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Category: israel

  • Top US Firm Ends Contract With Israel To Whitewash Gaza War Crimes

    US public affairs giant SKDK has ended a $600,000 contract with the Israeli government that “promoted Israel’s perspective” about the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, according to POLITICO.

    “SKDK stopped this work on Aug. 31 and has begun the process of de-registering,” a spokesperson for SKDK told the DC-based magazine, declining to comment on the reasons why the contract was cut short early, saying only that the work “had run its course.”

    According to POLITICO, the contract between Tel Aviv and SKDK was expected to run until March 2026.

    The announcement followed a report by Sludge on 15 September that said the firm was involved in a bot program to boost pro-Israel content online.

    The post Top US Firm Ends Contract With Israel To Whitewash Gaza War Crimes appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • New Doc Reveals Story of Gaza Doctor Who Israel Has Imprisoned Since December

    A powerful new documentary produced by Fault Lines on Al Jazeera English tells the story of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the Palestinian pediatrician and director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza whom Israel has detained with virtually no contact to the outside world for almost nine months. He became known to millions of people around the world for his regular video dispatches from inside…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Gaza families living among garbage dumps as hundreds of thousands forced to flee

    Families in Gaza are being forced to live amongst garbage dumps after forced displacement from Israel. The Zionist regime have carried out attack after attack on residential areas, and people are left with nowhere else to go. Dozens of families, after a long displacement from the Al-Jalaa neighborhood through Al-Mawasi and Khan Yunis, were forced to set up temporary tents and live next to garbage dumps in the Al-Nuwairi area west of the Nuseirat camp in the southern Gaza Strip.

    Adel Dalloul, whose family had to settle in a tent camp near Nuseirat said:

    Flies are in our food.

    If you try to sleep, flies, insects and cockroaches are all over you.

    Gaza families forced to live amongst garbage

    The forced evacuation orders issued by the occupation forces to citizens in the Gaza and northern Gaza territories required them to head to the Khan Yunis and central governorates. However, these areas are already overcrowded with hundreds of thousands of displaced persons. The overcrowded camps will only become more so.

    These conditions reflect the occupation’s clear policy of forcibly displacing the population, targeting their homes and property with shelling, depriving civilians of the basic necessities of life and increasing their daily suffering.

    Living in these difficult conditions exposes civilians to significant health risks, including the spread of skin diseases, rodents, and insects, as well as foul odors and a lack of health care and medicine. Local data confirms that the areas designated for shelter in the southern Gaza Strip do not provide even a basic standard of living.

    In 2024, PBS reported:

    The U.N. estimates nearly 70% of Gaza’s water and sanitation plants have been destroyed or damaged by Israel’s heavy bombardment. That includes all five of the territory’s wastewater treatment facilities, plus water desalination plants, sewage pumping stations, wells and reservoirs.

    The employees who once managed municipal water and waste systems have been displaced, and some killed, officials say.

    Whatever infrastructure existed to address such problems has been thoroughly destroyed by Israel. Such a policy is only further evidence of the totality of destruction that Israel is heedlessly headed for.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Alaa Shamali

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Israel has killed 3000 people waiting for aid, new investigation says

    An extensive investigation from The New Humanitarian has revealed that Israeli forces have killed nearly 3000 Palestinians and injured about 20,000 others over the past 23 months while they were trying to obtain humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip.

    The investigation, which was based on open sources, UN reports, and data from international organisations, showed that these attacks are not isolated or incidental, but rather part of a systematic military policy that uses starvation as a weapon of war, amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity. Their writer, Riley Sparks, said:

    these attacks are not an aberration. They represent the escalation of a deadly tactic that has been a key part of Israeli strategy – a tactic that has helped precipitate a famine, enable the now-routine slaughter of people trying to collect food and other essential supplies, and deny Palestinians the basic necessities required to sustain life in Gaza.

    Israel kills nearly 3000 people

    According to documented data, between January 2024 and early September 2025, the death toll reached approximately 2,957, with 19,866 wounded.

    Between January and the end of July, nearly 200 direct attacks were recorded, killing 1,200 people and injuring 4,700.

    Since May 2025, with the start of the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the numbers have jumped sharply, with around 2,300 Palestinians killed in just three months.

    This toll represents about 4.6% of the total war casualties in Gaza and more than 12% of the injured, according to the Ministry of Health in the Strip.

    Systematic policy

    The report demonstrates that what is happening cannot be considered mere “random events,” but rather a clear military policy. Israeli forces resort to firing and shelling gatherings of civilians seeking food and water as a means of crowd control. They use these attacks to drive the population into forced displacement, in addition to depriving them of the minimum necessities of daily life. According to the investigation, this pattern confirms that targeting civilians in Gaza is no longer a “side effect of war,” but rather an intentional tool within a long-term strategy.

    This pattern, according to the investigation, confirms that targeting civilians in Gaza is no longer a “side effect of war,” but rather a deliberate tool within a long-term strategy.

    Legal experts have described these practices as serious violations of international humanitarian law, considering them to be war crimes and crimes against humanity, and even genocide, given their use of starvation and intimidation as military tools.

    The report also noted that Israel directly targeted journalists, killing at least 197 of them since the start of the war, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. However, the United Nations reports more than 240 deaths. This targeting has reduced field coverage and weakened documentation, while Israeli authorities continue to prevent international media from entering the Gaza Strip.

    Call for accountability

    The newspaper emphasised that the database it published is based on strict criteria for verifying incidents, stressing that the figures announced are “conservative” and that the actual toll is higher.

    It called for the database to be used as a tool to prosecute those responsible for the violations, as each documented attack could constitute a war crime. And, the overall pattern from the report reveals a strategy aimed at impoverishing and starving Palestinians and isolating them from the world.

    The investigation shows that the killing of Palestinians while seeking aid is not the result of “mistakes on the ground,” as Israel claims. Instead, it is part of a systematic policy that escalates the humanitarian crisis and pushes Gaza’s population toward starvation and forced displacement, in flagrant violation of international law and human rights principles.

    Featured image via YouTube screenshot/Al Jazeera English

    By Alaa Shamali

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Corbyn calls out UK complicity in Israel’s genocide

    On 17 September, Jeremy Corbyn MP sent a letter to foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, calling out the government’s silence and inaction on Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people.

    He focused on the fact that the United Nations (UN) published a report on 16 September recognising Israel’s actions as genocidal:

    I am writing to you to demand an immediate statement on the recent UN report, which confirms that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza.

    The Genocide Convention

    Corbyn went on:

    The new report, published by the UN commission of Inquiry, says there are reasonable grounds to conclude that four of five genocidal acts defined under international law have been carried out. “It is clear”, the report states, “that there is an intent to destroy the Palestinians in Gaza through acts that meet the criteria set forth in the Genocide Convention”.

    The word ‘genocide’ was coined by Raphael Lemkin, a Polish Jewish law professor who lost 49 family members in the Holocaust. Lemkin himself fled the Nazis and settled in the US, where he took a position at Duke University. Later, he worked on the preparation of the Nuremberg Trials. There, he successfully saw the inclusion of the word genocide in the indictment of Nazi leaders.

    However, genocide wasn’t yet a crime with an international legal definition. As such, Lemkin then campaigned for the recognition of genocide to be recognised as a crime internationally. The fruit of his labour was The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, aka the Genocide Convention. It came into force on 12 January 1951.

    It’s under the Convention’s definition that the UN recognised Israel’s current genocide of the Palestinian people. Corbyn, in his letter, pressed the implications of the UN’s findings for the UK:

    The UN report has significant implications for British ministers and officials. You will be aware of Britain’s legal obligations to prevent genocide. Article I of the Genocide Convention makes it very clear: “the Contracting Parties confirm that genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and punish.”

