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Category: israel

  • Far-right former Reform candidate targets Muslim journalist with despicable threats

    Far-right hate groups, including a former Reform UK candidate, have targeted a Muslim journalist in a two-year-long “alarming and sustained campaign” of physical harassment, intimidation, and digital violence.

    Mariam Elsayeh has faced physical assaults at pro-Palestine protests, along with a vicious online defamation campaign. This has put her in grave danger and directly attacks press freedom in the UK.

    Mariam works for a number of outlets, including Al Jazeera Arabic and ITN. She is also an elected member of the UK’s Ethics Council of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ).

    Physical intimidation of Muslim journalist

    The intimidation began back in October 2023. She recalls being punched in the face and kicked while covering a protest outside the Israeli embassy. Following that incident, her primary alleged stalker, a Reform UK politician and 2024 parliamentary candidate, attempted to intimidate her by photographing her press badge.

    Mariam told the Canary:

    Initially, I didn’t perceive it as part of an organised campaign; I thought each incident was isolated. It was only later—when the harassment was cynically referred to as a “birthday gift”—that I realised the scale and coordination behind it. That moment made me feel naïve for having underestimated the situation and confirmed that this was not an isolated case.

    Since then, the Reform UK politician has allegedly appeared at numerous events she has attended. He also reportedly showed up at a family Eid celebration, which was deeply threatening.

    On September 6, 2025, the situation reportedly escalated. According to her account, the Reform UK politician verbally threatened her, saying,

    You’re done.

    At one point, a Tommy Robinson supporter attempted to pull off her hijab during an NUJ vigil while accusing her of supporting Hamas.

    Co-ordinated online attacks have systematically amplified the physical intimidation. After she spoke at two recent NUJ vigils against the murder of Palestinian journalists, she was then attacked on social media, including being called a “terrorist supporter.”

    Pro-Israel lobby

    On September 2, 2025, the pro-Israel media watchdog Honest Reporting published an article containing defamatory allegations against Elsayeh. They falsely characterised her as a “rabid anti-Israel social media personality” and an “apologist for terrorism.”

    The far-right circulated the article widely, which triggered a further wave of coordinated online hate speech.

    Replies on these social networks included direct threats such as:

    Don’t worry, we will deal with her in due course.

    And calls to:

    Deport her and air drop her into one of the 57 barbaric Islamic countries.

    Mariam said:

    At first, I didn’t even know the individual was linked to the Reform movement. It became clear only after the article was published, when his behaviour escalated to the point of intimidation. My legal team grew concerned that this might involve a diplomatic or political dimension and suggested seeking FCDO guidance, given the potential cross-border nature of the harassment. When colleagues in journalism later helped identify his name and role, it came as a complete shock. Until then, I had assumed it was a personal dispute, not a coordinated act. Still, I am naive again, cause this person’s first show-up to me was with an Israeli influencer.

    Shockingly, despite the explicit threats to her safety, none of the implicated tech platforms, including Meta’s Facebook and Threads or X, took action to remove the content. This meant the content remained public and put her in more danger.

    On September 6, 2025, a far-right protester shouted that “she should be beheaded”.

    Other online attacks include xenophobic and Islamophobic incitement, with calls for her deportation and defamatory accusations labelling her an “odious rat” and “Islamist.”

    A “critically insufficient response”

    The police advised that Mariam and her family leave her home due to the extreme threat level. However, this wasn’t possible due to personal circumstances. This meant they inadvertently exposed her family to further abuse.

    Mariam told Skyline International for Human Rights:

    What truly breaks me is seeing my children pulled into these threats without mercy — growing up between police visits and social care checks. That is not a normal life, and it must never be normalised.

    Recently, the situation has escalated. Mariam and her family are now under the protection of the Police Victim and Witness Protection Unit, in coordination with Social Services. Yet, she emphasises that her case is not an isolated incident but part of a broader pattern of suppression.

    My story should never distract from the real story.

    But it is also part of it: the silencing of voices that challenge the Israeli narrative. That is the real issue.

    A threat to democracy

    Mariam told the Canary that, whilst it’s important to recognise how seriously the situation became, focusing on the broader issues is more significant. That is, of course, the intimidation of journalists and trade unionists, which poses a threat to the very foundations of a democratic society.

    She continued:

    Such experiences can challenge our commitment to public roles and vital journalistic work. I am immensely thankful for the solidarity and support that have enabled me to continue, but it is crucial to recognise how easily others might be discouraged. This understanding underscores the necessity of collective protection and solidarity.

    No one working in journalism or representing others through their union should face intimidation while serving the public interest. When one of us is targeted, it impacts the freedom and safety of us all.

    She added that it is vital that we address the concerning trends of fascist language and tactics, which are creeping into democratic societies across Europe.

    Finally, she said:

    This rising hostility often targets Muslims, immigrants, and those who advocate for Palestine or challenge dominant narratives. Recognising these issues is the first step in safeguarding not only individuals but also the democratic values and pluralism that Europe aspires to protect. Together, we can foster understanding and resilience, creating a more inclusive and secure society for everyone.

    Feature image via Abdullah Bailey

    By HG

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • LSE staff pen searing open letter against controversial sexual violence project

    Staff at the London School of Economics (LSE) have come out against the instrumentalisation of sexual violence in support of genocide.

    The group of highly-regarded experts on the Middle East and gender issues are on a collision course with senior management. Meanwhile, bosses insist an event platforming the controversial Dinah Project will go ahead.

    LSE staff speak out

    Staff weren’t pulling any punches in their open letter:

    LSE senior management has been insisting on the Middle East Centre hosting the event. Centre staff pointed out that the report lacks academic rigor and presents several flawed assertions, and the Centre will now not host or endorse the event

    They say the Dinah Project’s claims draws on racist tropes about Arab and Muslim men. And also ignores sexual violence carried out by Israel against Palestinians.

    Undoubtedly, the Dinah Project has positioned itself as a champion of alleged sexual violence victims on 7 October. However it’s website says:

    While acknowledging the circumstantial nature of this evidence,
the team concluded it indicates deliberate sexual violence, including sexually motivated torture and cruel treatment. The team was also convinced that this violence persists against the remaining hostages.

    However, entire LSE academic departments have refused to attend the meeting, scheduled for 16 October:

    With the unsubstantiated nature of the claims put forward, the severe methodological shortcomings, and the propagandist tone of the report, the Gender department, the Centre for Women, Peace and Security alongside other scholars of sexual and gender-based violence at LSE have also refused to be involved in this event.

    The letter continues:

    Overall, multiple parties have expressed concerns with the academic inadequacy of the report, and its instrumentalization of sexual violence to manufacture consent for the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza.

    Manufacturing consent for genocide

    Electronic Intifada journalist Asa Winstanley was among the first to raise the alarm:

    He warned LSE that it was being used to launder a factually questionable report:

    And, Winstanley is not alone in his criticism.

    In February 2024, the allegations carried in a notorious New York Times article were questioned by the Intercept.

    Investigative reporters Jeremy Scahill and Ryan Grim spoke to Democracy Now on the issue in March 2024:

    Israeli use of sexual violence

    In March, the United Nations (UN) called out Israel’s “systematic” use of sexual violence against Palestinians.

    The UN said:

    Israel has increasingly employed sexual, reproductive and other forms of gender-based violence against Palestinians as part of a broader effort to undermine their right to self-determination and carried out genocidal acts through the systematic destruction of sexual and reproductive healthcare facilities.

    Navi Pillay, chair of the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, said:

    There is no escape from the conclusion that Israel has employed sexual and gender-based violence against Palestinians to terrorise them and perpetuate a system of oppression that undermines their right to self-determination.

    At this stage in the Israeli genocide against Palestinians the words “every accusation, a confession” are getting a little tired. But once again we find ourselves having to deploy them.

    LSE staff have made their strength of feeling known. And, their expert analysis of the situation makes one thing clear. The claims of sexual violence against Israeli hostages are unsubstantiated, methodologically flawed, and, might we add, politically expedient. However, the sexual abuse and torture of Palestinian hostages has been recorded by independent and verifiable sources. And, it is plainly a central facet of the Zionist attacks on Palestine to use sexual violence as a weapon of war.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Joe Glenton

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • 2,000 face terrorism charges as Palestine Action supporters’ hearings begin

    Yesterday, 15 October, court hearings began for the roughly 2,000 people who stand accused of showing support for Palestine Action. The government proscribed the campaign group as a terrorist organisation back in July. The move came after Palestine Action sprayed paint at two military planes in RAF Brize Norton, among other similar demonstrations.

    Under UK law, displaying an item showing support for a proscribed organisation is considered a low-level terrorism offence, which can be tried in a Magistrates Court. It carries a sentence of up to six months in prison. So far, 170 people have been charged.

    Police have arrested over 2,100 people for their support of Palestine Action since July. Most of them held simple placards reading “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action”. Many of the protesters arrested were pensioners.

    ‘Limitations on fundamental rights’

    The Council of Europe commissioner for human rights, Michael O’Flaherty, has already urged the UK to review its protest laws. He criticised both the Palestine Action ban (and subsequent mass arrests) and other recent draconian anti-protest measures.

    In September, O’Flaherty wrote in a letter to the home secretary:

    I observe that large numbers of arrests have reportedly been made for displaying placards or banners expressing solidarity with the organisation or disagreement with the government’s decision to proscribe it.

    I am aware that ‘support’ for a proscribed group is an offence under the Terrorism Act 2000. In this regard I recall that domestic legislation designed to counter ‘terrorism’ or ‘violent extremism’ must not impose any limitations on fundamental rights and freedoms, including the right to freedom of peaceful assembly, that are not strictly necessary for the protection of national security and the rights and freedoms of others.

