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Category: israel

  • An ‘Assembly for Palestine’ showed the power that people can have

    Against the backdrop of a seemingly endless genocide with absolute impunity provided from Israel’s Western partners, it can feel like the fight is hopeless as fatigue sets in. Fatigue is human, and arguably it is what our governments are counting on as they drag their feet in opposing the murder and brutalisation of an entire population – indiscriminate of guilt, age, or gender.

    We have to prepare for this fatigue and restore our energies both individually and collectively if we want to realise an end to arm sales and an unconditional ceasefire, especially when Lebanon is now facing the same threat of destruction and Israel’s attempts to plunge the West into an unjust war across the Middle East.

    An ‘Assembly for Palestine’

    In Warrington, we organised an ‘Assembly for Palestine’ where we openly invited those in our community to gather in our grief and anger over one-year into this horrific aggression. Our language and how we communicate ourselves matters and it must mirror the true extent of Western involvement, and how we organise ourselves must require a long-term framework of activism to ensure we are consistently advocating for our brothers and sisters in Palestine.

    As Matt Kennard of Declassified UK states on X, following Declassified UK revealing the surge under Starmer in US special ops flights to Israel using our UK base in Cyprus:

    We are not complicit in the genocide. We are participants. The shame should never leave us.

    It is a damning indictment of our political class that we are left so devoid of representatives who are prepared to speak to the conscience of their constituents, instead choosing to tow the lines of power and party over basic principles of humanity and international law.

    Just as the silence of our leaders can breed silence amongst the masses, courageous voices have the power to breed courage and confidence amongst passers by and those they meet. It is through our own dogged determination that others will seek to understand, with more joining the movement as time goes on.

    What we have to say is worth taking responsibility for.

    Collectively we can make ourselves heard

    Lee Hunter, brigade secretary for the Fire Brigades Union for Merseyside and acting regional chair for the North West, stated:

    The dehumanisation of the Palestinian people by Israel has been ongoing since well before October 2023. They have been left without a voice. Assemblies are a way of us collectively being that voice for them.

    I have been imploring people not to look away when we are faced with what is happening, as horrific as the images are. Instead we must use the anger and upset that we feel and turn it into a positive force to speak out against the inactions of our elected leaders.

    One voice may be lost in the crowd, but collectively we can make ourselves heard and speak for the Palestinian people.

    Following initial speeches, those in attendance at the Assembly for Palestine were split into four groups, each sat in a circle.

    We then invited discussion on the lessons learned from other actions seen across the world. This prompted a passionate and informed discussion, from those in our Muslim community and from those who have spoken and fought for Palestine for decades through their activism, such as with the Stop The War Coalition.

    An ‘uplifting’ Assembly for Palestine

    Jacqui, who attended, spoke to her direct connections to Palestine and the Nakba of 1948, when her Palestinian-Christian family were forcibly displaced from their homes, walking mile upon mile to find safety and shelter.

    As a child of a Christian-Palestinian woman displaced in the Nakba, it fills me with immense sadness that history is repeating itself. I know how painful it was for my family then, so I can only imagine what it’s like for the people of Gaza today.

    What I have found heartwarming though is how so many have got behind Palestinians over the past year, seeing the protests and the flag being waved. The Assembly for Palestine in Warrington was uplifting, seeing people of all ages and backgrounds coming together for a common cause.

    I am excited to see how we join together and plan events to keep our voices heard!

    These discussions led to identifying the biggest issues that we needed to confront in our communities. These were the systematic and deliberate dehumanisation of Palestinians, the lack of education around the history of Palestine, fatigue, and finally the feeling of being powerless.

    This enabled further conversation about how we could combat this, with ideas put forward to have a ‘Fair for Palestine’, celebrating the culture and educating communities on the rich and diverse history of Palestine. This would seek to combat the efforts to dehumanise and demonise Palestinians and their resistance.

    It was also decided that more effort should be put into informing and educating people so that they can understand the conflict through their own eyes, rather than through the biased reporting of mainstream media.

