An aid agency is warning that a lack of aid reaching Gaza is forcing Palestinians to search through destroyed buildings for basic necessities, putting them at risk of death or injury from unexploded bombs.
“Decades of occupation, blockade, and siege have been compounded by the catastrophic use of explosive weapons in one of the world’s most densely populated areas.
“The human cost is staggering with more than 44,000 people killed, 90 percent of the population displaced, and essential infrastructure obliterated.”
The report said that civilians were left grappling with “unimaginable risks” from widespread destruction to the deadly legacy of explosive ordinance (EO) contamination.
“Nearly everyone in Gaza has felt the devastating impact. Homes reduced to rubble, schools and hospitals targeted, and basic services like water and healthcare brought to a standstill,” the report said.
“Families face a grim reality, uprooted an average of six times, often returning to areas that have seen active fighting which are likely riddled with explosive ordnance.
War remnants ‘mistaken for toys’
“Children, tragically, are among the most vulnerable, mistaking deadly remnants of war for toys.”
This report has exposed the far-reaching consequences of the use of explosive weapons in populated areas in Gaza, “revealing a dire reality for a population trapped in danger”.
It underscores the devastating toll of impunity and disregard for international humanitarian law, which continues to result in immense suffering of civilians.
At Westminster Magistrates Court, eight more Palestine Action activists have been remanded to prison – after being raided and arrested after an action against Israel’s Elbit arms factory in Filton, Bristol, on 6 August. In an appeal at the Crown Court they will apply for bail – ahead of a trial in November 2025.
All eight, as with ten others charged in August, face criminal – not terror – charges, despite having been arrested and interrogated under Terrorism Act powers deployed to deny them their rights.
Palestine Action: more Elbit Filton activist remanded to prison
People came out and rallied in support of the Palestine Action Filton activists:
All eighteen are political prisoners, subjected to abuses of power and process by Counter Terrorism Policing South East and other police forces – for alleged acts of resistance against complicity in genocide. In August, activists drove a van into and dismantled the Filton, Bristol research hub of Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest arms company, causing £1m in damages against products including quadcopters.
Despite their repression, they are said to be faring well, smiling in the court in front of a packed public gallery – steadfast in the knowledge that they have been imprisoned by a state acting out of its deep complicity in Israel’s genocidal campaign.
They have all been charged with aggravated burglary and criminal damage, while six have also been charged with violent disorder – none charged under the terror laws which police have abused against them.
They continue to be investigated through Counter-Terrorism Policing investigatory powers, with rights experts having expressed alarm over these powers being deprive Palestine Action activists of the legal protections that should be afforded to them.
Severe restrictions
Those imprisoned for over a hundred days so far have been subjected to arbitrary and severe restrictions, including being denied reading materials, religious practice, medical privacy, and being prohibited to communicate with other prisoners:
From 5am on Tuesday 19 November, police raids broke down doors and detained the eight, along with others detained and not charged. The individuals and their families had property destroyed in police raids, with many family members unable to return to their homes since Monday.
At Westminster Magistrates Court and at the Hammersmith and Newbury police stations where activists were being held, hundreds have mobilised in solidarity with the Palestine Action political prisoners:
Featured image and additional images via Guy Smallman
Keir Starmer is less popular with British people than Donald Trump.
Read that back, and then say it out loud.
Now, I know as well as anyone just how detestable Keir Starmer is.
Keir Starmer is that failed MOT that you cannot afford to put right.
Keir Starmer is missing the last bus home by a few seconds.
Keir Starmer is the excruciating dental abscess that keeps you awake at night and leaves you looking a bit like one of the Tweenies.
Okay, maybe I’m being a little bit too kind. But more hated than Trump, in Britain? We really are plunging head first down the most slippery of slopes right now.
What a mess, Keir Starmer – and that’s without Donald Trump
While the British media seems deeply troubled — albeit predictably — by the thought of multi-millionaire land owning farmers having to consider the implications of having to pay a little more tax in the future, I will save my concerns for the farmers in Gaza that have witnessed the systematic destruction of their crops and their land by the Israeli military, because they no longer have the means to feed themselves and the Gazan population.
According to Labour’s own impact assessment, their own cuts to the winter fuel payments are likely to force another 100,000 pensioners in England and Wales into relative poverty. You honestly want me to care about multimillionaires while this shit is happening, under a Labour government?
This is an absolute masterclass in how not to make policy, and the sooner this ridiculous government admit to making one almighty great fuck up, the better for everyone.
Farmers what?
Millions of British children are growing up in poverty. Disabled people are no better off under Labour and are facing more cuts. Our NHS is in a permanent state of crisis with privatisation being seen as the go to solution for Labour. Homelessness and rough sleeping are a national disgrace, as great as any other. We continue to fuel conflict and violence across the globe. Energy prices are set to rise again in January.
And you want us to join a vigil for a group of farmers that fail to understand that lots of people in Britain work bloody hard their entire lives to still have no more than a few trinkets for a memory box to pass down to their children, if we’re lucky?
Fuck off, Clarkson. If you are standing on the opposite side of the argument to that narcissistic Tory pig, you must be doing something right.
Unlike the dangerously stupid Keir Starmer, who is hopeful of dragging Britain into an unwinnable conflict with Putin’s Russia – simply to create a mushroom-cloud-sized smokescreen for his multiple crises on the domestic front.
Vote Labour – bomb and genocide everywhere?
I don’t seem to remember “vote Labour, bomb Russia” appearing at any point in the most recent Labour Party manifesto.
When you find yourselves less popular than a pair of septic, racist hate preachers in the shape and musty, pissy mattress stench of Donald Trump and Nigel Farage, surely you would start asking some difficult questions of yourself, prime minister?
Did the ICC feel sorry for Joe Biden? Maybe they have also realised the guy is quite simply non compos mentis, and just maybe they didn’t see the point of following up his complicity with a warrant?
The fugitive, Netanyahu is already on record as describing the ICC as “disgraceful”, and the old favourite, “antisemitic”, a word that has been completely devalued, misused and exaggerated by bad faith actors whenever they feel the need to shut down perfectly legitimate criticism of the Israeli terrorist state.
Under international law, any state that has signed up to the ICC’s Rome Statute is obliged to detain the wanted war criminal Netanyahu ‘on sight’, and that includes the UK.
Hand-wringing
When questioned on how Britain would respond to the arrest warrant, the Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper (another hater of disabled people) claimed it wasn’t a matter for her.
Sorry to disappoint you, Yvette, but you’re in charge of the police, so cut this no comment bullshit and ensure Britain fully complies with international law. If we really wanted a government of corrupt, freeloading, Israel first stooges that hold no regard for international law we would’ve kept the last lot in place.
Britain’s full throttled support for Israel — for which it will be judged by history not dissimilar to how those that supported the Nazis are judged — now has to come to a sudden and immediate halt.
While the US will deny the charge of genocide until they are red, white, and blue in the face, we can and must be better. If the US wants to be an ally of a war criminal state, let them. We don’t have to nod along with every Washington diktat, even if you have been taught to believe it is compulsory.
If Keir Starmer believes he can save his own bacon in Britain by kicking off with a well-armed superpower like Russia, he is more foolish than I ever thought possible. Has he considered what an incoming Trump presidency is likely to mean for Russia, Ukraine, and little, worryingly isolated Britain?
There’s no appetite for war, Keir Starmer
There is no appetite for war in Britain. Even to this day, the horrors of the invasion of Iraq still leave an indelible stain on the British national conscience.
The Labour Party should know this better than anyone else.
I’m sure the right-wing media will get fully behind the son-of-a-toolmaker Starmer’s posturing, they love a bit of fighting talk. But the sycophantic hacks and their editors will be at back of the queue when it comes to volunteering to book their journeys home to Britain, loaded on to the rear end of an RAF plane in a fucking flag-draped wooden box.
Keir Starmer is painfully out of his depth, both domestically and on the global stage. Why did anyone think his experience of locking away a few shoplifters made him suitable to run a country?
I used to answer phone calls for Vodafone, many, many years ago, back in the days of the Nokia 3310. Based on Starmer’s career progression, perhaps I should put myself forward to be a nuclear physicist, or better still, the next poet laureate?
Charges against Israeli prime minister and his former defence minister Yoav Gallant mark first time western-affiliated leaders have been targeted for war crimes
Thursday’s announcement from the international criminal court’s pretrial chamber of arrest warrants for Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his former defence minister, Yoav Gallant, has sent shockwaves through the international legal system. As the first time that officials from a democratic, western-allied state have been charged with war crimes, it is widely seen as the most significant action taken by the court since it was set up at the turn of the century.
Elbit Systems UK has lost its largest-ever British arms contract, worth over £2.1bn, after the Ministry of Defence (MoD) scrapped its Watchkeeper drone programme with Elbit subsidiary UAV Tactical Systems (U-TacS). It comes after Palestine Action sustained years of direct action against the company – which had already resulted in it losing several other contracts.
Elbit: £2.1bn down the shitter
Elbit, Israel’s largest weapons company, had spent over twenty years on the Watchkeeper programme with partner-firm Thales. Their joint venture, U-TacS, has been subjected to over three years of relentless direct action by Palestine Action, causing significant damage to premises and disruption to their operations.
The government has claimed that the move is part of their decommissioning of outdated models. Yet, the Watchkeeper drone has only been in service for six years, and the MoD asserted in 2022 that the Watchkeeper’s ‘out-of-service’ date was not expected to be reached until 2042.
The drone, custom-made for the British MoD, is modeled entirely upon the Hermes model made by Elbit for the Israeli military. The Hermes 450, is routinely used to massacre and surveil the Palestinian people, and is marketed as “battle-tested” upon them as a result. The Hermes has been linked to documented war crimes committed by Israel, both during and before the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Given the close compatibility of parts between the Watchkeeper and the Hermes, U-TacS is also involved in direct supplies of weapons parts to Israel.
While U-TacS has consistently denied that it sells weapons to the Israeli military, U-TacS’ export licenses for sale of goods for ‘military end-use’ in Israel suggest that their statements are false.
All Palestine Action’s fault?
Disruptive action by Palestine Action activists at the U-TacS site has been ongoing since May 2021, when four activists stormed and occupied the factory – remaining on the roof for six days. In the years since, ceaseless actions and disruption at the site have massively hamstrung the factory’s operations.
Since the genocide in Gaza commenced in October 2023, actions against the site have intensified including vehicular lock-ons to prevent entry, while the most recent action at U-TacS saw a lorry smash into the building before activists took to the roof to occupy the site.