    He went on:

    Changes following the adoption of the Police Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 and the Public Order Act 2023 continue to allow authorities to impose excessive limits on freedom of assembly and expression, and risk overpolicing.

    Following recent court findings that regulations defining serious disruption as ‘more than minor’ disruption are unlawful, I encourage your government to ensure that any arrests or convictions based on these regulations are subject to review.

    Furthermore, I would recommend that a comprehensive review of the compliance of the current legislation on the policing of protests with the United Kingdom’s human rights obligations be undertaken.

    Rushed trials, wasted time

    O’Flaherty wasn’t alone among official critics of the proscription, either. Police Scotland found that Palestine Action’s activities fell far below the level necessary to be considered terrorism. Green Party leader Zack Polanski has called on the government to reverse the proscription. Hell, even MI6 insiders have said that senior figures within the organisation consider it a “distraction from the battle against real terrorist threat”.

    Now, UK courts are seeing the sheer extent of the prescription’s folly playing out in real time. Currently, magistrates are planning to try the 2,000 defendants en-masse, across 400 trials. This will use up at least 200 days of the court’s time.

    The court’s plan to try five people at a time, at a rate of two trials a day, raises serious questions of fairness. A lawyer for the defence stated that this timetable wouldn’t allow each defendant adequate time to present their case.

    72-year-old defendant Deborah Wilde called out the rushed nature of the trials in court:

    I don’t think I can get a fair trial on the [time] limit that you have allocated to me. I would like to seek leave to appeal.

    District judge Michael Snow rebuffed her:

    I’m satisfied that the time is sufficient. I’m not allowing more time for the trial. Your only remedy is the High Court.

    As of yesterday, 28 of the defendants had plead ‘not guilty’. Most of them didn’t have a lawyer, and lacked clarity about what was happening to them. Many spoke about their duty to protest genocide, and their objections to the Palestine Action ban.

    Coercing silence

    However, this deplorable situation gets worse still. Prosecutors acknowledged that it would be difficult to set actual trial dates because of the ongoing court case challenging the proscription of Palestine Action.

    Magistrates have set the provisional trial dates for March 2026. However, the unknown length and outcome of the legal challenge could push that back much later in the year.

    If the prescription is overturned, the charges against Palestine Action’s supporters will most likely be dropped. However, if the ban remains, the cases of the 2,000 in court still promise to be fraught.

    As such, three lead cases which began back in September are being used as a testing ground of sorts to answer these legal quandaries. If any of these cases wind up going to the Supreme Court, the trials could be pushed back as far as 2027.

    Setting dates for 400 trials and thousands of defendants is already a logistical nightmare. Having to reschedule them, potentially multiple times, would be a colossal waste of the court’s time, the defendants’ time, and public money.

    An International Federation for Human Rights study showed that Western governments have “weaponised” counter-terrorism legislation to silence support for Palestine. Coupled with the UK’s vicious anti-protest laws, you have a recipe for the exact kind of farce we’re now seeing.

    We get it, if we were complicit in genocide, we wouldn’t want anybody talking about it either. The UK government seems to think it can just arrest its opponents into silence. This is a cowardly intimidation tactic, and what’s more, it isn’t working – the 2,000 people standing up in court over the coming years are testament to that fact.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Alex/Rose Cocker

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Top EU human rights tells Starmer to back off anti-genocide protesters

    Michael O’Flaherty, the most senior human rights official in the EU, has called for changes to Keir Starmer’s ‘lawfare’ war on anti-genocide protest and those opposing Starmer’s decision to proscribe the non-violent direct action protest group Palestine Action. In a letter to Shabana Mahmood, the Home Secretary, O’Flaherty accused his regime of imposing “excessive limits on freedom of assembly and expression” and demanded a “comprehensive” review of all arrests and the laws used against them.

    Anti-genocide protest is a human right

    O’Flaherty said:

    I observe that large numbers of arrests have reportedly been made for displaying placards or banners expressing solidarity with the organisation or disagreement with the government’s decision to proscribe it.

    I am aware that ‘support’ for a proscribed group is an offence under the Terrorism Act 2000. In this regard I recall that domestic legislation designed to counter ‘terrorism’ or ‘violent extremism’ must not impose any limitations on fundamental rights and freedoms, including the right to freedom of peaceful assembly, that are not strictly necessary for the protection of national security and the rights and freedoms of others.

    Changes following the adoption of the Police Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 and the Public Order Act 2023 continue to allow authorities to impose excessive limits on freedom of assembly and expression, and risk over-policing.

    He continued:

    Following recent court findings that regulations defining serious disruption as ‘more than minor’ disruption are unlawful, I encourage your government to ensure that any arrests or convictions based on these regulations are subject to review.

    Furthermore, I would recommend that a comprehensive review of the compliance of the current legislation on the policing of protests with the United Kingdom’s human rights obligations be undertaken.

    Starmer’s burgeoning police state has already arrested thousands of peaceful anti-genocide and anti-proscription demonstrators, most of them older and/or disabled and often with force, while ignoring outright violence and hate from far-right mobs. Unhappy that the principled anti-genocide protesters have been undeterred, Starmer and Mahmood are preparing increased police powers specifically targeted at those protesting against Israel’s mass murder of 700,000 Palestinian civilians — two thirds of them children. This has been part of their war on UK citizens’ rights to protect Israel despite the prominence of Jewish humanitarians in the protests.

    Featured image via Wikimedia Commons/Arno Mikkor, Aron Urb

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Cocaine cryptid Tommy Robinson has gone for a quick holibobs to Israel.

    Billionaire-funded fascist Tommy Robinson has been given time off from his terrorism trial to visit the world’s foremost terror state: yes, Israel.

    This timeline is really getting better by the minute, FFS.

    For those who don’t know Robinson – AKA Stephen Yaxley-Lennon – has a long history with the genocide state.

    Here’s Lowkey laying it out:

    Tommy Robinson is off on a… fascist holiday

    Here’s the wee fella arriving at the airport in a country best known for sniping children for sport, bombing hospitals and starving civilians:

    Can’t imagine why he’d feel at home there…

    Robinson recently told reporters he was going on a ‘state visit’ to build “allegiances”, presumably with other complete wetties:

    On arrival Robinson said he was jealous that Israel has a leader like the indicted war criminal Netanyahu:

    Odd really, because there’s a sense if the state of Israel ever came to a sudden halt, Keir Starmer would disappear so far up it’s arse we’d need a surgeon to remove him. The absolute melt.

    What happened to his trial

    But isn’t Robinson on trial a minute ago, you may ask?

    Well…. yes. But the judge gave him some sort of dispensation to visit Israel.

    Middle East Eye explains:

    At a hearing in the Westminster Magistrates Court on 13 October, the judge said he would accommodate Robinson’s “travel arrangements” and delay his verdict until 4 November.

    The New Statesman explained some of the allegations against him:

    Robinson (real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon) faced trial for refusing to supply the Pin to his phone to police while entering the UK last July.

    He appeared under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000, which allows police to stop people passing through UK ports to determine whether they are involved in terrorism and obliges detainees to provide the Pins for electronic devices.

    Bentley proletarian

    Robinson was reportedly stopped driving a flash Bentley, true man of the working class. It’s reported he was carrying a large amount of cash in the direction of France. He refused to give up his phone pin, he claims:

    …because I didn’t want to give the state my sources of information as a journalist.

    I think that’s it for this bizarre story.

    No wait, gazillionaire Hitler-saluting sugar daddy Elon Musk is paying Robinson’s legal fees. This place gets weirder by the minute.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Joe Glenton

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • They’re at it again: UK Lawyers for Israel is now going after Netflix and the BBC

    Genocide-denying Israel lobby group ‘UK Lawyers for Israel’ has been described by human rights group CAGE as a key UK “apartheid apologist” and caused widespread outrage recently when its chief executive criticised medical experts for not concluding that Israel’s blockade of food into Gaza was helping reduce Palestinian obesity.

    The group is also notorious for using its ‘lawfare’ approach to intimidate a hospital into taking down art by Palestinian children and trying unsuccessfully to have a Palestinian doctor struck off from the UK General Medical Council, while its chief spokeswoman was slammed by a Jewish interlocutor for claiming that discussing Israel’s genocide and starvation blockade are “blood libels” and “propaganda”.

    UK Lawyers for Israel is currently under investigation by the Solicitors Regulation Authority for alleged “vexatious and baseless” legal threats to silence support for Palestine. Incidentally Natasha Hausdorff, one of its main spokespeople, reportedly screamed at far-right US podcaster Charlie Kirk at an ‘intervention’ about his plan to abandon his support for Israel and for ‘platforming’ right-wing critics of Israel.

    Now UK Lawyers for Israel is at it again, this time with a letter to broadcasters Netflix and the BBC that tries to intimidate them out of any participation in an ongoing industry boycott – because of Israel’s genocide in Gaza – of Israeli films and shows.

    UK Lawyers for Israel: at it again

    The boycott has been publicly supported by thousands of Hollywood figures, including ‘A-listers’ like Olivia Colman, Tilda Swinton, Emma Stone, and Joaquin Phoenix.

    The letter follows UK Lawyers for Israel’s typical pattern of threatening that the recipients might be breaking equality laws without ever quite saying that they are, since the intention is to intimidate and deter with propositions unlikely to stand up if actually tested in court, for example (emphases added):

    [The Equality Act 2010] is the key legislation in the U.K. protecting against racism and discriminatory treatment. If the U.K. television and film industry colludes with acts contrary to this legislation, organisations are themselves likely to be in breach. It also creates a dangerous precedent: one that condones the exclusion of individuals and/or organizations based solely on their nationality, ethnicity, and/or religion.

    It also claims that the boycott – which of course is not meant to apply to Palestinians in Israel – is:

    selective application — exempting some institutions based on the ethnicity or religion of their members — [which] strongly indicates that [its] operation is based not only on nationality but also on religion and ethnicity.

