Rescuers in Gaza have already recovered hundreds of bodies from under the rubble in Gaza in less than a week since the ceasefire began, Gaza officials reported on Wednesday, with thousands more Palestinians’ bodies still trapped under the rubble. The Palestinian civil defense agency and medical facilities have reported that, since Sunday, about 200 bodies have been recovered from under debris.
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
Palestinians and aid groups in Gaza are returning to areas made inaccessible by Israel’s siege only to find that entire neighborhoods have been reduced to rubble, with even basic infrastructure like wells for water destroyed by Israel’s carpet bombing campaign. “We have been driving for the last 10 minutes here in Jabalia [refugee] camp, and I haven’t seen a single building standing…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
Human rights experts are warning that Israel’s ban on Palestinians’ main humanitarian aid agency will remove the “backbone” of the entire aid operation in Gaza and beyond when it goes into effect next week, threatening to prolong or worsen the humanitarian catastrophe Israel has created. In a research brief published by Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) on Wednesday…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
From 7.30am on Wednesday 22 January, Palestine Action begun occupying ‘The Aviva Centre’ in Bristol over its ongoing complicity with Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
One activist is on top of the overhang of the ‘UK’s largest insurer’:
BREAKING: Palestine Action is occupying 'The Aviva Centre' in Bristol.
Aviva insures UAV Engines, a drone factory owned by Israel's biggest weapons producer, Elbit Systems.
Without insurance, Elbit couldn't manufacture Israeli weapons in Britain. pic.twitter.com/N5CaXif4KC
— Palestine Action (@Pal_action) January 22, 2025
Another spray painted the front glass of the building. Messages painted on the building include ‘Pal Action’ and ‘Elbit Out’:
Aviva provides the mandatory employers liability insurance for UAV Engines in Staffordshire, a drone engine factory owned by Israel’s biggest weapons manufacturer, Elbit Systems.
Recent disclosures show the company no longer holds direct shares in Elbit Systems. However, as well as insuring an Israeli weapons factory, Allianz also continue to hold investments in funds which hold Elbit shares.
By insuring UAV Engines, Aviva is facilitating the design and production of drone engines used to power Israel’s killer drone fleet, including the Hermes 450 drones and IAI’s Harop and Harpy attack drones. Such drones are used to surveil, massacre and terrorise Palestinians, both in Gaza and in the West Bank.
In direct contradiction with facilitating Elbit weapons production, ‘The Aviva Business Ethic Code’ states: “Respecting our customers, colleagues, communities, partners and the environment is part of our approach to human rights. As a company, we have an obligation to ensure our business activities do not cause or contribute to violations of human rights of others“.
Elbit Systems provides over 85% of Israel’s military drone fleet and land-based equipment, as well as munitions, missiles and electronic warfare. According to Elbit’s CEO Bezhalel Machlis, the company “ramped up production” to arm the Israeli military to commit what the International Court of Justice ruled as a ‘plausible genocide’ in Gaza. The company routinely uses assaults on Palestinians as a means to market new weaponry as “battle-tested”.
Despite a ceasefire being implemented in Gaza, the Israeli military begun “Operation Iron Wall” in Jenin, West Bank. In the last 24 hours, they’ve killed 9 Palestinians and injured 70 in the region. Many of those killings were conducted using air strikes and drones.
Palestine Action’s direct action campaign has also consistently target Allianz offices, as they provide insurance for the other Elbit British subsidiaries. Actions against Allianz included operations against 10 of their British and Irish offices overnight, as well as sustained actions against the insurers premises.
A Palestine Action spokesperson said:
Israel’s biggest weapons firm could not work in Britain in isolation. Aviva is providing the mandatory insurance Elbit needs in order to build Israeli weapons on our doorstep. Without insurance, the Israeli arms maker would not be able to operate in Britain.
Palestine Action will continue to take direct action against companies such as Aviva as long as they facilitate the destruction of Palestine and massacres of the indigenous population of the land.
Featured image and additional images via Palestine Action
By The Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.
As 2025 begins, California is on fire. And it feels like much of the rest of the world is burning, too. From the slaughter in the Middle East to a new Cold War brewing in Asia, everywhere we look is filled with uncertainty.
At home, the California wildfires have exposed much of the true face of capitalism. From prison laborers risking their lives for pennies by fighting the blazes to massive price hikes for rents in Southern California, the U.S. is crumbling.
Yet externally, America is as aggressive as ever. Only last month, it helped force through a coup against the Assad government in Syria, and Trump has made noises about using force against Panama, Greenland, and has threatened Canada, Cuba, Venezuela and other nations in the Global South.
The post Hyperimperialism, The Fall Of Syria And Capitalist Gangsters appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.
This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.
On Tuesday, President Donald Trump’s pick for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said that she believes Israel has a “biblical right” to the occupied West Bank, parroting a view held by extremist Zionists on Israel’s illegal occupation of the Palestinian territory. In her Senate confirmation hearing, Elise Stefanik refused to answer a question from Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Maryland) about…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian child in southern Gaza on Monday in an apparent violation of the ceasefire agreement that went into effect just the day before. An Israeli sniper reportedly shot the 15-year-old child on Monday evening in central Rafah. Graphic footage of the attack also shows Israeli forces opening fire at another Palestinian who approaches the child’s body in an…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
President Donald Trump is slated to resume shipments of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel, reports say, despite the fragile Gaza ceasefire deal having been implemented the day before his inauguration on Monday and Israel’s extensive use of the bombs on civilian areas. Trump is expected to lift the hold on the bombs within his first few days in office, according to outgoing Israeli ambassador to the…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
This content originally appeared on The Grayzone and was authored by The Grayzone.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
The Nazi salute of world’s richest man Elon Musk was hardly surprising, considering the way he’s been spreading racist disinformation and backing fascists all around the world in recent months. He’s apparently now funding the legal fight of British far-right figure Tommy Robinson (Stephen Yaxley-Lennon), for example. But the BBC‘s ‘both sides’ response was awful – as was a supposedly Jewish organisation – the ADL.
The British public broadcaster simply said “Musk responds to backlash over gesture at Trump rally”. This was despite it quoting historians specialising in fascism as saying Musk’s “gesture” was clearly a Nazi salute.
Even a confidant of Musk had reportedly praised the return of the “Roman salute” – which Benito Mussolini’s fascists used in Italy and then Adolf Hitler’s Nazis adopted in Germany. Whatever its pre-fascist historical origins, it is widely recognisable in the West as a commitment to the far-right cause.