    Time and time again, we have reminded the government of its obligations to prevent genocide. Time and time again, our calls have mat with evasion, obfuscation and denial. Last week, your predecessor stated that the government “has not concluded that Israel is acting with [genocidal] intent”. This came after months of evasion and obfuscation regarding the government’s assessment of genocide. To this day, we still do not know what legal advice the government has received, or whether that advice has been made public.

    ‘Prevent and punish’

    The Genocide Convention is not merely a definition of the term. Its signatories – of which the UK is one – also undertook a duty to “prevent and punish” genocide. Over 800 lawyers, academics and former judges have already warned the UK government that its “actions to date have failed to meet those standards”.

    As such, Mr Corbyn asked three key questions of the foreign secretary:

    Please can you come to the House so that we can receive answers to the following questions:

    • Does the government accept the findings of the UN report?
    • Why is the government continuing to provide military support to a country that is committing genocide?
    • What is the government doing to fulfil its obligations to prevent genocide?

    We have run out of words to articulate the scale of suffering that is being inflicted upon the people of Gaza – and we are running out of time to save the Palestinian people from total, collective erasure.

    Complicity in Genocide is punishable under the Convention, just as is genocide itself. Not only is the UK currently failing in its duty to prevent genocide, it is actively aiding Israel. Britain has trained, and continues to train, Israeli Defence Force soldiers in its defence colleges. UK firms have exported munitions and thousands of other military items to Israel, despite a ban which began in September.

    Corbyn is right to ask his questions of his former party. Not only that, it is his moral duty – just as it is our duty to press the cowards of Labour to end their complicity in Israel’s genocide. It is a mark of how truly morally bankrupt Starmer’s party has become that they have, as yet, completely failed to respond to the UN’s report – let alone the multitude of glaring signs of genocide that preceded it.

    Featured image via YouTube screenshot/LBC

    By Alex/Rose Cocker

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Powerful music and words of resistance from Together for Palestine fundraiser

    Last night’s Together for Palestine fundraiser brought together powerful music and words of resistance. Amid Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza, famous voices from different professions united in opposition. The event raised around £1.5m for Palestinian-led organisations.

    Here are some highlights from the event.

    Music

    There was a wide variety of musical performances at the event, from both younger and older artists. And one of the most beautiful was almost certainly Damon Albarn’s collaboration with the London Arab Orchestra, Omar Souleyman, and Yasiin Bey:

     

     

     

    High-profile figures also read out moving Palestinian poetry:

     

     

    Speeches

    Actor Florence Pugh had a strong statement for all the people in positions of power who have remained silent during the Gaza genocide:

    Silence in the face of such suffering is not neutrality. It is complicity.

    Others echoed this message too, calling out the inaction of famous artists around the world:

    Journalist Mehdi Hasan highlighted the bravery of Palestinian journalists whom Israel has killed at an unprecedented rate during its genocide:

    Footballer Eric Cantona called for Israel’s suspension from international football competitions:

    UN expert Francesca Albanese called on ordinary people to take action where governments have chosen not to:

    Actor Richard Gere highlighted the key US role in the genocide, stressing that Donald Trump could stop it in one day if he chose to:

    Musician Saint Levant, meanwhile, highlighted that the genocide is just Israel’s most blatantly barbaric act, but is actually part of the decades-long oppression of Palestinian people:

    Others echoed this same message, including the Palestine Solidarity Campaign’s Ben Jamal:

    Many more famous figures were also present, including Holocaust survivor Stephen Kapos. And they all spoke out in solidarity with the people suffering as a result of Israel’s heinous crimes in Gaza:

    Featured image via YouTube screenshot/Annie Lennox

    By Ed Sykes

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Breaking video: new massacre as Israel bombs civilians at Gaza port

    Israel has perpetrated a new massacre minutes ago, bombing a group of civilians, in the open air, at Gaza port:

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Israel detains British MPs AGAIN. When will Britain detain Israeli war criminals?

    Israel has detained and deported two British MPs, in what is now becoming a routine. But far from returning the favour, the British government continues to be one of Israel’s most loyal international allies, allowing genocide-inciters and war criminals to walk freely in Britain.

    Israel detains two British MPs – covering up its crimes AGAIN

    The two Labour MPs are doctors, and had planned to observe the healthcare situation in the occupied West Bank of Palestine. Israeli occupation forces stopped them from entering and detained them before deporting them to Jordan. Israel had previously detained and deported two different Labour MPs back in April.

    Israel’s hostility to Labour MPs comes in spite of the strong influence the pro-Israel lobby has in Keir Starmer’s government. Despite overwhelming global consensus, Starmer has been a consistent genocide-denier.

    And the MPs Israel targeted most recently, Peter Prinsley and Simon Opher, are hardly radicals. Opher continues to praise Starmer, and Prinsley has happily linked up with pro-Israel lobby groups. But Opher in particular has expressed concern about Israel’s crimes. And following his deportation, he said it was ethically unsound for the government to keep supporting the apartheid state:

    Sources in the West Bank have said healthcare is “on the verge of collapse” there, Opher said after his recent deportation. And Israel is clearly “very sensitive” about that, suggesting it wants to hide that situation from the world:

    When Israel has allowed British MPs to enter the West Bank in recent months, it has only served to expose the worsening humanitarian crisis Israel is engineering in the occupied Palestinian territory as the world’s attention focuses on the genocide in Gaza. So it’s unsurprising that Israel wants to limit scrutiny of its crimes as much as possible.

    Britain enabling the darkness of occupation

    Allowing foreign delegations to observe the occupation has long been part of Israel’s attempt to portray itself as a democracy. But in reality, it’s an ethnocracy – an apartheid state that privileges one group of people over another. And that’s all too apparent when you look not just at Israel but at the territories it has occupied illegally since at least 1967. If Israel wants the world to see it as a democracy, it either has to end its longstanding occupation of Palestine, or give everyone under its rule equal rights – neither of which seems likely.

    Britain’s leaders, meanwhile, allow this barbarism to continue. While Israel prevents British MPs from observing its crimes, the UK government allows Israeli criminals to come and go freely. This is because Britain is not free. It’s a junior partner to US imperialism, which is the enforcer of a global billionaire class. And Israel’s brutal occupation is very much part of that system’s interests. But with every massacre and cover-up, the mask is slipping, and the world is increasingly seeing this corrupt system for what it is.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Ed Sykes

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Britain’s biggest union Unison “complicit in Israel’s genocide”, whistleblowers tell the Canary

    Britain’s biggest trade union Unison is using Israeli and Israel-linked providers for key internal service provision, insiders have told the Canary.

    This is despite support for Palestinian rights and opposition to genocide being official union policy, as decided by members.

    One of Europe’s biggest trade unions, Unison has 1.3 million members across the public and private sectors. The union supports progressive causes at home and abroad. It even produced a handbook on Palestine rights in 2021.

    Its current leadership have repeatedly and publicly condemned Israel’s crimes, endorsed BDS, and backed Palestinian statehood.

    Unison’s website says the organisation fights to defend trade union and human rights “wherever they are under attack”.

    Is Unison complicit in Israel’s genocide?

    Yet, courageous insiders at Unison have shown the Canary evidence of what one called “complicity in the ongoing Israeli genocide”.

    Some of the evidence we were directed to is open source. But the Canary has also seen documents which appear to confirm Unison is still using Israeli and Israeli-linked firms for services like insurance, human resources, and travel procurement from genocide-linked firms.

    Two of the companies are global insurance giants with links to Israeli arms firm Elbit Systems. The others are Israeli-owned companies with corporate headquarters inside Israel.

    A year ago, one of these firms publicly stated its “unequivocal” support the apartheid regime.

