In Gaza, high school — known as Tawjihi — is highly valued as a gateway to a bright future. It marks a transitional phase from school to university and the labor market, so we strongly believe that it is the most powerful means of transforming our lives for the better, even in the face of Israel’s ongoing siege and Gaza’s limited resources. At this level, students dedicate themselves entirely…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
Activists in London and Cyprus are holding simultaneous protests on Sunday 9 March to demand an end to Britain’s involvement in Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the illegal occupation of Palestine.
The protests will highlight Britain’s direct participation in the genocide of the Palestinian people through its colonial Royal Air Force (RAF) bases in Cyprus, particularly RAF Akrotiri, where surveillance flights are being conducted and weapons and soldiers are being transported in support of Israel’s actions.
The decisions to provide arms and intelligence to Israel are made by the UK Ministry of Defence in London and carried out at RAF Akrotiri, a key military installation in Cyprus. Organizers are calling attention to the fact that these actions are being taken against the will of the people in both the UK and Cyprus, and are contributing to the ongoing terror in Gaza.
“If Palestine has taught us anything, it’s that true liberation comes through unity and resilience in the face of struggle. That’s why people in Cyprus and Britain are rising together against the remnants of colonialism, standing strong against the presence of the British bases in Cyprus. Our struggle is not isolated; it is part of a shared fight against imperialism and oppression everywhere” explained a spokesperson for Genocide-Free Cyprus.
Protest Details:
London Protest
Date & Time: 9 March 2025 | 1:30-3:30pm
Location: Ministry of Defence, Whitehall, London SW1A2HB, United Kingdom
Cyprus Protest
Date & Time: 9 March 2025 | 3:30-5:30pm
Location: RAF Akrotiri, Akrotiri Airfield, Limassol, Cyprus
Protesters will gather with banners and placards to demand that British military installations, including RAF Akrotiri, cease their involvement in supporting Israel’s military operations. The rallying cry of the protest will be: #BASESOFFCYPRUS, calling for an immediate end to the use of Cyprus-based RAF facilities in the conflict.
“We are here to demand that the UK stop facilitating the genocide against the Palestinian people,” said one of the protest organizers. “The British government’s complicity, through military support and intelligence sharing, must end. We will not stand by as the UK enables the oppression of the Palestinian people.”
The protests are being organized by local and international groups advocating for Palestinian rights and calling for accountability from the British government.
Featured image supplied
By The Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.
The proportion of Americans who back Israel is at the lowest level on record, with support for Israel cratering amid its genocide in Gaza, Gallup has found in new polling. The results, released Thursday, show that only 46 percent of Americans now say that they sympathize more with Israelis than Palestinians — an 8-point drop since the same question was polled in March of 2023…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
Minneapolis, MN — On Saturday, March 1, more than 60 Twin Cities community members gathered to attend a “State Board of Divestment” speak-out event hosted by the Minnesota Anti-War Committee in a Minneapolis community center.
Minnesota’s State Board of Investment (SBI), a large public fund managed by state officials Governor Tim Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison, State Auditor Julie Blaha, and Secretary of State Steve Simon. It currently invests approximately $5.4 billion in apartheid Israel, Israeli companies, weapons manufacturers that sell to Israel’s military, and other companies that prop up Israel’s apartheid system.
The post Minnesota Movement For Divestment From Israel Resists Repression appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.
This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.
The Israeli military completely wiped out at least 1,200 Palestinian families in Gaza in its genocide, a new analysis finds, shedding more light on the staggering and permanent toll of Israel’s extermination campaign. A Reuters analysis of data from the Gaza Health Ministry found that at least 1,238 families — defined as married couples and any children they may have — were totally erased…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
On Tuesdays voters across the state of Vermont passed a number of non-binding resolutions declaring their towns and cities “apartheid-free communities.” The effort, organized by the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), passed in Brattleboro, Winooski, Newfane, Plainfield, and Thetford. The question appeared on nine ballots on Town Meeting Day. Vermont is the first state in the country…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
The documentary No Other Land won an Oscar, but the conditions it depicts in the West Bank are only getting worse.
This post was originally published on Dissent Magazine.
President Donald Trump has issued yet another genocidal threat against Palestinians in Gaza, this time threatening collective punishment of the population over Hamas’s holding of captives in Gaza — even as Israeli leaders sabotage talks for further captive swaps, delaying their release. In a post on Truth Social, Trump said that his administration is providing Israel with all of the weapons…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
Abdullah al-Yazuri, the 15 year old Palestinian child who narrated the now-pulled BBC documentary Gaza: How to Survive a War Zone, has spoken on it. In an exclusive interview, he told Middle East Eye:
My message to the BBC: anything happens to me, the BBC is responsible for it.
The decision to pull the documentary about the lives of four Palestinian children has been met with sharp criticism. The International Centre for of Justice for Palestinians has lodged a complaint with the BBC. As the Canary reported:
The complaint outlines how the suppression of the testimony of Palestinians may constitute a failure by the BBC to uphold impartiality in ensuring that a range of perspectives are given weight and prominence.