Musk of course has pushed back – saying “Frankly, they need better dirty tricks. The ‘everyone is Hitler’ attack is sooo tired”. Yet he didn’t deny or give explanation as to why he did a Nazi salute – and the argument that he was ‘sending his heart out’ to people doesn’t wash when you watch the actual timing of events.
Perhaps even more absurd, however, was the defence that the pro-Israel lobbyists at the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) offered for Musk.
The ADL, which has waged a battle against TikTok because it reflected the pro-Palestinian sentiment of its mostly younger users, clearly thinks Musk is the ‘right kind of antisemite’ as he, like most other multi-billionaires, supports Israel. Because it tried to play down the importance of Musk’s salute, tweeting:
It seems that @elonmusk made an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm, not a Nazi salute
It said people were “on edge” and that “all sides should give one another a bit of grace, perhaps even the benefit of the doubt”.
People were quick to point out that the ADL hasn’t given “grace” or “the benefit of the doubt” to people opposing the genocide in Gaza in the last 15 months. Its record has been quite the opposite.
Just recently, for example, it criticised historians for calling out Israel’s mass destruction of the occupied Palestinian territory’s education system. And many people are fully awake to the ADL’s shameless hypocrisy and complicity with the resurgence of fascism:
19 year old student says 'Free Palestine'
Antisemitic!
Musk backs Germany's AfD and antisemitic replacement theories. Buys Twitter so Nazis load at the top. Sieg Heils multiple times.
Give him the benefit of the doubt!
The @ADL has one job. But @JGreenblattADL can't do it.
— Bend the Arc: Jewish Action (@jewishaction) January 20, 2025
According to the ADL, I (a Jewish person) am wearing the equivalent to a swastika in this photo but Elon Musk (a Christian) doing the Nazi salute has no connection to Nazism. https://t.co/Sh79Nhn7eN pic.twitter.com/mC2QOApyxl
— eli n. (@elinachos) January 21, 2025
Elon Musk did a Hitler-adjacent salute at a Trump rally, and the ADL rushed to defend him, calling it “an awkward moment of enthusiasm.”
This is the same ADL whose CEO called tweeting “Free Palestine” at him antisemitic in 2023.
Cartoon by @LatuffCartoons pic.twitter.com/HCgMkXOoKL
— Mondoweiss (@Mondoweiss) January 21, 2025
This should not be surprising to anyone who has watched the ADL and its leadership operate these past few years—its chief executive said that Elon Musk is the “Henry Ford of our generation”, but wow is it shocking to see nazi apologia be so outright and shameless. https://t.co/q3Mdytvxw8
— Jason Rosenberg (@mynameisjro) January 21, 2025
When college students protest to end genocide, the ADL calls for militarized police across campuses. When the richest man in the world gives a nazi salute on national television, they tell everyone to calm down.
The ADL may not care about the safety of our communities, but we… https://t.co/sIzFKlIH15
— Jewish Voice for Peace (@jvplive) January 21, 2025
Even some supporters of Israel can see through the ADL’s double standards. Shaiel Ben-Ephraim, for instance, says the ADL fears holding Musk to account and that:
They, and all major Jewish organizations will pursue any little powerless person with a Palestinian flag pin, but will not protect us from the real threats from powerful people.
The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention, meanwhile, rightly insisted:
The use of an antisemitic genocidal signal by the world’s most powerful man, who has engaged in racism and antisemitism in the past, cannot be taken lightly or written off as a mistake.
The @LemkinInstitute is horrified to be issuing a Red Flag Alert for the #UnitedStatesofAmerica on the very first day of the second Trump term as president @realDonaldTrump . However, #ElonMusk 's clear use of the #Nazi salute — twice — during his speech has given us no other… pic.twitter.com/dDrkmGmJis
— Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention (@LemkinInstitute) January 21, 2025
Considering the ADL describes the Nazi salute as “the most common white supremacist hand sign in the world”, you’d think it would have given Musk no grace at all. Clearly, though, when it comes to Zionists are are ‘the right type of fascists’.
Featured image via the Canary
By Ed Sykes
This post was originally published on Canary.
Reports are now emerging that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) has announced a comprehensive closure of the ‘Judea and Samaria Area’, which is Israel’s name for the illegally occupied West Bank. The closure is due to begin at 7pm this evening, 21 January 2025, lasting until Monday 1 February 2025. The reckless and dangerous move by Israel makes a total mockery of the fragile ceasefire in Gaza, which began on Sunday 19 January.
Israel has also launched overnight drone strikes and begun an offensive operation on Jenin, including Jenin Refugee Camp, in the north of the illegally occupied West Bank.
The BBC has reported that at least six Palestinians have been killed and thirty-five have been injured. The military offensive has been referred to as ‘Iron Wall’ and an Israeli military statement said that it would continue ‘as long as necessary.’ These actions cast serious doubt on Israel’s commitment to the ceasefire and demonstrates a reckless attitude towards the recently agreed-upon deal.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has claimed that ‘Iron Wall’ will be an ‘intense and prolonged operation’ and forms ‘part of the war objectives added to the Cabinet at the request of the Religious Zionism party on Friday.’
Such concessions further demonstrate that Netanyahu’s right-wing government policies are being dictated by the most extremist far-right elements of the coalition, including Smotrich’s party. Such destabilising and war-mongering behaviour pose a grave threat to the rights of Palestinians and to peace more broadly.
They must be utterly condemned by the international community and sanctions must be placed on members of the Israeli cabinet responsible.
Under the terms of the announced closure, only humanitarian, medical and exceptional cases will be permitted, subject to approval by the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT). COGAT has long been used to arbitrarily restrict the freedom of movement of Palestinians, and it is a crucial tool of apartheid in order to ensure that Palestinians are fragmented and unable to travel freely, into, out of and within the occupied Palestinian territory.
In August 2023, the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) wrote a landmark report entitled ‘Fenced Off‘, which dealt with new COGAT Regulations designed to further curtail these freedoms.
Residents in the occupied West Bank have been advised to prepare sufficient water and food for at least two weeks to meet their needs during the closure. This further demonstrates the efforts made to police the freedom of movement of Palestinian people and further entrench apartheid measures.
What is happening now is an imposition of collective punishment over Palestinians in the illegally occupied West Bank and Jerusalem, raising concerns regarding further annexation plans and is in breach of Israel’s obligations under the fourth Geneva Convention.
To reiterate, Israel’s reckless military offensive in the occupied West Bank must be utterly condemned by the international community and sanctions must be placed on members of the Israeli cabinet responsible.