    This will be carried forward as a stand in our town centre, every week, for people to approach and encourage dialogue. It is only through embracing the difficult conversations that we can make progress in breaking through the normalisation of western aggression in the Middle East spanning decades.

    People have the power. So, focus it.

    The assembly also provided the means of identifying individual strengths, with the ability to coordinate letters to MPs and other leaders amongst a group of volunteers who aren’t active on social media. This ensures that energy is maintained, with maximum impact on MPs’ inboxes as a result of a coordinated campaign.

    In addition to this, we also agreed that we should focus on a fixed, visual, and interactive protest in our town centre and look to work with other networks for Palestine to fortify the resistance against Israel’s onslaught and to highlight the importance of international law for global peace.

    The people have power, and if we organise assemblies in our hometowns we help people find and focus that power.

    At a time when many seek to divide our communities, we must come together to realise the kind of world we need to see.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Maddison Wheeldon

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • The UN has been urged to intervene in UK journalists’ raids and arrests

    The Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) has written to four special rapporteurs at the UN urging them to make use of the full range of instruments at their disposal to urge the UK government into respecting freedom of expression and conscience in its territory.

    The letter follows a series of raids and arrests of prominent pro-Palestine activists in the UK including journalist Asa Winstanley whose home was raided by police last week.

    Politically-motivated raids and arrests of UK journalists

    Ten counterterrorism police officers raided Winstanley’s home. He was neither arrested nor charged with any offence, but his electronic devices were confiscated. According to a letter addressed to Winstanley from “Counter Terror Command”, he is being investigated for offences under the Terrorism Act connected to his social media posts.

    On the morning of October 16, counter-terror police in Glasgow Airport detained journalist, whistle-blower, human rights campaigner, and former British diplomat Craig Murray upon his return from Iceland.

    In November 2023, police arrested the co-founder of the direct action group Palestine Action, Richard Barnard. He is facing charges under the Terrorism Act for speeches he has previously made.

    In August 2024, freelance journalist Richard Medhurst was detained and questioned by police at Heathrow Airport. Medhurst said he believed he was targeted for speaking out on the situation in Palestine.

    Just a few weeks later, another journalist and activist, Sarah Wilkinson, saw her home raided in the early hours of the morning. Personal items were confiscated but to date she has also no been charged.

    IHRC: the UN must intervene

    Arresting and/or charging pro-Palestine advocates for allegedly supporting the right of resistance to occupation is clearly intended to draw a line for freedom of expression that is inconsistent with international law. International law is clear that an occupied people have the right to defend themselves against an occupying force, by arms if necessary.

    By arresting those who are reporting on the horrors of the genocide and holding a spotlight to the perpetrators and their allies, the government seems to be seeking to hide the slaughter from public view so that it can continue apace and unopposed.

    IHRC also warns of the weaponisation of anti-terrorism laws for political purposes and demands that the authorities immediately drop any charges against Palestinian activists and ensuring the fundamental freedom to continue their work without any further state interference.

    The rights of free expression and protest are too important in a democracy to allow individuals to be investigated for potential terrorism merely because they may have been involved in protests or hold critical opinions.

    The full letter to the UN rapporteurs can be read here.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Lammy’s UK Government Callously Silent On Tibet

    Image: skynews

    Is anyone surprised or disappointed that English Minister of Foreign Affairs, David Lammy (seen above with Israeli President, Herzog) has offered up not a word of concern about Tibet, or the plight of Tibetans, during his visit to China?

    The man who defended and excused the denial of food, water, and medical supplies to Palestinians in Gaza, while Israel carpet-bombed civilians. Lammy’s tolerance (like that of the US Administration’s) of war crimes and mass slaughter was an inevitable indicator that his dealings with the Chinese dictatorship was always going to be as the nauseating diplomatic phrases has it, ‘pragmatic’. Commercial interests, as ever, are at the heart of foreign relations.

    But his appalling silence on the oppression of Tibetans, and cultural genocide they suffer, was predictable. It’s also reflective, of what’s was recognized and exposed in 2021 by Anonymous Tibet, as a deterioration of interest within the English political establishment on the matter Tibet.