From atop the roof, activists used paint filled fire extinguishers to damage drones inside the factory. This action led to structural damage of the premises, halting operations for several weeks.
This constant disruption, forcing the site shut for days-on-end, causing severe delays to production. In 2023, Elbit Systems UK CEO Martin Fausset stated that “The culture in the UK is if you’re one day late, you might as well be six months late. It’s equally unacceptable. So that understanding is something we have to be very careful with”.
Elbit: out of business in the UK?
This is not the first instance in which Elbit has been forced out of MoD contracts by direct action, having two contracts worth £280m revoked in 2022 for failing to meet “operational sovereignty” standards.
A Palestine Action spokesperson said:
Elbit losing its biggest contract signifies the beginning of the end for the Israeli weapons maker’s presence in this country. Direct action undertaken by hundreds of activists has consistently disrupted the operations of Elbit Systems, leading to significant delays in production, as well as damage to weaponry. There’s no doubt that direct action works, and it’s more necessary than ever to deploy effective tactics against the Israeli war machine
The recent arrests of 10 Palestine Action activists and other activists using counter-terrorism laws are just the “tip of an intimidation iceberg” of attacks on freedom of speech and dissent, according to the producer of a new film. It is from the makers of The Big Lie – and will be called Censoring Palestine.
We are seeing a state-sponsored clampdown designed to silence anyone who speaks out or demonstrates in support of Palestine. The arrests we’ve seen so far are just the tip of an intimidation iceberg. The government is criminalising dissent.
Thomas’s comments are based on research carried out for the new Platform Films documentary Censoring Palestine which will be released in December.
In recent weeks police raids on activists including Sarah Wilkinson and Asa Winstanley, and the arrest of the Jewish academic Haim Bresheeth, have caused outrage and anger, but, according to Thomas, these in no way reflect the true scale of the problem.
He said:
In the course of making our film, we’ve coming across so many cases of people who’ve been treated scandalously by the police and whose only crime has been to protest against the genocide in Palestine.
Police break down their doors, impose curfews on them, restrict where they can and can’t go, limit their use of social media, confiscate equipment they need for work and, in some cases, treat them with brutality.
Thomas says they are also collecting more and more many stories of “doxing” — Palestine supporters being reported, often anonymously, to their employers.
He says “people are being smeared to their employers as antisemitic simply for going on a Palestine demo. Some even lose their jobs. Teachers and students in particular have been attacked in this way”:
This kind of victimisation and intimidation thrives on being kept secret. We are appealing to anyone who has been targeted, whether by the police or in their workplace, to come and tell us their story. We will respect total confidentiality but we must expose the extent of what’s happening.
‘It was a scam’ – but on a far, bigger scale
Platform Films are the producers of Oh Jeremy Corbyn – The Big Lie, which tells the story of the rise and fall of the Labour Party leader and was shown across the country last year. Mr Thomas says the current attacks on pro-Palestine activists have a strong echo of the way antisemitism was weaponised against Jeremy Corbyn and his supporters.
He said:
The same people determined to smear Corbyn are now taking part in a campaign to smear the pro-Palestine protesters. But this is all on a much bigger scale and, I think, reflects the desperation of the pro-Israel lobby and the size of the Palestine solidarity campaign.
The film Censoring Palestine, which stars legendary filmmaker Ken Loach, will be released next month and local groups are being invited to set up screenings. Thomas said “as with our previous film about Jeremy Corbyn we will make no charge to screen the film, but donations will be welcome”.
Israeli forces killed nine Palestinians in a military raid on Jenin that lasted more than 48 hours between Wednesday and Thursday. Local residents told Mondoweiss that Israeli forces entered the industrial area in Jenin late night Wednesday and headed towards the city’s refugee camp, where they clashed with Palestinian fighters. The Israeli army also took over several rooftops and installed…
Home secretary Yvette Cooper has “overall responsibility for all Home Office business”. And part of the Home Office’s business is policing. Yet Cooper has shamefully sought to avoid saying whether the UK would comply with its obligations over arresting Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu now that the International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued a warrant for his detention over his role in the genocide in Gaza.
Yvette Cooper: arresting Netanyahu ‘nothing to do with me’
Speaking to Sky News, she said:
Well, that’s not a matter for me as home secretary.
She added:
there are proper processes that need to be followed, and therefore it wouldn’t be appropriate for me to comment on those.
The presenter duly followed up by asking:
the UK is a signatory of the International Criminal Court – don’t we have to respect its rulings?
Again failing to answer the question, Cooper simply stated:
we respect the independence of International Criminal Court… and we’ve always respected the importance of international law.
The Home Secretary — responsible for policing and arrests — claims here that it is not a matter for the … Home Secretary … as to whether Netanyahu would be arrested by British police. @YvetteCooperMP — shameful, cowardly, embarrassing.
And it was pretty clear that Cooper had received orders to deny responsibility and avoid confirming if the UK would arrest Netanyahu, because she gave the same response elsewhere:
Breaking: UK Home Secretary says its not her job whether the law is enforced. pic.twitter.com/WZIz3Pn3pX
Like Cooper, a government spokesperson simply said “we respect the independence of the International Criminal Court”, while failing to accept the ICC’s ruling.
Hypocrisy
Britain’s International Criminal Court Act, Middle East Eyeexplains, “legally obliges the government to arrest Netanyahu if he sets foot on UK soil”. It adds that “Britain’s independent courts” will make the final decision on endorsing Netanyahu’s arrest warrant “in accordance with the 2001 act”.
Prime minister Keir Starmer and foreign secretary David Lammy, who both trained as lawyers, know very well that it would be hard to wriggle out of Britain’s responsibility to arrest Netanyahu. But that doesn’t mean they can’t underplay the importance of the ICC ruling. And they’ve been doing this via both genocidedenial and silence.
They both publicly welcomed previous ICC rulings regarding Vladimir Putin, for example, but have so far been silent about accepting the ICC ruling on Netanyahu.
Yet the imperialist alliance has dug in. Washington keeps choosing to defend Israel’s genocidal warmongering at all costs. And by continuing to give Israel hundreds of billions of dollars in financial and military aid, it is participating in the genocide, and giving Israel impunity.
Keir Starmer’s government has a serious dilemma. Does it want to go down along with its senior imperialist partner? Or does it want to step back from the brink and join the overwhelming global consensus that this madness must stop?
Cooper saying arresting Netanyahu is nothing to do with her gives us an idea of what Labour’s position is.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: In The Hague, the International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed during Israel’s assault on Gaza.
In a statement, the ICC said the Israeli leaders had, “intentionally and knowingly deprived the civilian population in Gaza of objects indispensable to their survival, including food, water, and medicine and medical supplies, as well as fuel and electricity.”
The ICC also issued an arrest warrant for Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif, although Israel’s military claims it killed Deif in a July airstrike.
AMY GOODMAN: In related news, on Wednesday, the United States vetoed a Gaza ceasefire resolution at the UN Security Council for the fourth time, and the US Senate rejected a resolution brought by Senator Bernie Sanders that sought to block the sale of US tank rounds, bomb kits and other lethal weapons to Israel. Nineteen senators supported blocking the arms.
For more on all of this, we’re joined by Akbar Shahid Ahmed, senior diplomatic correspondent for HuffPost. His latest piece is “Exclusive: White House Says Democrats Who Oppose Weapons to Israel Are Aiding Hamas.”
Ahmed, thank you so much for being with us. As you write your book on the Biden administration in Gaza called Crossing the Red Line, clearly the ICC has ruled that today by issuing arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as the former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.
Can you talk about the significance of this move?
“A Great Day for Justice”: Palestinian Lawyer Raji Sourani on ICC Warrants for Netanyahu & Gallant https://t.co/TEb1VwShfn
AKBAR SHAHID AHMED: Yeah, Amy. This is just an absolutely huge development, and it’s significant for a number of reasons. It’s significant because the ICC has come out and amplified and affirmed the allegations of crimes against humanity, of war crimes. This is one more international body.
These are . . . international charges with a great deal of respect. This is a court that most of the world is a member of. And they’re coming out and saying, “Look, we think there are reasonable grounds to believe that these major international red lines have been crossed by the Israelis.”
What’s really important to remember is that this isn’t just a decision about Israel. By extension, it fundamentally is a decision about the United States, which has been the ultimate enabler of Israel’s offensives in Gaza and Lebanon, which are under consideration by the ICC.
And even in this ICC statement today, they point out that in the situations where Israel has addressed concerns over what it describes as starvation as a method of warfare — right? — depriving civilians, Palestinians, of food, water and medical equipment, Israel has really only done so in an extremely arbitrary and, what the ICC judges call, conditional way in response to the US. So, fundamentally, Amy, what we’re seeing is the ICC is saying yet again that Israel and the US, as its major enabler and backer, are in the dark and will continue to be in the dark for years to come.
This kind of adds to a broader picture in which there are now ICC warrants for the sitting Israeli prime minister and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, who remains a significant politician in Israel. Simultaneously, there’s the genocide case at the ICJ, the International Court of Justice, which is ongoing and will be ongoing for years to come.
And there’s the Geneva Conventions conference underway next year regarding kind of similar issues — right? — violations of international law, laws of war and the Israeli grave abuses that are alleged. So, the US and Israel will be kind of on trial on the international stage for years to come.
‘Wanted for war crimes in Gaza.’ Video: Democracy Now!
NERMEEN SHAIKH: So, Akbar, would you say that this move is mostly a symbolic one? Because, as you pointed out, of course, most countries are members of the International Criminal Court, but in this instance, perhaps most importantly, neither Israel nor the US are.
AKBAR SHAHID AHMED: Right, Nermeen. And that’s something that the ICC judges did get into today — right? — because Israel said, “Look, the International Criminal Court doesn’t have jurisdiction over us.” That said, the state of Palestine is a member of the court, and that’s why this becomes a relevant and interesting thing, because you’ve seen European nations recognise Palestine as a state. You’ve seen Palestine join the United Nations General Assembly over just last year.
So, yes, while the US and Israel continue to reject international scrutiny by the ICC, by the ICJ, of Israel’s conduct in Gaza and the occupied West Bank and Lebanon, there’s a growing international push to kind of challenge that, right?
And I think you will see the Biden administration and the incoming Trump administration assertively push back against the ICC. The Trump administration did actually target the ICC directly when President Trump was last in office, threatening to put sanctions on ICC officials. And we also know from reporting that the Israelis have spied on and threatened the ICC themselves, according to reporting by The Guardian. So, yes, there will be increased pressure.