ICJP reiterates that what is happening now is the result of decades long impunity granted to Israel over the past decades and heightened over the past fifteen months. We demand third states and the international community to uphold their obligations and exert pressure on the Israeli government to ensure that what happened in Gaza is not repeated across the rest of the occupied Palestinian territory.
This article was published on behalf of the ICJP
Featured image via the Canary
By The Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.
Pro-Israel lobbyists say Donald Trump was “the greatest president ever for Israel” in his first term as US leader. And as he starts his second term, he’s wasted no time in bolstering the settler-colonial project. Because amid a shaky ceasefire giving Palestinians in Gaza a brief pause from genocide, he has lifted sanctions on “far-right Israeli settler groups and individuals” responsible for attacking Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. Even the Jerusalem Post used those words (though not in its actual article).
Understanding Trump’s complete support for Israeli actions, occupation forces and their settler allies have attacked Palestinians despite the Gaza ceasefire.
Elsewhere in the West Bank, Al Jazeera confirmed video footage circulating which showed Israeli occupation forces “rounding up” over 60 Palestinian people in a raid in Azzun, near Qalqilya. The outlet added that:
The Israeli military has said it intends to launch major operations in the West Bank
#شاهد
مشاهد جديدة.. لحظة اعتقال جنود الاحتلال أكثر من 60 فلسطينياً في بلدة عزون شرق قلقيلية. pic.twitter.com/ndFhSpcwMI— المركز الفلسطيني للإعلام (@PalinfoAr) January 20, 2025
Also near Qalqilya, in Jinasfut and Funduq, Israeli settlers played their role in intimidating Palestinians. Al Jazeera explained that they had “set vehicles and properties on fire under the protection of Israeli forces”. Across the West Bank, settlers injured “at least 21 Palestinians”.
During the genocide in Gaza, ethnic cleansing has intensified in the West Bank, with Reuters describing “growing violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank and land grabs in the occupied territory”.
#Ceasefire? Not in the West Bank
Tonight, dozens of settlers are attacking Palestinian villages across the West Bank.
In the village of Sinjil – Settlers set fire to two homes and at least four vehicles.
In the village of Ein Siniya – Settlers attacked and set fire to homes.
In… pic.twitter.com/nZ24wiEK5B— Yesh Din English (@Yesh_Din) January 19, 2025
The United Nations expressed concern about the occupying force’s increasing repression in the West Bank:
.@OHCHR_Palestine is alarmed by a wave of renewed violence perpetrated by settlers and Israeli security forces in the Occupied #WestBank, coinciding with the implementation of the Gaza ceasefire agreement and the release of hostages and detainees. This has been accompanied by…
— UN Human Rights Palestine (@OHCHR_Palestine) January 20, 2025
Israel also killed a 12-year-old in Gaza, while opening fire on someone trying to reach them. This was a violation of the ceasefire agreement.
https://twitter.com/palinfoen/status/1881636604814471584
People in illegal settlements in the West Bank hope that Trump will push for full Israeli control of the occupied territory they refer to as Judea and Samaria. Far-right figures in Israel and the US support this idea. And they have been laying the linguistic groundwork for years.
Just as Trump has now unilaterally renamed the Gulf of Mexico the ‘Gulf of America’, it seems like only a matter of time before his heavily pro-Israel administration unilaterally renames the West Bank of Palestine as ‘Judea and Samaria’.
Decades ago, the Likud party of current war-criminal prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said:
Judea and Samaria will not be handed to any foreign administration; between the Sea and the Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty.
Biden may have given a green light for Israel to commit genocide, but Trump may well provide Israel’s settler-colonial regime with the support it needs to take a big step towards complete control of Palestine, from the river to the sea.
Featured image via screengrab
By Ed Sykes
This post was originally published on Canary.
As Donald Trump becomes US president for a second time, Oxfam has released a report showing that the wealth of billionaires increased by $2tn in 2024, “three times faster than the year before”. About four new billionaires popped up every week last year, but “the number of people living in poverty has barely changed since 1990”. “Many of the super-rich” Oxfam says “owe part of their wealth to historical colonialism”.
But colonialism isn’t a thing of the past. And due to ideology or simple self-interest, today’s billionaires are heavy supporters of and investors in the settler-colonial project of Israel. After 15 months of genocide in Gaza, in which Israeli occupiers have murdered around 18,000 children and utterly decimated the Palestinian territory, here’s a breakdown of some of the ways the world’s biggest billionaires have been backing the war-criminal apartheid state.
In the words of the Zionist Organization of America’s Morton A. Klein, Trump himself is “the greatest president ever for Israel”. Klein insisted that “no U.S. president has done more for Israel than President Trump”. And that’s despite Joe Biden giving billions in military aid, along with total impunity, to Israel amid its most genocidal rampage yet against the Palestinian people. The fact is simply that Trump was always more of an ideological bedfellow for Israel’s war-criminal prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right buddies.
The trio of Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg are kneeling at the altar of Trump right now, but mainly because they know he’ll allow them to boost their wealth even further. The three richest men in the world also support Israel:
Other billionaires close to Trump are Peter Thiel (whose dodgy company Palantir “has been vocally supportive of Israeli military action”, and “may help with artificial intelligence used to identify military targets”) and Marc Andreessen (who has stepped up investments in Israel during the Gaza genocide).
At least 13 billionaires are due to serve in Trump’s government. It will reportedly be the richest administration in modern times.
He didn’t make the top ten, but a dishonourable mention must go to Michael Dell, who is also passionate about the Israeli settler-colonial project. Dell “provides servers and related services to the Israeli Ministry of Defense and the Israeli military”, and subsidiary EMC Israel Advanced Information Technologies is helping to settle and develop in the Naqab (Negev) desert, displacing local communities in the process. Dell donated $1.8m in 2014 to the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces.
There are many more billionaires in the US who love Israel, but the list is long, including people like Michael Bloomberg and Robert Kraft. A few more are Daniel Abraham, Henry Samueli, Bernard Marcus, Ronald Lauder, Leon G. Cooperman, Lynn Schusterman, Haim Saban, Daniel Gilbert, Isaac Perlmutter, Ira Rennert, Sam Zell, David Green, Leslie Wexner, and Paul Singer.