    Video courtesy of @AnonymousTibet

    Digging into the UK’s Parliamentary record ‘Hansard’ it’s noticeable how, over the past few years, references to Tibet by politicians has plummeted, unlike mention of the case of Uyghurs. Which has received increasing attention and concern.It is our view that this is no accident, or changing fad but a worrying indication of a significant shift of position. Such a development would be informed by, and directed from, the same foreign affairs department, now headed by Lammy.

    Tibet it appears has been designated a ‘lost cause’ by the British ‘Foreign Office’. Although it (like the State Department) has never been genuinely interested in supporting Tibetan freedom.

    We are in an age where genocidal slaughter is presented as ‘a right to defense’. When women and children are incinerated and torn apart by missiles, sourced from the USA. As political spokes-persons endorse military attacks upon innocent civilian populations, for the purpose of killing claimed terrorists. Aided by signals intelligence and surveillance flights from the UK!

    Clearly human rights, and the plight of Tibet’s people, are of no value to those governments who happily collaborate with, enable and supply war crimes. Isn’t that right Mr Lammy?

    This post was originally published on Digital Activism In Support Of Tibetan Independence.

  • Progressives Say Only an Arms Embargo Can Stop Israel


    This content originally appeared on The Intercept and was authored by The Intercept.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • US investigation of IDF unit for alleged abuse against Palestinians could jeopardize aid

    Nine members of Force 100 investigated over allegations of sexual assaulting prisoner at Sde Teiman detention camp

    An Israeli military unit that has been accused of human rights abuses against Palestinian detainees is reportedly under investigation by the US state department in a move that could lead to it being barred from receiving assistance.

    The inquiry into the activities of Force 100 was instigated following a spate of allegations that Palestinians held under its guard at a detention centre have been subject to torture and brutal mistreatment, including sexual assault, Axios reported on Monday.

    Continue reading…

    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • 65 Democrats Say Biden Must Pressure Israel to Allow Journalists Into Gaza

    Dozens of House Democrats are urging President Joe Biden to end Israel’s ban on foreign journalism and attacks on journalists in Gaza, saying that press freedom in the Strip is “more critical than ever” as Israel embarks on a brutal ethnic cleansing campaign against all Palestinians left alive in north Gaza. In a letter sent to Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken earlier this month…

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  • Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Activists Face Sanctions and Deportation

    On October 15 the United States Treasury Department announced a joint action with the Canadian government, targeting the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network. The U.S. slapped sanctions on the organization and Canada listed the group as a terrorist entity. The Treasury Department press release refers to Samidoun as a “sham charity” and accuses it of raising funds for the Popular…

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    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Leaks Show Israel May Be Planning to Illegally Attack Nuclear Sites in Iran

    The Biden administration has launched a probe after highly classified U.S. intelligence documents were posted online showing that Israel is taking steps to launch a retaliatory attack against Iran. Meanwhile, a drone hit Benjamin Netanyahu’s seaside home Saturday in what the Israeli prime minister has called an assassination attempt by “Iran’s proxy Hezbollah.” As tensions between Iran and Israel…

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    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • $1 Billion US Weapons System Lands in Israel Amid Preparation to Attack Iran

    A U.S. weapons system has landed and is “in place” in Israel, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin said on Monday, as the Biden administration beefs up U.S. support of Israel and Israeli forces prepare to attack Iran and continue their bombardments of Lebanon and Gaza. The Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system, worth between roughly $1 billion to $1.8 billion and made by…

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    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Israel plans more strikes in Lebanon targeting Hezbollah-run bank it accused of funding rocket attacks – October 21, 2024

    Comprehensive coverage of the day’s news with a focus on war and peace; social, environmental and economic justice.

    Smoke rises from Israeli airstrikes on villages in the Nabatiyeh district, seen from the southern town of Marjayoun, Lebanon, Monday, Sept. 23, 2024.(AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

    • Israel plans more strikes in Lebanon targeting Hezbollah-run bank it accused of funding rocket attacks.
    • Global environmental leaders meet in Colombia for UN’s COP16 to address declining biodiversity and review conservation commitments.
    • New research finds spike in U.S. infant deaths following Supreme Court’s 2022 abortion ruling and state-level restrictions.
    • San Francisco schools chief Matt Wayne resigns after backlash over school closures; Maria Su appointed new superintendent.