But I think we’re really in a place that no one thought we would be even a few months ago, right? I think even the prospect of the ICC prosecutor successfully getting these warrants issued, it was initially thought that would be quite quick. It’s taken a long time. The fact that judges were able to issue those warrants suggests that even though it’s an uphill battle to get this international scrutiny, there’s a real determination and clear will.
And we’ve seen a lot of states turn around and say over 13 months, right? Since the October 7 attack by Hamas within Israel that did spark this current round of fighting, there have been calls to say, “We don’t want this to escalate,” right?
The US’s allies, Western countries have said, “We want to resolve this. We don’t want you on trial. Can the US and Israel please change course?” And what you’ve seen is a defiance from Tel Aviv and from Washington to say, “Actually, no, we’re continuing these wars.”
So, that does take it to a different forum to kind of change the policy.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: And, Akbar, could you also — while we’re looking at the way in which international organisations, multilateral ones, are responding to this, what about the latest vote at the Security Council and the fact that the US blocked it for the fourth time, a ceasefire vote?
AKBAR SHAHID AHMED: It’s really striking at this point — right? — to see the Biden administration totally alone. And you see how this develops over the course of the war. Initially, the US was able to get Britain, even France, kind of abstaining, standing with them.
And now, 13 months in, where conduct hasn’t changed, and you still have daily strikes that are killing dozens, sometimes over a hundred civilians, you have a mounting death toll of mostly women and children, the US is totally alone, where it’s shielding Israel on the world stage diplomatically.
And this is really important to see in the context of the Biden administration as an outlier even among American presidents and administrations. When President Barack Obama was in office, after he was in the lame-duck period that Biden is in now, he actually did abstain at the UN Security Council and said, “You know what? Go ahead and pass a resolution that Israel doesn’t like,” because tacitly the US acknowledged there was a basis, there were credible grounds for that resolution, which in that instance was about Israeli settlement activity.
Here, what you’re seeing from the Biden administration, even in their dying days — right? — two months to go, there’s an obstinacy, a defiance, and a real commitment to shielding Israel, even if they are totally alone against now their closest allies — Britain, France and everyone else on the Security Council.
So, I think the context of that veto kind of presages whatever may come in the next two months in terms of the Biden administration allowing any UN scrutiny of the wars.
AMY GOODMAN: Akbar, I want to play Palestine’s envoy to the United Nations, Majed Bamya, speaking yesterday.
MAJED BAMYA: There is no right to mass killing of civilians. There is no right to starve an entire civilian population. There is no right to forcibly displace a people. And there is no right to annexation. This is what Israel is doing in Gaza. …
Maybe for some, we have the wrong nationality, the wrong faith, the wrong skin color. But we are humans! And we should be treated as such. Is there a UN Charter for Israel that is different from the charter we all have? Tell us. Is there an international law for them, an international law for us? Do they have the right to kill, and the only right we have is to die?
Palestine’s UN ambassador issued a strong rebuke of the high-powered UN Security Council (UNSC) for failing to stop the genocide in Gaza after the U.S. vetoed a ceasefire proposal for the fifth time on Wednesday, questioning whether the council has decided that it is acceptable to sacrifice Palestinian lives. “There is no right to mass killing of civilians. There is no right to starve an…
Canary author Charlie Jaay investigates Israel’s potential use of US private security in Gaza
Back in 2022, Israeli-American businessman, Mordechai Kahana (Moti), founder and CEO of the US based private security and logistics firm, Global Distribution Company (GDC), told the Jerusalem Post:
Zionism runs through my veins, yet I came to New York to make money.
He may now have a chance to make money in Israel, as he has put forward a proposal for GDC to oversee the delivery of humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip.
Kahana: ‘I don’t see there’s a problem from the Israeli side, of food going in’
The private security contract in Gaza is worth $200m for the first six months, which Kahana told the Canary will be bankrolled by “the USA and partners”. Although the Israeli military and Ministry of Defence have shown interest, approval has not yet come from the Israeli government, the war cabinet, or the senate, but talks are ongoing.
According to Kahana, Israel bears no responsibility for the lack of supplies getting into Gaza. Instead, he believes the problem is due solely to the actions of Hamas and other so-called “terrorists”, whom he blames for stealing and selling aid for hundreds of millions of dollars. He says this is funding the “criminals”, building “terrorist capabilities”, and preventing Israel’s ‘strategy’ from working.
He told the Canary that:
I’m not just saying it because I am an Israeli… American-Israeli. I don’t see there’s a problem from the Israeli side, of food going in. I’m sure of it. I’m sure. 100 percent, the Israelis do not stop the supply. For the last four times in the Northern part of Gaza, the Israelis have gone in and cleaned an area, they then get out, send supplies to the area, half the supplies get stolen, and the terrorists recruit new guys. It’s back and forth like this all the time.
When asked for his information source, Kahana sent a link toMida, an Israeli online publication , which claims humanitarian aid has not only been stolen and sold by Hamas for more than $700m, but also brought into the Gaza Strip “on an enormous scale”, by Israel.
Surveillance and control under the guise of humanitarian assistance
The reality is very different. Israel’s actions mean there is now no functioning government in Gaza, and a surge in lawlessness and looting is occurring. A truly desperate situation is being created for the population, where the Israeli occupation forces are not only using starvation as a weapon of war, but turning a blind eye, or even protecting looters, and also targeting local police if they try to take action, or escort aid convoys, so most now refuse to work as they fear for their safety.
But Kahana’s proposal, although dressed up in the guise of humanitarian assistance, has very little to do with the distribution of aid – but everything to do with surveillance and control. He said that:
When the Israelis finish cleaning an area, we’re going to close a neighbourhood. People can go in and out, but we will monitor to make sure only the good guys go back- only people from that neighbourhood who are not Hamas, not Islamic Jihad, not terrorists or criminals. Bad actors won’t be able to go into these gated communities and steal from civilians or kill civilians. They will have to explain things to the Israelis. These will not be ghettos! I am building gated communities. Everyone will be safe and everyone living in the community will feel comfortable.
Matthew Hoh spent almost twelve years in the United States military, mainly with the Marine Corps, but also the Department of Defence, and the State Department. He served in Iraq during America’s occupation and, in 2009, resigned in protest from his post in Afghanistan with the State Department.
His decision, he says, was based not on how the US was pursuing the war, but “why and to what end”. He is now associate director of the Eisenhower Media Network, and shares his thoughts, experiences and insights of war and its human cost, through his talks and writing, which strongly emphasise the need to promote peace, accountability, and change.
He explained that:
The justification in these types of operations is always that you are protecting from terrorists, extremists, criminals, but you’re basically segregating the population. Your creating controlled areas and, if you can control the population, you’re in charge of what they receive, you’re in control of where they go, you’re in control of who’s in that population group.
Aid, AI, and ‘gated communities’ via private security in Gaza
Kahana said he has identified 14 areas throughout Gaza for his gated communities, and if his proposal is given the go ahead, he will start with one in Northeastern Gaza.
Designed to segregate, these gated communities would be surrounded by security walls and under armed guard. To enter and exit the area, residents would be subjected to biometric screening. Anyone who refuses, or who has been labelled, in Kahana’s words, the “bad guy” by Israel and its AI systems will not receive aid and will, no doubt, pay a heavy price. In this way, the ultimate aim of the project is for the population of Gaza to be totally dependent on its oppressor.
Oblivious to the fact that Palestinian communities – villages and towns – now lay in ruins, and huge numbers of people have died due to Israel’s relentless and indiscriminate bombing campaign, Kahana said:
These communities will be where people used to live. This will be their own community; it will be like going back home. There will be food, schools, daycare. People can go back to their own villages but, if they are bad actors or terrorists, they will have to explain things, not to me but to the Israelis.
We need to let the Palestinians run their own lives and give them the best tools to protect themselves. Right now, there’s criminals stealing their supplies and selling them in the market. Terrorists as well. We need to show the Palestinians the day after, with no bad actors, so they can start building their lives over the years. The idea is to let them run it by themselves, at the end of the day.
Although trivialised by Kahana, who told us the use of biometric data in his gated communities would be no different to that used when he recently boarded a Royal Caribbean cruise-ship to the Bahamas, misuse of data can have serious negative impacts on all aspects of someone’s life and, for those who are already vulnerable and discriminated against, the negative consequences of using biometrics – whether facial recognition, iris scan or fingerprints, will be amplified.
There are restrictions and protections put in place if biometric data is collected by NGOs delivering humanitarian aid, but Kahana confirmed the lack of oversight and accountability when it comes to private companies, such as GDC, when he told the Canary:
the biometric data would be shared with governments- definitely the Israelis, the US, the British, and anyone who helps us. I’m not using the data to sell it to Facebook or Instagram. I’m not a data collection company. I will just make sure the communities are safe.
Apartheid by any other name
Amnesty International has previously documented how Israel’s use of biometric surveillance systems, such as facial recognition, are being used to reinforce apartheid and the oppression of Palestinians.
Dr Matt Mahmoudi, head of Amnesty’s Silicon Valley Initiative, says the organisation is alarmed by the reports that biometric surveillance is being considered for deployment in Gaza, towards the establishment of these gated communities. Dr Mahmoudi said that:
These biometric surveillance systems compound arbitrary restrictions on freedom of movement and perpetuate a coercive environment and are intended to force Palestinians out of areas of strategic interest to Israeli authorities.
Amnesty has grave concerns that any use of remote biometric surveillance, in the face of the risk of genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, risks compounding the existing restrictions on freedom of movement and the delivery of humanitarian aid and contributing to the dehumanisation of Palestinians in Gaza.
Against the backdrop of the ICJ’s advisory opinion from July 2024, which established that Israel’s continued occupation of the Palestinian Territory, including Gaza, is against international law, any effort to use biometric surveillance technology to exert further control in Gaza, would risk further prolonging Israeli occupation and the mounting violations of international law.
These biometric systems are integrated together, and used with artificial intelligence, to obtain as much information as possible about the population. Recent investigations have revealed that Israel also uses artificial intelligence in Gaza, to generate the target areas for bombing, and develop extensive target lists – with more targets generated in one day than human personnel can produce in an entire year. When biometric data is coupled with the advanced technology available today, the results are startling. Hoh argued that:
We’re a generation past what the US did in Iraq with population control, but the technology is several generations ahead of what we had say 15-20 years ago. It’s not just about controlling the population. It’s also about tracking them, understanding who they are, always knowing where they’re at, and knowing who they associate with.