Billionaires absolutely should not exist. As Oxfam’s Max Lawson insisted previously, the very existence of billionaires is “a sign of economic failure” and ‘undermines democracy’. The increasing inequality in recent decades and the simultaneously increasing power of the super-wealthy, meanwhile, has been utterly disastrous for ordinary people. And it seems the existence of billionaires is particularly bad for Palestinians, because super-rich individuals have been lobbying for Israel throughout its genocide, and it doesn’t look like they’ll be stop supporting the its criminal regime any time soon.
Featured image via the Canary
By Ed Sykes
This post was originally published on Canary.
COMMENTARY: By Eugene Doyle
A litmus test of Israel’s commitment to abandon genocide and start down the road towards lasting peace is whether they choose to release the most important of all the hostages, Marwan Barghouti.
During the past 22 years in Israeli prisons he has been beaten, tortured, sexually molested and had limbs broken.
What hasn’t been broken is the spirit of the greatest living Palestinian — a symbol of his people’s “legendary steadfastness” and determination to win freedom from occupation and resist the genocidal forces of the US, Israel and their Western enablers like Australia and New Zealand.
As reported last week, Egypt, Qatar and Hamas are all insisting Barghouti, the most popular leader in Palestine, be among the thousands of Palestinian hostages to be freed as part of the ceasefire agreement.
His release or retention in captivity will say volumes about which path the US and Israel wish to take: either more land thieving, more killings, more lawlessness or steps towards ending the occupation and choosing peace over territorial expansion.
Why is Barghouti potentially so important? Despite long years in Israeli jails, he is a political giant who bestrides the Palestinian cause. He is an intellectual and both a fighter and a peace activist.
He is respected by all factions of the Palestinians. He is by far the most popular figure in Palestine and as such he is almost uniquely positioned to complete the vital task of uniting his people.
Back in July last year the Chinese government pulled off a diplomatic masterstroke by getting 14 factions, including Hamas and Fatah, to successfully come together for reconciliation talks and ink the Beijing Declaration on Ending Division and Strengthening Palestinian National Unity. Now they need a unifying leader to move forward together.
Fatah’s Mahmoud Abbas is despised as a US-Israeli tool by most Palestinians, 90 percent of whom, according to polling, want him gone. Hamas has represented the most effective resistance to Israel but the time may have come for them to accept partnership with, even leadership by, someone who can negotiate peace.
How Gaza and the West Bank is governed should be determined by the Palestinian people not by anyone else, especially not by Israeli leaders currently under investigation for genocide or US leaders who should join them in the dock for arming them.
Hypocritical rejection of Hamas
Barghouti, however, could untie the Gordian knot that has formed around the West’s hypocritical rejection of Hamas on one hand and the Palestinian people’s determination not to be dictated to by their oppressors on the other.
Barghouti may also be a saviour for the Israelis. Their society has turned into a psychotic perversion of the great hope Jews around the world placed in the Israeli state.
As Israeli soldiers have shown us in countless Tik-tok videos the IDF has become an army of rapists and child killers — these very deeds celebrated by the highest political and religious leaders in the country.
Israel is now the greatest killer of journalists in the history of war, the remorseless destroyer of hospitals and their patients and staff, the desecrator of countless churches and mosques. Tens of thousands of women have been killed for the sake of killing.
Israel is guilty of the crime of crimes — genocide — and needs a way out of the mess it has created.
For all these reasons Marwan Barghouti is a very dangerous man to Netanyahu and the most fanatical Zionists. He believes in peace.
In my profile of him a year ago I quoted his wife, lawyer and activist Fadwa Barghouti: “Marwan’s goal has always been ending the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian Territories. Marwan Barghouti believes in politics. He’s a political and national leader loved by his people.
‘Fought for peace’
“He fought for peace with bravery and spent time on the Palestinian street advocating for peace. But he also believes in international law, which gives the occupied people the right to fight for their independence and freedom.”
Alon Liel, formerly Israel’s most senior diplomat, proposed freeing Barghouti because he is “the ultimate leader of the Palestinian people,” and “he is the only one who can extricate us from the quagmire we are in.”
Marwan Barghouti has the moral, political and popular stature to reach out to the Israelis, to see past their crimes and to sit down with them. If only. If only. If only.
The horrible reality is Israel and the US have been led by war criminals who fail to grasp the fact that peace is only possible if they abandon the vilification of the Palestinian people and their leaders; that a better world is only possible if the Palestinians are finally given freedom and dignity.
It will be a relief to everyone to see the remaining few dozen Israelis held by Hamas and other groups released. They deserve to be home with their families.
It will be a relief that thousands of Palestinian hostages be freed, many of them, according to Israel’s leading human rights organisation B’tselem, victims of torture, sexual violence and medieval conditions. Hundreds of Palestinian child hostages — all of them traumatised — will be returned to their families.
All these are welcome developments. Strategically, however, Marwan Barghouti stands apart.
Uniquely suited to lead Palestine
Long considered the “Palestinian Mandela” — not least because of his 22-years continuous imprisonment — the former Fatah leader, the former military leader, has attributes that make him almost uniquely suited to lead Palestine to freedom — if Israel and the US are prepared to abandon the Greater Israel project and accept peace can only come with justice for all.
That’s a big “If”.
Barghouti, returned to jail in 2002, after being convicted in what is considered by many scholars an illegal and deeply flawed Israeli show trial on five counts of murder. He denies the charges and does not recognise the court.
He has lived for more than 22 years in conditions far more barbaric than the great South African leader had to endure on Robben Island. According to Israeli human rights groups, family and international lawyers, Barghouti has been beaten, tortured, sexually molested and had limbs broken.
What hasn’t been broken is the spirit of the greatest living Palestinian – a symbol of his people’s “legendary steadfastness” and determination to win freedom from occupation and resistance to the genocidal forces of the US, Israel and their Western enablers like Australia and New Zealand.
Marwan Barghouti is the same age as me — 65 — and it fills me with horror that a man who has spent decades fighting for freedom, and, if possible, peace, has been subjected to the horrors of an Israeli gulag for so long.
I am not sure I would have had the physical or mental strength to endure what he has but — like Mandela — he kept his humanity and has remained an advocate for peace.
We should never forget that seven million Palestinians remain as hostages held in brutal conditions by the US and Israel. Most are hostages without human rights, political rights, territorial rights.
As Palestinians have pointed out: imprisonment is now part of Palestinian consciousness. But — as Marwan Barghouti has shown with his iron will, his human decency, his determination to continue to be an advocate for peace with Israel — you can imprison the Palestinians but not their struggle.
I’ll give the last word to his son, Arab Barghouti who told Mehdi Hasan on Zeteo this week, “My father used to always tell me that hope is sometimes a privilege, but being ‘hope-less’ is a privilege that we can’t have as Palestinians.”