    UK Lawyers for Israel also claim that if that word again] the boycott is found to be in breach of the Equality Act, it might lead to funding and insurance being pulled from productions and therefore:

    render a film ineligible for government funding, or trigger clawback of finance already granted [and be] highly likely to be a litigation risk and a notifiable event.

    None of the organisations receiving the threatening letter appear to have responded publicly.

    ‘Unimpressed’

    Film Workers for Palestine (FWP), the group behind the boycott, described the UK Lawyers for Israel letter as “desperate” and “pitiful” and said nothing would prevent FWP continuing its campaign to “end complicity in Israel’s genocide and apartheid” in Gaza and the West Bank:

    We are unimpressed by pro-Israel lobby group UK Lawyers for Israel’s desperate attempt to curtail our signatories’ freedom of expression through its pitiful letter. This kind of intimidation tactic is used so commonly and unethically by UKLFI that a formal complaint was filed with the Solicitors’ Regulation Authority in Britain over ‘a seeming pattern of vexatious and legally baseless correspondence aimed at silencing and intimidating Palestine solidarity efforts.

    We will never be deterred from our work to end complicity in Israel’s genocide and apartheid and will continue contributing to a global movement aimed at Palestinians achieving their UN-stipulated rights. It is a legal and moral imperative all should uphold, and we thank our community of artists who stand resolutely for humanity.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Israel hands over Palestinian bodies showing signs of brutal torture

    Israel has handed over 45 bodies of Palestinian hostages following their detention, and later death. The Ministry of Health in Gaza announced that its medical teams received the bodies from the International Committee of the Red Cross at the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Yunis.

    The ministry explained that the bodies bore clear signs of torture, abuse, and field executions. Many of the dead were found with traces of handcuffs and blindfolds, indicating that their owners had been subjected to serious violations before their martyrdom.

    Israel suspected of grave violations

    In this context, the Palestinian Centre for the Missing and Forcibly Disappeared issued a statement calling for the completion of the handover of all detained bodies and the complete closure of this painful humanitarian file.

    The centre indicated that it is following up on the process of handing over the 45 bodies through the Red Cross to the Nasser complex. They also praised the efforts of the International Committee in facilitating the process. Importantly, they also urged it to continue verifying the identities of the bodies through DNA testing and to ensure that the dignity of the martyrs is preserved and that they are quickly handed over to their families.

    The statement added that some of the bodies were delivered intact, while others arrived in the form of remains that raise serious concerns about the circumstances of their death and detention. They wrote:

    The Center warned that Israel’s failure to provide an official list of names deepens suspicions of enforced disappearance and manipulation of victims’ records. It called for immediate pressure on Israel to disclose the identities of all victims and the circumstances that led to their deaths.

    The statement further urged full transparency regarding all transferred bodies, including the publication of all available information as soon as it is received — such as the victims’ names, details of their deaths, and prompt notification of their families, in respect of their right to truth and dignity.

    Calls on international community

    The Centre also called on the international community, the United Nations, and the International Committee of the Red Cross to pressure Israel to allow the entry of the equipment and machinery necessary to recover the bodies and identify the missing in the destroyed areas.

    It stressed that the continued detention of bodies and the denial of families the right to bid farewell to their children is a crime against humanity and a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law.

    It emphasised that the human right to a dignified burial does not lapse with the passage of time, and that revealing the truth is part of the justice that the victims and their families deserve.

    Featured image via YouTube screenshot/Al Jazeera English

    By Alaa Shamali

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Belfast Palestine activists take over conference of F-35 jet funder

    Campaigners opposed to ongoing government funding of murderous F-35 fighter jets have burst through security to raid a major conference of Invest NI, the body responsible for pissing away public money on weapons of death for the likes of so-called Israel.

    Invest NI had had kept the conference under the radar, with no public advertising of the event. However, activists were able to uncover its existence and protests occurred outside the International Convention Centre venue on Tuesday and Wednesday morning. Campaigners distributed leaflets to staff, some of whom were unaware that their employer was participating in a genocide by funnelling money to the likes of Moyola Precision Engineering and Survitec, companies known to make parts for F-35s.

    Invest NI backing modern day holocaust

    Organisers might have hoped that was the extent of it, but on Wednesday afternoon, when the so-called ‘Regional Economic Development Agency’ was meeting with clients, activists entered the plush Laganside venue. A video posted on the BDS Belfast page shows the interlopers entering the main hall, shouting:

    We’re here today to speak on behalf of the people of Palestine. Invest NI are complicit in the genocide in Palestine. The reason they’re complicit is they’re funding companies who are sending parts over to make the F35 jets.

    BDS Belfast member Martin Rafferty declared:

    When you see the historical pictures of the holocaust and people of that time, you ask yourself: “what would I have done if I was living in that time?” Well, you are living in that time now because there’s a holocaust going on now!

    Stoney-faced Invest NI executives are pictured communicating with the demonstrators, as the former admit their awareness of what their funds have been used for. A Judicial Review into the potentially unlawful funding was brought against Invest NI and the Department of the Economy (DoE) by Madden & Finucane solicitors, with a hearing due next week on October 22. The legal team, operating in concert with local activist group Cairde Palestine, hope to compel the government to “claw back” any monies paid out to companies involved in breaking international law, and terminate any ongoing payments.

    Invest NI has rendered all Six Counties citizens complicit in genocide by giving around £20 million pounds to four companies involved in the F-35 programme – Electronic Automation Engineers (EAE), Moyola Precision Engineering, RLC (UK), and Survitec. Only last week, new evidence was brought to light by local campaign group Act Now, who uncovered a document from 2021 headed “BAE Systems-Air (Aircraft Business Units) Supplier Quality Approval Letter”. It is addressed to Moyola and outlines that:

    …supply of product shall be in accordance with the BAE Systems F-35 Lightning II supplementary quality requirements…

    It states the limitation of approval shall be for the “F-35 Lightning II programme only”. Martin Butcher, who is a policy adviser on arms and conflict for Oxfam, has said it is certain parts from the North of Ireland are ending up in Zionist jets used for the pseudo-state’s barbarism in Gaza.

    Report lays out contortions of Invest NI and ministers

    Act Now have previously published a comprehensive report on Invest NI’s support for local development of F-35 parts. In it, there are contradictory statements, as a DoE spokesperson says they have been told by Invest NI that it:

    …does not support projects that supply arms to Israel.

    However, Invest NI was unable to refute claims from Act Now that it in fact was involved in such matters. The report contrasted the above denial with a statement from Invest NI in which they said:

    Invest NI does not hold the information as to whether these companies provide parts for F35s.

    The document outlines the tortuous process of email campaigns, Assembly questions and petitions that have been required to get to a point where the authorities concerned have still not admitted wrongdoing. It also highlights the linguistic contortions used by many governments to wriggle away from scrutiny on weapons dealing, as “arms” are only classed here as “finished weapons or munitions”. Likewise, the fact that parts end up in a global pool rather than going directly to ‘Israel’ has been a common method of evasion, allowing governments to claim they don’t send anything directly to the apartheid regime.

    A simple way to solve this matter is outlined by BDS Belfast on their statement accompanying the video of Wednesday’s action – cease entirely the production of all weaponry in Ireland. The group said:

    Funding of atrocities on the island of Ireland will not be tolerated, and no manufacturing of weapons of mass murder can be allowed to take place here. That counts double for the likes of Invest NI, who are using money that should go to schools and hospitals here, to destroy those facilities in Gaza.

    The Belfast Palestine solidarity movement will continue to hold them to account until this ceases.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Robert Freeman

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Israel has taken everything from Palestinian journalist Motasem Ahmed Dalloul – yet he will not be silenced

    CONTENT WARNING: THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS GRAPHIC IMAGES SOME READERS MAY FIND DISTRESSING

    Palestinian journalist Motasem Ahmed Dalloul is from Gaza City. He studied International Journalism in London, and works as a Staff Writer for Middle East Monitor. He has lived and worked in Gaza City throughout this genocide, and has paid a heavy price for speaking the truth. But he remains determined to continue reporting about his people’s suffering and the Israeli occupation’s crimes against them:

    Motasem Ahmed Dalloul

    Motasem Ahmed Dalloul risked his life to find food – but his wife and baby were killed instead

    Motasem Ahmed Dalloul has not left Gaza City in the past two years, although be has been forcibly displaced 13 times. Since his family home was attacked and destroyed in November 2023, he and his family have stayed many places, moving from place to place and fleeing the Israeli ground incursions. They are currently living in a tent.

    Near the end of February 2024, an Israeli occupation airstrike targeted his neighbour’s house. Dalloul’s three year old son who was named Abu Baker, and his beloved wife Riham, who was pregnant, were buried under the rubble and killed. Dalloul was heartbroken.

    He says:

    I lived with her a very nice life, very nice years, full of love and affection. I loved her so much, and she loved me so much. She was very beautiful. My wife was killed while she was very hungry.

    According to Dalloul, their dinner consisted of a can of corn, which did nothing to satisfy his wife’s hunger. So at dawn he went to an area in the West of Gaza City where aid organisations sometimes delivered food, to try and find something for his starving wife:

    Motasem Ahmed Dalloul

    It was difficult for someone like me – I am 45 years old – to go through the crowds of young people and get any kind of aid, but I found the flour bag with someone, and he gave it to me, and I sent this flour back home with my son, Ibrahim.

    Ibrahim returned an hour later with the news that an Israeli strike had targeted their neighbour’s house. Dalloul’s wife and three year old son had been killed:

    Another son and daughter were wounded.

    I rushed to near my wife’s family’s house, and bid farewell to her and my two year old son, Abu Baker. And then I carried the body of my son, and relatives carried her body, and we buried them in a makeshift cemetery, because we couldn’t reach the cemetery where we used to bury our dead.

