe. We do not tolerate nor welcome any of her genocidal worldviews at the University of Oxford. The protest outside the Oxford Union is to remind the University that we, Oxford’s students and community, are disgusted by the invitations of genocidaires and are committed to holding the University accountable.
Protesters are seen chanting “Suella Braverman, you’re an embarrassment” and “refugees are welcome here”:
Why is the Oxford Union giving a platform to genocide enabler Suella Braverman: pic.twitter.com/4zItb1ay81
— PalMedia (@PalMediaOrg) March 13, 2025
Oxford Student reported on the following interaction:
Responding to a question posed by Union President Israr Khan on whether she believes multiculturalism had failed in the United Kingdom, Braverman began responding but paused her response and said regarding the protestors: “They are very annoying. Is it raining?”
Braverman may well find the protests annoying, but people in Oxford have demonstrated exactly the kind of reception Braverman deserves wherever she goes. One of the questions put to Braverman by the audience was:
Do you really think that you know better the experiences of Palestinians under occupation, to be able to say that Israel is not an apartheid state?
According to the Oxford Blue:
Braverman responded saying that Israel is one of the few democracies in the Middle East where “minorities are treated equally”. She asserted that Israel has a “right to exist” and a “right to defend itself”, and proceeded to label the current Labour government as “disgusting”, given their continued funding for UNRWA, an organisation she alleged is “complicit with Hamas”.
In October 2023, Braverman called Palestine protests “hate marches.” By November 2023, she was sacked. She has said that it’s her “dream” and “obsession” to deport refugees to Rwanda, maintained that Israel hasn’t violated international law, and, broadly speaking, demonstrated a persistent hatred and racism towards immigrants.
Braverman’s fantasy of Israel as some kind of utopia for minoritised people and her rhetoric of self-defence is so tired this far into Israel’s genocide that it’s barely worth explaining how she’s wrong. Instead, we’ll direct you to the fact that lobby group the National Jewish Assembly paid Braverman £28,000 for visiting Israel. And, following in the footsteps of fellow Conservative failure Liz Truss, Braverman has also been seen courting right-wing Americans with her desire to “make Britain great again.”
Naturally, after any event where protesters exercise their own freedom of speech, right-wingers are up in arms with claims that they’re worried about the “crisis‘ of freedom of speech. Well, fret not, friends. Freedom of speech doesn’t mean that anyone is obliged to listen to anyone else’s opinion. Particularly if that someone has been sacked twice, gone out of their way to fuel hate campaigns against immigrants and refugees, and continuously spouts provable lies about the Israeli genocide.
Nobody is immune from the consequences of their speech. For Suella Braverman, that consequence is proving to be people disagreeing about her hateful rhetoric. Having built her political career on inflammatory statements, she can hardly be surprised when people are inflamed with anger.
Featured image via screengrab
This post was originally published on Canary.
Twenty MPs have signed an open letter calling for Israeli authorities to release a fire engine donated to Palestinian firefighters.
Fire Brigades Union (FBU) members in Scotland donated a fire engine last year, packed with firefighting kit, equipment, and medical supplies, and arranged delivery to the port of Ashdod to be transported to Nablus in the West Bank.
It has been impounded by Israeli customs at the port since July 2024 despite having the necessary paperwork.
In November, firefighters and supporters held a demonstration outside the London embassy to demand the release of the fire engine. At the time, the then-FBU general secretary Matt Wrack said:
Firefighters in Palestine are working to save lives in horrifying conditions. As humanitarians, we cannot stand by while lives are being lost. It is appalling that life-saving equipment donated by our members is being held by Israeli customs while Palestinian firefighters are in desperate need of resources.
The Fire Brigades Union calls on the Israeli government to release the donated fire engine immediately, and for the UK government to take any necessary action to ensure this aid is delivered safely.
The letter, signed by firefighters, trade unionists and MPs, calls for the immediate release of the fire engine so that it can be safely delivered to aid firefighters in Nablus.