In the same interview he also said:
“If any Israeli leader really wants an end to this and to have peace for the region, they would see that my father is someone that would bring that and is someone who still believes in the tiny chance left for the two-state solution.”
Eugene Doyle is a writer based in Wellington. He has written extensively on the Middle East, as well as peace and security issues in the Asia Pacific region. He hosts the public policy platform solidarity.co.nz
This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.
46th US President Joe Biden officially leaves office Monday, January 20, to be succeeded by former President Donald Trump. Trump’s promises in the name of “saving American workers” have raised alarm for people across sectors of society, including migrant workers who are gearing up for mass deportations, and unionized workers who are preparing for Trump’s attacks on labor rights. Trump’s loyalty to multi-billionaires has also given the working class of the US great cause for concern. Meanwhile, in contrast, the Democrats have attempted to position themselves as the real defenders of working people.
The post Biden’s Legacy: Genocide Abroad, Economic Despair At Home appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.
This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.
Israeli Jewish settlers rampaged through several Palestinian towns in the West Bank on 19 January in a show of anger at a ceasefire deal that saw the end of fighting between the Israeli army and Hamas in Gaza and the release of Palestinian prisoners and Israeli captives.
Settlers across the West Bank organized themselves in an effort to disrupt the release of Palestinians held captive in Israeli prisons and detention centers, where torture and rape are common.
Accompanied by soldiers, the settlers attacked Palestinian cars and closed several main roads in Turmus Ayy, Atara, Ein Siniya, Ein Ayoub, Qalqilya, and Jaba on Sunday evening.
The post Outraged By Gaza Ceasefire, Israeli Settlers Burn Palestinian Homes, Cars appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.
This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.
Three Youth Demand supporters defied Met Police restrictions on the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign (PSC) demonstration on Saturday 18 January by standing outside the BBC with signs. Youth Demand are calling for a two-way arms embargo on Israel and for the new UK government to halt all new oil and gas licences granted since 2021.
Youth Demand: not letting the BBC get away with it
At around 4:00pm, the three were arrested under Section 14 of the Public Order Act after marching to the BBC and standing on the pavement with signs, defying the conditions imposed on the protest by the Met. One Youth Demand supporter was holding a sign saying “Can I protest here?”, another held a completely blank sign.
The post Youth Demand Made It To The BBC At Saturday’s Palestine March appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.
This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.
As the ceasefire in Gaza has entered its second day and appears to be holding, we begin our coverage in Ramallah. “We’re hoping that it will continue, the Israelis will continue to release prisoners. And, of course, we have no guarantees they will not be rearrested again,” says Tala Nasir, a lawyer with the Palestinian prisoner and human rights organization Addameer. She also notes that many of those released are coming home in poor health. “They were starving inside the prisons,” Nasir notes.
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
As part of the Gaza ceasefire, Israel has released 90 Palestinian hostages from prison, including 21 children. But the apartheid state tried to stop family members and others from celebrating their freedom. And the Palestinian Authority reportedly helped.
Despite Israeli warnings, thousands of relatives, friends, and members of the public took to the streets of the occupied West Bank to celebrate the first prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas. Israeli occupation forces, meanwhile, wounded a number of gatherers with rubber bullets and tear gas outside Israel’s notorious Ofer prison, which is in the Palestinian territory. As Middle East Eye reported:
the Israeli army has imposed strict security measures to prevent public gatherings outside the prison.
The occupation’s police had also “stormed the homes of several Palestinian female prisoners in Jerusalem” who were due for release, while warning “their families against celebrating or raising Palestinian flags”, threatening cancellation of their release if they did. Israel reportedly delayed the release of hostages until the middle of the night too.
The West Bank’s governing Palestinian Authority, meanwhile, helped with the repression outside Ofer prison. There were reports of Palestinian Authority police arresting prominent Al Jazeera reporter Givara Budeiri, along with her cameraperson, just after they’d done a live report outside the prison. A Palestinian journalists’ union condemned their arrest, saying:
This behavior is completely unacceptable, especially in light of a major national event represented by the release of female prisoners from Israeli occupation prisons.
Police reportedly released them later on.
The Palestinian Authority has governed over parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank since the Oslo Accords in the 1990s. It was supposed to be an ‘interim’ body that would eventually lead to a Palestinian state “on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital”, as Al Jazeera explains. That plan didn’t work, and illegal Israeli land grabs have made it a distant, unrealistic dream. Al Jazeera adds that:
Many now view [President Mahmoud] Abbas’s government as authoritarian, propped up by the likes of the EU and other deeply invested donors who have thrown billions of dollars into keeping his sinking ship afloat. The administration is viewed as irredeemably corrupt – PA bigwigs enjoy VIP status and lifestyles, with travel privileges not afforded to the rest of the population.
Since Abbas’s election in 2005, there have been no elections, except the parliamentary elections in 2006. Also:
Israel wields the real power, turning the tap on tax revenue, and controlling access to the shrinking territories – a status quo often compared with the Bantustans of apartheid-era South Africa.
Al Jazeera points out that “Israel frequently bypasses the Palestinian Authority, invading areas that are supposed to be under its control”, and the occupation forces “impose an impossible web of restrictions over all aspects of Palestinian lives, including where they can travel, live and build”. For this reason:
Many perceive the body as a tool of the Israeli security apparatus, its US-trained forces not only targeting those suspected of planning attacks on Israelis, but also arresting union figures, journalists and critics on social media.
Palestinian political groups signed a reconciliation deal in 2022 to prepare for parliamentary elections before the end of 2023, but the genocide in Gaza has pushed such plans further away. As of January 2025, Prof Mohamad Elmasry wrote in Middle East Eye:
The PA may perceive Hamas as so degraded that it can assert control over Gaza without the Islamist group.
Elmasry spoke about the Palestinian Authority’s crackdown on dissidents in recent months as an attempt to “demonstrate its reliability as a key player in the administration of post-war Gaza”, particularly with the US and Israel in mind. He said it had long done “much of the dirty work” and has become “the main “subcontractor and collaborator” for the Israeli occupation”. He added that:
this coordination has involved the stifling of dissent, including journalism, on Israel’s behalf.
Indeed, at the start of January, the Palestinian Authority suspended Al Jazeera‘s broadcasting in parts of the West Bank. This followed on from Israel itself banning the media outlet. And analysts claim the Palestinian Authority’s step was an attempt to “silence criticism” of its recent crackdown.