    Motasem Ahmed Dalloul

    A day before his wife and son were killed, Dalloul posted this on X:

    Hunger has been a daily occurrence for Motasem Ahmed Dalloul and his family

    According to Motasem Ahmed Dalloul, him and his family have constantly suffered from a lack of food, experiencing starvation three times during this genocide. He recalls the first time, when his wife was killed and he was unable to provide for his family, as being especially difficult.

    He confides:

    One of my children asked me to give him some food one day, and I couldn’t find any, any, anything. I left the house and around an hour later, he followed me and came to the place where I was with my friends, not far from the house, and appealed for something to eat, and I couldn’t find anything.

    I started weeping, and hugged him, as I couldn’t afford anything for him to eat. We were hungry.

    I myself lost 40 kilogrammes, and went from 158 to 118kg. Even if I was a billionaire, it has been very difficult for me to live because – and it is continuous until now – there is a shortage of food, and I have to pay extremely high prices to get a very little amount of food.

    In May, three months after his wife and young son were killed, Dalloul and his other sons returned to the rubble of what once was their home to look for some winter clothes, as there were none available to buy in the markets. Many of his neighbours were also there, witnessing the destruction, and searching through the rubble. Then, all of a sudden, with no warning, shots were fired, and Dalloul’s 21 year old son was killed.

    He says:

    Suddenly, a sniper or a tank shot at us, and immediately I found my son, Yahya, shot in the head and he fell down. We ran very quickly. Me and the other children and neighbours. We left him on the ground because there was heavy gunfire and we couldn’t return back to that place until after one week. Then we saw his body. The tank had run over it.

    His children pray they are killed by the Israeli occupation forces, so they can see their mother again

    Motasem Ahmed Dalloul says the young children he had with Riham, his second wife, have been highly affected by the deaths of their mother and siblings:

    They were very sad, and every time when they asked me, what happened, I tell them they went to paradise. They asked me, where is their mother. I told them, she is in heaven. And they told me they want to go and join her, and see her or meet her. But I tell them we can’t, until the Israeli occupation forces kill us.

    So they pray that the Israeli occupation shoots them, so they can go and meet their mother. When my sons were killed, they also asked me if they had gone to the place where their mother exists.

    Dalloul says he was feeling happy during the days leading up to the ceasefire, and was celebrating with friends and family, including his son Ibrahim, thinking about what they would do when the ceasefire took effect.

    But on the day it was announced by Trump, Ibrahim was not there, and there were no celebrations.

    Ibrahim used to help run the family’s supermarket in Gaza City, until it was bombed – just two months after it opened in November 2023, then he then became a street vendor. The Israeli occupation launched an intentional starvation campaign against the people of Gaza City, with the aim of forcibly displacing them Southwards. Both the Zikim crossing and Al Rashid Street in the West of the City were closed, which meant no food was getting into the North of the Strip.

    So, according to Dalloul, Ibrahim and his friends insisted on going to the south to bring back some food. But Ibrahim never returned.

    Israel killed him the day before the ceasefire:

    Dalloul says:

    On the first day of the ceasefire, someone told my friends that my son was killed near Al Nabulsi Roundabout, on Al Rashid Street. The next day, we went to bring his body, along with the volunteers and civil defense, and we found him, likely killed two days before. He was engaged and his fiancé was very close to him and loved him very much. She collapsed when she knew that he was dead and killed by the Israeli occupation forces. And it was very, very difficult for all of us, and the killing of all of them has affected me. This is the third son of mine to be killed during the genocide, along with my wife.

    The Israeli occupation has repeatedly targeted not only Palestinian journalists but also their families in Gaza, attempting to control the narrative and limit the flow of information to the rest of the world about its many war crimes and crimes against humanity.

    Journalists have been threatened, detained, tortured, and killed, while media facilities have been destroyed, and access by foreign journalists to the Strip has been forbidden.

    Israel’s systematic targeting of the press is a deliberate strategy to not only silence witnesses, but also to stop criticism of Israeli military actions in Gaza and maintain international support by imposing its untruthful version of events. But this strategy has not only been limited to the genocide in Gaza.

    The occupation’s army threatened to ‘hunt’ Dalloul. They then seriously wounded him

    Motasem Ahmed Dalloul has been threatened and told several times by ‘Israeli agents’ to stop reporting during the genocide, and many of these agents and activists have been posting false information online about him. But he says these incidents also occurred before October 2023:

    In 2018, when I was covering the Great March of Return, the Israeli occupation army directly threatened me and told me, ‘we will hunt you’. The march was organized every Friday, and the next Friday, I was shot in the chest with an exploding bullet. There was a lot of shrapnel inside my body that affected my lungs, liver, intestines and other organs, and I remained in a coma for several days. This threat was repeated several times during this genocide, and I feel that I might be intentionally targeted.

    But Dalloul is not listening to the occupation’s threats, and he does not intend to stop reporting on the crimes inflicted on the population of Gaza. Instead, he believes the first commitment of a journalist is not to their life and safety, but to the truth:

    As a journalist, I have a duty towards my family, towards my people, towards my land, towards my country.

    I have to expose the lies and the crimes of the Israeli occupation against them, to let the world know that they are liars, they are thieves. They aren’t the real owners of this land, but because they are growing up on the propaganda and lies, the people around the world take them for granted as facts.

    If I remain silent, the people will not know that they are liars and thieves, and they are committing massacres against us. So this is the duty of me as a Palestinian, and the duty for me as a journalist. I am obliged to disclose the Israeli lies and Israeli deception and Israeli massacres, and tell the world the truth about our country, about the Palestinians who are the Indigenous inhabitants and residents of this land.

    The international community is supporting this rogue state – the state of lies, the state of criminals, the state which was established on the skulls and bones of my grandfathers.

    No hope for justice because world leaders provide the occupation with money, weapons, and troops

    Motasem Ahmed Dalloul has lost a total of 59 family members, including a brother and a sister, nephews, nieces, and cousins who lived in Gaza, but is not waiting for any justice because:

    The current world, international community, and the leaders of the great powers are not fair, and they support the Israeli genocide. We’ve not only been attacked, destroyed and massacred by Israeli arms and the Israeli army, but also by American, German, British, French, and other Western arms and weapons, money and also soldiers.

    Dalloul says although he is happy there is a ceasefire, the loss of his family and the destruction of Gaza leaves him feeling very sad.

    He has lost everything.

    He has no home, and he cannot even set up his tent where his house once stood, because of all the rubble, and his neighbourhood is now unrecognisable to him:

    I think the Israelis will not return to Gaza, because there is nothing left for them to destroy and attack. Only one street remains undestroyed in Gaza City, everything else is destroyed, so why would the Israeli rogue state come back to the genocide and resume the international isolation and attacks against it, and let the people resume marching and protesting against it. I don’t trust the mediators, or the international community, or Trump, but there is nothing left for Israel to destroy here in Gaza.

    Featured image and additional images supplied

    By Charlie Jaay

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • FIDH Report: The Repression Of The Solidarity Movement With Palestine

    Behind the fight against hate, a trend of repressing dissenting voices is emerging. Titled Criminalisation and Narrative Control: Solidarity with Palestine in the Crosshairs, the report documents how across all the countries studied, the dynamics observed since 7 October 2023 have intensified pre-existing structural trends: the continued shrinking of civic space, the weakening of democratic safeguards, the normalisation of Islamophobia, and the institutionalisation of racial profiling.

    Under the guise of maintaining public order, fighting antisemitism, or protecting national security, authorities have resorted to exceptional measures such as bans on demonstrations, arbitrary arrests, repression within academic institutions, media censorship, and legislative threats.

    The post FIDH Report: The Repression Of The Solidarity Movement With Palestine appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Freedoms We Took For Granted In Britain

    In interviews and a comment article over the weekend, the U.K. Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson made clear she plans to exploit the pause in the Gaza genocide to snuff out criticism of Israel’s criminal actions — and, of course, her own government’s collusion in that criminality.

    Naturally, the British establishment media have been keen to amplify her message that there will be painful consequences both for individuals who continue protesting against Israeli atrocities and for institutions, such as universities, that mistakenly assume they have a duty to uphold centuries-old freedoms by tolerating such protests.

    These protests, let us remember, are fully in line with a ruling last year from the International Court of Justice, the world’s highest court.

    The post Freedoms We Took For Granted In Britain appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Gaza’s Post-War Future And The Collapse Of Foreign Illusions

    In the aftermath of the devastating war on Gaza, the most pressing question is no longer about a ceasefire or reconstruction, but about who will govern the enclave.

    This is a struggle over meaning, legitimacy, and sovereignty. Will the future of Gaza be shaped by its people, or by the same foreign powers that helped destroy it under the banner of “salvation”?

    Every time the gates of ‘reconstruction’ and ‘aid’ are opened, the windows of sovereignty are slammed shut. What unfolds is a recurring colonial spectacle: a Palestinian political order remade under foreign supervision, where ‘political realism’ is promoted as a substitute for justice, and ‘technocracy’ is marketed as a sterile alternative to resistance.

    The post Gaza’s Post-War Future And The Collapse Of Foreign Illusions appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Gaza’s Post-War Future And The Collapse Of Foreign Illusions

    In the aftermath of the devastating war on Gaza, the most pressing question is no longer about a ceasefire or reconstruction, but about who will govern the enclave.

    This is a struggle over meaning, legitimacy, and sovereignty. Will the future of Gaza be shaped by its people, or by the same foreign powers that helped destroy it under the banner of “salvation”?

    Every time the gates of ‘reconstruction’ and ‘aid’ are opened, the windows of sovereignty are slammed shut. What unfolds is a recurring colonial spectacle: a Palestinian political order remade under foreign supervision, where ‘political realism’ is promoted as a substitute for justice, and ‘technocracy’ is marketed as a sterile alternative to resistance.