The full statement reads:
“As firefighters and fire and rescue service workers, members of the Fire Brigades Union, other trade unionists, Members of Parliament and campaigners for justice and human rights, we are calling for safe release of the fire engine sent by FBU Scotland to aid Palestinian firefighters – but impounded by the Israeli authorities.
“This appliance, packed with firefighting kit, personal protective equipment, breathing apparatus, cutting tools and medical supplies, was sent for use by the Palestinian fire and rescue service in Nablus, in the West Bank. It has been held in the Israeli port of Ashdod since July 2024.
“In November London firefighters and supporters demonstrated outside the Israeli embassy to demand its release. We add our voices to this call, so that the fire engine can be used for its intended purpose, to help firefighters in Palestine save lives.”
Organised by FBU and UNISON members, the letters’ 450 signatories include:
Colin Brown, Fire Brigades Union (FBU) Executive Council member for Scotland
Steve Wright, FBU General Secretary
Brian Leishman, MP for Alloa and Grangemouth
John McDonnell, MP for Hayes and Harlington
Nadia Whittome, MP for Nottingham East
Clive Lewis, MP for Norwich South
Kim Johnson, MP for Liverpool Riverside
Rachael Maskell, MP for York Central
Ellie Chowns, MP for North Herefordshire
Seamus Logan, MP for Aberdeenshire North and Moray East
Steve Witherden, MP for Montgomeryshire and Glyndŵr
Richard Burgon, MP for Leeds East
Andy McDonald, MP for Middlesbrough and Thornaby East
Mary Kelly Foy, MP for City of Durham
Kate Osborne, MP for Jarrow and Gateshead East
Imran Hussain, MP for Bradford East
Neil Duncan-Jordan, MP for Poole
Grahame Morris, MP for Easington
Apsana Begum, MP for Poplar and Limehouse
Zarah Sultana, MP for Coventry South
Lorraine Beavers, MP for Blackpool North and Fleetwood
Patricia Ferguson, MP for Glasgow West
Adrian Ramsay, MP for Waveney Valley
Jeremy Corbyn, MP for Islington North
Featured image via the Canary
By The Canary
A new campaign targeting insurance companies with links to Israel’s genocide in Gaza launched on 10 March. It is seeking to hold them accountable for their actions. It’s urging people to ‘boycott bloody insurance’ – and will be taking direct action as well.
Boycott Bloody Insurance released a report showing how “major global insurers actively enable Israel’s ongoing assault on Palestinians”. In a press release, it explained that “insurers including Allianz, Aviva, AXA, Zurich, and RSA” have been investing “over $1.7 billion in companies supplying military equipment used by Israel since 7 October 2023”. The latter include “Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Elbit Systems, and BAE Systems”, which Boycott Bloody Insurance said have a direct link to Israel’s war crimes, “including attacks on civilians in Gaza using white phosphorus and precision-guided munitions”.
Lead researcher Monika Nielsen criticised the insurance companies “profiting from human suffering” for:
funneling our money into war, exploitation, and violence
This new campaign comes at a time of increasing state repression of dissent in Britain on behalf of Israeli war criminals, and a growing movement of resistance.
Direct action group Palestine Action has had numerous successes against organisations complicit with Israeli war crimes. And because it has targeted insurance companies with links to Israel, Allianz and Aviva are now seeking legal action to stop the resistance. Palestine Action has asserted that its campaign “will not cease until their links with the Israeli weapons trade” do.
The Palestinian Youth Movement, meanwhile, has now “integrated the finding that AIG is the insurer of global logistics company Maersk into their ongoing “Mask Off Maersk” campaign”. The movement insisted it is “not waiting for a decision from the top to stop the flow of weapons to Israel, but we are demanding from the bottom”. It is targeting global logistics company Maersk – “one of the most profitable companies on earth” – for shipping “military cargo that facilitate Israel’s genocide”. The Palestinian Youth Movement’s Yara Derbas said:
Insurance, just like logistics, is crucial for arms transfers to oppressive regimes. Our actions target the corporate complicity enabling Israel’s ongoing crimes. This isn’t just about Palestine—it’s about global justice and ending corporate exploitation.