When you can identify, track and control people it means you can also target and kill them, their family members, associates, neighbours and friends. People in these types of projects are always explaining the benefits of their actions.
Of course, they are going to dress up the language and make it sound like the language of a sales brochure. This is what anyone does in war, in corruption. But you should expect nothing more than lies in these circumstances.
It’s about identifying, tracking, controlling, and killing
Kahana explained that various teams will be involved with securing and delivering the humanitarian aid, the first being the logistics team which, he said, will take the supply into Gaza, making sure no-one steals it, and will be armed with only “sticks, paintballs and water guns”. He emphasised that:
aid will only go to civilians, not bad actors, not to criminals, not to terrorist organisations, only to civilians.
And so, GDC will need 24/7 coordination with the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). He said:
Then, behind the logistics team there will be a special forces team, incase there is an issue, or people come with guns. Then these guys in the back, the quick reaction team will come and protect us, and the supply.
These private security contractors will, of course, be heavily armed and, according to Kahana, are “trained and equipped for lethal and non-lethal methods of crowd control”, having “fought terrorism all their lives”.
He said his company is made up of “war junkies” and told the Canary that there are 14,000 security personnel working with GDC, operating in 100 different countries. When it comes to Gaza, the private military contractors are six companies from around the world, which are made up of ex-combatants and, veterans of elite units. One of these companies is British, but Kahana said he cannot reveal names unless he wins the contract. GDC’s direct team of employees includes high ranking former US and Israeli officers, from the military and intelligence services.
Absolved of accountability
For Israel and GDC, there would be definite advantages gained by using these private security contractors in Gaza. Lack of regulation and oversight means contractors can operate with impunity. They cannot be held to account for the actions of their employees, because they are working on behalf of the US government, and the US government cannot be held responsible for the actions of a contractor because they are not the US government’s employees.
Hoh said that:
It’s a brilliant way of getting work done without any responsibility or transparency, carrying out wars without the accountability, while also allowing people to make a lot of money from them. It’s privatisation of the military, it’s profit making off of wars and militarism.
If GDC and its private military contractors were to operate in Gaza, the IDF would be absolved of any accountability, and allowed to operate with the smallest footprint possible, while GDC and its contractors would continue with their work, under its guidance and blessing.
Hoh explained that:
You’re controlling them, you’re able to track and target them, you’ve made life so miserable for the Palestinians. You’re trying to accomplish your ethnic cleansing goals by squeezing and squeezing within these concentration camps, and hoping they eventually give up and go wherever. And, by ‘setting the Palestinians up for success’, and ‘giving them the conditions to thrive’, it is now the fault of the people that have been destroyed, and further subjugated, that they cannot pick themselves back up.
Private security in Gaza: abetting the occupation
According to David Petraeus, ex-CIA Director, United States Army General during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and a partner with the global financial investment firm KKR, there were 12 or 13 gated communities in Iraq’s city of Fallujah alone. He told the Times of Israel:
You wall it off… You use biometric ID cards because you’re trying to separate the enemy, the extremists, from the people. That’s the fundamental idea.
Kahana told the Canary:
I know Petraeus, I spoke to him and will follow exactly what he did. He had the idea of ‘gated communities’ in Baghdad, and was very successful.
Hoh said he is not surprised Kahana mentioned Petraeus, as this group is very small, and they all know each other:
Military intelligence, humanitarian assistance, development, reconstruction work and finance- these circles overlap and are ever expanding. It’s the most modern manifestation of the Military Industrial Complex. In the US, the contractors that receive all these contracts and make all the money, do the work of the government in these wars and occupations. That money’s then put back into the political system.
They will ultimately fail
Kahana told the Canary:
It’s not occupation. I’m not the Israeli military, I’m a company. I’m saying the opposite, that we should let the Palestinians run their own lives.
However, if GDC and its private security sub-contractors operate in Gaza, they would have the approval of the Israeli government and would be working hand in glove with the occupation.
There are already established systems in place to run efficient and effective aid operations, in line with international humanitarian law. The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is the largest humanitarian agency in Gaza, and is still the best placed to continue delivering aid.
The organisation is known to the Palestinians, which is a critical aspect when it comes to delivering services to a population that’s overwhelmed by 13 months of constant bombing, fear and overall lack of trust in the international community.
But Israel’s Parliament, last month, labelled the agency a ‘terror group’ and voted to prevent the agency from operating throughout the occupied territory. This violates Israel’s obligations under international law, and shows it has absolutely no interest in the welfare of Palestinians.
These gated communities are unnecessary, and only seek to maintain Israel’s dominance and control over the population, while doing nothing to address the Palestinian’s legitimate grievances about the occupation. They will ultimately fail.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued long-awaited arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. The ICC said in a statement that there are “reasonable grounds to believe” that Netanyahu and Gallant have violated international law in using starvation as a method…
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for Israel‘s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant. In response, the Independent Alliance of MPs has written to Labour Party prime minister Keir Starmer. It insisted that this must be a turning point, and that Starmer’s government should finally end its “shameful indifference to endless violations of international humanitarian law”.
Jeremy Corbyn, Shockat Adam, Ayoub Khan, Adnan Hussain, and Iqbal Mohamed asked Starmer if his government plans to comply with the ICC ruling, highlighting that this is now Britain’s obligation “as a signatory to the ICC”. They also emphasised:
You must immediately welcome the ICC’s arrest warrants and lay out how you will assist them in enforcing their order. Amidst the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people, that is the bare minimum.
And they added:
Ultimately, you must decide: are you on the side of Israeli impunity or international law?
Starmer must apologise, and end all arms sales
The ICC found that there were “reasonable grounds” to accuse Netanyahu and Gallant of responsibility for “intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population” and “intentionally and knowingly [depriving] the civilian population” of essential items like water, food, electricity, and medicine.
In light of the ICC decision, the Independent Alliance MPs insisted:
There is no ambiguity here: the UK’s continued supply of arms to Israel means the government is aiding and abetting war crimes. When will the government honour its obligations under the Geneva Convention to prevent genocide, and end all arms sales to Israel?
They also asked Starmer to apologise for his suggestion in October 2023 that Israel ‘had the right’ to cut off water and power to Gaza. His team previously tried to backpedal and argue that he was responding to another question.
In light of the ICC issuing arrest warrants for the Israeli Prime Minister and former Defence Secretary, today, the Independence Alliance writes to the Prime Minister to ask what steps his government will now take to comply with international humanitarian law. pic.twitter.com/dIxFzYqilc
Just as the International Criminal Court (ICC) issues arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israel defence minister Yoav Gallant, Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) has launched a new map documenting the arms dealers exporting military equipment to Israel from the UK. It once again raises questions over the UK government’s role in Israel’s genocide – and implicates Keir Starmer and his government, too.
Arms dealers in the UK: mapped
The map, based on Freedom of Information (FOI) requests and CAAT’s arms companies browser, gives campaigners all the information they need to find and take action against the arms dealers on their doorsteps:
The map expands on CAAT’s previous map that focused on the manufacturers of F35-combat aircraft components. Included in the map are companies that have previously slipped under the radar. One such company is Gooch and Housego who, with the acquisition of Phoenix Optical Technologies, are the largest recipient of arms export licenses to Israel.
While the Labour Party government temporarily suspended a small proportion of arms exports to Israel in September, it made an exemption for the F-35 programme despite evidence that Israel is using F-35s to commit war crimes.
The UK makes 15% of every F-35 with contracts just for the F-35 programme worth at least £360m since 2016. This makes the F-35 almost certainly the single largest and most important part of the UK arms trade with Israel. CAAT has produced a detailed briefing on the F-35 exemption and other loopholes and problems with the partial suspension.
The ICC should be looking at the UK government’s complicity with Israel’s genocide
The launch of the map coincides with new revelations about the UK’s role in arming Israel. These include:
An admission in the GLAN/Al-Haq court case against the UK government that the foreign secretary assessed that Israel is not committed to complying with international humanitarian law
The case also confirmed that Keir Starmer’s government accepts it is possible that Israel is using F-35s to commit war crimes, and that the exemption was made because including them would disrupt the F-35 supply chain which would “have a profound impact on international peace and security” and “would undermine US confidence in the UK and NATO at a critical juncture in our collective history and set back relations”.
FOI data showing that there was a large increase in the number of spare parts Israel imported for F-35s in 2023. The licence was used almost three times more than any other year on record. Between 2016-2023, the F-35 Open General Export License (OGEL) was used 34 times. In 2023, it was used 14 times. Previously, the highest figure in a year was 5.
FOI data that shows the value of UK arms exports to Israel is much higher than government figures suggest as they do not include incorporation licences to the US. Under these licences, equipment is exported to a country for assembly, and then re-exported to a third country. Between 2022-2023, £165m of incorporation licences were issued for export to the US where Israel was listed as one of several end users. £52m of these licences listed Israel as the only end user.
Starmer and arms dealers should be in the ICC dock
CAAT’s media coordinator Emily Apple said:
Both the government and the arms industry are deeply complicit in Israel’s genocide. Arms dealers are making vast amounts of money from Israel’s horrific war crimes, with successive governments bending over backwards, and using every loophole available to prioritise shareholder profits over Palestinian lives.
GLAN and Al-Haq’s court case is essential in holding successive governments to account for their complicity in the atrocities Israel is committing in Gaza. But it isn’t enough. Despite supposedly being fast-tracked, the court case has already run for a year, and it is still unknown when the full case will be heard.
In the meantime, the situation for Palestinians is beyond horrific, Israel continues to kill civilians with impunity, and still refuses to allow vital humanitarian aid into Gaza. This genocide is happening now.
Our government is not acting, and Palestinian people cannot wait for the conclusion of the court case. This is why we have released our updated interactive map to enable campaigners to take action against the genocide profiteers on their doorsteps.
On Wednesday, less than a fifth of the Senate voted to block weapons sales to Israel in a key vote orchestrated by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) that will be remembered for decades to come as a show of U.S. lawmakers’ deep complicity in Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Senators overwhelmingly rejected the resolutions, with around 79 voting against blocking the sales of tank rounds…
On 21 November, the International Criminal Court (ICC) finally issued arrest warrants for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israel defence minister Yoav Gallant. Now, their accomplices in the West must also face justice for supporting and participating in the genocide in Gaza for over a year. In particular, let’s remember UK prime minister Keir Starmer’s role.