    The post Gaza’s Post-War Future And The Collapse Of Foreign Illusions appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Israel is lying over Hamas breaching the ceasefire agreement by not returning dead hostages

    In a shock to nobody, Israel is trying to blow up it’s own ceasefire on the most tenuous basic imaginable – by, as usual, lying. Renowned investigative reporter Jeremy Scahill has warned that Israel is reneging on the peace terms it agreed.

    Israel is lying again

    Scahill said despite a clear understanding that it would take time to recover bodies from Gaza, Israeli is pretending there was no such agreement.

    This all the more important because Israeli is using this lie to justify limiting aid to Gazans:

    Tweeting Wednesday, Scahill reported on the shocking state of Palestinian bodies Israel was returning:

    And he commented on Israel’s habit of keeping Palestinian bodies – sometimes for decades:

    Independent journalist Jonathan Cook made a similar point:

    According to Scahill’s Drop Site News colleague Ryan Grim, mediators were very clear that finding bodies would take time. Israel knows this. After all, it has spent two years intensively bombing the area to rubble.

    Grim tweeted:

    Stopping aid to Gaza

    Grim cited an official communication by COGAT, the Israeli authority which regulates aid:

    Yesterday, Hamas violated the agreement regarding the release of the bodies of the hostages held in the Gaza Strip.

    As a result, the political leadership has decided to impose a number of sanctions related to the humanitarian agreement that was reached.

    Starting tomorrow, only half of the agreed number of trucks — 300 trucks — will be allowed to enter, and all of them will belong to the UN and humanitarian NGOs, with no private sector involvement.

    No fuel or gas will be allowed into the Strip, except for specific needs related to humanitarian infrastructure.

    However, as Middle East expert Professor Marc Owen Jones point out: A) the return of dead hostages is NOT a condition of aid delivery and B) not allowing aid in was always illegal anyway:

    Palestinian body accidentally returned

    Legacy media is currently reporting that one of a group of four recovered bodies is not Israeli:

    AFP reported the same:

    As usual, the legacy press seemed to be following the Israeli line:

    Though there was at least some acknowledgment by reporters that this had likely been an error made in the fog of war:

     

    The Irish News correctly reported the nuances of the peace deal which have been lost in some reporting:

    The US-proposed ceasefire plan had called for all hostages – living and dead – to be handed over by a deadline that expired on Monday.

    But under the deal if that did not happen, Hamas was to share information about deceased hostages and try to hand over all as soon as possible.

    For its parts, Israel has already killed a number of Gazans since the ceasefire started. It is widely recognised that Hamas have taken a gamble on Trump imposing his will on the genocidal Israeli government.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Joe Glenton

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Israel is still punishing Gaza, with only half of aid going in

    The United Nations confirmed that it had received a letter stating that Israel would cut in half the number of aid trucks scheduled to enter Gaza, numbering about 600, which it had promised to allow to pass after the ceasefire. As of Wednesday 15 October, Israel had only allowed 300 aid trucks in.

    Israel is still restricting aid to Gaza

    Deputy Spokesman for the UN Secretary-General Farhan Haq said at a press conference on Tuesday 14 October that the Israeli Government Coordination Unit in the Palestinian Territories had informed the UN in a letter received today that it would halve the number of humanitarian aid trucks going to Gaza, on the pretext that Hamas had not returned the bodies of Israeli prisoners.

    He added:

    We are aware of the contents of the letter from the Israeli Civil Administration.

    Haq explained that they want as much aid as possible to reach Gaza, saying:

    We call on all parties to abide by their agreements, including the return of the bodies of dead prisoners and the implementation of the remaining terms of the ceasefire, including the delivery of humanitarian aid.

    US media reported that Israel had sent a letter to the United Nations stating that it would reduce the number of daily aid trucks agreed under the terms of the ceasefire in Gaza from 600 to 300, on the grounds that Hamas had not immediately returned the bodies of Israeli prisoners trapped under the rubble.

    However, as of 15 October Hamas had been handing over Israeli bodies – yet the Zionist entity had still not opened all the crossings into Gaza. As of 10pm BST, reports stated only the 300 aid trucks had gone in. This was specifically due to Israel not opening the Rafah crossing.

    The ‘ceasefire’

    On Monday, Hamas released 20 living Israeli prisoners and handed over the bodies of four others, saying it needed time to recover the bodies of 24 others. On Tuesday evening, the Israeli army received the bodies of four additional prisoners in the Gaza Strip from the Red Cross, according to official Hebrew media, bringing the total to eight. Then, on Wednesday Hamas handed over several more bodies – saying that was all the ones it could locate.

    The Sharm El Sheikh summit was held on Monday, chaired by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi and Trump, at the conference centre in Sharm El Sheikh, with the participation of leaders from more than 20 countries.

    The Egyptian presidency said that the ‘Sharm El Sheikh Peace Summit’ stressed the need to begin ‘consultations on ways and mechanisms to implement the next stages’ of US President Donald Trump’s plan.

    The summit comes after a ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel came into effect on Friday afternoon Jerusalem time, after being approved by the Tel Aviv government early that same day.
    On 9 October, Trump announced that Israel and Hamas had reached an agreement on the first phase of his plan for a ceasefire and prisoner exchange, following indirect negotiations between the two sides in Sharm El Sheikh, with the participation of Turkey, Egypt and Qatar, and under US supervision.

    With US support, Israel has committed genocide in Gaza since 8 October 2023, leaving 67,913 dead and 170,134 wounded, most of them children and women, and a famine that has claimed the lives of 463 Palestinians, including 157 children.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Alaa Shamali

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Israel kills two Palestinians, abducts at least 24 others in Gaza today alone

    Israel has again blatantly violated the supposed Gaza ‘ceasefire’ today.

    Israel violating the ceasefire again

    It killed two civilians in Gaza City, while abducting at least fifteen Palestinians in Al-Nasr, northeast Rafah, and another nine in the town of Al-Fakhari, east of Khan Younis. The fate of the victims and where they have been taken is not yet clear. a clear violation of the ceasefire agreement.

    At the same time, according to local reporters, the colonisers fired heavy artillery at civilians in eastern Gaza City in the areas between al-Shujaiyya and al-Tufah.

    These crimes come after Israeli tank attacks on civilians killed several and wounded more in northern Gaza this morning. Israel has murdered Palestinians every day during the ‘ceasefire’, almost entirely ignored by UK and other western ‘mainstream’ media obsessed with covering supposedly missing bodies of long-dead Israelis almost certainly killed by their own side’s fire during the genocide.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Kamala Harris seethes as heckler calls her a ‘right-wing war criminal’

    In a video posted online by Climate Defiance, a furious heckler called Kamala Harris a “right-wing war criminal”:

    Harris didn’t seem to enjoy this.

    Maybe she should have thought about that before entering a right-wing Democrat administration which went on to oversee a genocide?

    Kamala Harris ‘furious’

    Kamala Harris was speaking at a talk for her book 107 Days. The premise of the book is that she lost the presidential race because she only had 107 days to get her act together, rather than because she was a terrible candidate who refused to offer the public anything besides empty platitudes.

    One key issue voters had was that incumbent president Joe Biden failed to stop Israel’s genocide, and Harris failed to speak out against this.

    As everyone suspected at the time, Biden did precisely fuck all to stop the genocide – something which would later be confirmed by insiders. Harris failed to object when she had the chance, and she failed to promise anything different when she ran for president.

    As we’ve seen in recent weeks, ending Israel’s genocide was always the call of the US president. Biden could have ended it on day one, or when it was obvious that it was affecting the Democrat’s ability to beat Trump. Instead he ended it never, only for Trump to call time a year later when the global backlash began to get on his nerves.

    We’ve yet to see if the ceasefire will hold, but if it doesn’t, it’s not because Trump doesn’t have the power to stop it; it’s because his donors have bent his ear better than his business partners in Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

    While the genocide wasn’t the only issue which turned voters off, it was the most emblematic of the Democrat’s wanton depravity.

    So anyway, with all that in mind, here’s what the heckler shouted at Harris:

    Kamala Harris you are a right-wing WAR CRIMINAL!

    You funded genocide!

    For 161 days!

    Harris looked genuinely furious at this point – not like during the failed presidential run when she smugly told a Palestinian supporter “I’m speaking”:

    Back to the video, the heckler shouted:

    Hind Rajab was shot 355 times!

    During your administration!

    You lost the election because you would rather be a Republican than a Democrat!

    This is your fault!

    We have 4 years of Trump because of your 107 days!

    You are a war criminal!

    You sold out the youth!

    You sold out the climate!

    Shame on you!

    Harris was quietly seething by this point, as she well should. We’d be angry too if we were soulless monsters who were led to believe we’d never face a shred of accountability.

    It’s notable, by the way, that Kamala ‘I’m Speaking’ Harris has said next to nothing about Trump since he took power. Maybe she should have gone all in on that and never spoken publicly again?

    End of an era

    Kamala Harris is a dreadful, empty vessel of a politician, and increasingly these people can’t make it in politics.

    Empty slogans don’t work in an age of social media where people can fact check you in real-time. Unfortunately, flat out lies do work, which is why politicians like Donald Trump and Nigel Farage can monster figures like Kamala Harris and Keir Starmer.

    The only thing that can win now is a platform which actually offers something. And as American voters tried to tell Harris last year, they ain’t voting for genocide or growing inequality.