    The whistleblowers believe that the union membership have a right to know about any potential genocide links. They hope Unison and other unions will ensure they align with the Boycotts, Divestments and Sanction (BDS) campaign.

    Courageous insiders

    One insider, who asked not to be named, said that because Unison is currently electing a new General Secretary this issue could become critical:

    These revelations should shame Unison. Would-be leaders must commit to immediately cut all ties with Israel and the arms trade if they are to ask for members’ trust and confidence.

    They added:

    Questions need to be answered as to who is responsible for these contracts. I’m sure this will affect the chances of a second term for the current General Secretary, under who’s watch this has been allowed to continue.

    Apartheid firms

    The insider told the Canary:

    I want to see Unison – the largest trade union in the UK – held to account for it’s funding of the arms trade & breaking of its own position on Palestine, including its’ Boycott Divestment & Sanction statement.

    Without the actions of these brave insiders, the membership would be none the wiser.

    The whistleblower said:

    We should be able to hold trade unions to the highest standards of integrity and democracy. Yet here we have Unison- the largest union in the nation, funding the genocide they have publicly condemned, in direct betrayal of the membership they claim to hold sovereign.

    Just this week, current General Secretary Christina McAnea has spoken to the Trade Union Council [TUC] conference of the need for the government to intervene urgently in Gaza… the hypocrisy of this when her union continues in financial relationships with companies who are funding the genocide is sickening.

    The Allianz-Elbit pipeline

    The union offers it’s members cheap insurance through a UK firm called LV.com. In 2020, insurance giant Allianz completed the purchase of LV.com. Allianz in turn insures Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit Systems.

    As the Canary has reported, Elbit provides up to “85% of Israel’s killer drone fleet and land-based equipment, as well as missiles, munitions and digital warfare”.

    Elbit’s quadcopter drones are “routinely used to massacre Palestinians in Gaza”

    Zurich

    The Canary has also seen internal documents linking Unison with insurance firm Zurich. These suggest the union is using Zurich for services including “employer’s liability insurance”.

    Unison Israel

    By insuring arms and military equipment firms who are taking part in Israel’s military action, Zurich are also implicated in Israeli crimes. Both Zurich and Allianz were named in an major 2025 report titled ‘Ensuring Destruction’.

    The study examines how these powerful firms are cashing in on Israel’s attack on Gaza. You can read our analysis of that report here.

    monday.com

    The whistleblower told the Canary that Unison also still uses monday.com, an Israeli-owned ‘cloud based platform’, for some of its HR provision. monday.com has its head office in Tel Aviv.

    Unison Israel

    One Irish organisation has already stopped using monday.com under pressure from their staff over genocide links. In January 2025, the Resident’s Tenancy Board (RTB), an Irish rental watchdog, decided not to renew a contract with Monday.com after “internal anger” from staff.

    RTB maintains it stopped using monday.com was for business reasons. However in 2025 Irish publication The Journal claimed:

    Staff were told that the contract with Monday will cease in May and would not be renewed.

    The issue has an ongoing one for management. The Journal learned that the RTB had to quell internal anger after the RTB processed a payment for the global software firm for further use of the software.

    A year ago – long after international law courts levelled charges of genocide against the apartheid state’s leadership – monday.com posted on Linkedin:

    We unequivocally stand with Israel and its people as the country endures one of the most difficult moments in its history.

    Additionally, our sources say Unison uses the Israeli-owned travel management firm Atriis for some of its travel procurement. Atriis is also headquartered in Israel

    The Canary has been given screenshots and a a link to an internal webpage used to book travel through Atriis, which describes its service as “a content-centric corporate online booking platform“.

    Unison Israel

    Unison members have a right to know its ties to Israel

    Two other Unison insiders confirmed that to their knowledge these services were still in use.

    One of these sources also said that the union membership did not know the full extent of these Israeli links and wouldn’t be happy if they did:

    I think many would be shocked given the footage they see coming out of Gaza everyday.

    Large sections of the rank-and-file Unison membership are vocally committed to Palestinian rights and self-determination. As a result, various commitments have been incorporated into union policy over the years.

    The Canary asked our first source if it was possible this could have been accidentally overlooked:

    In my experience, Unison is incredibly inefficient, and layers of bureaucracy and chronic under-staffing inhibit any meaningful reform.

    I would like to believe that these contracts are an oversight, but the repeated motions from members against such procurement demand a response and there can be no excuse for action not being taken.

    Trades Union Congress in September 2024

    As recently as 8 September, Unison leaders were speaking at Palestine solidarity events at the Trade Union Congress (TUC) conference in Brighton:

    McAnea spoke about Palestine alongside other trade union leaders:

    Unison’s X account also praised a “powerful” speech by Palestinian trade unionist leader Shaher Saed:

    And Unison’s International Lead Lis Snape called for Palestinian human and trade union rights to be respected:

    Committed to Palestinian rights

    In December 2021, Unison even published a guide for members titled ‘Talking about Palestinians Rights‘.

    The guide states [authors bold]:

    UNISON supports Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), as a practical way to force the Israeli government to end its repression of the Palestinian people and contribute towards the building of peace. This means taking a targeted approach to BDS in order to maximise our impact.

    We support the TUC policy of campaigning for a boycott of goods from illegal Israeli settlements and divestment from companies who profit from the illegal Israeli occupation.

    The guide shows that Unison has a clear understanding of the fascistic character of Israeli apartheid and occupation [authors bold]:

    The issue of Palestine is often portrayed as a highly complex dispute over a contested area of land. In reality, the central issue is the military occupation, which has continued to violate the rights of the Palestinian people and international law since the land was taken by the Israeli government during the 1967 war.

    Full statehood – yet Unison is complicit with Israel

    On 30 July 2025, the Unison leadership backed the UK government’s position on Palestinian statehood.

    General Secretary Christina McAnea said:

    Recognition of the state of Palestine is a critical step towards bringing peace to the region, ending the illegal occupation and respecting basic human rights.

    McAnea made it clear that the situation in Gaza was extremely bad, acknowledging the risk of famine (now a frightening reality) and the wholesale, deliberate destruction of healthcare infrastructure:

    The situation in Gaza has never been more critical, with UN warnings of famine and people dying of hunger. Healthcare and other public services in Gaza have been devastated. Almost all the territory is under displacement orders or within a militarised zone.

    Membership vs leadership in Unison over Israel?

    A unison document titled ‘2025 National Delegate Conference Decisions‘ affirms the union membership’s desire for a just settlement for both Palestinians and Israelis [authors bold]:

    Conference recognises that the demand for a contiguous, viable Palestinian state alongside a safe and secure state of Israel is central to UNISON’s position on Palestine. The demand is fundamental to securing human and workers’ rights for the Palestinian people, including the right to decent work and quality public services.

    The conference document emphasises Unison’s commitment to BDS:

    Conference notes existing UNISON policy in support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement and the excellent work done across UNISON branches and regions. On many occasions we have reaffirmed our commitment to the BDS movement.

    Unison and Israel

    The ‘Conference Decisions’ document recognises the need for accountability through, for example, strengthening Unison’s “ethical procurement procedures”.

    The document explicitly recognises “illegal occupation, apartheid and genocide” as the reality on the ground [author’s bold]:

    Conference agrees that to ensure that we are not funding companies linked to arms manufacture, dual use goods or any companies profiting from illegal occupation, apartheid or genocide, we must strengthen and resource our ethical procurement procedures across the union.

    The insiders said they hoped that by bringing the union’s “complicity” to public attention, Unison and other UK trade unions will audit their organisations for any links to Israeli apartheid, occupation and genocide.

    Unison were approached for comment, acknowledged the Canary’s request, but failed to respond.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Joe Glenton

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Spain threatens to withdraw from 2026 World Cup if Israel plays

    Spain’s officials have hinted that their country may withdraw from the 2026 World Cup, which will be hosted by the United States, Canada, and Mexico, if the Israeli national team participates in the tournament.