The Palestinian Authority’s crackdown, in turn, seems to be about it positioning itself for a role in Gaza. According to a statement last week:
The Palestinian government, under president Abbas’ directives, has completed all preparations to assume full responsibility in Gaza
Some Israeli figures still treat the Palestinian Authority to be “as much a terror group as Hamas”, despite its longstanding collaboration. But both the US and a number of states in the region believe the Palestinian Authority should govern Gaza or at least oversee its post-genocide recovery.
Featured image via the Canary
By Ed Sykes
This post was originally published on Canary.
The producer of a shocking new film – Censoring Palestine – about the coverage of Israel’s genocide in Gaza in the corporate media claims state censorship of the coverage is intensifying despite the ceasefire.
Norman Thomas, producer of Censoring Palestine said:
Since October 2023, mainstream media outlets like the BBC have concentrated on trying to play down what most people consider an Israeli genocide going in Palestine. But now, since the ceasefire, they have what’s even a bigger problem — which is playing down the part Britain has played in the genocide.
Censoring Palestine will be premiered in London on Wednesday 22 January. It’s the latest production from Platform Films who in 2023 made the controversial Oh Jeremy Corbyn – The Big Lie telling the rise and fall of the former Labour Party leader.
Thomas said:
Our previous film showed how the media helped bring down Jeremy Corbyn with smears and lies. Our new film shows the media committing an even worse crime — trying to hide a genocide.
He argues that the need to censor coverage has been made much more urgent since it’s emerged that Britain made a much bigger contribution to the Israeli war effort than simply supplying military equipment, but was involved in spying, reconnaissance, and other operations.
Thomas said:
It’s clear now the British government hasn’t just been complicit in genocide, it has taken part in it. And the British prime minister and other ministers may well find themselves charged with war crimes. This is sensational news but our mainstream media is giving it no coverage whatsoever.
Moreover, he argues that the BBC, as the state broadcaster, is playing a lead role in the censorship.
It’s NO accident that the police, on the pretext of protecting a synagogue, are trying to stop pro-Palestine protesters demonstrating near the BBC offices in London. This is a case of the state trying to shore up censorship in the most blatant and disgraceful way.
The film also shows the way that counter-terrorism laws are being used to silence voices of protest and dissent.
Thomas said:
Dawn raids on journalists, an academic being arrested for making a speech, protesters being jailed without bail for long periods of time – and all using what appear to be totally false and ridiculous accusations of terrorism. Our film paints a picture of a British establishment desperate to conceal the part it’s played in the horrific crimes against humanity in Palestine.
The film features interviews with Alexei Sayle, Roger Waters, and veteran film director Ken Loach – who speaks revealingly of his own experience with censorship in the past.
In the film he totally condemns the role of the BBC in coverage of Gaza. “The BBC is acting as an arm of the state,” he says.
Especially powerful in the film, Thomas said, are the contributions of the mothers of two young activists imprisoned for taking action to stop the manufacture of drones in Britain for use in Palestine.
He said:
Protest is being equated with dissent in an outrageous and unjust way
Platform Films has made films for the BBC and Channel Four. Its film Oh Jeremy Corbyn – The Big Lie hit the UK headlines when it was axed from Glastonbury Festival in 2023 following an online campaign led by pro-Israel bodies.
Censoring Palestine will get its first London screening in the Genesis Cinema, 93-95 Mile End Road E14UJ, at 6.40pm Wednesday 22 January, before going on general release.
The screening will be followed by an open discussion with Alexei Sayle, journalist Sarah Wilkinson, the mothers of three imprisoned pro-Palestine activists, Stop The War Convenor Lindsey German, and the filmmakers.
For tickets contact Genesis Cinema here.
Watch the trailer:
By The Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.
On Monday 20 January, Keir Starmer’s own council is set to decide whether to divest from companies complicit in Israel’s genocide and the illegal occupation of Palestine, after thousands of residents demand action.
Over 4,000 locals in prime minister Starmer’s own constituency have signed a petition demanding Camden Council divest from companies complicit in human rights abuses and the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
Led by Camden Friends of Palestine, the petition calls for transparency and divestment from companies such as BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin, and RTX: arms manufacturers that supply weapons to Israel.
A series of shocking Freedom of Information (FOI) requests exposed that Camden Pension Fund is currently investing millions of pounds in funds connected to these companies. Despite repeated attempts by the council to avoid scrutiny – canceling meetings, closing the public gallery, refusing deputations, and even involving police – this petition has forced Camden Council to hold a crucial debate and vote on divestment on Monday 20 January.
A Camden resident and spokesperson for Camden Friends of Palestine said:
Camden council has repeatedly ignored the wishes of its communities, actively sidestepping demands for ethical investment. This petition will make Starmer’s own council confront the question of divestment face on, for the whole of Camden to see.
There is clearly a huge groundswell of support for divestment from these companies that are currently supplying weapons to Israel. The council must end its complicity now.
Any other option but divestment would mean councillors prioritising a career in Starmer’s Labour party over the communities they represent, opposition to genocide and international law.
Presenting the petition to the councillors will be two Camden residents: Lubaba Khalid, a Palestinian resident, and Holocaust survivor Stephen Kapos. Both are vocal in their stance against the British government’s complicity in genocide and will be representing the 4,000 local residents who signed the petition calling for divestment.
It is widely considered that Camden Council is dominated by Starmer’s wing of the Labour Party.
In the 2024 summer election, several councillors from Camden Council were rewarded with MP seats by the Labour Party. These include former council leader Georgia Gould, who became an MP, along with Danny Beales and Lloyd Hatton, both of whom also transitioned from local politics to parliament.
This demonstrates Camden’s importance as a key political power base for Starmer’s Labour.
Camden is represented by two MPs, one of whom is the PM who’s constituency covers more 60% of the wards in the Camden Council. Starmer’s majority was significantly reduced in the 2024 summer election – down from 22,766 in 2019 to just 11,572.
This sharp decline highlights growing discontent in the constituency, in large part due to his position on Palestine and his support for the apartheid state of Israel.
The decision the council faces follows the likes of Waltham Forest who committed to arms trade divestment amid pressure from Palestine activists.