Ahead of Maersk’s Annual General Meeting on March 18, the Palestinian Youth Movement has called on “executives and shareholders… to end the transportation of military cargo to Israel”, and has asked
people around the world to join us in showing Maersk that staying in business with a pariah state is a long-term liability.
Boycott Bloody Insurance has the endorsement of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, the Watermelon Index, and the Palestinian BDS National Committee. And it seeks to bring together pro-Palestinian activists with people fighting for “climate justice, migrant rights, and anti-war organising”.
A Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy spokesperson insisted on the importance of spreading the word about insurance companies complicit in genocide, saying:
Policyholders must know how their money is being misused and demand immediate divestment.
Boycott Bloody Insurance says there is a plan for “coordinated actions across the UK” on 25 March to encourage organisations to dump insurers profiting from war crimes and “shift to ethical insurers”.
In April, meanwhile, the campaign will also release “three additional reports exposing the insurance industry’s ties to fossil fuel companies, controversial weapons, and the UK detention industry”.
Featured image supplied
By Ed Sykes
This post was originally published on Canary.
The professor at the center of the Columbia University deportation scandal is a former Israeli intelligence official, MintPress News can reveal.
The professor at the center of the Columbia University deportation scandal is a former Israeli intelligence official, MintPress News can reveal.
Mahmoud Khalil, a recent graduate of the university’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), was abducted by Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) Saturday for his role in organizing protests last year against Israel’s attack on Gaza. Khalil’s dean, Dr. Keren Yarhi-Milo, head of the School of International and Public Affairs, is a former Israeli military intelligence officer and official at Israel’s Mission to the United Nations.
The post Professor At Center Of Columbia University Deportation Scandal Is Former Israeli Spy appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.
This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.
The student movement for Palestine is once again in the news following reports that ICE detained Mahmoud Khalil, a leader of pro-Palestine organizing at Columbia University. The Trump administration appears to be delivering on its promise to go after foreign students who participate in the movement for Palestine. Trump has already passed several executive orders as part of this McCarthyist attack on universities.
The outrage against Khalil’s detention is clear. In just over a day, a petition calling for Khalil’s release has been sent over 2.3 million times.
The post How Pro-Palestine Student Activists Are Fighting Increasing Repression appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.
This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.
The Yemeni Armed Forces (YAF) has reimposed a naval blockade on Israeli-linked ships in the Red Sea, Arab Sea, Bab al-Mandab Strait, and the Gulf of Aden.
In a statement released late on 11 March, the YAF said the move comes “after the expiry of the specified period of the deadline issued by Sayyid Abdul Malik Badr al-Din al-Houthi, may God protect him, to the mediators to push and pressure the Israeli enemy to reopen the crossings and bring aid into the Gaza Strip.”
“In view of the inability of the mediators to achieve this, the [YAF] confirms” the resumption of “the ban on the passage of all Israeli ships in the designated operational area of the Red and Arabian Seas, as well as Bab al-Mandab and the Gulf of Aden,” the Yemeni army statement said.
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This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.
New arms export licensing data shows that the Labour Party approved £10.9m in arms exports to Israel in its first three months in office. Data from July to September 2024 show a large increase in arms exports compared to the first half of the year.
While the £10.9m figure only includes individual licences, the data also shows that Labour approved an open license for “components for combat aircraft”. Open licenses are not shown in the financial figure as once granted, companies can export unlimited amounts of specified military equipment. While there is currently no information available on which licenses Labour suspended in September, this license appears completely incompatible with its supposed commitment not to supply military equipment that could be used in Gaza.
The biggest single issue license awarded, worth £7.2m, was for “technology for submarines”, with a footnote stating that it was for “marketing and promotional purposes, including demonstration to potential customers, temporary exhibitions”.
In total, Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) estimates that the UK has approved and/or delivered at least £100m in military equipment to Israel since October 7th 2023. This figure includes single and open licenses and is conservatively estimated from a combination of publicly available sources due to the lack of data published on open licenses.