ICC: Netanyahu a (potential) war criminal – so, what about Starmer?
reasonable grounds to believe that Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gallant each bear criminal responsibility as civilian superiors for the war crime of intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population” and “that both individuals intentionally and knowingly deprived the civilian population in Gaza of objects indispensable to their survival, including food, water, and medicine and medical supplies, as well as fuel and electricity, from at least 8 October 2023 to 20 May 2024.
The court considers them “co-perpetrators for committing the acts jointly with others: the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts”.
As Israeli occupation forces committed these crimes in Gaza, Labour leader Keir Starmer seemed to agree in an interview that cutting off water and power to people in Gaza was “appropriate”. He responded that “Israel does have that right”. He also added that “everything should be done within international law”. The ICC now clearly believes that did not happen.
The ICC has just issued arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant for war crimes including "starvation as a method of warfare".
Keir Starmer said "Israel does have that right" to cut off water and power from Gaza. He should be arrested too. pic.twitter.com/0kvD0L75Qv
Other figures in Starmer’s team at the time also sought to underplay the severity of Israel’s crimes.
As prime minister, meanwhile, Starmer has engaged in genocide denialism, along with others in his cabinet. And British governments under both Starmer and Rishi Sunak have participated in Israel’s genocide via RAF flights over Gaza, and US flights from the UK’s base on Cyprus.
Now that the ICC has issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, Starmer can either choose to keep standing with the genocidal Israeli government or to heed international law. As Jeremy Corbyn said following the decision:
The ICC’s arrest warrants are long overdue.
The Prime Minister & Foreign Secretary must immediately endorse this decision. That is the bare minimum.
Will the UK government now, finally, honour its international obligations to prevent genocide and end all arms sales to Israel?
In order not to violate the Genocide Convention, which contains an obligation to prevent genocide, member states need to comply with the obligation not to support a state that might be committing genocide
Now, the UK has an additional obligation to actually arrest Netanyahu or Gallant if they come to Britain.
Every member of the ICC, which includes us & our European neighbours, are now legally obliged to arrest Netanyahu and Gallant if they set foot on their territory. pic.twitter.com/MX8BNrE1XX
For many years, pro-Israel lobbyists and propagandists have cynically sought to smear as antisemitic anyone who criticises the apartheid state’s illegal occupations, ethnic cleansing, and war crimes. And that has predictably been the response of Netanyahu and others in the Israeli government and parliament to the ICC’s decision.
But this gaslighting has lost power. Because genocide apologists now use the smear so universally, many people simply see how ridiculous it is.
There clearly is a genocide going on in Gaza. And the denialism of the British government must stop. Starmer must finally accept Britain’s responsibilities under international law. Otherwise, he could find himself in the Hague one day too.
Just hours after the United States vetoed yet another U.N. Security Council resolution calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in Gaza, the U.S. Senate on Wednesday rejected three resolutions supported by less than two dozen Democratic senators that sought to block the sale of U.S. tank rounds, bomb kits and other lethal weapons to Israel. HuffPost correspondent Akbar Shahid Ahmed reveals that the White House lobbied against the Senate resolutions and suggested that lawmakers who support blocking arms sales to Israel were aiding Hamas. In the face of such stringent opposition from Democratic leadership, even partial support from party members is “historic and symbolic.” As the Biden administration continues “working hand in glove” to provide weapons and rhetorical cover for Israel’s genocidal war, says Ahmed, such willingness to buck the status quo proves dissatisfaction with the U.S.’s role is “not going away.”
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.
The Philippine Navy has launched the domestically assembled fast attack interdiction craft-missile (FAIC-M) BRP Albert Majini (PG-909) at the Naval Shipyard in Cavite City on 12 November, the state-run Philippine News Agency (PNA) reported. Six of nine FAIC-M vessels on order from Israeli Shipyards Limited – based on the company’s Shaldag Mk V design – […]
A local Labour Party group in Hastings has seemingly deviated somewhat from the government’s official position – by supporting a letter that calls for a full arms embargo on Israel. However, it is still shy of what local campaigners have been demanding: a full council motion on Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Hastings council demands an arms embargo on Israel now
The Green Party leader of Hastings Council, Julia Hilton, opened the full council meeting on Wednesday 20 November by reading out a letter to the prime minister demanding decisive action to stop arming Israel and uphold international law.
The letter, which was supported by the Green and Labour groups on Hastings Council, as well as the Labour Mayor, came after a week of sustained pressure, including a protest by the Hastings and District Palestine Solidarity Campaign outside the council meeting, because a motion on Gaza had been blocked from the agenda for the fourth time in a year by council officials and the mayor.
The grounds given for the motion being blocked were that it ‘wasn’t relevant to the local community’.
This action came off the back of other ones from PSC. For example, the group campaigned with signage along one of the main roads in Hastings. The stunt drew drivers’ attention to Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza:
The group also dressed in hazmat suits and took the campaign around Israel’s crimes to a local shopping centre:
As people went about their Christmas shopping we drew attention to the obscenity of Israel's attacks on civilian life which include the kidnap, torture and rape in prisons where over 60 Palestinians have been killed in the last year.#EndIsraeliApartheid#FreePalestinepic.twitter.com/w5wjrvIwjZ
As people went about their Christmas shopping, we drew attention to the detainment, abuse and torture of Palestinians. We cannot allow Israeli impunity to continue unchecked. Boycott Israeli goods and products, and complicit companies like Barclays, which profit from genocide. pic.twitter.com/jd2nmdg9lZ
So, after the PSC pressure the Labour group’s position seemed to shift.
The letter called on prime minister Keir Starmer to “advocate for a multilateral ceasefire to halt the bloodshed and establish a foundation for lasting peace in the region” and to “cease arms exports to any party involved in the conflict and prioritise humanitarian assistance to alleviate suffering”.
It also urged Starmer to uphold International Law by making use of “all diplomatic and legal measures to ensure accountability for violations of international law and to defend the principles of justice”.
End the injustice and genocide
Hastings council leader Julia Hilton read:
Our connection to the region is profound. For over three years, Hastings has nurtured a friendship link with the community of Al-Mawasi in Gaza. This relationship has facilitated cultural exchange and provided much-needed humanitarian aid. In the wake of the recent bombings, our commitment to Al-Mawasi has only deepened, as we strive to support our friends in their time of need.
She concluded:
Britain must stand firmly on the side of humanity, justice, and peace, offering hope to the people of Gaza and beyond. Let our community in Hastings inspire the nation to build bridges, not walls, and to seek unity where there is division.
It was anticipated that the letter, initiated by the Greens, would be signed by the leaders of all the groups on Hastings council, but at the time of writing it had only gained support from the Labour group.
Laurie Holden, secretary of the Hastings and District PSC said:
We have been urging our political leaders to give voice to the strong feelings in our town ever since Israel began its genocidal campaign in Gaza over 13 months ago, so we wholeheartedly welcome this letter from the Council leader and the local Labour group, urging our government to stop arming Israel and acknowledging the deep and unique bonds between our town and the people of Al Mawasi.
Though it is no substitute for the democratic process of discussing and voting on a motion to establish an official council position, it does mean that we heard the Labour group in Hastings finally urging an end to arms sales to Israel and we hope that we will now see our local Labour MP Helena Dollimore do the same and use her influence in government to push for a full UK arms embargo on Israel.
We are watching a people being exterminated in front of our eyes with weapons and technology we are exporting – some even made here in Hastings at the General Dynamic arms factory. We will keep up the pressure to ensure our local representatives take a public and decisive stand against genocide, against apartheid and for the rights and dignity of Palestinians.
The Biden administration has levied a strong effort to lobby against a set of resolutions introduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) to block several proposed arms sales to Israel ahead of a scheduled vote Wednesday, new reporting finds. In a memo circulated to the Senate by the White House, obtained by HuffPost, the administration urges senators to vote against the resolutions.
Students from the University of Bristol working with local peace and Palestine campaigners braved snow-showers to carry out a daring banner-drop from the Cabot Tower on Bandon Hill in Bristol this week.
Bristol sees striking action in solidarity with Palestine
On Tuesday 19 November afternoon, a giant three by six metre Palestine Flag was unfurled from the top balcony:
Cabot Tower, Bristol, November 2024. Photo credit: Simon Holliday / simonholliday.com
The 105ft (32m) Cabot Tower was chosen being one of the most iconic locations in the City and close to the University of Bristol. Two more protesters standing in the gardens near the base of the tower held a banner with the figure £92,890,934 and chanted in support of Palestine:
Cabot Tower, Bristol, November 2024. Photo credit: Simon Holliday / simonholliday.com
The website DEMILITARISE EDUCATION lists this as the value of Partnerships that the University of Bristol has with arms companies, many supplying Israel.
A student, who wishes to be anonymous, said:
Israel has destroyed all the universities and most of the schools in Gaza, a process now called EDUCIDE. It’s now impossible to count the dead but estimates range up to hundreds of thousands. Bristol University is complicit having massive links with arms companies some of which are supplying technology & know-how to the Israeli war machine. Universities should be about education NOT educide. I can’t sleep at night thinking of the suffering of countless thousands of people in Gaza and I’m doing my utmost to draw attention to this cancer in our city.
Israel’s genocide continues
The Lancet estimated the true number of deaths in Gaza could be over 186,000 due to indirect deaths (starvation and lack of health care etc). University of Edinburgh academics estimate a higher figure of 335,000 deaths.
Last academic year students protested against the university links with the arms industry by occupying University buildings for several weeks followed by a tented encampment on Tyndall Avenue opposite the Senate House.
This bold action comes ahead of a massive “END THE EDUCIDE – DIVEST NOW!” demonstration planned for this Sunday 24 November organised by the group Bristol Palestine Alliance (BPA).
Protesters will assemble outside the Senate House on Tyndall Avenue, BS8 1TH. Following an opening rally the march will follow a route down Woodlands Road, Park Row, Park Street to a closing rally on College Green.
Speakers will include students, university academics, health professionals, press workers, trade unionists, Palestine Action, Just Stop Oil, Extinction Rebellion, CND, LGBTQ plus other Palestine campaigners from around the region.
People are asked to wear black and to bring flags, placards, whistles and banners
An BPA organiser said:
Join us on Sunday 24 November to call out Bristol University and put pressure on them to divest from Israel.
While UoB continue their partnerships with military companies that are helping Israel murder innocent men, women, children and babies, they also enable the destruction of educational institutions; there are no more universities in Gaza.
If you are as outraged as us about the continued genocide in Gaza and the role our universities are playing, join us.
All welcome – Bring your banners, flags, your placards, form blocs we welcome educators, students, medics, press, families, XR, CND, LGBTQ and others most importantly bring your voices.