Discounting the legitimate testimony of the 13-year-old child narrator Abdullah Al-Yazouri, based upon retroactively applied standards of familial or associational scrutiny, may breach the BBC and Ofcom requirements that contributors be treated fairly, while the lack of transparency regarding the ongoing review raises concerns.
Now, Abdullah’s comments are a damning indictment on what should be an embarrassing incident for the BBC.
While details remain murky, the original reason given for pulling the documentary was that Abdullah’s father worked as Hamas’ minister of agriculture. The BBC referred to it’s oft-mentioned values of impartiality, and scrabbled to apologise. Now, however, Abdullah has explained:
I played two roles in the documentary. I was a character at first. Then I was the narrator of the documentary talking about the stories of other characters in the documentary. The director of the movie had guided me to the lines that I had spoken, and no, my parents weren’t involved in any of the lines that I had spoke as a narrator.
And, Middle East Eye noted that:
Yazuri has been widely labelled a “Hamas chief”, “Hamas official” and “terror chief” by commentators and news organisations in Britain.
But MEE revealed on 20 February that Yazuri was in fact a technocrat with a scientific rather than political background and had previously worked for the UAE’s education ministry and studied at British universities.
Importantly:
Ministers, bureaucrats and civil servants in Gaza are appointed by Hamas, while in the West Bank they are appointed by the Palestinian Liberation Organisation.
Whether the BBC likes it or not, Hamas is a local government responsible for administration and governance. Even by their warped standards, Abdullah’s father is a fry cry from being some kind of “terror chief.” What was he supposed to do? Ignore his expertise, and refuse to help his community? And, Abdullah? Is his narration of what life is like for children in Gaza inadmissible for public viewing because of who his father is?
And, for that matter, can the BBC say that they haven’t breached impartiality standards with the Israeli military? In April 2024, they joined a group of “international journalists” for a tour led by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF). That’s the same IDF who face serious accusations of war crimes, including what Amnesty International described as a “shocking disregard” for civilian lives. The same IDF who have widespread allegations of torture against Palestinians, including depraved sexual violence. The same IDF who are accused by the UN of “relentless and deliberate attacks on medical personnel and facilities.”
Imagine the outcry if the BBC was part of a group of journalists taking a tour led by Hamas. The fact that the BBC are wringing their hands over impartiality whilst continually platforming and working alongside the Israeli military as a legitimate source of information is disgusting.
So much so, Abdullah revealed that after spending almost a year working on the documentary, the BBC didn’t even bother to let him know they were cancelling it:
I personally think it’s pretty disappointing, to be honest. I worked for over nine months on this documentary, only for it to be wiped and deleted. I found out about the decision to remove the documentary from the news that were revolving around the movie.
No, I did not receive any apology from the BBC.
Abdullah also detailed the mental anguish he and his family have been subjected to:
Hopefully it doesn’t really affect my future, but it was pretty disappointing and sad to see this backlash against me and my family, as well as the harassment we faced.
British-Israeli historian Avi Shlaim spoke to Middle East Eye about the cancellation of the documentary and said:
The BBC has good reporters on Israel-Palestine but its bosses are hopelessly compromised by their pronounced and persistent bias in favour of Israel.
The reason for this bias is not lack of knowledge but cowardice, the fear of antagonising Israel and Israel’s friends in high places in Britain.
Abdullah wasn’t paid for his nine-months long work, aside for expenses deposited into his sister’s account. Even so, BBC bosses are so committed to anti-Palestinian and pro-Israeli propaganda that they’d rather risk erasing a young boy’s retelling of his own experiences as a child trying to survive a genocide than confront Israel’s actions. As Shlaim argues, the BBC know full well what they’re doing – and it’s the cowardice that shines through.
Featured image via the Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.
The BBC isn’t the only media outlet in the limelight at the moment over its coverage of Israel‘s genocide in Gaza. Because Channel 4 has also come under attack from campaigners who want to censor reporting that holds the journalist-murdering apartheid state to account for its war crimes.
The BBC has faced a landslide of criticism for pulling a documentary under pressure from pro-Israel agitators, primarily as a result of its narration by 13-year-old Abdullah al-Yazuri, whose father is “a deputy minister of agriculture in Gaza’s government”.
But now, just as Channel 4 has broadcast a powerful account of Israel’s ethnic cleansing in Palestine through the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land, it too has faced the same charge. The UK establishment media has piled onto Channel 4, which also featured al-Yazuri in some of its coverage. Channel 4 News has insisted that it has reviewed and deleted some of this, but that its “award-winning coverage, including the International Emmy, RTS, Bafta, British Journalism Awards, or Broadcast Awards” does not feature the teenager.