Local residents and activists will gather outside Camden Town Hall on Monday 20 January to show their support for divestment and urge councillors to vote in favour of the community led presentation:
TOMORROW EVENING: Join us, @camden_psc and @camdenabudis outside Camden Town Hall to demand @CamdenCouncil listen to the 4,000 people who signed our petition:
DISCLOSE AND DIVEST THE PENSION FUND FROM APARTHEID & GENOCIDE
6pm, Mon 20 Jan
Judd St, WC1H 9JE pic.twitter.com/P81Bmi4laV
— Camden Friends of Palestine (@CamdenPalestine) January 19, 2025
Featured image via the Canary
By The Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.
The Qatari Minister of Foreign Affairs, in a pivotal announcement on Wednesday evening, confirmed that Israel and the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) have finalized a deal designed to halt Israel’s genocidal and destructive war in the Gaza Strip for at least 42 days. This accord is essentially a reworking of the previously proposed ceasefire arrangement in May by the Biden administration, when Hamas declared its acceptance of the ceasefire agreement, while Israel reneged on it and continued with the war. It turned out Israel wanted time to both bring out more destruction in Gaza, more death, and use its mix of cards to subdue Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The post Gaza Ceasefire Reveals Israel’s Fragility appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.
This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party said in a statement on Thursday that the Gaza ceasefire deal will allow “Israel to return to fighting under American guarantee.”
The statement was a response to National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, leader of the Jewish Power party, who has threatened to quit the coalition government if the ceasefire deal is approved.
The three-phase ceasefire deal does not commit Israel to a permanent truce, and the statement from Likud signals the US has assured Israel it could resume its genocidal war after the first phase, which involves a 42-day ceasefire and initial hostage exchange.
The post Netanyahu’s Likud Party Says Ceasefire Deal Allows A ‘Return To Fighting’ appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.
This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.
On Dec. 11, over a dozen NYU students and faculty dropped flyers and hung banners throughout the Bobst Library while 13 people sat in on the administrative floor of thelibrary. The actionists were demanding a meeting with administrators, who had, in the spring during the Gaza solidarity encampment movement at NYU, promised students to disclose the university’s endowment, including all its investments in weapons manufacturers and ties to Israel and companies that profit off its occupation of Palestine.
The direct action was organized by student group Shut It Down NYU
The post NYU Imposes One-Year Suspensions On 11 Students appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.
This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.
A coalition of 120 international human rights organizations and activists has accused the United States of shielding Israeli war criminals by obstructing the enforcement of International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrants. This condemnation follows the U.S. vote to impose sanctions on the ICC, undermining its ability to pursue justice against Israeli occupation leaders accused of war crimes.
The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed the “Anti-ICC Law,” a controversial bill that, if ratified, would penalize any foreign entity investigating or prosecuting U.S. citizens or citizens of allied states, including Israel.
The post 120 Human Rights Groups Accuse US Of Shielding Israeli War Criminals appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.
This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.
A coalition of 120 international human rights organizations and activists has accused the United States of shielding Israeli war criminals by obstructing the enforcement of International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrants. This condemnation follows the U.S. vote to impose sanctions on the ICC, undermining its ability to pursue justice against Israeli occupation leaders accused of war crimes.
The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed the “Anti-ICC Law,” a controversial bill that, if ratified, would penalize any foreign entity investigating or prosecuting U.S. citizens or citizens of allied states, including Israel.
The post 120 Human Rights Groups Accuse US Of Shielding Israeli War Criminals appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.
This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.
Israeli forces killed at least 19 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Sunday morning during a three-hour delay in implementing a cease-fire and hostage-release deal that Israel’s Cabinet finally approved the previous day. After over 15 months of a U.S.-backed military assault for which Israel faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) strikes on…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
Hamas has claimed victory in their armed conflict with the genocidal state of Israel, following the announcement of the long-overdue ceasefire agreement. The ceasefire, as impossible as it seems, may well bring an end to the killing, but it will not bring an end to the conflict.
Hamas arguably did win, because Israel failed to degrade and destroy them — a stated aim that was used to justify the invasion of Gaza and the barbaric murder of tens of thousands of innocent civilians that followed.
Israel didn’t destroy Hamas, it sat round a negotiating table with them. Put simply, Hamas won because they didn’t lose.
Israel, humiliated by homemade hand grenades and rocket launchers built from recycled piping, has lost. Its reputation destroyed, its leader a wanted fugitive, a national conscience irreversibly stained by its vociferous support for its TikTok rapist army and their bloody, unforgivable actions carried out under the false premise of “self-defence”.
The existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, capable of blowing us all to smithereens in a matter of minutes, was built upon a foundation of lies.
The hard-right, Tory-led EU referendum project — remember that extra £350 million a week for our NHS? — and publicly-fronted by some of the most deceitful, loathsome politicians of our generation, was built upon a foundation of lies.
The vilification of former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn — besmirched, smeared and castigated by the ruling classes for the ‘crime’ of honesty and integrity — was built upon a foundation of lies.
And now we can add the death machine of Israel’s claim of “self-defence” to the list of colossal lies, serving as an unbearably painful reminder of the grave impact that deception can have on the world.
But the greatest losers of Israel’s genocidal reign of terror are undoubtedly the Palestinian people.
As if more than 75 years of brutal oppression and illegal occupation wasn’t enough already?
As if anyone with just a shred of common decency and a semblance of humanity would think it is acceptable to slaughter children in their thousands?
As if anyone would vote for someone that thinks it is.
Keir Starmer’s suspiciously racist response to the news of a potential ceasefire may as well have been written by Labour Friends of Israel, or even Mrs Tzipi Hotoveley, the deranged Israeli ambassador to the UK. How the fuck has that hateful hag miraculously avoided a date with The Hague?
What has the lobby got on Keir Starmer? Nobody would behave quite so callously and recklessly unless they were completely and utterly compromised, would they?
I have to be honest, the thought of a return to apartheid, occupation, and the continuing violence towards the Palestinian people gives me very little reason to celebrate a fragile ceasefire agreement.
Cynical? You bet I am. Israel has repeatedly violated the 4th Geneva Convention and other acts contrary to its provisions, such as illegal settlements and collective punishment.
Can you really see Israel walking away from Gaza, defeated and humiliated? Their plan was clear enough: release all of the Israeli hostages and destroy Hamas. What a catastrophic failure.
A warts-and-all, independent investigation, backed by Keir Starmer, should be launched into Britain’s pivotal role in the criminality and brutality we have witnessed in Gaza and the West Bank during the past fifteen months.
Israel has always considered itself to be above the law and claims its integrity is beyond reproach.
The International Criminal Court has appeared to be somewhat sanguine about the annihilation of the Palestinian people. They have postured as the lawful solution while failing to stop the barbaric actions of a tiny pariah state that declares itself beyond the reach of international law.