Globally, £2.9bn worth of arms exports were licensed between July and September 2024. Despite having committed horrific war crimes in Yemen and committing appalling human rights abuses at home, Saudi Arabia was the biggest recipient of UK arms exports with £1.65bn of licenses issued. This included £800m in air-to-surface missiles, £741m in components for bombs, and £100m in surface-to-air missiles.
Licenses were also issued to other human rights abusing states including £23m to Egypt, £15.7m to Turkey and £8.6m to Bahrain. The US was the third biggest recipient for UK arms with licenses worth £253m.
CAAT’s media coordinator, Emily Apple, said:
It appears that a Labour government has made zero difference to arms dealers profiting from war crimes and human rights abuses. Despite the government’s admission that Israel is not committed to upholding international humanitarian law, it has authorised millions of pounds of military equipment to Israel, directly supporting its genocide against Palestinian people and supporting Israel’s domestic arms industry.
These figures show that this government is deeply complicit in genocide and human rights abuses. Labour promised change – but it is business as usual for arms dealers.
If our government refuses to act, it is down to all of us to take action against this vile trade and ensure that both politicians and the arms companies are held accountable and face the consequences of their actions.
Featured image via the Canary
By The Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.
Israel has killed an average of three Palestinians per day in Gaza since the beginning of the ceasefire deal in January, a rights group reports, denouncing Israel’s “genocidal tools” of violence and deprivation. Since January 19, the Israeli military has killed at least 150 Palestininans and injured over 600 others, according to a report published Wednesday by Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor.
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
This story originally appeared in Truthout on Mar. 11, 2025. It is shared here with permission.
A group of over a dozen lawmakers is demanding the “immediate” release of Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil after his likely illegal arrest and threat of deportation by the Trump administration this week.
The House members, led by Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan), raised alarm about the threat to free speech raised by Khalil’s detention, saying that his arrest violates immigration laws and effectively criminalizes protest.
“Mahmoud Khalil must be freed from DHS custody immediately. He is a political prisoner, wrongfully and unlawfully detained, who deserves to be at home in New York preparing for the birth of his first child,” the lawmakers wrote. “Universities throughout the country must protect their students from this vile assault on free thought and expression, and [the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)] must immediately refrain from any further illegal arrests targeting constitutionally protected speech and activity.”
The arrest violated Khalil’s constitutional rights to freedom of speech and due process, the lawmakers said.
The letter was signed by 14 Democrats in the House: Representatives André Carson (Indiana) Jasmine Crockett (Texas), Al Green (Texas), Summer Lee (Pennsylvania), Jim McGovern (Massachusetts), Gwen Moore (Wisconsin), Ilhan Omar (Minnesota), Mark Pocan (Wisconsin), Ayanna Pressley (Massachusetts), Lateefah Simon (California), Delia Ramirez (Illinois), Nydia Velázquez (New York) and Nikema Williams (Georgia).
The case has been met with silence by other Democratic leaders like Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who represents the state where the arrest happened and is a fervent Zionist. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, also from New York, has also refused to denounce the arrest.
On Saturday night, DHS officers detained Khalil at his home in Columbia University student housing, citing his role in organizing pro-Palestine protests at the university last year. The Trump administration has threatened to revoke Khalil’s green card and deport him for his activism — which experts say is illegal and a major overstep of the administration’s power.
Federal agents seemingly covertly transported Khalil, who is Palestinian, to a private jail in Louisiana without telling his wife, who is eight months pregnant. On Monday night, a federal judge temporarily blocked the planned deportation of the activist, pending more legal action.
“Khalil has not been charged or convicted of any crime,” the lawmakers said. “As the Trump administration proudly admits, he was targeted solely for his activism and organizing as a student leader and negotiator for the Gaza Solidarity Encampment on Columbia University campus, protesting the Israeli government’s brutal assault on the Palestinian people in Gaza and his university’s complicity in this oppression.”