    Featured image via Climate Defiance

    By Willem Moore

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Israel Is Still Holding at Least 115 Health Care Workers Hostage, Org Says

    More than two dozen Palestinian healthcare workers held hostage in Israel’s torture camps were supposed to be released on Monday, October 13, according to Healthcare Workers Watch-Palestine (HWW), an organization that tracks Israel’s attacks on Palestine’s healthcare system. “While not all releases are confirmed yet, the list includes 24 nurses, 7 doctors, and 2 paramedics,” the group said in…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Jewish woman has faced “hate campaign” of violent attacks over pro-Gaza protest

    Nadia Yahlom is a Palestinian-Jewish woman. In a peaceful protest, she cut yellow ribbons off the railings of a public park near her home. As a result, she has faced a “targeted hate campaign” from pro-Israel agitators.

    Nadia Yahlom

    As she explained to the BBC:

    I have been the subject of physical attacks, of a doxing campaign, threats of assault and rape and violence that have been threatened against me and my family on the basis that the people behind that campaign want to silence me.

    She insisted:

    I am a Palestinian-Jewish woman living in that community who has every right to take a stance against genocide – a genocide that is being conducted in my name

    She responded to critics of her action by saying:

    I think it’s antisemitic to imply that a Jewish person who is standing in principled opposition to a genocide is driven by hatred.

    Pro-Israel extremists cry over ribbons, but not over the murder of 20,000 children

    Israeli occupation forces have killed over 20,000 children in Gaza since October 2023. The ribbons, meanwhile, represented the remaining 20 Israeli prisoners of war in Gaza. As Nadia Yahlom stressed:

    To me, it’s astonishing that there can be moral repugnance about a handful of ribbons being cut and not generations and generations and generations of bloodlines [in Gaza] being cut.

    And she noted the difference between the response to her action and her own response to the destruction of Palestinian symbols in public. Pro-Israel agitators routinely rip down such symbols (whether flags or stickers), and she said:

    I myself once encountered a woman in Muswell Hill taking down a sticker with a Palestinian flag, I engaged her in discussion about it… What didn’t happen is that I called a mob to attack her, intimidate her, threaten her, film her without her consent, and subject her to a ceaseless campaign of physical attacks, threats against her life and threats against her family…

    Nadia Yahlom described how she considered the yellow ribbons to be ‘offensive, intimidating and threatening’ because they suggest that “the only lives worth commemorating, the only lives that have any value, are Jewish lives”. And this is what the mainstream media has done consistently throughout Israel’s genocide in Gaza, and amid this week’s exchange of hostages. It emphasises the humanity of 20 Israelis leaving captivity, while failing to do the same for 2,000 Palestinian hostages leaving captivity, the thousands that remain in Israeli torture centres, or the many thousands of civilians Israel has killed in the last two years and beyond.

    Consider the coverage of Israeli soldier Matan Angrest‘s release:

    And then consider the many scenes of Palestinian hostages that social media has shown us but mainstream media outlets haven’t:

    And remember, Israel has no problem taking children hostage:

    Nadia Yahlom is absolutely right. The implicit racism of the yellow ribbons, and the thugs who come after you if you touch them, is offensive. The ribbons have become a symbol of selective sympathy from ethnic supremacists who defend genocide. And in the interests of humanity, we must challenge that. Because neither Palestinians nor Israelis will be truly safe until Israel’s decades-long colonial oppression ends.

    By Ed Sykes

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Meet Jacki Karsh: training young journalists to be explicitly pro-Israel

    Last week, Drop Site News reported on a new fellowship set up by prominent US journalist Jacki Karsh, along with her husband Jeff. The fellowship’s website states that:

    The Jacki and Jeff Karsh Journalism Fellowship equips journalists to report with depth, rigor, and clarity on Jewish issues in the United States and around the world. Fellows participate in three intensive retreats — in Los Angeles, New York, and Washington, D.C. — engaging with leading journalists, scholars, policymakers, and innovators across the arts, media, and business.

    As the world’s only journalism fellowship solely dedicated to Jewish topics, the program is resolutely nonpartisan and grounded in the principles of accuracy, independence, transparency, and accountability. Up to ten fellows are selected annually to advance public understanding through uncompromising, high-impact reporting.

    During the year-long course, up to ten fellows will participate in three 3-day retreats. All travel and accommodation expenses are covered by the fellowship. The expert-led sessions will cover topics like ‘How to cover antisemitism’, ‘Jews in the American mosaic’ and ‘Middle-East misinformation’.

    Jacki Karsh and her fellowship: ‘countering media bias’, apparently

    However, Drop Site highlighted the contrast between the fellowship’s professed neutrality and Karsh’s distinct pro-Israel stance.

    Jacki Karsh’s webpage describes her as a “six time Emmy-nominated multimedia journalist”. She’s reported for LA36’s LA County Channel, CityTV Santa Monica, Young Hollywood, Business Rockstars and Westside TV. She wrote about her reasons for starting the fellowship in an article for the Jerusalem Post, published under the headline “Countering media bias against Jews” on 20 August.
    Part of the introduction reads:

    The casual slanders, the subtle omissions, the reflexive framing of Israel as aggressor and Jews as suspect – these are not rare mistakes. They are patterns. And patterns, left unchallenged, become the record of history.

    On the contrary, mainstream US media has shown a historic bias towards Israel, both before and after 7 October. Analysis of the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times’ coverage of the war showed a distinct bias against Palestine. Articles focused disproportionately on Israeli deaths, showed biased use of language, and focused on antisemitism in the US over and above Islamophobia.

    Likewise, “casual slanders” links out to another Jerusalem Post article, titled “Gaza starvation claims: Blood libel revisited”. It frames the claim that Israel is starving the people of people of Gaza as reheated medieval blood libel. The UN has confirmed the famine in Gaza. Over 100 humanitarian organisations signed an open letter criticising Israel for blocking supplies into Gaza.

    ‘Resolutely nonpartisan’

    Given that Jacki Karsh stated that she created the fellowship to help Israel win an “information war”, the description of the program as “resolutely nonpartisan” seems deeply questionable. Drop Site News submitted an inquiry on the matter, and fellowship director Rob Eshmen responded:

    The Karsh Journalism Fellowship trains and supports journalists committed to fairness and accuracy on Israel and Jewish issues. Jacki Karsh’s guiding principle is simple: the best response to misinformation and disinformation on these issues is excellent journalism grounded in evidence, integrity, and independence… Our mentors and fellows will represent a wide range of political and cultural perspectives, and we encourage open, nuanced dialogue on complex issues.

    Unfortunately, Jacki Karsh’s bias also seems to have been mirrored in the choice of expert journalists to lead the sessions. Drop Site reported that:

    Other fellowship mentors include CNN’s Van Jones, who recently issued an apology after drawing intense criticism for comments he made on HBO’s Real Time With Bill Maher on Friday making light of images of dead Palestinian children and saying they were part of an Iran and Qatar disinformation campaign; and Michael Powell, a staff writer at the Atlantic and a former national reporter at The New York Times, whose recent articles include “The Double Standard in the Human-Rights World,” that criticizes groups like Amnesty International and Doctors Without Borders for becoming “stridently critical of Israel.”

    At best, the thinking behind the Jacki and Jeff Karsh Journalism Fellowship illustrates a stark problem with legacy media. If journalists view only one side of the Israel-Palestine war as being capable of accessing truth, then they will inevitably interpret even a neutral report of Israel’s actions as bias against it.

    The UN has officially recognised that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. It joins a long line of other humanitarian agencies in doing so. At this point, if legacy media even begins to appear critical of Israel, well – it’s about damned time.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Alex/Rose Cocker

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Starmer appoints genocide apologists to run university campus ‘antisemitism training’

    The Starmer regime has appointed the Union of Jewish Students to run six hundred so-called ‘antisemitism training’ sessions in UK universities to combat what Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson called the “poison of antisemitism” on UK campuses.

    The Union of Jewish Students is an explicitly pro-Israel and Israel–funded organisation that runs an ‘Israel portal‘ and has boasted of how many of its former members are ‘serving’ in Israel’s genocidal government and military:

    UJS alumni are currently serving in senior positions in Israeli gov, IDF & even the President’s office.

    The Union of Jewish Students

    The Union of Jewish Students is the group that played a key role in the antisemitism smear campaign against Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader. They then hounded professor David Miller out of Bristol University despite two separate barrister-led inquiries finding that he had said nothing antisemitic. A tribunal later found that Miller’s anti-Israel views are protected political speech and awarded him damages against the university, but Bristol did not reinstate him.

    The group also denies Israel’s genocide in Gaza, despite the United Nations, human rights groups – including in Israel, academic genocide experts and ‘plausibly’ the World Court – finding Israel is committing genocide, alongside an endless flood of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The Union of Jewish Students hosted articles by BICOM, an Israel lobby organisation that boasts of its “unique links to key figures in the Israeli government”, that regurgitated Israeli PM Netanyahu’s comments condemning South Africa for bringing its genocide case to the International Court of Justice and dismissing the very idea that Israel is committing genocide as “outrageous”.

    The Union of Jewish Students has since deleted the pages with the BICOM articles, although they were successfully archived on the Wayback Machine up to May this year:

    How the page looks now.

    Attacking academics

    One of the accusations the Union of Jewish Students flung at Miller during its campaign against him was that he accused “Jewish charities of ‘aiding genocide in Gaza’”. Despite its apparent unwillingness to consider Israel’s mass slaughter of almost 700,000 Palestinians in Gaza a genocide, it is quite eager to condemn China’s “Uyghur genocide”, despite no court agreeing that it is committing one and China’s critics mostly attacking China for attempting to assimilate the Uyghurs in a ‘cultural genocide’ that erases their separateness, rather than trying to end their existence.

    As well as attacking academics and politicians whose pro-Palestine views it dislikes, the Union of Jewish Students also targets student body leaders. In 2022, its smears against National Union of Students (NUS) president Shaima Dallali led to the NUS removing her from her elected position. Dallali’s ‘antisemitic’ ‘crimes’ were to repeat a slogan supporting Palestinian liberation from occupation – and to criticise the Union of Jewish Students for its “well-documented role” in smearing and attempting to silence Israel’s critics, such as rapper and political commentator Lowkey.