Israeli occupiers spent many years turning Gaza into “the world’s largest open-air prison”. It is a place with a highly concentrated population which Israel has isolated from the outside world via a brutal blockade. In the context, it’s reasonable to assume that there are many people whose family members work in some way in or with the occupied territory’s government. Highlighting this is as relevant as highlighting that most Israelis serve in the Israeli occupation forces (IDF).
By Ed Sykes
This post was originally published on Canary.
“Resistance to Trump is unifying us,” political economist and Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) activist Shir Hever recently told Truthout. “And because BDS is global and intersectional, the potential for a large tent campaign has never been better or stronger than it is now.” For more than two decades, Hever’s scholarly interests and professional and political commitments have been bound…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
Former BBC journalist Karishma Patel has called the broadcaster out for refusing to reach “reasonable, evidence-based conclusions” over Israel’s genocide in Gaza. As a result, she suggested, it has become “a vehicle in informational warfare”. And that’s why she resigned in 2024.
The BBC‘s highly controversial decision to pull the recent documentary Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone, Patel said, was “a distraction from a much bigger problem my old employer has with impartiality”.
Her opposition to this call saw her join over a thousand UK-based media professionals in condemning the public broadcaster’s “politically motivated censorship”, which they described as “racist” and “dehumanising”.
They added that, by caving to nefarious pressure on behalf of the war-criminal Israeli government, the BBC was “erasing Palestinian suffering” and “suppressing narratives that humanise Palestinians”.
As Middle East Eye (MEE) described:
four days after the documentary aired on 17 February, the BBC pulled it from its streaming platform, iPlayer, after an intense campaign by pro-Israel groups and rival British media outlets.
While “there has been no evidence of Hamas influence on the film’s content”, the agitators jumped on the lack of transparency over 13-year-old narrator Abdullah al-Yazuri‘s father’s role as “a deputy minister of agriculture in Gaza’s government”.
The BBC reportedly hasn’t apologised to al-Yazuri, who has since become the target of online abuse and harassment. And if “anything happens” to him, at a time when Israeli war criminals have killed journalists with impunity, he has stressed that “the BBC is responsible for it”.
As Patel highlighted, the BBC disgracefully chose censorship despite having:
the option of keeping the version with a line of context on this, ultimately standing by the truth at the heart of the film: that Israel is harming Palestinian children.
And this fit in neatly with what she had discovered during her years at the BBC. Because while she had covered numerous topics, she stressed that:
it was in covering Gaza that I saw a shocking level of editorial inconsistency.
Journalists, Patel insisted, should reach “reasonable, evidence-based conclusions” via deep research “rather than setting up constant debates”. However, at the BBC, people:
were actively choosing not to follow evidence – out of fear. For months, I watched the BBC repeat one of its gravest editorial errors around climate change: debating a phenomenon long after the evidence showed it’s real.
She added:
Impartiality has failed if its key method is to constantly balance “both sides” of a story as equally true. A news outlet that refuses to come to conclusions becomes a vehicle in informational warfare
She also asserted that:
We have passed the point at which Israel’s war crimes and crimes against humanity are debatable. There’s more than enough evidence – from Palestinians on the ground, aid organisations; legal bodies – to come to coverage-shaping conclusions around what Israel has done.
And comparing the situation to the BBC‘s 2018 decision to finally issue editorial guidance that “Climate change IS happening”, she asked:
When will the BBC conclude that Israel IS violating international law, and shape its coverage around that truth?
By hiding or omitting key context and toeing the line linguistically, the BBC has consistently failed to inform the public properly about Israel’s crimes in Gaza and the British government’s support for them. And as British-Israeli historian Avi Shlaim told MEE, the censorship of Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone is:
only the latest example of the public broadcaster’s regular capitulation to pressure from the pro-Israel lobby
Despite “good reporters” existing at the BBC, he said:
its bosses are hopelessly compromised by their pronounced and persistent bias in favour of Israel.
They fear Israel and its high-profile supporters, he stressed.
This, and the lack of political power and influence of Palestinians who have suffered decades of settler-colonial oppression, means there is a clear difference between how much scrutiny Israeli sources face in comparison to Palestinian sources.
https://x.com/mrsDugskullery/status/1896982517934383539
Journalist Sangita Myska has insisted that the “over-scrutiny of some Palestinian sources vs under-scrutiny of some Israeli ones” has severely damaged “public trust” in the corporation. And Richard Sanders, director of the powerful and comprehensive Al Jazeera documentary Investigating war crimes in Gaza, has asserted that:
a media environment where the victims of genocide, ethnic cleansing and apartheid are subjected constantly to the most intense scrutiny, while their tormentors and those who support them are all too often allowed a free pass is a distorted and frankly racist one.
Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone, he argued, is “by far the best thing the BBC has produced on Gaza”.
If you agree that the BBC should reinstate the documentary, you can support this petition, which currently has over 22,000 signatories. Also, you can see and share the documentary online thanks to people who managed to upload it.
https://twitter.com/GozukaraFurkan/status/1896327710277800159
Featured image via the Canary
By Ed Sykes
This post was originally published on Canary.