“We must be extremely clear: this is an attempt to criminalize political protest and is a direct assault on the freedom of speech of everyone in this country,” they went on. “Khalil’s arrest is an act of anti-Palestinian racism intended to silence the Palestine solidarity movement in this country, but this lawless abuse of power and political repression is a threat to all Americans.”
Khalil’s detention has been widely denounced by advocates for Palestinian rights and civil society organizations.
“This arrest is unprecedented, illegal, and un-American. The federal government is claiming the authority to deport people with deep ties to the U.S. and revoke their green cards for advocating positions that the government opposes,” said Ben Wizner, who heads the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project. “To be clear: The First Amendment protects everyone in the U.S. The government’s actions are obviously intended to intimidate and chill speech on one side of a public debate.”
This post was originally published on The Real News Network.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has invoked an obscure immigration provision enacted during the J. Edgar Hoover-era Red Scare to target pro-Palestine protesters, reports say as advocates for Palestinian rights warn that the crackdown on protests against Israel’s genocide is just the beginning of a wider suppression of free speech rights. The State Department is using a provision established in…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
Britain’s political and material support for Israel during its genocide in Gaza has bolstered the apartheid state’s fascist rulers. And while most of us expect would expect no common courtesy from such war criminals, veteran Israel–appeaser Emily Thornberry seems surprisingly upset about an Israeli minister trolling her. She’d now like her Labour government to look into this, but the party isn’t about to start rocking the war-boat its pro–Israel donors helped to build.
The fact is that fascists don’t care about feelings or procedure. And we can see that in how, despite Britain’s unflinching support for Israel’s genocidal war criminals, Israeli deputy foreign minister Sharren Haskel just trolled Thornberry. Putting to one side the question of why British politicians keep visiting a government whose leader is a wanted war criminal, let’s focus on why Haskel thought it would be good to secretly record and try to embarrass Thornberry despite her consistently supportive stance towards Israel.
Haskel asked Emily Thornberry about British engagement with occupied Palestinians and the potential that Hamas would win elections if they took place. She then suggested this was why Israel wouldn’t agree “to a two-state solution”, echoing war criminal prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s regular rejections of anything relating to Palestinian statehood.
Even if you look beyond the propaganda, Hamas certainly has its issues. But it’s simply part of Palestinian politics today, and even British diplomats recognise the need to talk to the group. So the Israeli government’s longstanding use of a ‘…but Hamas…’ excuse is just a convenient tool to argue for what it actually wants – a continuation of its lucrative apartheid system and illegal occupation of Palestinian land, and the prevention of a Palestinian state.
As Israeli journalist Dimi Reider suggested in 2021, there was no “compelling reason for Israelis to entertain a departure from the status quo” because Israel seemed “more secure, more stable, and more prosperous than at any point in its history”. And the intense frustration stemming from the failure to progress with a lasting peace plan paved the way for Hamas’s 2023 attack and Israel’s subsequent genocide in Gaza.
The idea of a two-state solution for Palestine and Israel is popular mostly among “liberal Zionists and foreign diplomats”, Reider said. But the idea is “obsolete” and “dead”. For many commentators, that’s been clear for almost two decades, partly due to the growth of illegal Israeli settlements but also due to the US-led peace process clearly favouring Israeli domination and Palestinian subjugation, and even more so when Donald Trump took office in 2017. Since 2023, the voices saying goodbye to the two-state option have only multiplied.
Outside government circles, observers now believe a one-state solution is the only path to peace. There would be a number of ways to organise this. However, Palestinians have suffered many decades of colonial brutality, and Israel has long developed a culture of demonising and dehumanising Palestinians. This situation means many on both sides would struggle to come to terms with a new, democratic arrangement. It can happen though. Because for all the flaws of South Africa’s current system, it is a real-world example of how to overcome a legacy of colonial apartheid – however slow that process may be.
In late 2024, Emily Thornberry herself said in a discussion about Israel:
You can either have a democratic state or you can have a Jewish state.
Although she later backtracked, those words expressed the issue very well. Because Israel is currently an ethnonationalist state for which brutal oppression of Palestinians is a necessity. It simply cannot call itself democratic as long as that reality remains.