    Spain threatens to withdraw from 2026 world cup over Israel

    The Spanish newspaper Marca reported that Patxi López, spokesperson for the Socialist Group in the Spanish Parliament, left the door open to a possible withdrawal in protest against what he described as genocide in Gaza, stressing that the vast majority of Spanish society cannot tolerate the daily scenes of killing and destruction in the Strip.

    López explained that seeing children killed, people targeted while searching for food, and cities destroyed for the interests of wealthy individuals constitutes violations that cannot be tolerated. He added that the Spanish people refuse to be complicit and are taking to the streets to protest, especially when Israeli teams funded by supporters of Netanyahu’s government roam the country’s streets.

    He stressed that Israeli society must see the world’s position on the actions of its government, emphasizing that Spain may ban Israeli teams from participating in all sporting events, including the 2026 World Cup qualifiers, if the relevant sports authorities do not take clear action.

    Lopez called for Israel to be excluded from international competitions, as was previously done with Russia, warning that Spain’s withdrawal could become a reality if Israeli teams continue to participate without accountability.

    An escalating situation

    The tournament is being held for the first time in three countries, with European champions Spain occupying a leading position in the qualifiers after two wins from two games, while Israel is seeking to secure at least a place in the World Cup qualifying play-offs.

    This escalation comes in the context of the ongoing Israeli invasion of Gaza and the accompanying widespread popular protests in Spain, such as those seen at the La Vuelta cycling race, objecting to the participation of Israeli teams and demanding an end to financial and political support for them.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Alaa Shamali

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Israel just killed another journalist in a horrific massacre near Al-Shifa hospital

    WARNING: THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS GRAPHIC VIDEO SOME READERS MAY FIND DISTRESSING

    Israel committed a horrific massacre yesterday, 17 September 2025, targeting forcibly displaced Palestinian civilians near to Al-Shifa Hospital, as they were evacuating Gaza City.

    At least 15 people have been killed, including Palestinian journalist Alaa Al-Sawalhi, a cameraman for Al-Quds Al-Youm channel.

    Women and children were among those killed.

     

    Cameraman and journalist Alaa Al-Sawalhi smiling.

    Israel committing ‘full-fledged’ war crimes in full view

    A press release issued by Hamas on Wednesday evening calls the targeting of these innocent civilians:

    a full-fledged war crime that exposes the brutality of this entity in attacking civilians even at moments of displacement.

    This massacre, along with all the other atrocities that happened yesterday – including the targeting, by Israeli occupation forces, of two Palestinian civilians near the Red Crescent in Tel Al-Air, south of Gaza City – came only one day after a UN commission confirmed that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

    Between 12am and 9.20pm on 17 September, the total number of Palestinians killed by the occupation was 86.

     

    By Charlie Jaay

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Israeli film awards are Hamas? Netanyahu government goes ballistic over ‘The Sea’

    The Israeli government has gone fully ballistic and threatened the funding of Israel’s own national film awards, the ‘Ophirs’, after a film about a Palestinian boy – The Sea – won the ‘Best Feature Film’ prize.

    The Sea: rattling Israelis

    Rattled culture minister Miki Zohar posted on X that the award for The Sea was a ‘slap in the face’, describing the awards as a ‘pathetic ceremony’ and threatening to defund it from next year:

    There is no greater slap in the face of Israeli citizens than the embarrassing and detached annual Ophir awards ceremony. Starting with the 2026 budget, this pathetic ceremony will no longer be funded by taxpayers’ money. Under my watch, Israeli citizens will not pay from their pockets for a ceremony that spits in the faces of our heroic soldiers.

    The Sea is a Hebrew-language film about a 12-year-old Palestinian boy who goes through dangers to see the sea when Israeli soldiers refuse to let him travel with his classmates on the school bus. In a further ‘slap in the face’ for Zohar and his genocidal colleagues, the win means the film has also been selected as Israel’s entry for ‘Best International Film’ at the next Oscars.

    Adding to the Zionist pain, Muhammad Gazawi, who plays the film’s hero Khaled, also won the Ophir for best actor, while his co-star Khalifa Natour won best supporting actor.

    The Association for Civil Rights in Israel says it is investigating whether the culture ministry has the authority to withdraw the ceremony’s funding. This is not the first time Zohar has suffered ‘butthurt’ over a winning Palestinian film: last year he complained that Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land was “sabotage against the state of Israel”. Boo hoo.

    Receiving the award, The Sea’s Palestinian producer Baher Agbariya said:

    This film was born from love for humanity and cinema, and its message is one – the right of every child to live and dream in peace, without siege, without fear, and without war.

    Many participants in the ceremony made protests against Israel’s genocide in Gaza, particularly the occupation’s mass murder of children.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • “Tis the times’ plague, when madmen lead the blind” – Paul Laverty speaks out as ‘terror’ case dropped

    Award-winning Scottish screenwriter Paul Laverty has spoken out after the Procurator Fiscal – Scotland’s public prosecutor – contacted him at the last moment to inform him that Laverty’s prosecution under the Terrorism Act 2000, part of Keir Starmer’s ‘lawfare’ war on anti-genocide and pro-Palestine speech and protest, was cancelled.

    But it might be brought back.

    Paul Laverty: speaking out

    Paul Laverty, 68, who has a consistent record of siding with the oppressed, said:

    In the last hour I have just received a hand delivered note from the Procurator Fiscal’s office cancelling my court appearance for tomorrow morning, where I intended to plead not guilty to a charge under section 13 of the Terrorism Act 2000 for wearing a t shirt with the words “Genocide in Palestine. Time to Take Action.” I am told that the charge is still pending and a final decision will taken later.

    Yesterday, the 16th Sept, yet another detailed report from the UN Commission concludes that Israel is committing Genocide. It states “There is nowhere that the people of Gaza can escape slaughter.” Nowhere! It proves what Israeli Finance Minister Smotrich has said as he taunts the world with “This has no precedent and nobody is stopping us.”

    This evening, at the very same time as the biggest incursion yet into Gaza kills more by the minute, the British establishment in the shape of the Crown and the UK government prostitute themselves, grovelling before the Chief Enabler of Genocide, Donald Trump. They bow before his crass vulgarity, greed and impunity. Tonight, they will have a glittering banquet in Windsor Castle, with a fly by of the RAF, the same RAF that now flies over Gaza and provides intelligence to the IDF.
    Trump, and no doubt the company executives who accompany him, including Microsoft, will gorge themselves as the racist thugs with the contract to provide the misnamed humanitarian aid in Gaza, execute a percentage of the starving each day as they scramble for flour. Microsoft have just signed billion dollar plus deal with the IDF to support them in their tech capacity to subjugate the Palestinians.

    What a spectacle of collusion and moral collapse. Corporate power, greed and collusion with Death are manifested in the soaring worth of the Tel Aviv Stockmarket. Please take a look at the detailed report by the UN which has published its findings in a report called “From the Economy of Occupation, to the economy of Genocide.”

    It is hard to find the words in the face of this nauseating barbarism. Perhaps we have to look to the Bard once again, William Shakespeare, in his play King Lear.

    “Tis the times’ plague, when madmen lead the blind.”

    Paul Laverty, Edinburgh 17th of Sept ’25.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Video: Catholic worker condemns Pope’s decision to host war criminal Herzog

    Catholic worker Kathy Boylan, 82, has spoken of her horror that Pope Leo XIV chose to host Israeli President Isaac Herzog at the Vatican.

    The Pope hosting Herzog

    Herzog has been named by a UN Genocide Commission as guilty of inciting the genocide of Palestinians. Israel has murdered almost 700,000 people in Gaza, almost half a million of them children – and 380,000 under the age of five, according to expert analysis of Israeli military data published in peer-reviewed medical journal The Lancet.