They continued by saying that:
It gets worse.
Despite a long-running divestment campaign, University of Bristol continues to use Barclays Bank to manage millions of pounds in student fees, research funding, and staff salaries. Barclays holds over £2 billion in shares, and provides £6.1 billion in loans and underwriting, to 9 companies whose weapons, components and military technology are being used by Israel in its attacks on Palestinians. We say the blood of people in Gaza and around the world is on their hands. We say this is truly shocking. We say this is truly evil.
Bristol rallies for Palestine
Speaking at the rally and carrying specially-made placards on the demonstration will be health professionals honouring Dr Adnan Al-Bursh.
Dr Adnan Al-Bursh was a Palestinian orthopaedic surgeon and the Head of Orthopedics at the Gaza Strip’s largest medical facility, Al-Shifa Hospital. Last December Dr Al-Bursh was taken by Israeli forces and died in April this year in the Ofer Prison in the West Bank. Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur for human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, has expressed her extreme alarm at the news of Al-Bursh’s death.
Just days ago, as the Canary reported testimony from fellow prisoners was released by Sky News, saying that Dr Al-Bursh died as a result of brutal torture.
Large numbers are expected to join the demonstration this Sunday.
Featured image and additional images via Simon Holliday
Israeli forces injured one of the only journalists left in north Gaza on Tuesday in an airstrike, after the military publicly threatened the Al Jazeera reporter with assassination in October. The journalist, Hossam Shabat, said that he was “deliberately targeted” by Israeli forces when they carried out a seeming double tap strike — an illegal practice under international law — on a house late…
Israel’s escalated assault on Lebanon is killing three children each day on average, the UN children’s agency reports, as Israel’s intensified bombardments and raids take a horrific toll on the country. Over 200 children have been killed in Lebanon over the past two months of Israel’s expanded aggression in Lebanon, according to UNICEF. This amounts to over three child deaths per day on…
Israeli forces are explicitly allowing — and, in some cases, giving protection to — armed gangs in Gaza that are looting aid trucks and creating major obstacles for humanitarian groups to reach Palestinians in need, reports reveal. According to The Washington Post, an internal UN memo from last month found that looting gangs “may be benefiting from a passive if not active benevolence” from…
One of the largest unions in the U.S. has thrown its weight behind Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vermont) bid this week to block a huge tranche of weapons sales to Israel amid its genocide in Gaza. The Service Employees International Union, or SEIU, announced on Monday that it supports Sanders’s joint resolutions of disapproval to halt the deals, in compliance with U.S. humanitarian law. The union…
Counter-terror cops have raided the homes, and then arrested, another 10 people in connection to Palestine Action’s action against Israel weapons company Elbit Systems. It shows that the British state continues to abuse counter-terrorism powers against activists in order to protect the interests of Israel’s genocidal campaign.
Palestine Action: the state yet again abusing counter terror powers
On 19 November, counter-terrorism police raided and arrested 10 more people in relation to an action taken by Palestine Action against Elbit’s Filton-based research and development hub on 6 August 2024.
Reports of the raids undertaken today, include family members and roommates being expelled from their own homes by counter terrorism police for up to three days. The mother and younger brother of one arrested today were also cuffed during the initial raid, despite not being accused of any offence.
These arrests were made in relation to the case of the ‘Filton10’ – ten individuals who have been detained since August, following an action which cost Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest arms company, over £1million in damages.
As the Canary reported at the time, during the early hours of the morning of Tuesday 6 August, Palestine Action activists were arrested after they broke inside and damaged weaponry inside the highly secured Bristol manufacturing hub of Israel’s largest weapons company, Elbit Systems.
A larger group from Palestine Action used a prison van to smash through the outer perimeter and the roller shutters into the building. Once six were inside, they began damaging the contents inside, including machinery and Israeli quadcopter drones.
Elbit: actively enabling genocide
Elbit’s Horizon facility at Belvedere Close in Filton is a key premises for the arms company, described as a research, development, and manufacturing hub for electronic warfare, land vehicle, simulation, and vision technologies. Freedom of Information disclosures show Filton’s ‘Elbit Systems UK’ has existent export licenses for the sale of weaponry to Israel.
The Filton site was opened in July of last year, with Israeli Ambassador Tzipi Hotevely in attendance to show off the Bristol produced-weapons technologies of the “Israeli defence company”. Also in attendance was Elbit’s CEO Bezalel Machlis, who recently boasted, too, of Elbit’s crucial role in supporting the ongoing genocide and of the gratitude received by Elbit from the Israeli military for their services.
Products seen inside the factory are the same as those used in the Gaza genocide, including Elbit’s ‘Torch-X Command and Control’ systems, Thor quadcopter drones and its nv33 Night Vision technologies.
Elbit Systems, more broadly, supplies up to 85% of Israel’s military drones and land-based equipment, while its British exports to Israel mostly concern drone and aircraft components, military electronics, and target and acquisition systems.
Palestine Action are not the terrorists, here
Despite being arrested under the Terrorism Act, the Filton10 were all charged with non-terror offences including aggravated burglary, criminal damage and violent disorder. However, the police have continued to use counter terror powers to deploy authoritarian powers against further people in relation to the case.
Amnesty International UK has issued alarm that British police are using these Terrorism Act powers to “circumvent normal legal protections”. The Filton10 are being held on remand ahead of a November 2025 trial, and are subjected to arbitrary and severe restrictions.
A Palestine Action spokesperson said of the counter terror raids and arrests:
The British state are wielding counter-terrorism powers against those they accused of being engaged in direct action against Israel’s weapons trade. They are acting to protect the interests of a foreign genocidal regime, over the rights and freedoms of it’s own citizens.
The only ‘terrorists’ here are those assisting and arming Israel’s genocide. Palestine Action will not bow to this repression.
Firefighters from the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) held a protest at the Israeli embassy in London on 18 November, calling for Israel to release a fire engine donated to Palestinian firefighters which has been impounded by Israeli authorities since August.
The FBU: release the fire engine for Palestine
Members of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) in Scotland sourced a fire engine, stocked with lifesaving equipment including firefighting kit and PPE, breathing apparatus, and medical supplies, and arranged shipment to the West Bank to assist with rescues.
The engine has been transported 3,500 miles, with firefighters driving it from Dundee to Southampton, where it was shipped to the Israeli port of Ashdod.
The donation arrived with the necessary paperwork but has remained impounded by customs for months.
FBU members travelled to the embassy to deliver a letter to the Israeli ambassador, signed by the FBU executive council, calling for the fire engine to be granted immediate entry to Palestine.
Matt Wrack, Fire Brigades Union (FBU) general secretary said:
Firefighters in Palestine are working to save lives in horrifying conditions. As humanitarians, we cannot stand by while lives are being lost. It is appalling that life-saving equipment donated by our members is being held by Israeli customs while Palestinian firefighters are in desperate need of resources.
The Fire Brigades Union calls on the Israeli government to release the donated fire engine immediately, and for the UK government to take any necessary action to ensure this aid is delivered safely.
The full text of the letter:
Dear Tzipi Hotovely, Ambassador of Israel to the United Kingdom,
Fire Brigades Union (FBU) demand release of humanitarian donation.
Civilian deaths due to ongoing violence in Palestine and Israel are deplorable and preventable.
Tragically, the huge number of children among the fatalities in Gaza has caused widespread trauma. The majority of the British public support a ceasefire, as does the Fire Brigades Union.
Firefighters are humanitarians, and cannot simply watch and do nothing as we witness such terrifying conditions continue to unfold. Firefighters understand all too well the dangers and challenges being faced by rescue workers in Palestine working in such dangerous conditions to try to save and protect lives.
The Fire Brigades Union has a long tradition of solidarity and good relations with firefighters in Palestine. In light of this, members of the Fire Brigades Union have sourced a fire engine, fully stocked with lifesaving equipment, and arranged shipment of this to the West Bank to assist with rescue efforts.
This is a simple act of solidarity by firefighters in the UK.
However, even though this vehicle and its equipment serve the sole purpose of saving and protecting lives, the appliance has been blocked by Israeli authorities since August 2024. These actions are indefensible. We insist that this life saving equipment be immediately granted entry to begin assisting the humanitarian and lifesaving actions of Palestinian firefighters.
Richard Villar has treated injured people in Gaza and is in no doubt that crimes against humanity are being committed there
I read with interest your article based on the recent report by Human Rights Watch (Israel accused of crimes against humanity over forced displacement in Gaza, 14 November). I am surprised that there is any debate. In my personal and non-legal view, crimes are being committed. I have been a war surgeon in Gaza on three occasions. The first two were for the Great March of Return in 2018, when I was operating in Gaza’s Khan Younis. There, I treated dozens of gunshot wounds to the shinbone (tibia) in men who were aged between 18 and 35. As most doctors will tell you, a shattered shinbone assures a lifetime of disability. It appeared that the intention was to disable, not to kill.
I was also in Gaza this year and have written about it in my recent book, Gaza Medic: A War Surgeon’s Story 2024. Most of the multitudinous patients I treated were children, women and elderly people. I never once saw fighters or tunnels, but I did see many families ripped apart and children rendered orphans in a blink.
The future of Jewish identity is at a crossroads thanks to Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza. The question facing millions of people is whether to take the path of solidarity with Palestine or the road of Jewish supremacy trodden by the leadership of major Jewish institutions and by the Israeli government itself. Rabbi Cat Davis of Beyt Tikkun joins The Marc Steiner Show for a discussion on how the best of the Jewish tradition equips progressive Jews to opt for solidarity over supremacy.
Studio / Post-Production: Cameron Granadino
Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.
Marc Steiner:
Welcome to the Marc Steiner Show here on the Real News and to another episode in Not in Our Name. Since October 7th, this war is still going on and we see maybe 50,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza alone and the entire place being destroyed and many Jews across the globe standing up saying “not in our name”. And today we speak with Rabbi at Cat Zavis, who is spiritual leader at Beyt Tikkun. She’s an innovator in Jewish rituals and has deep connections in spiritual, personal and political activist over the years. She’s also a lawyer, co-editor of Tikkun Magazine, which she’s written many articles, shaped the magazine that we’ve just lost. Executive director of the National Network of Spiritual Progressives and is trained over a thousand people in prophetic empathy and revolutionary love, and joins us today to share some of that with us. And welcome, good to have you with us.
Cat Zavis:
Thank you for having me. It’s lovely to be with you.
Marc Steiner:
When I read your bio and … the concept of revolutionary love is a good one.