Jeff Halper of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions summarised this in even more explicit terms. The choice, he stressed in October 2023, is between “apartheid/genocide in an ethnically pure Jewish state built on the ruins of Palestine” or:
one democratic state of equal citizens accompanied by a l-o-n-g, painful but necessary process of restoring Palestinian rights, acknowledging the crimes and injustices committed by us Israeli Jews and reparations.
Featured image via screengrab
By Ed Sykes
This post was originally published on Canary.
12 Holocaust survivors/descendants have signed a joint letter protesting against Met Police plans to prevent this Saturday 15 March’s Palestine march from gathering in Park Lane.
As descendants of survivors of the Jewish genocide, the 12 say they are “in despair” at the UK government’s complicity in Israel’s ongoing Palestinian genocide. Naturally, the government and other supporters of Israeli crimes want to discredit and suppress any protests against this genocide.
Having run out of other arguments, they can only resort to claims that the demonstrations are somehow antisemitic.
As descendants of survivors, the 12 say they take antisemitism extremely seriously. Consequently they “would always make sure” of their “facts before accusing anyone of antisemitism”. Unfortunately, many supporters of Israel are rarely so careful and they routinely accuse anyone who criticises Israel of antisemitism without any evidence.
So, with zero evidence the Met Police has once again disrupted the Palestine march. As the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) wrote:
As we stated last week, we first contacted the police three weeks ago to inform them of our intention to march and our proposed route. Since then, the police have been threatening to impose conditions on the march but refusing until now to tell us what those conditions might be. Had we announced an assembly point in these circumstances, it could have placed protestors in danger of arrest by a police force engaged in increasing repression.
The police have now agreed to our route but have said that they will impose conditions to prevent us from assembling on Park Lane as originally planned. They have also stated that this decision was made following consultation with pro-Israel groups, who again raised concerns about synagogues which were not on the route of the march and more than 12 minutes away from the point of assembly. We will continue to fight these restrictions through every means available, it is clear that supporters of Israeli apartheid are aiming to prevent any marches for Palestine at all.
The march will go ahead, but instead it will assemble at 12 noon on Piccadilly (Green Park) to march to Whitehall.
“The Met Police have banned the 15 March Palestine protest from assembling in Park Lane. Their excuse is that Jewish attendees at a synagogue that is well away from the march route will suffer disruption of their religious worship.
“We are writing as descendants of Jewish Holocaust survivors to protest against this clear attempt to dissuade people from opposing the Gaza genocide. Along with thousands of other openly Jewish protesters, we have attended numerous Palestine demos in London and have received nothing but support and warmth from our fellow demonstrators. To suggest that the 15 March protest is a threat to Jews, or is in any way antisemitic, is simply a fabrication in order to restrict everyone’s right to protest.
“Yours Sincerely,
Agnes Kory (survivor of the Holocaust in Hungary)
Haim Bresheeth (son of two survivors of Auschwitz)
Anne Karpf (daughter of a survivor of Auschwitz)
Mark Etkind (son of a survivor of the Lodz ghetto and Buchenwald)
Peter Kapos (son of a survivor of the Holocaust in Hungary)
Yosefa Loshitzky (daughter of survivors of the Holocaust in Poland)
Carolyn Gelenter (daughter of a survivor of the Holocaust in Poland)
Charlotte Monro (daughter of a survivor of the Holocaust in Czechoslovakia)
Miranda Pinch (daughter of a survivor of the Holocaust in Czechoslovakia)
Peter Hall (son of a survivor of the Holocaust in Austria)
Chris Romberg (son of a survivor of the Holocaust in Austria)
Beatrice Hoffman (daughter of a survivor of the Holocaust in Austria)”
Featured image via the Canary
By The Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.
Once again, Palestine Action has shown that direct action against the companies propping up Israel’s genocide against Gaza is the most effective method of resistance in the UK. This is because two insurance giants which the group has targeted are now so shook, they’re both looking to take legal action to stop the protests.