    Boylan has been writing to bishops and protesting outside the Vatican embassy, for months, urging the leader of the Catholic Church to visit Gaza. His predecessor Francis was an outspoken critic of Israel’s mass murder and crimes against humanity and an advocate for the freedom and self-determination of the Palestinian people.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Video: sick Israeli ‘comedian’ mocks Palestinians starved by Israel – for settlement burger bar ad

    Sick Israeli ‘social media comedian‘-wannabe Neti Flinker has posted a disgusting video mocking Palestinians starving under Israel’s criminal blockade of food and medicines.

    Neti Flinker: sick

    Neti Flinker made the vile clip to advertise a burger restaurant in an illegal West Bank settlement.

    Journalist @ireallyhateyou1948, who found and posted the ad, warned viewers,

    If you’re prone to nausea, better have a puke bag ready.

    Featured image via screengrab

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Ireland calls for Israel and its arms suppliers to be kicked out of UN

    Irish President Michael Higgins has called on the United Nations to expel Israel, along with any countries supplying the genocidal occupation with weapons.

    Michael Higgins: Ireland wants to expel Israel from the UN

    Higgins’s call followed a UN Human Rights Council report by a commission of experts who concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Any one of the five measures of genocidal conduct under the 1948 Genocide Convention is enough to find a country guilty of genocide. Israel meets at least four, including incitement by senior officials to commit genocide.

    Among the officials named by the report as inciting genocide is Israeli president Isaac Herzog, whom Keir Starmer welcomed to the UK last week. Downing Street refused yesterday to express any regret for hosting a known war criminal.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Israeli soldiers protest the lack of mental health support – after leaving Palestinians with unspeakable trauma

    Social media footage has shown soldiers from the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) throwing their psychiatric medications on the table of a parliamentary committee meeting, during its discussion on ways to combat the increasing suicide rate among the military, while shouting:

    We are mentally ill, and our friends are committing suicide.

     

    View this post on Instagram

     

    A post shared by Wakeuppalestine🍉 (@wakeuppalestine)

    Israeli soldiers complain of psychological toll of heinously murdering Palestinians

    Earlier this week, the Times of Israel also reported that of the 20,000 wounded soldiers which the occupation’s Defense Ministry’s Rehabilitation Department has treated since October 2023, more than half are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health conditions.

    But it should come as no surprise that these soldiers are suffering from psychological issues. How can their minds be healthy when they blow children to pieces, shoot starving civilians who are looking for food, flatten entire neighbourhoods and destroy people’s homes – while they boast freely on the internet, knowing there will be no accountability for their war crimes?

    These soldiers are responsible for a never-ending cycle of violence against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza, and without them there would be no occupation, no genocide which was confirmed by the United Nations Commission yesterday.

    Colonel Richard Kemp, head of the charity UK Friends of the Association for the Wellbeing of Israel’s Soldiers (UK-AWIS) – the UK branch of AWIS, an Israeli organisation managed by the Israel Defense Forces – has called the IDF “the world’s most moral army”. He described Israel as “a decent country with Western values, run on democratic principles” which “has never started a war” and said:

    the IDF does more to safeguard the rights of civilians in a combat zone than any other army in the history of warfare.

    Colonel Kemp is obviously deluded, as are the 76% of Israelis who either fully or partially agreed with the suggestion that:

    there are no innocent people in Gaza.

    A persistent pattern of violence for over 70 years

    There has been a persistent pattern of violence throughout the history of the IDF, from its formation to the present day. Before 1948, there were three underground Zionist paramilitary groups – the Haganah, Irgun, and Lehi. These groups had contentious and often violent histories, and were regarded by many as terrorist organizations due to their use of bombings, assassinations, and attacks against both British authorities and the Palestinian population during the British Mandate period.

    After Israel became a state, these three militias unified and formed the IDF, and their leaders formed Israel’s government, became politicians, ambassadors and prime ministers. Israel is now a militarised state, structured around its army.

    Professor Haim Bresheeth is a filmmaker, photographer, Jewish activist, and author of An Army Like No Other: How the Israel Defense Forces Made a Nation. In his book, Bresheeth writes about the IDF and its central role in shaping Israeli society and the modern Israeli state.

    According to Bresheeth, the IDF has become the most influential institution in Israel, impacting every aspect of civilian life and policy. He claims that an ethos of perpetual military readiness has made peace seem not only unachievable but even undesirable to much of Israeli society.

    IDF soldiers traumatised? ‘Think of the trauma of the real victims’

    Bresheeth told the Canary:

    The prevalence of suicide and deep trauma amongst IDF soldiers, ones who do not even understand their problems as the result of the crimes they committed during the genocide in Gaza, is overwhelming. The anger and violence they use is not just evidence of their attitudes as IDF soldiers, but also of the deep trauma they are in. The soldiers who are NOT traumatised are even worse – they have no problem with murdering civilians in huge numbers.

    The complainants are in the Knesset because their conditions are not treated by the system. If they themselves are traumatised, think of the trauma of the real victims – the Palestinians in Gaza – murdered, badly maimed, constantly under fire, starvation, lack of water, medicine, housing, hospitals, schools, universities – any modern facilities in this terrible killing field called Gaza! Call for an end of the genocide and an end of the Zionist state!”

    Although official suicide data from the Israeli occupation forces are only published yearly, we know that five Israeli soldiers took their own lives in July 2025 alone, while in 2024, 21 soldiers died by suicide – the highest annual toll in over a decade, while in 2023, the figure stood at 17.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Charlie Jaay

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Independent Probe For United Nations Says Israel Commits Genocide

    In a new report published against the backdrop of intensifying Israeli military operations in Gaza City, the U.N. Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, urged Israel and all countries to fulfil their obligations under international law “to end the genocide” and punish those responsible.

    “The Commission finds that Israel is responsible for the commission of genocide in Gaza,” insisted Navi Pillay, Chair of the Commission. “It is clear that there is an intent to destroy the Palestinians in Gaza through acts that meet the criteria set forth in the Genocide Convention.”

    The post Independent Probe For United Nations Says Israel Commits Genocide appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • One Million Palestinians ‘Reject Displacement’ From North Gaza

    About one million Palestinians in Gaza City and northern Gaza are refusing or are unable to be forcibly displaced to overcrowded “safe zones” in southern Gaza, according to a statement issued by the Gaza Government Media Office on 16 September.

    “More than one million Palestinians remain rooted in Gaza City and the northern Gaza Strip, holding onto their land and homes, and categorically rejecting displacement to the south, despite the savage bombardment and genocidal war carried out by the Israeli occupation,” Palestinian officials said.

    The statement highlights that the population of Gaza City and northern Gaza “exceeds 1.3 million people,” most of whom have already been displaced from their neighborhoods to central and coastal areas.

    The post One Million Palestinians ‘Reject Displacement’ From North Gaza appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Video: Israel shredded a Gazan child. “Never have I prayed for a child to die. Until today” said a doctor

    Dr Kiran Rahim is a UK paediatric doctor. She saw Gaza volunteer doctor Ali Tahrawi’s footage of the appalling, horrifying death of a little Palestinian toddler ripped apart by Israeli bombs in Gaza, breathing her last with her shredded internal organs hanging outside her body as a helpless, stunned Tahrawi could do nothing more than watch and try to comfort her.

    If you can bear to watch – and we must bear witness if we can – the footage is at the end of this article.

    Ali Tahrawi: horror in Gaza

    Dr Rahim wrote this:

    As a children’s doctor, I have seen death in many forms:
    drownings, burns, sudden cardiac arrests, sepsis, even gun and gang violence.

    But never – not once- have I prayed for a child to die.

    Until today.