Israeli forces abducted a 14-year-old boy from the occupied West Bank last month and are imprisoning him without charges, making him the youngest Palestinian child on record to be placed under an Israeli administrative detention order, a rights group says. Defense for Children International-Palestine (DCIP) reports that Israeli forces seized Muin Ghassan Fahed Salahat from his home in the…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
An Arab summit convened in Cairo on 4 March adopted an Egyptian plan for the reconstruction of Gaza in a bid to counter US President Donald Trump’s proposal to forcibly expel Palestinians from the strip while turning it into a “Middle East Riviera” for Israel’s Jewish settlers.
The final statement from the summit called for finding a realistic alternative to the displacement of the Palestinian people and, before that, the categorical rejection of their displacement from their land or within it.
It also condemned the “starvation and scorched earth policies” pursued by Israel to forcibly displace Palestinians and stressed the importance of implementing the second and third stages of the Gaza ceasefire agreement, which call for a complete Israeli withdrawal from the strip.
The post Arab Leaders Endorse Egypt’s $53bn Plan For Gaza Reconstruction appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.
This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.
The UN’s food agency has warned that it will run out of supplies to help feed Palestinians in Gaza in just two weeks if Israel continues its total blockade of food and other necessities, putting the lives of millions of Palestinians at risk. The World Food Programme has said that it only has enough supplies to keep its kitchens and bakeries in Gaza open for the next couple of weeks…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
Trump’s speech to a joint session of Congress discussed the Middle East without any mention of Palestinians. This comes as Trump has called for ethnic cleansing of Gaza and posted an AI-generated video depicting Gaza as a resort town with a golden statue of Trump. Congressmember Bonnie Watson Coleman attended the speech with her guest Dr. Adam Hamawy, an Army veteran and reconstructive surgeon who…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
In another flagrant violation of the ceasefire agreement, Israel has blocked all entry of food and other life-sustaining goods. Israel has a history of repeatedly terrorising Palestinians during the holy month of Ramadan. This latest abject choice is the latest in Israel’s genocide.
The United Nation’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported:
Israeli authorities announced a halt to humanitarian aid entering Gaza, jeopardizing progress made in delivering vital, lifesaving assistance since the ceasefire took effect.
OCHA found only a “slight” improvement in “dietary diversity” in the Gaza Strip following the beginning of the ceasefire agreement. They also found that in the Gaza Strip:
over 3,000 children and 1,000 pregnant or breastfeeding women have been referred for acute malnutrition treatment.
Israel’s decision to stop aid coming into Palestine is nothing less than catastrophic.
Tom Fletcher, a UN official responsible for emergency relief coordination said:
Israel’s decision to halt aid into Gaza is alarming. International humanitarian law is clear: We must be allowed access to deliver vital lifesaving aid.
With the large-scale destruction of homes, many Palestinians are reliant on community kitchens, who are in turn supplied via food aid. OCHA explained:
According to the Food Security Sector (FSS), if the disruption to aid entry continues, at least 80 community kitchens may soon run out of stock. Among the kitchens that remain operational, some will need to start to adjust meal content or reduce the number of meals prepared to cope with anticipated shortages. Additionally, FSS partners would be forced to reduce food rations.
The already fragile situation is on the verge of complete collapse:
While the distribution of previously dispatched food parcels is ongoing, these remaining supplies, which will support 500,000 people, will soon run out.
The immediate need for much more food aid is clear. However, OCHA explained that by refusing to allow in any kind of aid whatsoever, Israel is further compromising the capacity of Palestinians to recover any kind of food infrastructure:
By providing the necessary resources to small-scale farmers, livestock herders and other agri-food actors, FSS partners aim to enhance access to a diverse and highly nutritious diet, including fresh milk, meat and vegetables.
This means animal feed, seed kits, fertilisers, and other tools necessary for food growth are also not allowed in.
Israel is deliberately starving Palestinians. They are also ensuring that whatever small capacity Palestinians may gain to be able to sustain themselves is also eradicated. The decision to stop all aid entering Palestine is yet another genocidal decision from Israel.
Oxfam had sharp criticism for Israel:
Israel’s decision, to block aid to over two million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, as Ramadan begins, is a reckless act of collective punishment, explicitly prohibited under international humanitarian law. The Government of Israel, as occupying power has the responsibility to ensure that humanitarian aid can reach the population in Gaza.
They continued:
When our teams assessed the conditions in Gaza in the wake of the January 19th announcement of a temporary ceasefire, they encountered apocalyptic scenes of complete destruction and famine-like conditions.