    The post Israel plans more strikes in Lebanon targeting Hezbollah-run bank it accused of funding rocket attacks – October 21, 2024 appeared first on KPFA.


    This content originally appeared on KPFA – The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays and was authored by KPFA.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Israel Refuses UN Entry to North Gaza to Rescue People From Under Rubble

    Israeli forces are blocking humanitarian missions aimed at rescuing people who are trapped under the rubble due to Israeli strikes in north Gaza, the UN has reported. The development comes as Israel wages a horrific ethnic cleansing campaign in the north that has killed hundreds of Palestinians so far. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the occupied…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • The Observer refused to print a letter from Michael Rosen. So, we have.

    Award-winning author Michael Rosen is a national treasure. But there was one recent message from him about Gaza that the Observer apparently chose not to print. So we will.

    Despite Rosen having written for the Guardian countless times, its Sunday sister outlet seemingly opted not to publish the Jewish author’s message. This is probably because it was a “bitterly, unbearably, heavily ironic” response to genocide apologist Howard Jacobson’s controversial recent article for the paper. Jacobson had essentially smeared as antisemites people who focused on Israel’s murder of almost 17,000 children in Gaza in the last year. The media, he suggested, somehow risked increasing antisemitism by showing the suffering of Palestinian children too often.

    Rosen used irony to challenge the absurdity of Jacobson’s Observer argument. He insisted that Jacobson was “short on suggestions” of how to counter potential antisemitism as a result of the broadcasting of Israel’s genocide in Gaza. However, he stressed:

    Fortunately, the Israeli authorities have done all they can to help: they keep the world’s press photographers out of Gaza, but more work is needed. Surely, it should be to ban all images of dead and maimed Palestinian children, for only then can we western Jews be safe.

    https://x.com/MichaelRosenYes/status/1847930109740662841

    Michael Rosen: the lessons of the Holocaust

    Michael Rosen has long helped to educate children and adults alike about the horrors of the Holocaust, and the dangers of antisemitism.

    In his book Getting Better, he reflects on how his family dealt with losing relatives during the Holocaust, and how he came to learn more about it. He wanted to know (p28):

    How had this happened – scientific, industrialised genocide – in the core of Western civilisation?

    Speaking about attending commemorations in Paris for the Jewish people in France that the Nazis and their collaborators had sent to extermination camps, he said he “read out the names of my father’s uncles and aunt”. But he also had to continue reading names until the next relative at the ceremony could take over. This meant reading out “the names of children as young as five”.

    The previous silence of Rosen’s family members about what had happened to their relatives had made him feel uncomfortable. In a way, he insisted, it was as if the Nazis had succeeded in their project “not only to exterminate but to drive the memory that we existed out of European history”. However, by dedicating his time to “retrieving lists, edicts and reports out of archives”, he said, “I had defeated that aim”.

    Maybe this is part of the reason why he believes in openly documenting modern war crimes. Because in Gaza, the brave accounts of local people, journalists, doctors, and aid workers are making it impossible to forget what the Israeli occupation forces have been doing there since October 2023 (and long before). And they will provide essential evidence if the war criminals ever face justice after the genocide ends.

    Documenting and opposing genocide

    Michael Rosen has been a consistent campaigner for justice in Palestine. And he was supportive of Jeremy Corbyn amid the cynical campaign to weaponise antisemitism allegations against him.

    Despite receiving antisemitic abuse and attacks from the right himself, Rosen stands tall. He has criticised the Democrats in the US “who’ve shovelled billions to Israel so that they buy US arms to bomb Gaza”. And he has shared the media documentation of Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza.

    One article he tweeted recently was about Israeli genocide scholar Omer Bartov describing “the utter inability of Israeli society today to feel any empathy for the population of Gaza”. Bartov had spoken to young soldiers in Israel whose mindset was similar to that of German soldiers under the Nazi regime. As he explained:

    Having internalised certain views of the enemy – the Bolsheviks as Untermenschen; Hamas as human animals – and of the wider population as less than human and undeserving of rights, soldiers observing or perpetrating atrocities tend to ascribe them not to their own military, or to themselves, but to the enemy.