First, global insurance giant Allianz has come under fire for its response to multiple daring demonstrations by Palestine Action. Instead of addressing concerns over its investments and business dealings, Allianz has chosen to pursue legal action against activists who occupied its London offices in protest.
On 4 March 2024, Palestine Action campaigners scaled and occupied Allianz’s UK headquarters at 22 Bishopsgate, demanding the corporation sever ties with Israel’s war economy. The activists targeted Allianz due to its investment in Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest arms manufacturer, which supplies weapons used by Israel to kill Palestinians.
However, rather than engaging with these serious allegations, Allianz swiftly moved to criminalize those exposing its complicity.
Palestine Action has repeatedly called out Allianz for its role in bankrolling companies that profit from war crimes in Gaza and the occupied territories. The demonstrators’ occupation was a direct challenge to Allianz’s participation in funding violence, seeking to disrupt business-as-usual for a corporation that remains unmoved by the suffering of Palestinian civilians.
In a revealing move, Allianz wasted no time in filing for an injunction, showing that its priority lies in protecting corporate interests rather than addressing legitimate human rights concerns. By seeking legal action, Allianz attempts to silence dissent rather than confront its own moral and ethical obligations.
Then, as if by magic, Aviva followed suit.
From 7am on Tuesday 11 March, Palestine Action began occupying the entrance of Aviva’s Manchester office at The Observatory, Chapel Walks, M2 1HN. Activists climbed on top of the revolving doors, stuck Palestine flags on the wall and a banner to the front which reads “Aviva Palestina”.
Aviva provides the mandatory employers liability insurance for UAV Engines in Staffordshire, a drone engine factory owned by Israel’s biggest weapons manufacturer, Elbit Systems.
Palestine Action has already targeted Aviva twice this year alone at its offices in Bristol and Scotland, and have continuously taken direct action against insurance companies with ties to Elbit systems, including actions at dozens of Allianz locations across Europe since October 2024.
Latest intel shows that whilst Aviva no longer holds direct shares in Elbit Systems, however Aviva continues to hold investments in other funds which hold Elbit shares. All this shows the insurer’s moral and financial backing of a state engaged in brutal oppression, illegal settlement expansion, and military assaults on Palestinian civilians.
Yet, like Allianz, rather than confronting the ethical concerns raised by activists, Aviva has chosen to align itself with corporate interests that profit from human rights violations. The injunction seeks to prevent Palestine Action from carrying out further protests against Aviva, a move widely seen as an attempt to silence dissent and shield the company from scrutiny.
Palestine Action has vowed to continue escalating its campaign until Allianz, Aviva, and other financial backers of Israel’s military industry divest from war profiteering. The group has gained widespread support for its fearless direct actions, exposing corporate complicity in oppression and holding businesses accountable.
A spokesperson for Palestine Action said:
As all companies who work with Elbit should know by now, Palestine Action’s direct action campaign against them will not cease until their links with the Israeli weapons trade does. Allianz and Aviva must drop Elbit.
Allianz and Aviva’s aggressive legal stances only underscores the validity of Palestine Action’s campaign.
Instead of transparency and ethical responsibility, these companies have chosen to crack down on righteous resistance while remaining complicit in funding weapons used by Israel to kill Palestinian civilians and commit war crimes.
As public scrutiny grows, the insurance giant may find that silencing activists will not make the truth disappear.
Featured image via the Canary
By Steve Topple
This post was originally published on Canary.
Committing genocide isn’t just about killing. It’s about ensuring you can get away with as much of it as possible before anyone does something to stop it. And that’s where the British mainstream media has played a key role in facilitating Israel and its mass murder of Palestinians in Gaza.
The latest example of the media’s participation in Israel’s genocide comes in the form of its coverage of Israel cutting power to Gaza.
Human Rights Watch, Israeli human rights group Gisha, and British charity Medical Aid for Palestinians have clearly stated that Israel’s decision starve occupied Gaza of electricity is a war crime. Amnesty International, meanwhile, has said it “is further evidence of Israel’s genocide against Palestinians”.