Children’s charity UNICEF have also warned that if Israel continues to block aid, more children will die. Whilst food is a major concern, other items are necessary for people to stay alive:
Despite the increase in humanitarian aid entering the Gaza Strip, conditions for children remain extremely dire. Seven newborn babies reportedly died from hypothermia over the past week because they lacked access to sufficiently warm clothes and blankets, shelter, or medical care. These preventable deaths are heartbreaking and serve as a stark reminder that more aid is desperately needed.
It couldn’t be clearer: after over a year of committing atrocity after atrocity, Israel is continuing its attempted ethnic cleansing of Palestine. Halting all aid during the month of Ramadan is a purposeful affront to fasting Muslims. If Israel is allowed to halt all types of aid, many many more Palestinians will die.
As ever, the BBC have managed to wrangle up some coverage of this story. Their word choice stands in stark contrast, however, to those who have actually been on the ground. The BBC reported:
Thousands of aid trucks had surged into Gaza each week under the ceasefire deal that started on 19 January.
This sentence is buried in a broader report about food shortages, but the use of the word “surged” is a curious choice. Oxfam who, it bears repeating, have assessed the situation in Palestine themselves, said:
People in Gaza are in need of everything: lifesaving water, food, sanitation and other necessities, as well as equipment critically needed for restoration of water and electricity. The goods that were able to enter during the weeks of ceasefire have brought some relief, but remain a drop in the ocean.
While “thousands” may sound like a lot in isolation, to say nothing of the imagery “surged” conjures up, the aid entering Gaza has been like throwing a thimble of water on a raging fire. To now stop that aid coming in at all is a death sentence for many more thousands of Palestinians.
It’s really come to something when Oxfam has more radical politics than the BBC.
Featured image via the Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.
On Monday afternoon, two friends, Khaled al-Shaer, 60, and Musa Qishta, 59, were walking toward their destroyed homes in the city of Rafah near the Egyptian border with Gaza. They had gone out for a stroll to pass the time until that day’s Ramadan fast ended at sunset. When they arrived at the Rafah Municipality Stadium in the center of Rafah, they came into view of Israeli tanks stationed…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
An International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) investigation has identified that a UK-registered charity, ‘Mizrachi (UK) Israel Support Trust’, has been fundraising for serving members of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and has promoted hate speech through its events. ICJP has issued a complaint to the Charity Commission, urging the regulator to take action for potential violations of UK Charity Law.
ICJP’s investigation found that Mizrachi UK has facilitated fundraising for Israeli military personnel active across the occupied Palestinian territory. In Mizrachi UK-branded fundraising materials, the charity instructed its supporters to donate to soldiers operating in Gaza.
These acts run contrary to the provisions of the Charities Act 2011, specifically the Section 3 prohibition on “providing aid or military supplies to any foreign armed force”, and appear to contravene Mizrachi UK’s stated charitable objectives.
Furthermore, Mizrachi UK’s events and lecture series regularly platform far-right Israeli activists who appear to engage in the promotion of hate speech.
Speakers platformed by Mizrachi UK have been found to have stated, in reference to Gaza, “we are fighting against devils, cruel animals not human beings. No excuses of occupation or human rights stands behind them” and that “we need to drown them like we drowned the Pharoah and his people in Egypt”.
Platforming such dehumanising and violent rhetoric is totally at odds with the role of charities in the UK.
Mizrachi UK’s own communications, likewise, were found to contain material likely to stir up racial hatred and/or inflame community tensions, possibly violating UK Charity Law and Equality Act duties. In reference to global protests against Israeli genocide, Mizrachi UK circulated a newsletter in November 2024 saying, “the world is filled with Hamas”.
ICJP has called for a full investigation of Mizrachi UK’s financial, charitable, and public-facing activities, with appropriate action taken in response to any violations of UK Charity Law.
The Canary has contacted Mizrachi for comment.
In January, a UK Charity found to have been fundraising for the Israeli military was issued an official warning by the Commission. ICJP continues to urge proactive investigation and action by the Charity Commission, using all of the regulatory powers available to it.
Mira Naseer, ICJP Legal Officer, has stated:
We continue to find UK-registered charities engaging in acts which violate UK laws and regulatory frameworks, and which may violate international law. Allowing charities in the UK to fundraise for unlawful purposes and spread divisive rhetoric undermines the public’s trust in the charity sector. The Charity Commission must investigate and take serious action against any wrongdoing: a slap-on-the-wrist will not suffice.
Featured image via the Canary
By The Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.
The ceasefire in Gaza came closest to collapsing since it began in mid-January after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Israel’s halt of the entry of humanitarian aid into the strip. The first phase of the ceasefire deal came to an end on Sunday as Israel continued to refuse to begin negotiations over the second phase of the deal, which were supposed to commence in early February.
Throughout the 42 days of the first phase of the ceasefire, Israel systematically violated the terms of the deal by delaying the delivery of humanitarian aid, heavy machinery for reconstruction, and prefabricated mobile homes, while continuing to periodically open fire on and kill Palestinian civilians in Gaza and obstruct the return of the displaced to their homes.