International law itself is on trial alongside Israel. It isn’t unreasonable to ask what value international law holds when it cannot stop the indiscriminate killing, starving, and maiming of an entire population.
Israel’s obliteration of institutions such as the Al-Shifa Hospital, the brazen assassination of healthcare workers, and the starvation of Palestinian children are rendered as contested events that should be left open to interpretation, rather than abominable, wicked war crimes that demand accountability at the very highest level of international law.
Britain’s handling of the crisis in Gaza has been absolutely disastrous. From the supply of components that are used to construct weapons of death to the embarrassingly gutless response to the shocking murder of British humanitarian workers, both Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer have reduced our international stock to the levels of a rogue state such as Belarus
Israeli propaganda has failed to win the hearts and minds of a global audience, thanks to the first ever live-streaming of a genocide. No amount of Eylon Levy TikTok videos was ever going to change that.
Talking of that intolerable lying shit Levy, whatever happened to him? He used to be front and centre of every Israeli lie, then suddenly, he disappeared, just to be replaced by another weird private-schooled British guy
Honestly, nothing would make me happier than not having to write another word about Israel. But their vile colonialist ideology renders this almost impossible.
It remains to be seen if this ceasefire will ever be fully implemented. Israel cannot be trusted. My eternal hope is overshadowed by a hefty dose of past experience.
Israel would quite happily fire rockets at itself if it thought the rest of the gullible imperialist West would swallow up the lies and stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the terrorist regime, once again. Tragically, and without our consent, Britain would be at the front of the queue.
Nelson Mandela once said:
We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians…
With current events in mind, never a truer word has been spoken.
A fragile ceasefire is just one small step along a seemingly never-ending road of despair for the oppressed people of Palestine, but let us take a moment to share in their relief, however temporary it may or may not be.
Featured image via Rachael Swindon
This post was originally published on Canary.
COMMENTARY: By Andrew Mitrovica
I have wrestled with what to say in this urgent moment, long yearned for and that often appeared beyond reach during these last 15 hideous months.
One of the questions that I grappled with was this: What could I possibly share with readers that would even remotely capture the meaning and profundity of an apparent agreement to stop the wholesale massacre of Palestinians?
I had not suffered. My home is intact. My family and I are alive and well. We are warm, together and safe.
So, the other pressing dilemma I confronted was: Is it my place to write at all? This space should be reserved, I thought, for Palestinians to reflect on the horrors they have endured and what is to come.
Their voices will, of course, be heard here and elsewhere in the days and weeks ahead. My voice, in this context, is insignificant and, under these grievous circumstances, borders on being irrelevant.
Still, if you and, in particular, Palestinians will oblige me, this is what I have to say:
I think that there are four words that each, in their own way, bear some significance to Wednesday’s happy news that the guns are poised to go silent.
The first and perhaps most fitting word is “relief”.
There will be ample time and opportunity for the “experts” to draw up their predictable scorecards of the “winners” and “losers” and the broader short- and long-term strategic implications of Wednesday’s deal.
There will, as well, be ample time and opportunity for more “experts” to consider the political consequences of Wednesday’s deal in the Middle East, Europe and Washington, DC.
My preoccupation, and I suspect the preoccupation of most Palestinians and their loved ones in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, is that peace has arrived finally.
How long it will last is a question best posed tomorrow. Today, let us all revel in the relief that is a dividend of peace.
Palestinian boys and girls are dancing with relief. After months of grief, loss and sadness, joy has returned. Smiles have returned. Hope has returned.
Let us enjoy a satisfying measure of relief, if not pleasure, in that.
There is relief in Israel, too.
The families of the surviving captives will soon be reunited with the brothers and sisters, daughters and sons, mothers and fathers, they have longed to embrace again.
They will, no doubt, require care and attention to heal the wounds to their minds, souls and bodies.
That will be another, most welcomed, dividend of peace.
The next word is “gratitude”.
Those of us who, day after dreadful day, have watched — bereft and helpless as a ruthless apartheid state has gone methodically about reducing Gaza to dust and memory — owe our deepest gratitude to the brave, determined helpers who have done their best to ease the pain and suffering of besieged Palestinians.
We owe our everlasting gratitude to the countless anonymous people, in countless places throughout Gaza and the West Bank, who, at grave risk and at the expense of so many young, promising lives, put the welfare of their Palestinian brothers and sisters ahead of their own.
We must be grateful for their selflessness and courage. They did their duty. They walked into the danger. They did not retreat. They stood firm. They held their ground. They rebuffed the purveyors of death and destruction who tried to erase their pride and dignity.
They reminded the world that humanity will prevail despite the occupier’s efforts to crush it.
The third word is “acknowledge”.
The world must acknowledge the steadfast resistance of Palestinians.
The occupier’s aim was to break the will and spirit of Palestinians. That has been the occupier’s intent for the past 75 years.
Once again, the occupier has failed.
Palestinians are indefatigable. They are, like their brethren in Ireland and South Africa, immovable.
They refuse to be routed from their land because they are wedded to it by faith and history. Their roots are too deep and indestructible.
Palestinians will decide their fate — not the marauding armies headed by racists and war criminals who cling to the antiquated notion that might is right.
It will take a little more time and patience, but the sovereignty and salvation that Palestinians have earned in blood and heartache is, I am convinced, approaching not far over the horizon.
The final word is “shame”.
There are politicians and governments who will forever wear the shame of permitting Israel to commit genocide against the people of Palestine.
These politicians and governments will deny it. The evidence of their crimes is plain. We can see it in the images of the apocalyptic landscape of Gaza. We will record every name of the more than 46,000 Palestinian victims of their complicity.
That will be their decrepit legacy.
Rather than stop the mass murder of innocents, they enabled it. Rather than prevent starvation and disease from claiming the lives of babies and children, they encouraged it. Rather than turn off the spigot of arms, they delivered them. Rather than shout “enough”, they spurred the killing to go on and on.
We will remember. We will not let them forget.
That is our responsibility: to make sure that they never escape the shame that will follow each and every one of them like a long, disfiguring shadow in the late-day sun.
Shame on them. Shame on them all.
Andrew Mitrovica is an award-winning writer and journalism educator at the University of Toronto. He has been an investigative reporter for a variety of news organisations and publications, including the CBC, CTV, Saturday Night Magazine, Reader’s Digest, the Walrus magazine and the Globe and Mail, where he was a member of the newspaper’s investigative unit. He is also a columnist for Al Jazeera.
This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.