    Because today, I saw her.
    Her tiny body ripped open.
    Her liver shredded.
    Her intestines outside her body.
    And yet, she was still alive.
    Still breathing.
    Still gasping.
    Still covered in blood pouring from every wound.

    And in that moment, I prayed.
    Not for her survival
    but for death’s mercy.
    Because to survive this would mean a lifetime of trauma, pain, endless surgeries and hospital visits in the best centres in the world.
    A lifetime of pain and suffering
    And that is not life. That is torture.

    I will never unsee her.
    I will never forget her trembling body.
    I will never forgive.

    Because children are being shredded on our screens every day
    by weapons and hellfire missiles paid for with our tax money.
    Children whose only “crime”
    Was to be born Palestinian.

    CONTENT WARNING

    Tahrawi’s own stunned horror was also filmed:

    He wrote:

    Two years into this hell, and I have never seen anything like what I’m witnessing now.

    These days bring the most devastating, heart-shattering injuries; wounds so severe you stand frozen, wondering if even God could save them.

    We stood helpless, not knowing what to do. I felt this little girl’s final heartbeats with my hands, pulsing through torn flesh.

    If images of torn and broken children are not enough to stop this madness, then what is?

    I am ready to sacrifice my life for this cause. I will never stop struggling for my people. But how can I, when what we are facing is nothing but death and evil?

    Seventeen hours into my exhausting shift, carrying the weight of unbearable stories; families escaping death in the north, only to face more death here, and others arriving with injuries that could not be treated there. I finally lay down to rest my back. But then came another airstrike.

    Minutes later, the ambulances arrived with the wounded. Among them was this girl. I saw her heart stop beating, and I feel mine will stop soon.

    My message to the world is simple: if we are left to burn in this hell alone, then humanity itself has already died. This world is no longer human.

    And the silence that allowed all of this will haunt you forever.

    Israel is a terror state, a child-murderer state. Every government leader that aids it or does nothing has the blood of almost 500,000 slaughtered and starved Palestinian children – four fifths of them under five years old – on his or her hands. Keir Starmer is steeped in the blood of innocents.

    Featured image via screengrab

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Israeli Minister Smotrich Calls Gaza “Real Estate Bonanza” Amid Talks With US

    Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich bragged about the possibility of a “real estate bonanza” on the ruins of Israel’s genocide in Gaza on Wednesday, saying that Israel is already in talks with the U.S. to divide up the land. “The Gaza Strip is becoming a real estate bonanza,” Smotrich said in Hebrew at a real estate conference in Israel, per Israeli media. Israel has “already…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • After Backlash, Democratic PR Firm Says It Cut Pro-Israel Propaganda Contract

    A top PR firm with close ties to the Biden administration has reportedly prematurely cut a contract to run a pro-Israel propaganda program on social media after a report on the agreement caused backlash this week. On Monday, Sludge reported that the SKDKnickerbocker LLC, or SKDK, signed a contract with Israel in April to “floo[d] the zone” with pro-Israel content. The strategy involves a “bot…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • 150 strikes in two days: Israel’s war on Gaza City enters a bloodier phase

    The Israeli army has launched more than 150 air and artillery strikes on Gaza City over the past two days, in a new escalation of the offensive that has been ongoing for nearly two years in the Gaza Strip.

    Israel is intensifying its assault on Gaza

    On Wednesday 17 September, the army published photos and videos that it said documented the presence of its forces inside the city, after announcing the start of a ground operation on Tuesday, although local sources and field evidence confirm that no ground incursion has taken place so far. According to these sources, the army is relying on intensified air and artillery bombardment and the use of explosive-laden drones to spread terror among the population and force them to flee.

    The army said in a statement that “its forces are deepening their ground maneuver in the city,” noting that the 98th and 162nd divisions are carrying out Operation “Gideon 2.” It said that more than 150 air and artillery strikes had been carried out on the city in two days. It also announced that the operation to take control of Gaza could take several months, despite international warnings of catastrophic consequences.

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected several proposals for prisoner exchanges and a ceasefire, drawing criticism from the Israeli opposition and the families of prisoners, who believe he is continuing the war to preserve his position, fearing that his government would collapse if his hardline partners withdrew.

    Netanyahu faces an internal trial on corruption charges that could lead to his imprisonment if convicted, while the International Criminal Court is seeking his arrest on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

    Occupation

    On August 8, the Israeli government approved Netanyahu’s plan to occupy the entire Gaza Strip, starting with Gaza City. For weeks, the army has been destroying towers and residential buildings in the city, in a move seen as an attempt to force residents to flee south.

    With US support, Israel has continued its war on Gaza since 7 October 2023, which has so far killed 64,964 Palestinians and injured 165,312 others, while the famine caused by the blockade has killed 428 people, including 146 children.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Alaa Shamali

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • BBC ignores funeral of 31 Yemeni journalists murdered by Israel

    The BBC has ignored the funeral of 31 journalists murdered by Israel in a double-bombing attack on media offices in Yemen last week in what was the biggest slaughter of journalists in a single day in history.

    Exactly a week ago, Israel bombed the headquarters of the Al-Yemen and 26 September newspapers in Sana’a. The deliberate strike killed Yemeni journalists who reported on Yemen’s actions against Israel. Ansar Allah have committed to every global government’s obligations under international law to end or prevent the genocide in Gaza.

    Author Assal Rad noted that the media’s reaction would have been very different had the victims been Ukrainian and the perpetrator Russia:

    The BBC News channel appears not to have mentioned the funeral at all. The BBC usually covers itself in such omissions by tucking a mention away on the BBC News website. However, a search of the BBC website returns no results at all.

    Well, not quite zero – there was a single mention of a Yemeni journalist’s funeral – from 1999:

    ‘Israeli strikes in Yemen kill 35 people, Houthis say’

    The BBC did mention the murder of the journalists last week – kind of. In a single article on its news site, the BBC said that “At least 35 people were killed in Israeli air strikes” and threw in that two newspaper offices “were hit.” It’s almost as if it just happened spontaneously or was incidental – if it happened at all, because it was only “the Houthis’ military spokesman” who said it:

    the Houthis’ military spokesman said the targets were civilian, adding that journalists and passersby were killed when the offices of two newspapers were hit.

    No mention of the clearly targeted strikes then or since.

    The BBC, full of journalists – or at least NUJ members – has been appalling throughout Israel’s slaughter of hundreds of Palestinian journalists in Gaza – almost certainly with the assistance of the Starmer government – either ignoring it completely or regurgitating easily-debunked Israeli propaganda that the killings were accidental or its victims were terrorists.

    But 31 journalists in one day, in two targeted strikes on media offices are indisputably intended specifically to kill journalists – on a historic and shameful scale – and an unequivocal war crime. In the absence of any way to spin the murders for Israel, the BBC seems to have opted to simply ignore it completely.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Cutting off the internet as a weapon of war: Israel deepens Gaza’s isolation

    On Wednesday 17 September, Skyline International Human Rights Organization condemned in the strongest terms the Israeli authorities’ complete cutoff of internet and telecommunications services to the Gaza Strip, considering it a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and a deliberate use of communications as a weapon of war.

    Israel cutting off Gaza’s internet

    The organization said in a statement that on September 17, 2025, the Palestinian Telecommunications Regulatory Authority announced a complete shutdown of internet and landline services in Gaza City and the northern Gaza Strip, following the targeting of main network routes during intense Israeli attacks. It noted that this disruption was not the first of its kind, but rather part of a series of deliberate blockages imposed by Israel at times of escalating fighting, mass displacement, and rising numbers of casualties.

    The statement added that the outage coincided with the expansion of Israeli ground operations in Gaza City and the issuance of mass evacuation orders that forced more than 400,000 Palestinians to flee south in recent days, at a time when airstrikes alone since Tuesday morning have killed at least 108 people.