The post Israel Continues Sabotage Of Ceasefire Deal With Suspension Of Aid appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.
This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.
A prominent Druze leader in Lebanon warned on Sunday of an Israeli plot to divide Syria along sectarian lines and create chaos amid clashes between Syrian government security forces and local Druze self-defense units in the Damascus suburb of Jaramana.
“The free Syrians must be cautious of the plots of Israel,” veteran Druze leader Walid Jumblatt said at a news conference Sunday.
“In Syria, there is a plot for sabotage. There is a plot for sabotage in the region and for the Arabs’ national security,” Jumblatt added.
Jumblatt said he plans to visit Syria, following weekend clashes between militants from the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS)-led Syrian government and Druze self-defense units in the Damascus suburb of Jaramana.
The post Druze Leader Warns Of ‘Israeli Plot’ To ‘Sabotage, Divide Syria’ appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.
This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.
After spending five days imprisoned, I was released without restriction on my ability to discuss the charges brought against me for criticizing Israel. It’s a small win for free expression and Palestine campaigning.
In court on Monday the judge effectively forced the crown to drop its bid to block me from mentioning arch anti Palestinian Dahlia Kurtz. The crown wanted to restrict my ability to mention the name of the Jewish supremacist who instigated a police complaint against me.
The outpouring of support has been heartwarming and helpful. On Thursday morning 30 joined an emergency rally to accompany me to the police station where I was detained.
The post Yves Engler: We Won appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.
This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio is bypassing Congress to send yet more billions of dollars’ worth of military assistance to Israel as it renews its total blockade on aid into Gaza, sparking accusations from human rights groups that Israel is once again using starvation as a weapon of war. On Saturday, Rubio announced that he had signed a declaration to expedite $4 billion in military…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
David Mencer was once a director of Labour Friends of Israel (LFI). Now, he’s a propagandist for Israel’s war-criminal colonial regime. And he has just made an utterly ridiculous claim about food in Gaza.
Israel is used to playing dirty during negotiations, and has just stopped allowing aid into Gaza to push Hamas into changing the current ceasefire deal. A resumption of fighting now seems likely.
Amnesty International has stressed that “humanitarian aid must never be used as a bargaining tool” and “starvation of civilians as a method of warfare is a war crime”. But ex-LFI director David Mencer, who’s now an Israeli government spokesperson, has tried to claim it’s Hamas’s fault that people in Gaza don’t have enough food. And he even alleged that Hamas had “enough food to fuel an obesity epidemic”.
If you rightly think it’s important to be sceptical about the claim of someone shilling for war criminals, of course, you’ll find it hard to verify the allegation because Israel has barred journalists from entering Gaza and murdered scores of local journalists who bravely stayed to document the colonial power’s genocide there.
The “opaquely funded” LFI lobby group has invested a lot of money in getting British MPs on side for genocide. And its supporters dominate the top team of the current Labour government under genocide apologist Keir Starmer, who has happily embraced the pro-Israel lobby. And why wouldn’t he? Because as journalist Alan MacLeod wrote previously, LFI – which has very close ties to the Israeli state – “was crucial in smearing and defeating the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn”.
In 2024, Declassified UK revealed that half of Starmer’s cabinet had received money from the pro-Israel lobby. Then, openDemocracy revealed that the “tax haven-based hedge fund with shares in oil and arms” that had donated £4m to Starmer’s Labour also “stood to profit” from Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Starmer’s ongoing participation in that genocide seems to be the result.
If David Mencer’s links to LFI weren’t enough to doubt his trustworthiness, we can find other evidence. Another ridiculous claim he has made, for example, is that the BBC has somehow given ‘radical’, ‘one-sided’ coverage in favour of Palestine. That could hardly be further from the truth, in terms of the BBC‘s timidity in the face of lobby pressure and its general failure to talk about the influence of the pro-Israel lobby in parliament.
Aside from David Mencer’s statement, before saying anything about Hamas, we must always come back to the context of Israel’s brutal settler-colonial occupation, which existed long before Hamas did, and long before the group came to control Gaza.
Israel has overseen what the UN has called “decades of de-development” in all of occupied Palestine, and in Gaza in particular. But then Hamas won the 2006 election, largely because of “decay, corruption, and infighting” in the ruling Fatah party, and the latter’s role in helping to ‘institutionalise the power imbalance‘ between the Israeli occupiers and the occupied Palestinian people. And Hamas’s more assertive stance towards Israel allowed the occupying power to justify turning Gaza into “the world’s largest open-air prison”, strangling it with power cuts, border restrictions, and regular military attacks.
If Fatah’s failures and a highly flawed peace agreement paved the way for Hamas, the blockade on Gaza from 2007 onwards sowed the seeds for more conflict. Because as award-winning British journalist Jonathan Cook explained in 2012, Israel had set out to “put the Palestinians on a diet, but not to make them die of hunger”. It severely limited how much food could enter Gaza, and highly favoured “nutrient-poor sugar” products over healthy ones. Ten years later, this had contributed to “high rates of overweight and obesity and several chronic non-communicable diseases”. And anaemia had become “a severe public health problem”.