    And vitally, the Union of Jewish Students has been accused of acting to legitimise the Gaza genocide on British university campuses, whitewash the coloniser’s crimes, and de-legitimise Palestinian voices and groups.

    Legitimisation of Israel and Zionism

    In case there is anyone who has been asleep for the past decade and just woke up unable to imagine that a ‘Labour’ government would put the Zionist fox in charge of the university chicken coops in this way, Keir Starmer has long form for doing exactly that.

    Not long after taking over as party leader, as part of his determination to legitimise years of antisemitism smears against his predecessor Jeremy Corbyn and the political left and shore up the antisemitic proposition that all Jews support Israel and its crimes against the Palestinian people, Starmer gave pro-Israel fanatic groups the Board of Deputies (BOD) and the Jewish Labour Movement (JLM) a veto over which groups are allowed to sit on the party’s ‘independent’ ‘advisory board’ on antisemitism. The move was part of manoeuvres that led to mass suspensions and expulsions of left-wing members, with others leaving in disgust – and all smeared by Israel supporting (then-Shadow) Chancellor Rachel Reeves as antisemitic.

    Starmer also gave control of Labour’s antisemitism ‘training’ of members to the JLM and other Zionist groups – training that was then slammed by Martin Forde, the barrister Starmer appointed to investigate racism among Labour staffers (then buried his report and did nothing) as inadequate and deeply one-sided against Jewish party members who do not support Israel and its attempts to control the narrative of its actions.

    Starmer and his fellow-travellers, then, are giving control of ‘training’ on the topic of supposed antisemitism to the Union of Jewish Students – a group that to all appearances exists to legitimise Israel, gloss over its crimes and de-legitimise Palestinians and their Jewish allies – and the move is as unsurprising as it is appalling.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • New Campaign Aims to Flood Churches and Christian Colleges With Pro-Israel Ads

    A newly-created firm called Show Faith by Works is embarking on a “geofencing” campaign to target Christian churches and colleges across the American Southwest with pro-Israel advertisements. The pastors and congregations themselves are seemingly unaware of this campaign, and some have concerns with Israel’s methods to target Christians. According to the firm’s filing under the Foreign Agents…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Israel doesn’t bother hiding that dead Palestinians were bound, tortured, shot

    UK and other Western media have been obsessed with regurgitating Israel’s claims about a few missing bodies of Israelis almost certainly killed by their own side’s bombs but not yet returned by Palestinian militia groups, which Israel has used to justify its decision to again block Palestinians from receiving food after months of blockaded starvation.

    The same media have been silent about the fact that many of the bodies of Palestinians that have finally been released by Israel under the ‘you cease we’ll keep firing’ agreement have not only been returned without any identification, but in many cases still bound and bearing marks of torture, with some still blindfolded after being executed with a shot to the head.

    Tens, likely hundreds, of thousands bodies of Palestinian victims also remain buried under the fifty-five million tons of rubble caused by Israel’s mass destruction of buildings and infrastructure in Gaza. In a gross insult to those victims and their families, Turkiye has announced that it is sending a team of 81 people with equipment to locate the bodies of Israeli captives, who were almost certainly killed by their own side’s bombing.

    Dr Shahd Abusalama, whose family was murdered in Gaza while she was on the Canary-Skwawkbox Your Show at the end of September, asked readers to imagine how that injustice must affect the Palestinians whose loved ones still lie rotting under rubble after Israel’s extermination campaign.

    An initial tweet, when translated, read:

    The Hebrew was: Turkey sends to Gaza a team of 81 people with equipment to locate the bodies of Israeli captives. In addition to an Egyptian-Qatari team

    Dr Abusalama responded:

    Israeli lives and deaths seem to count much more – and not only to ethno-supremacist Israel.

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Democrat Gavin Newsom malfunctions over Israel funding

    ‘Gruesome’ Gavin Newsom is the governor of California. Famous for his war on homeless people, Newsom is a controversial figure, albeit one who exists within the mainstream of the modern Democrat Party (unfortunately):

    Newsom is also a beneficiary of funding from Israel, which spurred the following exchange:


    Malfunction

    In the video above, host Van Lathan Jr. asked Newsom about funding from AIPAC (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee). Newsom responded:

    Interesting, you’re like the first to bring up AIPAC in years, which is interesting.

    Lathan clarified:

    I will not vote for a candidate that takes $1 from AIPAC.

    Following Israel’s genocide, this is an increasingly common opinion. It’s not just a left thing, either, with elements of the American right increasingly saying stuff like this:


    Back to Newsom, his malfunction continued:

    It’s interesting. I mean, it’s interesting. I haven’t thought about AIPAC. And it’s interesting. You’re like the first to bring up AIPAC in years, which is interesting.

    Asked “why”, Newsom said:

    It’s not relevant to my day-to-day life. Which is just interesting. It’s interesting you say that.

    We’re going to go out on a limb and suggest Newsom found this question ‘interesting’.

    Continuing, he noted:

    JPAC perhaps more, but AIPAC less and less.

    As people highlighted, JPAC is a regional equivalent of AIPAC:

    People also said stuff like the following:

    The tide is turning

    Newsom continued to waffle on about how interesting he found the question, but he didn’t – you know – pledge to stop taking money from a genocidal foreign power. He may have to eventually, of course, as all American politicians may have to. Israel has lost public support in the West, and even the most cynical politicians will have to recognise this reality if they want to keep the gravy train running.

    Featured image via Van Lathan

    By Willem Moore

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Damaging report shows how Starmer chose Israel over British democratic rights

    A new report has set out exactly how Keir Starmer has chosen to elevate Israeli interests at the direct expense of British democratic rights. And, the report also finds that, as a whole, Western democracies have turned counter-terrorism and anti-Semitism narratives against Palestine solidarity activists.

    And in doing so, the authors say, the UK and others have abandoned the basic democratic values they claim to espouse.

    The International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) report was published 14 October. It is titled ‘Criminalisation and Narrative Control: Solidarity with Palestine in the Crosshairs’. The report focuses on repression in the UK, France, Germany and the US. FIDH describes itself as “an international human rights NGO federating 188 organisations from 116 countries”.

    the ‘Criminalisation and Narrative‘ report reveals a “dangerous instrumentalization”:

    …of counter-terrorism legislation and anti-Semitism discourse to suppress freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly.

    The authors demonstrate a “growing criminalisation of dissent” against “journalists, human rights defenders,
    activists, students, artists, and even elected officials” who oppose Israel’s violence.

    Starmer part of group weakening ‘democratic safeguards’

    The 56-page document records how:

    Across all the countries studied, the dynamics observed since 7 October 2023 have intensified pre-existing structural trends: the continued shrinking of civic space, the weakening of democratic safeguards, the normalisation of Islamophobia, and the institutionalisation of racial profiling.

    It also shows how  ‘anti-racist’ narratives were selectively used to attack basic democratic rights. In particular, they mean accusations of anti-Semitism.

    The report found that:

    ..governments have weaponised counter-terrorism narratives and the fight against antisemitism to suppress dissent, silence solidarity, and criminalise support for Palestinian rights.

    Solidarity under attack

    One of FIDH’s central concerns is a:

    …growing conflation of antisemitism with legitimate criticism of Israeli state policies. This deliberate confusion has allowed authorities to delegitimise and penalise a wide range of actors, activists, academics, students, artists, and even elected officials, who publicly denounce Israeli actions in Gaza or advocate for Palestinian liberation.

    In doing so, political speech, long regarded as a foundation of democratic life, is increasingly being equated with hate speech or extremist ideology, especially when it concerns Israel or Zionism.

    The authors identify a “surge of pro-Palestine solidarity” after October 7 “which builds on decades of global organising for the rights of Palestinians”.

    As has been noted, this rattled Western states to their core. Leading to “repression and censorship” against supporters of Palestinian rights.

    Tactics include:

    • false accusations of antisemitism and support for terrorism
    • monitoring and surveillance of activists and pro-Palestinian civil society
    • official denunciations of solidarity activists and actions
    • bureaucratic and administrative sanctions
    • threats to academic freedom
    • lawsuits and legal threats against activists and pro-Palestinian civil society
    • legislation against solidarity actions such as the Boycott Divest and Sanctions movement, and
    • criminal investigations and prosecutions -and in some cases the kidnapping and illegal detention – of students expressing solidarity with Palestine.

    Authoritarian Britain

    When it comes to Starmer’s handling of Israel with regards to British policy, the report found:

    The right to protest has come under attack from the British government across administrations and party lines. Protests in solidarity with Gaza and against Israel’s genocide have been met with high levels of police surveillance and police violence.

    Britain’s repression emerges from its historic relationship to colonialism in the region. But also its current economic relationship with Israel:

    The UK and Israel have signed several long term agreements underpinning a close strategic partnership between the two States that encompasses defence and security, cyber-security, trade and the economy and technology among other objectives.

    Sell-out MPs

    Additionally, the authors also note that 180 Members of Parliament:

    are reported to have accepted funding from pro-Israel lobby groups and individuals.

    After all, they add, the Labour Party has been:

    shaped deeply in recent years by polarisation on the issues of solidarity with Palestinians and criticism of Israel.

    Chiefly, the outcome of that is a Labour Party which has backed genocide militarily and politically for two years. The report, which can be read in full here, paints a similar picture of France, Germany and the US.

    The authors conclude:

    Ultimately, the crackdown on solidarity with Palestinians reveals a profound crisis: not only of human
    rights in the occupied territories, but of freedom itself , in societies that claim to be democratic.