    Skyline emphasized that cutting communications at this critical time deprives more than two million civilians of a vital lifeline, as families are unable to call ambulances, medical teams lose their ability to coordinate, and humanitarian organizations are paralyzed. It also warned that this policy silences journalists and prevents documentation, allowing war crimes to be committed in the dark, away from the eyes of the world.

    Violation of Article 19

    The statement noted that hospitals in Gaza are at risk of collapse within days due to the Israeli blockade on fuel needed to operate generators, threatening to halt vital rescue services such as oxygen and ambulances, which would mean mass execution of patients.

    The organization stressed that these interruptions violate Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which guarantees freedom of expression and the right to access information. It also called for the immediate restoration of communications services, an end to the targeting of civilian infrastructure, and guarantees for the protection of journalists and humanitarian workers, as well as international investigations into the use of internet shutdowns as a weapon of war.

    Skyline considered that the policy of isolating Gaza from the world is part of a broader strategy to conceal crimes and violations, stressing that its continuation means allowing atrocities to be committed without witnesses.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Alaa Shamali

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Famous voices come ‘Together for Palestine’ in video ahead of sold-out fundraiser

    In a new video, a range of famous voices have united to back the sold-out Together for Palestine fundraiser tonight.

    Photographer Nan Goldin said:

    It’s always been the artist’s role in society to speak out, to risk speaking truth to power.

    Author Michael Rosen added:

    We know that the leaders of this country are complicit in the mass murder of civilians in Gaza and the West Bank.

    And actor Steve Coogan stressed:

    It’s important to speak out now. Not when this is over. Right now, while it’s happening. Pressurize your government. Lend your support to those who are peacefully campaigning. Call for a ceasefire. Stop the killing!

    Others featuring in the video include Malala Yousafzai, Cillian Murphy, Penélope Cruz, Joaquin Phoenix, Billie Eilish, Javier Bardem, Brian Cox, and Indya Moore.

    Uniting against genocide

    On musician Brian Eno’s YouTube page, you can watch parts of the event from 7pm tonight. This will be:

    A landmark night where artists, culture and community unite in solidarity.

    The page adds that:

    All donations will go to Choose Love, with all funds going to support Palestinian-led organisations providing life-saving humanitarian aid, such as Taawon, Palestine Children’s Relief Fund, and Palestinian Medical Relief Society.

    The event comes a day after the UN added to an already overwhelming international consensus by saying that Israel has been committing genocide. It also comes as Britain plays host to the president of the United States (the country responsible for fuelling the genocide), and a week after Britain hosted the president of Israel, who the UN has named as a genocide-inciter.

    Featured image via Together for Palestine

    By Ed Sykes

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • BREAKING: Israel just took out most of Gaza’s internet network

    Israel has bombed or otherwise disabled transmitters in Gaza providing internet connections to Palestinian journalists and civilians, according to local sources.

    Gaza: Israel just blacked out its internet

    As the Times of Israel reported:

    The Palestinian Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, based in the West Bank, says Israeli strikes on the main network lines in northern Gaza have collapsed internet and telephone services, cutting Gazans off from the outside world.

    Multiple attempts by the Associated Press to reach people in Gaza City fail to go through.

    The disabling of the network is forcing journalists to congregate around a few surviving sites with satellite connectivity, concentrating them in fewer areas and presenting easier targets to an occupation that has already shown it will target such sites to murder journalists en masse.

    Gaza’s surviving journalists, who continue to broadcast despite knowing the Israeli regime intends to kill them as it has approaching four hundred of their colleagues throughout the genocide so far, have appealed for help to make sure their news – including this news – circulates widely.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Youth Demand stage action disrupting Lloyd’s of London recruitment fair

    Yesterday, on Tuesday 16 September, youth-led campaign group Youth Demand staged an action against Lloyd’s of London. They were protesting the insurance firm’s ties with Israel and complicity in the genocide of the Palestinian people.

    The protest was timed to coincide with Lloyd’s ‘Dive In’ festival. The company’s website stated that:

    The Dive In Festival 2025 will focus on the theme of prioritising belonging in inclusive workplaces to attract, retain and maximise individual talent, driving innovation and growth in the insurance industry.

    Youth Demand posted footage of their demonstration on social media:

    The protesters stood on a stage, holding a banner between them that read “Complicit in genocide”. They then began to chant:

    Lloyd’s Lloyd’s you can’t hide, you are insuring genocide. Lloyd’s Lloyd’s shame shame, genocide in your name.

    The reason we are interrupting you today is because Lloyd’s insures genocide. It’s complicit not only in the genocide in Gaza, but also in the continuing climate crisis.

    The group later posted on social media:

    @LloydsofLondon‘s festival claims to be about inclusivity, wanting to recruit young people. Well young people refuse to be complicit in an industry facilitating the deaths of millions and profiting off human lives.

    ‘Welcome to Lloyd’s in Israel’

    LLoyd’s is somewhat unique among insurers. It isn’t a corporation per se, but instead acts a type of market in its own right under UK law – the 1871 Lloyd’s Act. Within this market, individual ‘Names’ (both internal and external to Lloyd’s) underwrite policies, and can also come together to form syndicates and offer policies to clients. Lloyd’s, for its part, acts as an overseer of this market.

    This loose structure has given Lloyd’s a reputation for insuring pretty much anything. A few examples range from taste buds to legs to a moustache. It has also meant that Lloyd’s has been involved in numerous high-profile scandals. These include the Sasse scandal, asbestosis claim losses, and weaknesses revealed by the Piper Alpha disaster.

    Continuing this legacy of Lloyd’s of London’s enjoys a special relationship with Israel – which was confirmed to be committing genocide by the United Nations on the same day as Youth Demand’s protest. Lloyd’s website boasts proudly of its special status in Israel:

    Lloyd’s has a special legal status in Israel according to which it is permitted to write insurance and reinsurance business in Israel…

    In direct insurance, Lloyd’s is perceived in Israel as a leader in sophisticated products and niche lines and these are the classes where Lloyd’s has an added value for the local market.

    Lloyd’s and Israel have a long and distinguished history of cooperation.

    And again, on another page:

    Our customers are the businesses and entrepreneurs who drive and serve the Israeli economy and they come to Lloyd’s to access the scale, diversity and financial strength of our specialist insurance and reinsurance market.

    Lloyd’s provides tailored insurance and reinsurance solutions for a variety of Israeli risks including Liability, Property, Environmental, Marine, Aviation, Cyber, Financial Lines, Commercial lines and many other special niche products dedicated for the innovative market in Israel which include wide variety of global corporations….

    As our world is reshaped by economic, environmental, geopolitical and technological shifts, the breadth, depth and responsiveness of the Lloyd’s market gives Israeli businesses the confidence to move forward in the face of uncertainty.

    Youth Demand’s protest shone a spotlight on Lloyd’s complicity with Israel at a moment when the insurer was trying to highlight its inclusivity and innovation. As the protestors succinctly demonstrated, Lloyd’s growth comes at a direct cost in Palestinian lives, which nobody should be given the luxury of forgetting.

    Featured image via Youth Demand

    By Alex/Rose Cocker

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Israel Bombed My High-Rise Apartment This Week. We Barely Survived.

    This week, as I stood on my mattress, ready to collapse with exhaustion, my phone suddenly rang. It was my cousin Raneen, her voice urgent and trembling: “Dalia, have you and your family evacuated? They’re about to bomb the tower beside you — and the one across from you. Hurry!” I immediately started hearing neighbors screaming and people running through the streets in panic. Even now…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Muslim midwife targeted by UKLFI for supporting Palestine

    A Muslim midwife, Fatimah Mohamied, has undertaken legal proceedings against her former employers after being targeted by UK Lawyers for Israel. Fatimah worked as a Cultural Safety Lead Midwife for Chelsea and Westminster NHS Foundation Trust. However, once the trust was alerted to social media posts made by Fatimah in support of Palestine, she was asked to take them down.