In 2022, one year before the current genocide began, 62% of people in Gaza needed “food assistance” (and even more “experienced some form of food insecurity“), while “78% of piped water in Gaza [was] unfit for human consumption”. Israel had manufactured “momentous de-development” of the occupied territory, and 81.5% of Palestinians in Gaza (mostly refugees) lived “below the national poverty line”.
Palestinians themselves have been critical of Hamas, and continue to be. Hamas increased taxes at numerous points during the blockade, for example, which didn’t exactly make things easier for ordinary people. But while there are allegations of Hamas historically stockpiling some of the resources they can get hold of, there appears to be little evidence of widespread hoarding.
There have been, however, some signs that Hamas isn’t what Israel paints it to be. Israeli forensic doctors, for example, found that late Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar “had not eaten for three days before he was killed”. Not exactly what you’d expect if Hamas had abundant supplies.
In a besieged territory where Israel has targeted law enforcement and humanitarian workers, meanwhile, it’s no surprise that civilians have effectively needed to fend for themselves. Thieves have stolen goods as Israeli forces watched on without intervening, and then gone on to resell the products at higher prices. In this environment, Hamas has pledged to treat looters of aid trucks “with an iron fist”. But clearly, people are desperate.
As the UN said in January 2024, the genocide has affected the entire population of Gaza, leaving children and others “in inhumane conditions” and deeply traumatised by:
a man-made disaster compounded by dehumanizing language and the use of food, water and fuel as instruments of war.
Israel’s assault has killed most livestock in Gaza, damaged over 40% of croplands, and further contaminated the groundwater.
Whatever Hamas may have done, we know full well what Israel has done since 2023, since 2007, since 1967, and beyond. So when any genocide apologist – like David Mencer – tries to blame Hamas for starving people in Gaza, you know exactly how to respond.
Featured image via the Canary
By Ed Sykes
This post was originally published on Canary.
In the early hours of 4 March, a group of autonomous students took direct action at Cambridge University in solidarity with Palestine. It was over the university’s investments in Israel. The protest, carried out in collaboration with Palestine Action, involved painting the Old Schools building – the office that manages the University’s Endowment Fund – in blood-red paint:
This action follows a similar protest at Oxford University last week, as part of a growing wave of confrontational actions at the UK’s most prestigious universities. The activists demand full disclosure of the University’s investments and the immediate divestment from companies complicit in war crimes and the Israeli apartheid regime.
“Each life lost in Palestine is a human being with dreams, loved ones, and a future stolen. As long as the university continues to profit from violence, we will continue to take action in solidarity with Palestinians who endure daily oppression and destruction,” said a spokesperson for the group.
The Cambridge University action comes on the heels of the high court refusing to grant an injunction to the university – an injunction banning protest – marking a moment of growing momentum against the University’s investments in the Israeli military-industrial complex.
The group has vowed to escalate direct actions, targeting the university’s financial interests and reputation in their call for full divestment and accountability.
“Now is the time to act,” the spokesperson continued. “The university must understand that its profits from war crimes will never outweigh the damage done to its reputation and bottom line.”
Cambridge University boasts major research partnerships with Israeli institutes, while Trinity College at Cambridge is refusing to divest from Israel’s largest weapons company, Elbit Systems, despite ongoing protests against its involvement in the US-Israel and Elbit genocide. This refusal follows prior actions, including the spraying of red paint on the Institute for Manufacturing in November, which supports many Israel-supplying arms firms, as well as similar protests at the historical Senate House building in June 2024.
Trinity College, which held $78,089 in Elbit shares as of the latest disclosures, has faced multiple actions, including the slashing of a portrait of Lord Balfour in March 2024. Despite misleading its students about its investments, Trinity continues to hold these shares.
The Cambridge protest is part of an ongoing effort to hold institutions like Cambridge and Oxford accountable for their financial support of systems of violence and oppression. The call for divestment and solidarity with the Palestinian people grows louder, and the momentum for direct action continues to build. Last week, activists also targeted Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government, spraying “DROP ELBIT” in response to the university’s refusal to divest from the Israeli arms giant.
Featured image and additional images via Direct Action Images
By The Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.
What began as one northern California activist’s idea to up the ante on pressure against local congressmen who support Israel’s assault on Gaza has turned into a plan to air the issue in the international arena.
Retired high school history teacher Seth Donnelly, a resident of Boyes Hot Springs in Sonoma County, California, said he was fed up with his Congress member Mike Thompson, who refused to respond to phone calls, emails, and protests demanding that he stop funding Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
“I even invited him to speak before a student human rights group at Rancho Cotate High School,” Donnelly said, referring to the school where he taught until recently.
The post Lawsuit Against Congress Members Over Gaza Genocide Goes International appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.