However, you wouldn’t know Israel was committing a war crime if you relied on the mainstream media. Because if you search for the words “war crime”, Gaza, and electricity together on a search engine, it’s slim pickings. And that’s despite even prime minister Keir Starmer’s spokesperson timidly admitting Israel’s action “risks breaching Israel’s obligations under international humanitarian law”.
That’s a careful, diplomatic way to say that Israel is committing the war crime of collective punishment. Starmer has denied the genocide in Gaza, and he provoked a backlash previously by suggesting Israel had the right to collectively punish Palestinians – all of which makes his spokesperson’s comment even more surprising.
Towards the end of a BBC article, it says “Israel has faced criticism over cutting off supplies to Gaza”, adding a UN quote saying it “may amount to collective punishment”. But as the BBC well knows, few readers will get that far. It is, after all, a master at hiding key information from the public when it comes to Israel’s crimes in occupied Palestine.
Noam Chomsky and Edward S Herman’s Manufacturing Consent outlines how five key filters shape the stories that mainstream media outlets deliver to the public. One of the filters is the ‘flack‘ you get if you “stray away from the consensus”. Chomsky has also highlighted the way powerful elites seek to “strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum”.
So first, mainstream media outlets actually limit what gets out there. Then, if someone does manage to get through the system with the truth, they face ‘flack’ – ridicule, attacks, and so on. And that’s what happened to Briahna Joy Gray when she braved a hostile environment on Piers Morgan’s show this week to say:
Israel has repeatedly bombed the power infrastructure long before October 7th, over the last decades, to prevent Gaza from being able to be independent in its power, exactly so it can use collective punishment, which isn’t just immoral as you put it Piers, but is in fact a war crime.
Big up, @briebriejoy. She was spitting facts. pic.twitter.com/Qvr8RBKvBy
— Mukhtar (@I_amMukhtar) March 10, 2025
Gray’s privileged white opponents on the show ganged up on her, and the show selectively edited her participations in the intro while taking her out of the thumbnail. But importantly, she got the point above across (among others).
That’s an important lesson. Because while it’s a tough, uphill struggle to get the truth out, it can happen. But we all need to work hard to make it happen.
Featured image via the Canary
By Ed Sykes
This post was originally published on Canary.
Christian Nationalists who form the bedrock of support for Donald Trump — 80 percent voted for Trump in the last election according to a voter survey by the Associated Press — have mounted a concerted campaign calling on the White House to back Israel’s annexation of the West Bank and Gaza.
This campaign includes visits to Israel by prominent leaders, including Ralph Reed, Tony Perkins and Mario Bramnick, petitioning the White House, lobbying Congress and calls for annexation at Christian conferences, including a resolution of support for Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank adopted at the most recent Conservative Political Action Conference.
The post Trump’s Christian Fascists And The War On Palestine appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.
This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.
International law is fighting for relevance. The outcome of this fight is likely to change the entire global political dynamic, which was shaped by World War II and sustained through the selective interpretation of the law by dominant countries.
In principle, international law should have always been relevant, if not paramount, in governing the relationships among all countries, large and small, to resolve conflicts before they turn into outright wars. It should also have worked to prevent a return to an era of exploitation that allowed Western colonialism to practically enslave the Global South for hundreds of years.
The post International Law’s Fight For Relevance appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.
This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.
We are international students who have organized in solidarity with the Palestine liberation struggle over the past 16 months. We write anonymously because the moment demands, strategically, that we do so. However, we will not be silenced. You may censure and suspend us, you may send ICE to knock down our doors, you may deport us back to our home countries, but we are only one drop in a vast ocean, and the tide of support for Palestine is rising everywhere.
Israel’s ongoing genocide has shaken the outrage of the free people of the world. While the so-called international community appears largely content to censure the zionist state and continue with business as usual, we cannot unsee images of nineteen year old student Shaban Ahmed Al-Dalou burning to death in his tent attached to an IV drip after Israeli forces bombed families sheltering in Deir al-Balah.
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This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.