    The legitimacy of the international human rights framework is at stake. Whether these states choose
    to uphold their principles or betray them in favor of political expediency will have far-reaching
    consequences, not only for Palestinians, but for the future of rights and freedoms worldwide.

    All in all, the fight for Palestinian rights and self-determination is a fight for democracy everywhere.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Joe Glenton

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Holocaust survivor Agnes Kory: there’s no end to Israel’s atrocities for Gaza’s children

    Holocaust survivor Agnes Kory has told the Metro that she:

    sees no end to the suffering for children in Gaza, even when they return to their homes under a ceasefire agreement.

    Holocaust survivor speaks out

    In August, Kory, 81, who survived the Nazis’ attempt to exterminate Hungary’s Jews and has spent sixty-five years researching the Holocaust, accused Israel of constructing ‘Nazi show camps’ in Gaza to parade Palestinian survivors while continuing their extermination and expulsion from their homeland.  Now, with a supposed ‘ceasefire’ in place, she has pointed to Israel’s daily violations of its agreement and continued slaughter of Palestinian civilians, saying that:

    After I survived, nobody was trying to bomb me and kill me anymore. There was an end to the atrocities, but I don’t see any end for the Palestinian children. I am not convinced that these people in Gaza will not continue to be under threat of being killed and hurt.

    The Israeli government does not want a Palestinian state, I don’t believe that there is any peace coming to the Palestinians.

    She also pointed to Israel’s continued and unpunished ethno-supremacism, as well as the ingrained dishonesty of both Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and US president Donald Trump:

    Once the Holocaust was over I had equal rights with everybody else.

    The Palestinians, including the Palestinian children, they still don’t have equal rights like with Jewish citizens of Israel. The ceasefire is just a con. Mr Trump was keen to get his Nobel Prize.

    They’re not even getting the whole of Gaza back. So the big concentration camp where they once lived, now it’s going to be a smaller concentration camp. Netanyahu did announce that if the Palestinians don’t behave, then the ceasefire will stop, so the Israelis are still the rulers.

    Kory said she had been “haunted” by the Nazis’ murder of her family but that finding stability in the UK after the war had allowed her to have “a good life” that is being denied to Palestinian children:

    I have had a good life, which was haunted by memories and the memories of my family.

    All the children in Gaza now will be damaged for life, and they have had a sustained campaign against them. They had to live in fear for two years. They were starved.

    Human nature can be resilient. The Palestinians did show amazing, astonishing resilience. Presumably a lot of them will be hopeful because if you don’t hope, you cannot live.

    And Kory said that she is “outraged” by the tactic of Israel and its mouthpieces of presenting its genocide as if it has been done on behalf of all Jews and is supported by all Jews – and as if those who oppose it are therefore antisemitic ‘hate marchers’:

    That’s not a war. It was a killing field and what else can you call a killing field? It’s a genocide. A lot of what Israel does is supposed to be doing in the name of Holocaust survivors, in the name of Jews.

    I resent that. I’m outraged by it. It’s definitely not in my name.

    Targeting of anti-Zionist Jews

    To protect Israel’s narrative, UK media continue to airbrush out the many Jews who are front and centre of the anti-genocide movement’s marches every week. During the summer, Agnes Kory and hundreds of anti-Zionist Jews signed a letter to PM Keir Starmer demanding action to end the genocide and his government’s collaboration in it. Starmer refused to allow them to deliver their letter to Downing Street and did not reply after they posted it to him.

    Many anti-Zionist Jews are among those being targeted by the Starmer regime misusing anti-terror laws against peaceful peaceful protesters, just as he targeted left-wing Jews to hound them out of the Labour party.

    Featured image via YouTube screenshot/IJAN UK

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • ‘Ex-Israeli’ writer urges activists to make copies of genocide info as ‘scrubbing’ cover-up begins

    An anti-Zionist Jewish writer has called on activists in the anti-genocide movement to start copying – and saving in multiple locations – online evidence of Israel’s genocide after social media giant Meta deleted all posts by Palestinian journalist Saleh al-Jafarawi. Saleh was murdered by an Israel-funded criminal gang last weekend. Archives of his articles were also deleted.

    Alon Mizrahi, who describes himself as an “ex-Israeli, anti-Zionist Arab Jew”, posted the call on his X account:

    Mizrahi’s warning comes on the back of observations by Palestinian author Susan Abulhawa, who also noted the deletion of al-Jafarawi’s posts and linked it to previous warnings that Israel was about to ‘scrub the internet’ of references to its genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity:

    The ‘Wayback Machine’ archive shows results for al-Jafarawi’s Instagram, but the linked archives are not there.

    Al-Jafarawi is not the only account apparently hit similarly. After Israel attacked the Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) of humanitarian, volunteer-crewed boats, abducted its crews and seized its vessels this month, the GSF’s X account disappeared, along with its record of Israel’s bombing of the crew in other nations’ waters, the ultimate attacks on its forty-plus boats and the video testimonies of its volunteers:

    If you have time and storage capacity, save what you find to ensure that the ‘scrubbing’ fails.

    Featured image via Unsplash/Julio Lopez

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Video: ITV described captured Israeli soldier as ‘kidnapped from tank’

    ITV’s Good Morning Britain has described Israeli tank driver Matan Angrest, who was released this week in Gaza as part of the ‘ceasefire’ deal, as ‘kidnapped from a tank during a battle’:

    It seems the term ‘prisoner of war’ is too much of a stretch for the UK ‘mainstream’ media – though even that is too kind a description when what Israel is doing in Gaza is perpetrating genocide, not ‘war’. ‘Captured terrorist Matan Angrest’ would be a more apt decision, even if the Greens are the only UK political party honest enough to designate the occupation military as a terrorist organisation while the Starmer regime hunts supporters of a non-violent protest group as ‘terrorists’ and actively assists in the genocide.

    Featured image via YouTube screenshot/Good Morning Britain

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Video: EU chief spokesperson refuses to say Israel should build Gaza like Russia ‘should’ Ukraine

    A senior European Commission (EC) spokesperson has refused to say that Israel should pay to rebuild Gaza after its two-year campaign of genocide and wholesale destruction – despite the EC saying that Russia should pay to ‘rebuild’ Ukraine, which has been far less damaged.

    Asked by Italian journalist Gabriele Rosana, the spokeswoman would only call it “definitely an interesting question” but one on which she had no comment to make:

    The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has calculated that Israel’s genocide in Gaza and its war on Palestinian homes, schools, hospitals, industry, commercial buildings, water treatment, and sanitation have left more than 55,000,000 tons of rubble and that the rebuilding will cost at least seventy billion dollars and take years, far beyond any comparable regional disaster. Thousands of victims remain buried under the rubble and Israel refuses to allow any heavy equipment into Gaza to begin clearing the destruction as survivors reel from their psychological devastation.

    Even after two years of inflicting a Holocaust on the people of Gaza as well as attacking most of its neighbours and murdering and torturing international aid workers, Israel continues to enjoy impunity from governments and organisations that have covered for and abetted its crimes all along.

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Italian journalists put BBC to shame in their remembrance of murdered Palestinian journalists

    With FIFA conspicuously still failing to ban Israel despite its genocide in Palestine, Italy had to end the apartheid state’s chances of entering the 2026 World Cup itself. And as it did, its state broadcaster put its British counterpart to shame by openly honouring the hundreds of journalists Israeli occupation forces have killed in the last two years.

    BBC shamed for ignoring murdered journalists in Palestine

    RAI journalist Alessandro Antinelli explained to viewers why he was wearing a black ribbon, highlighting that more than:

    250 journalists killed in the war in Gaza, in what the United Nations commission of inquiry defined as a genocide. They tried to report, but regrettably, it is a fact that they didn’t return home.

    Another journalist reporting on the match suggested that, despite all of the international impunity Israel has benefited from, “at least we could beat Israel on the pitch”:

    Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza has killed at least 273 journalists and media workers since October 2023. That means it’s taken the life of at least one journalist every three days in the last two years. Scholars say the apartheid state has committed infocide (journocide / mediacide) in Gaza, systematically waging information warfare not only via propaganda efforts but by working to ensure the censorship or murder of Palestinian journalists.

    It’s almost unimaginable that the BBC would highlight Israel’s systematic murder of Palestinian journalists in the same way. Instead, the BBC has consistently echoed Israeli propaganda over the last two years while demonstrating racist double standards in their reporting of Palestinian and Israeli suffering.

    Italians refused to give Israel an easy ride

    Italian coach Gennaro Gattuso had said before the match:

    There is nothing worse than what we have seen in the last two years.

    A national strike showing solidarity with Palestine had previously gone to Italy’s national training centre to call for the cancellation of the match against Israel. But Italy ‘had to play’ to avoid forfeiting the game, Gattuso stressed. And he added:

    it’s very sad to see what’s happening to innocent people, children, it hurts my heart to see all of that.

    More than 10,000 people protested peacefully before yesterday’s match, calling for Israel’s suspension from FIFA. There was a heavy police presence, and officers eventually used “water cannons and tear gas” against protesters. With helicopters flying over the city and a number of restrictions in place, one resident insisted that “such a deployment of forces for a match should never take place”.

    The demonstration included a massive Palestinian flag and banner saying “Show Israel the red card”:

    Show Israel the red card!

    FIFA and UEFA have faced significant criticism for their hypocrisy, having suspended Russia but refused to suspend Israel. And FIFA may even seek to punish Italy now in response to some of its fans booing the apartheid state’s national anthem.

    For now, Israel’s defeat has only been on the field. But the movement to ban the settler-colonial nation from the sport altogether is growing. And the more people join those efforts, the harder the corrupt officials at the top of the sport will find it to ignore the demands.

    Featured image via X

    By Ed Sykes

    This post was originally published on Canary.