This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.
“Tell our story!” the man in the checkpoint cage yelled, in English. He and a crowd of Palestinian Muslim men were jammed together waiting to be checked out, one at a time, by an Israeli soldier in a glass booth so they could go into Hebron’s Ibrahimi Mosque to pray. Such daily and routine humiliation is the hallmark of the Israeli occupation.
I was in Hebron (Al-Khalil) for two weeks recently as part of a Community Peacemaker Team (CPT) delegation. Every day, we accompanied or heard testimony from people living there who were living under the guns of the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) and the aggressive hostility of the 800 settlers who claim that the city of 200,000 was given to them by their god.
The post Slow Motion Ethnic Cleansing In Hebron appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.
This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.
The ceasefire in Gaza came closest to collapsing since it began in mid-January after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Israel’s halt of the entry of humanitarian aid into the strip. The first phase of the ceasefire deal came to an end on Sunday as Israel continued to refuse to begin negotiations over the second phase of the deal, which were supposed to commence in early February.
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
On the evening of Wednesday 26 February, protesters led by the Revolutionary Communist Group (RCG) marched into Camden Town Hall and occupied the building’s lobby for over an hour. This followed a decision by the charity King’s Cross Brunswick Neighbourhood Association (KCBNA) to cancel the RCG’s booking for a public launch of the book Ghassan Kanafani: Selected Political Writings which was due to take place that evening in the Chadswell Healthy Living Centre, a community venue run by KCBNA. The decision came after pressure from the Zionist lobby.
Camden Council is the freeholder of Chadswell and one of KCBNA’s key funders. Another venue booked for the RCG’s book launch meeting, in Islington, had also cancelled the group’s booking after a visit from the police who warned they would post officers ‘outside the book launch to monitor the situation’.
On the day of the meeting, the book launch organisers received a call from Labour Councillor and KCBNA Executive Director Nasim Ali to warn that he had been under pressure from Camden Council to cancel the booking due to concerns over the advertised guest speakers at the event: Dr Louis Brehony, one of the book’s editors; and Charlotte Kates, co-ordinator of Samidoun, the Palestine Prisoner Solidarity Network.
Online trolls including the notorious Zionist X/Twitter account @Habibi_UK had demanded the police and Camden Council intervene to stop the event, claiming falsely that ‘Samidoun is a front for the PFLP terrorist group’. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) is not a proscribed terrorist organisation in Britain.
An email seen by the RCG, from Camden’s Director of Equalities and Community Strength Hanad Mohamed to Ali, read:
We have been made aware of an event being planned for this evening with guest speakers Louis Brehony and Charlotte Kates.
We are writing to you to request that this event does not go ahead this evening.
As a Council, we have a statutory obligation to ensure good relations between our ethnic and religious groups.
Based on research, we believe there is a significant risk that speakers this evening may say something that will be contrary to our statutory obligations and our values. We look for the organisations that we fund to share these values with us.
After Ali informed the RCG that the booking was cancelled, the organisers of the book launch gathered the attendees outside Chadswell and marched with banners and Palestine flags to Camden Town Hall where they entered the building lobby and held a protest:
The crowd of around 40 protestors was addressed by Louis Brehony and Charlotte Kates over video link on a PA system. It coincided with a 7pm Camden Council Cabinet meeting which was disrupted by the protest.
As Brehony noted in his address:
Ghassan Kanafani was murdered 52 and a half years ago, but still it’s remarkable that [his] message continues to be an object of erasure and silence.
Kates spoke against censorship:
They want to divide us by listing Palestinian resistance organisations as so-called “terrorist organisations”… in Britain today the Terrorism Act is being used to impose state terror on the population so people will be silenced and frightened of speaking in solidarity with the Palestinian people.
The crowd cheered as Kates announced that 620 Palestinian prisoners were being released on the same night as the book launch in a prisoner exchange deal between the Israeli state and the Palestinian resistance.
Protesters then unfurled a banner outside the building reading ‘Isolate the Zionist state – sanctions now’. They chanted slogans including ‘free Palestine from the river to the sea’ and ‘Camden Council: blood on your hands!’
Ghassan Kanafani: Selected Political Writings (2024) is published by Pluto Press and is edited by Louis Brehony and Tahrir Hamdi.
Featured image and additional images supplied
By The Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.
In the deadliest year for journalists in recorded history, nearly two-thirds of the total deaths were Palestinians killed by Israel.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reports 85 journalists were killed by Israel in 2024, and 78 in 2023. The group previously reported Israel’s military campaign in Gaza as the “most dangerous situation for journalists” ever recorded.
The international community – from newsrooms to academic institutions to government bodies and beyond – must heed the call of Palestinians demanding justice and accountability for Israel’s human rights violations against journalists and for the protection of media workers in the Gaza Strip, West Bank, and East Jerusalem.
The post The Global Community Must Demand Justice For Palestinian Journalists appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.
This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.