    Fatimah was also referred to the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) twice anonymously, and once by her trust. She later learnt that UK Lawyers for Israel, a Zionist lobby group, were involved in these referrals. Despite having left her role at the hospital, Fatimah then discovered she had been reported to Prevent by her former employers.

    Notorious UK Lawyers for Israel

    UK Lawyers for Israel have a reputation for using aggressive and intimidating tactics to silence supporters of Palestine. So much so, that the group are being referred to the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Solicitor Paul Heron told Declassified:

    UKLFI are acting in a manner that chills public participation and intimidates those who stand in solidarity with Palestine.

    We will not allow legal threats to shut down the public’s right to speak out on Palestine. The SRA has a duty to step in, to uphold professional standards, and to protect civil society from intimidation dressed up as law.

    However, that’s exactly what Fatimah faced: a chilling and intimidating attempt to silence her support of Palestine. I spoke to Fatimah to discuss her feelings about the censorship she has faced. She explained that:

    When October 7th happened, I tweeted support for Palestinian resistance against occupation, and I linked that with self respect, and that comes from my own experiences of abuse, and resisting that abuse, whether that be personal slights or systemic racism that I’ve experienced myself.

    When the trust received a complaint, they acted very quickly and they perceived me to potentially have brought disrepute to the trust, because the complainant made claims that I was inflammatory, inciting violence, anti-semitic, and supportive of terrorism. 

    Such an absurd response is, unfortunately, commonplace for people supporting Palestine and objecting to Israel’s genocide. And, that’s particularly the case for Muslims who are already disproportionately surveilled and policed by the notoriously racist Prevent policy.

    Fatimah’s original act, expressing support for Palestinian resistance and her trust’s overblown response is yet another indication of the culture of intimidation and silencing around resistance to settler colonialism. And, that intimidation is piercing when it does come. Fatimah told me that when she discovered her case had been referred to Prevent by her former employer:

    I was so scared. I cannot tell you how scared I was to get that email and to decide to actually speak to the police officer. I have to say I did expect a more bullying attitude, and I think it could have definitely been a bit a lot more bullying, but generally it was welcoming to discussion, so I took the opportunity to talk about it, and I’m really glad I did.  

    ‘We think that you’re being targeted’

    Remarkably, in spite of Prevent’s reputation, Fatimah found that it was the first instance in which she had felt supported. It wasn’t her former employer, or the NMC that attempted to understand her perspective. I asked her why she felt both institutions did not give her the benefit of the doubt:

    My only analysis is that they took to heart so much the words of UK Lawyers for Israel that they genuinely saw me as a threat to UK security. It’s just bizarre, and it really is a reflection of how illogical and psychotic racism is, but also how little they perceived me to have any power to push back.

    I was just fair game. I was easy pickings, and that’s how they perceive Muslim women generally.

    Instead, it was the police officer who handled her Prevent case who ultimately decided that she was not at risk of radicalisation and dismissed her case. Fatimah told me:

    Prevent – not the NMC, Prevent – was the one that told me, ‘We think that you’re being targeted.’ And my response to him was, I have been careful, but also, it’s not in my values to be hating of Jews. That’s not what I stand for. I care about all people, and I have compassion even for those who hate me because they were not born that way. 

    In fact, the officer agreed that there wasn’t a problem with Fatimah’s social media posts:

    He agreed with me. He said, ‘yes, we can see from your social media, your values.’ I cannot tell you how I never in a million years thought I would have that conversation with a Prevent officer. Even though we know Prevent is very, very racist towards Muslims, I got the impression that I was respected by that officer, which was nice.

    Cultural safety lead

    Fatimah’s experience is all the more shocking given the role the trust employed her to do. She explained that:

    My role was to tackle systemic inequality and racism in healthcare, particularly because Black and Asian women, but specifically Black women, are experiencing mortality as a consequence of pregnancy and childbirth. But it’s not just mortality It’s the near misses, the traumatic experiences, the infringements of their dignity, and the denial of pain relief. They are they are at the brunt of white supremacy in healthcare, and it was my role to try and tackle that.

    Fatimah’s role also focused on other issues that might impact the care someone receives whilst giving birth:

    It was also about sexual orientation and trans rights, and people who had multiple vulnerabilities, like those who are a migrant or a refugee, or an asylum seeker or someone who didn’t speak English, those who are disabled, those who are neurodivergent.

    I really liked doing that work, but the structure I was in just didn’t allow me to implement that work. They wanted to look good, not do good.

    The trust insisted that Fatimah delete any tweets relating to Palestine. And, they wanted her to set up an anonymous social media account if she wished to continue speaking about Palestine. Given Fatimah’s job role was to work towards inclusion in an intersectional manner, it’s all the more remarkable the way she treated. Healthcare workers in Palestine have been targeted and killed, hospitals bombed, doctors detained and tortured. Her interest and support in Palestine is entirely in line with the remit of her role.

    Surely, if the trust actually believed in the tasks that they had employed Fatimah to fulfil, they would have listened, understood, and appreciated her knowledge in connecting systemic inequalities in healthcare to her healthcare colleagues in Palestine. But, Fatimah remains unbowed by her experience:

    It is really intimidating to know that these large, very wealthy, very powerful institutions are literally spending their time and energy trying to attack this one person, this one person that’s just trying to manage her family. It didn’t intimidate me as they intended, because that is the intention, and I recognise that collective power, which depends on individuals speaking up, is more powerful. 

    Holding power to account

    Instead, Fatimah believes that her legal fight against her former employer is, for her, demonstrating the importance of holding power to account. She hopes her efforts will protect other healthcare workers who speak up about Palestine. When asked if she had a message for those workers, she told me:

    I would say to them that they have, first and foremost  a duty to speak up for our colleagues and to speak up for health. And if you speak up for health, it’s intrinsically tied with speaking up against injustice. All injustice links to health. In the end, whether it takes a year or several generations, it always comes down to health. And if you care about health, you need to care about injustice. Specifically systemic injustice. 

    And for those who are yet to speak up:

    Health and politics are the same word. I would say to those who care but are silent because they’re frightened, they’re reasonably frightened, that the risk they face in speaking up is less if more speak and and what are we if we are not brave? What are we if we don’t have any courage? And what are we if we don’t do what we can to make the next generation, our children, have a safer world. If we don’t we’re not partaking in our role as adults, whether you have children or not.

    We reached out with Fatimah’s story to advocacy organisation, CAGE International, who work with those at the sharp end of counter-terror strategies. Anas Mustapha, Head of Public Advocacy at CAGE told the Canary:

    UK Lawyers for Israel are amongst Britain’s leading enablers of the live-streamed genocide. They aid regulators and intimidate institutions to stifle free speech and pro-Palestinian activism. Willing and racist government institutions, like Prevent, have enabled their behaviour to suppress popular opposition to Zionism.

    Fatimah is one person. The fact that she has had such an awful experience with her former employers, with the NMC, and with the UK Lawyers for Israel is testament to how rattled these institutions are by her resistance. She told me:

    I’m not the only one. And this is not about me. This is about those who are oppressed, those who are colonised. Not just Palestine, but Sudan and Congo and all injustice is linked. Even though I have been targeted, and I am a victim, I am very privileged in many ways, to have a roof over my head and to have love in my life, and an education.

    It’s incumbent on those with privilege and power to do what they can, and we all have an element of power.

    Contribute to Fatimah’s crowdfunder here.

    Featured image via Unsplash/John Cameron

    By Maryam Jameela

    This post was originally published on Canary.