Cat Zavis:
Yeah, we need some radical revolutionary love in our world. We seem to have a lot of Hallmark love.
Marc Steiner:
Yes.
Cat Zavis:
But not a lot of what love is really about, which is moving the needle toward a more loving and just world. It’s not just the personal interactions between people, but it’s really about how do we … for me, obviously, it’s about interpersonal love, but also how do we manifest collective love?
Marc Steiner:
How do we raise it and how do we do that at this moment? I’m very curious after having read what you’ve written, some of the interviews you’ve done before, the work you’ve done … is the moment that we face as Jews and Palestinians face, that Israelis face, that the world faces in this vicious, horrendous war that’s taking place in Gaza and Palestine and Israel. Just for you personally, I’m just curious, what does it do to you? What do you see it doing to other people around you?
Cat Zavis:
What does it do to me? It knocks me out. It knocks me out on the ground a lot. So, I had set aside some days to write my sermons or drosh for high holidays, and I joked with the community … it wasn’t such a joke … that I woke up that morning of one of those days and I mistakenly read the news in which another Palestinian journalist was … in this case, he wasn’t killed. He was stolen, kidnapped from his home by Israeli soldiers and beaten in front of his wife and children. His wife was also beaten, at the time, trying to hand him shoes so he could take with him. And then he was sent to one of the … we’ll call them concentration camp prisons, where we know that they’re torturing and killing Palestinians. And I read that and I literally collapsed on the floor and just screamed and cried for a while, until I could pick myself up and write or try to write a sermon.
And I know I’m not alone. And maybe that’s the saving grace in all of this, but it’s a horrible thing to have as a saving grace, that the blessing, of course, is there’s thousands and thousands and thousands of Jews around the world who are standing up and saying, not in our name, never again for anyone, never again now. And unfortunately, the Jewish establishment and the Jewish leadership, both here around the world and in Israel, are choosing a path of domination and power over and militarization and war. And it’s not making anyone safer here in Israel, certainly not in Palestine, and certainly not Jews anywhere in the world. And this is the moment in Judaism where we have a choice. We can choose to be a blessing or we can choose to be a curse. And the way I read … That’s all in the Torah. I’m not pulling this out of thin air.
And the way I read this in the Torah, it says, if you choose to be a curse, there’s all these negative consequences that happen. You eventually get kicked off the land. If you choose to be a blessing, then you get all these positive consequences. But what exactly is the curse and the blessing? The curse is losing your moral center. The curse is forgetting to love the stranger and care for the needy and the vulnerable and building a loving and just society. The curse is not living a moral life. The consequences of being kicked off the land isn’t the curse. That’s the consequence. The blessing is to live a moral life, to choose to be a nation unlike all other nations, to choose to be a people that doesn’t embrace militarization, that doesn’t embrace imperialism and empire, that embraces love and kindness and generosity.
Stay on the moral path, walk in God’s way, if you will. That’s the blessing. Then from the blessing, turns out you get to stay on the land. You get all these beautiful things. You flourish. And we could debate what it means to be on the land, of course, but that’s how I … that’s the choice we have right now. Will we uplift Jewish supremacy, or will we uplift solidarity and the dignity and humanity of all? That’s the choice in Judaism right now. And unfortunately, I think the ones with power are making a choice to lose our moral center as a people. And so it’s really important to me as a rabbi and a Jewish spiritual leader to stand in the voice of Judaism of love and liberation of a Judaism that stands in solidarity with the most vulnerable and most needy and oppressed in our society.
That is Judaism. What Israel is doing is what empires do. What the United States is doing is what empires do. Our Torah is all about what empires do and how we critique and stand up to empire, and they’re choosing empire. They’re choosing imperialism. They’re choosing domination. That is not Judaism. And it’s really important, I think, for Jews who believe in a Judaism of love and liberation to distinguish between Judaism as a religious, spiritual tradition and practice that’s thousands of years old and nation state imperialism and oppression and domination and power over. And Israel is a nation state. Has a lot of Jews. It’s not a state embodying Jewish values. It’s not a Jewish state.
Marc Steiner:
It makes me think about a lot of things, but I’m curious how you think we got there. I mean, there’s a poem I wrote, I guess, 54 years ago called growing up Jewish. And one of the lines I used in that poem was, “We, the oppressed, have become the oppressor.” Talking about what’s been going on in the earlier days of the occupation. And I think about that and reflect on the fact that when I was very young, and I was a civil rights worker, 70% of all the white civil rights workers in the South were Jews. And I know as a person who reflects deeply on things, as a rabbi and a leader, a spiritual leader, how do we get to this place? How do you go from being one of the oppressed for thousands of years that the world tried to annihilate and they could not annihilate us to a place where we’ve become the oppressor?
Cat Zavis:
Right. It’s a great question that I actually posed in one of my teachings during the high holidays. How did we go from being a people of the book, right? Like, Jews are like the people of the Torah. That’s what we value and do is we read this book and we are starting again this Shabbat to read Bereshit. And every year we read the book and we read all the books of the books. And how do we go from being a people that value the book to people that value machinery and mechanization and war? And I have my story … or my thoughts about that, that is informed by writings and teachings from many, many other people. So, when the Jews led by Bar Kokhba, right, the Bar Kokhba Revolution. I’m sure you’re familiar with that, right?
Marc Steiner:
Yes.
Cat Zavis:
In 131 to 135 of the Common Era, they stood up and fought Roman imperialism and oppression. As a result, they were tortured and killed.
There were others who counseled surrender, who did not want Jews to stand up, because they knew the consequence would be not only would the leaders be tortured and killed, but as it turned out something like 500,000 to 600,000 Jewish people were killed, and then many were expelled, and it was a tragic, tragic loss. We can see it unfolding, right? On the other tables … tables are turned, and it is those that counseled surrender that became the spiritual heirs, if you will, of the rabbinic tradition. So, the rabbinic tradition became one that wanted to ensure the longevity and survival of the Jewish people, and that meant getting along with the empire, the ruling elite, and Jews have played that middleman role for centuries. It was often because it was the only role we were allowed to play, but organized Jewish community became part of the establishment that wanted to get along to stay alive.
You can see this in immigrant communities. This is not something particularly unique to the Jewish community. We want to pass, if you will. And then in Nazi Germany, there were, of course, Jewish leaders that worked with the Nazis to try to save themselves and some Jews. And the Jewish story is … the Jewish shame story is that we walk like sheep to our own slaughter. And there was the Warsaw ghetto uprising. There wasn’t a massive amount of uprising and we could hold … as we look back on that time, I can certainly hold a lot of understanding and compassion for that. What else were people going to do in that situation? But there’s a lot of shame about that. And so in response to this shame, part of the story is never again for us. That’s the first place that started was … We’ll never walk like sheep to the slaughter again. So, how do we do that? We become a nation state. We get arms. We become powerful, just like all other nations because nobody protected us, which was true.
We tried to go to America. We tried to go here and there, and they all sent us back to be killed, to be slaughtered. So, that’s my perspective of how did we go from a people of the book to a people of committing genocide and ethnic cleansing. One step is we will never ever walk like sheep to our slaughter. Then October 7th comes. Hamas through its horrific act and killings and murders and slaughters, and … they essentially made Israel realize that they don’t have all the power they think they have. This amazing might of the state of Israel could not stop Hamas from breaking down a fence and slaughtering their people. Now, we can understand that, actually, Israel had been warned by soldiers and women soldiers that they ignored. But that’s what the state of Israel, Netanyahu and other leaders, are now drawing on to whip up people’s trauma and fear and to whip up, like, we will never walk like sheep to slaughter again. We will never do that, right? And this is what’s happening as a result of that.
Of course, that denies the fact or minimizes the fact that, of course, ethnic cleansing, Nakba, slow wiping off of Palestinian people off of the land and denying people in Gaza enough nutrition to actually live and thrive has been going on for decades and decades. So, Netanyahu and his gang have utilized this moment, have manipulated this moment to carry out what they’ve always wanted to carry out, which was to have an Israel from the river to the sea, which is literally in Likud’s platform. That’s where that phrase comes from.
Marc Steiner:
Right. Likud being the very right-wing party in Israel that-
Cat Zavis:
That’s ruling right now.
Marc Steiner:
Right. Right.
Cat Zavis:
Right. So, the other thing that I think happens psychologically and spiritually to Israelis and Jews is that in the face of the Palestinian, we see two things. We see the Nazis. We see those who slaughtered us because the story was that … they’re antisemitic and want to wipe out all Jews, as opposed to the story that they’re resisting imperial empire and oppression. Palestinians stood up to the Ottomans, they stood up to the British, and now they’re standing up to Israel. It’s not antisemitic. It’s Algerians standing up to the French. It’s Palestinians standing up to their oppressors. But if we frame it as antisemitism, then October 7th becomes the most violent acts against Jews since the Holocaust, and it was against Jews. It wasn’t against Israelis. That’s the discourse we’re hearing. So, in the face of Palestinians, we see the Nazis who are trying to wipe us off the face of the earth and all Arabs has become part of the discourse. And we also see in the face of the Palestinians, I think potentially, ourselves, and what do we see in ourselves? We see the parts of ourselves that did not stand up and fight, that did not resist in Nazi Germany and throughout history, and the Palestinians are standing up and resisting. And so we see in that face, the shame of ourselves, and the only way to get rid of our shame is to kill off that other that we see as ourselves.
Marc Steiner:
So, that’s very powerfully said. I can see why your congregants like to hear you speak.
Cat Zavis:
Thank you.
Marc Steiner:
I wonder … in all these conversations I’ve had, and I have been at this anti-occupation struggle for a long, long, long time. In ’67, I wanted to go fight in Israel against … I wanted to go join the Israeli army in ’67.
Cat Zavis:
Wow. Wow. I was three years old.
Marc Steiner:
I was a little bit older.
Cat Zavis:
That’s amazing.
Marc Steiner:
And I … then I met left-wing Israelis and Palestinians, and I began to shift. I’m only saying that to say that this has been a long time now, since this oppression has existed. Also, having kind of grown up with the ethos of a tough Jew, which was in our family, that you don’t stand down. That’s one of the books I was given when I was … at my bar mitzvah was They Fought Back, about the Jews who fought back against the Nazis. And so that becomes a tradition in many ways, not to allow yourself to be taken away. That you’re going to fight for who … you’re not going to allow them to attack us, not without a fight.
Cat Zavis:
Right. Right.
Marc Steiner:
But now it’s become what you’ve described. So, how do we as a minority of Jews who say no … a growing minority, but minority of Jews … really affect this and begin to make the change that has to happen, that stops what’s happening in Israel?
Cat Zavis:
Right? How do we walk us back from this cliff?
Marc Steiner:
Yes. Yes. You said it better than I, in fewer words. Thank you. Yes.
Cat Zavis:
How do we walk ourselves back from this cliff? I’m going to reluctantly say I don’t know that we can, and I think we have to try. This cliff that we’re at isn’t just the Jewish cliff. It’s not just the Jewish people’s cliff. It’s the empire cliff. It is the cliff of imperialism. It’s, like, when empire and imperialism are challenged, what do they do? They grip harder. They become more oppressive. They’re afraid of losing their power, and so they hold onto it more firmly, more violently, more insistently. And I think it’s really important to say this isn’t just a Jewish cliff, because if we say it’s just a Jewish cliff, then it’s really easy to slip into antisemitism, that Jews are causing all these problems, and this is all a Jewish thing. Western imperial powers want Israel in the Middle East. They supported the establishment of the state of Israel for their own interests, and the US still wants Israel doing its bidding.
Marc Steiner:
They wanted us to go there. They didn’t want us to come here or anywhere else. They wanted us there.
Cat Zavis:
Exactly, right? That’s the solution to the quote, unquote, “Jewish problem”. I mean, Biden just said, how many months ago, Jews are safest in Israel. It’s the only place you’re safe. I’m like, are you kidding me? You’re the leader of the United States. I live here. Are you kidding me? You’ve got to be kidding me. That should have been … everyone in Jewish power, in Jewish establishment should have just completely had a field day with that. They should have been outraged. It was as if it didn’t happen. It’s horrific to say that. I don’t live in Israel. I’m not moving to Israel. I would never move to Israel. I’m not taking land from Palestinians. That’s happened enough. I live here.
And, yes, people have said to me in critiquing me, “Well, what about the fact that you live on stolen land here?” True. I do. I live on stolen land here. I give money to taxes to support the rematriation and reclamation of that land for Native American peoples. And I do what I can here. So, both are true. And I live here. The President of the United States should say, “Jews are safe here, and you’re safe here. Not because we love Israel, but because we care about our citizens. Jewish Muslim, Christian Hindu, Buddhist, atheist, whatever gender, whatever skin color, you’re our citizens. You make up the beauty and diversity of this land.” But the United States and Western countries have a great interest in having Israel be the face of imperial power in the Middle East. And that’s what we are. So, that’s why when I said, I don’t know how we can walk back from that cliff because it’s not a cliff of Jewish establishment or the Jewish world. It’s a cliff of geopolitical power of empire and imperialism and capitalism.
So, that on one hand. On the other hand, I’m not just going to crawl under my covers and pretend that a genocide is not being perpetuated in my name and walk away from it. So, what can we do? We can do things. Like I said, we can make it very clear that there is a distinction between Judaism and the nation state of Israel, and we can show what we believe a Judaism really stands for and looks like. What does it stand for and look lik? Many, many beautiful exquisite things. Speak truth, challenge injustice, stand up for the vulnerable. I mean, these are core teachings in Judaism that those of us who are Jewish, we know them. Even if we didn’t know that they were Jewish teachings. For years, I had no idea these were Jewish teachings, and yet they were in my cells. They were in my bones. I’ve been an activist and involved in this work all my life, and I didn’t … until my much older years, I didn’t even know it was Jewish. So, we know this. This is why, like you said, the huge percentage of people who went down to the South during the civil rights movements were Jews. I bet a lot of them didn’t identify as religious Jews.
Marc Steiner:
No.
Cat Zavis:
But their Jewish teachings, their Jewish traditions, were instilled within them. And that’s the beautiful thing about our tradition. And all other spiritual traditions and religious traditions also have beautiful teachings in them. We’re not unique in that way. So, that’s, to me, one of the things that we can do, is we can continue to stand up and speak truth to power, challenge injustice. One of the things that I’ve been teaching lately is there’s a teaching in Pirkei Avot, the teachings of the fathers, right, the ancestors that says that, “The foundation of the world rests on three principles. Truth, justice, and peace.” And so when I originally thought about that, I was like, “All right, there are like three pillars.” But actually I think that they matter in order. In other words, you can’t get to peace without justice, and you can’t have justice unless you understand the truth. Because justice requires that you repair the harm and injustice from the past. And you can only do that if you are willing to really look at and understand the truths.
And this is what’s so painful right now, is we are taught, and Zechariah teaches us, speak truth. Onkelos said … an Aramaic translator of the Torah … translates, [foreign language 00:22:26], which is translated in Hebrew as “justice, justice you shall pursue”. He actually translates it as “truth, truth you shall pursue,” which is very interesting. And Zechariah teaches us to speak truth. And those of us who are trying to speak truth right now are being dismissed and called antisemitic and not Jewish. And all sorts of … ways to-
Marc Steiner:
Self-hating Jews.
Cat Zavis:
Self-hating Jews. Ways to dismiss us, because the truth is so painful. And I want to also hold compassion for that. It doesn’t mean I’m not going to do it. It doesn’t mean I’m not going to challenge it. But let’s think about times in our personal lives where we’ve been confronted with truths. Maybe our child challenges us on something, right? Maybe a good friend does, maybe a partner does, and we protect ourselves. We don’t want to hear it because we feel shame and embarrassment. And unfortunately, most of us, when we feel shame and embarrassment, we hide, we run away from it because we don’t have a way of integrating that and processing it in a way that’s kind and loving and self-caring. So, I could hear something that’s hurtful or painful about something I did, and I could, instead of going to shame, I could go to, oh, thank you for this opportunity for me to look more deeply at how I’m behaving in the world and act more in alignment with my desires and values.
But that’s not what we do in our society. We point fingers at people and tell them how awful they are, and usually we shame children. So, I want to have compassion for the fact that it’s hard to hear these truths. And it’s particularly hard when you’ve been raised with a particular story of you and your people. And we can see this in white nationalists. They don’t want to look at the history of the birth and creation of this country, both the genocide of Native Americans and the enslavement of the African-Americans, and the racism and sexism and classism that has been the very foundation of this country. Rather than hear that they want to still believe that they can just pull themselves up by the bootstraps and that we live in meritocracy and they will be successful and, yahoo. That’s easier. That fallacy and lie is easier to embrace than looking at the truth of the foundation of this country.
So too in the Jewish world. It is very hard for us to look at the lies that we’ve been told and be willing to jump off the cliff, if you will, into an unknown abyss and start to hear the truth. So, this is back to your comment about revolutionary loves. The training I’ve done has been in prophetic empathy and revolutionary love, and the prophetic empathy … well, both parts of it, but, in particular, the empathic side of it, is to recognize that if we are asking people to reevaluate the histories, they’ve been told. Now, think about this. This is the history they’ve been told since they were born. It’s the way that they are embraced and loved in their family, or, at least, think that they’re embraced and loved in their family, in their community, and who they identify themselves as. That’s a big lift to ask people to reevaluate all that.
So, if we’re going to ask them to do a big lift, if we’re going to invite them on this journey, then I believe it behooves us. It’s important to us, to our success and also to our love of other people, to our seeing the divine in the other, to treating people with dignity and respect and care, is to do it with love and compassion. To hold them compassionately as we invite them to embark on this journey with us. To acknowledge that when we embarked on this journey, it was hard. When I first started to unpack the lies I had been told, it wasn’t like it was a joyful journey. It was hard, but I had inner resources. I knew that, no matter what, my parents would still love me. Even though we don’t always agree on these issues. I knew that I had people I could turn to and build new community if that was necessary. I wasn’t as steeped in a Jewish world at that point. So, it also probably was easier because of that. But we can’t just expect people to jump off into this new world view if we don’t offer them a ramp and a safe landing because it’s scary.
Marc Steiner:
It is.
Cat Zavis:
And it’s unknown and it’s hard. And so, to me, that’s the work. The work is to engage in this work, invite people into conversation with compassion. That doesn’t mean you hide the truth or you pretend it’s not a genocide or not an ethnic cleansing, or … It just means that you hold people with compassion along the journey. And some will come and some won’t. And all we can do is keep trying to push that envelope, but we have to do it with softened hearts. I always say our hearts are tender. If you’ve ever had your heart broken or hurt, like, you know, it’s tender. You kind of end up in a ball for a while. So, our hearts are tender, so let’s hold our hearts with tenderness and kindness as best as we can. And speak truth and bring in that prophetic voice.
Marc Steiner:
And our work is tikkun olam.
Cat Zavis:
Tikkun olam. Amen. Yes. Healing and repairing of ourselves in the world.
Marc Steiner:
Yes, exactly.
Cat Zavis:
And you can’t do one without the other. We can’t heal ourselves in a broken world, and we can’t heal the world if we’re broken. So, that’s why our movements have to be places that allow for healing and compassion as we work to heal the world.
Marc Steiner:
I deeply appreciate the conversation we’ve had and it’s clear the work you’re doing and the passion and intellect and fearlessness that you bring to the work that you do.
Cat Zavis:
Thank you.
Marc Steiner:
It means a great deal.
Cat Zavis:
Thank you.
Marc Steiner:
Yeah, I look forward to coming up there and seeing just how you run your service as well.
Cat Zavis:
You can actually join us online.
Marc Steiner:
I’ll try that.
Cat Zavis:
We do hybrid still. So, yeah, come any Shabbat you’d like, we’d love to have you.
Marc Steiner:
Thank you, Rabbi Cat. It was a pleasure to have you with us.
Cat Zavis:
Thank you so much for having me. It’s been a pleasure.
Marc Steiner:
Look forward to staying in touch. Thank you so much.
Cat Zavis:
Thank you.
Marc Steiner:
Once again, let me thank Rabbi Cat Zavis for joining us today, and we’ll be linking to her work and writing so you can all enjoy and read what she’s doing. And thanks to Cameron Granadino for running the program, producer Rosette Sewali for making it all happen, and the tireless Kayla Rivera for making it all work behind the scenes. And everyone here at The Real News for making this show possible. Please, let me know what you thought about, what you heard today, what you’d like us to cover. Just write to me at MSS@therealnews.com, and I’ll get right back to you. Once again, thank you Rabbi Cat Zavis for joining us today and for doing the work that you do. So, for the crew here at The Real News, I’m Marc Steiner. Stay involved, keep listening, and take care.
(@PhilipProudfoot) 
Spotted today in Hastings, East Sussex, UK.