    The logic of too many in Israeli society today, he said, is one of “endless violence, a logic that allows one to destroy entire populations and to feel totally justified in doing so”.

    According to Bartov, at least from May 2024, “it was no longer possible to deny that Israel was engaged in systematic war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocidal actions”.

    See their faces. Say their names.

    In 2014, the Israeli Broadcasting Authority banned an advert listing the names of children that occupation forces had killed in that year’s assault on Gaza. And Michael Rosen wrote the poem Don’t Mention the Children in response. As with his reply to Jacobson’s absurd Observer rant in 2024, Rosen used irony powerfully to highlight the danger to war criminals of citizens humanising the statistics they heard. The poem has since made regular appearances on marches for justice for Palestine.

    And we absolutely must name the children. Because they were not just statistics. They were living, breathing human beings. So the more media outlets like the Observer give genocide apologists like Jacobson a platform to try and desensitise us to the murder of children, the more we need to share their faces and read their names:

    By Ed Sykes

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • The US Sends Troops to Israel

    The dangers should be plastered on every wall in every office occupied by a military and political advisor.  Israel’s attempt to reshape the Middle East, far from giving it enduring security, will merely serve to make it more vulnerable and unstable than ever.  In that mix and mess will be its greatest sponsor and guardian, the United States, a giant of almost blind antiquity in all matters concerning the Jewish state.

    In a measure that should have garnered bold headlines, the Biden administration has announced the deployment of some 100 US soldiers to Israel who will be responsible for operating the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system.  They are being sent to a conflict that resembles a train travelling at high speed, with no risk of stopping.  As Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant promised in the aftermath of Iran’s October 1 missile assault on his country, “Our strike will be powerful, precise, and above all – surprising.”  It would be of such a nature that “They will not understand what happened and how it happened.”

    In an October 16 meeting between the Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III and Gallant, the deployment of a mobile THAAD battery was seen “as an operational example of the United States’ ironclad support to the defense of Israel.”  Largely meaningless bits of advice were offered to Gallant: that Israel “continue taking steps to address the dire humanitarian situation” and take “all necessary measures to ensure the safety and security” of UN peacekeepers operating in Lebanon’s south.

    The charade continued the next day in a conversation between Austin and Gallant discussing the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.  THAAD was again mentioned as essential for Israel’s “right to defence itself” while representing the “United States’ unwavering, enduring, and ironclad commitment to Israel’s security.”  (“Ironclad” would seem to be the word of the moment, neatly accompanying Israel’s own Iron Dome defence system.)

    A statement from the Pentagon press secretary, Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder, was a fatuous effort in minimising the dangers of the deployment.  The battery would merely “augment Israel’s integrated air defense system,” affirm the ongoing commitment to Israel’s defence and “defend Americans in Israel, from any further ballistic missile attacks from Iran.”

    The very public presence of US troops, working alongside their Israeli counterparts in anticipation of broadening conflict, does not merely suggest Washington’s failure to contain their ally.  It entails a promise of ceaseless supply, bolstering and emboldening.  Furthermore, it will involve placing US troops in harm’s way, a quixotic invitation if ever there was one.

    As things stand, the US is already imperilling its troops by deploying them in a series of bases in Jordan, Syria and Iraq.  Iran’s armed affiliates have been making their presence felt, harrying the stationed troops with increasing regularity since the Israel-Hamas war broke out on October 7 last year. A gradual, attritive toll is registering, featuring such attacks as those on the Tower 22 base in northern Jordan in January that left three US soldiers dead.

    Writing in August for the Guardian, former US army major Harrison Mann eventually realised an awful truth about the mounting assaults on these sandy outposts of the US imperium: “there was no real plan to protect US troops beyond leaving them in their small, isolated bases while local militants, emboldened and agitated by US support for Israel’s brutal war in Gaza, used them for target practice.”  To send more aircraft and warships to the Middle East also served to encourage “reckless escalation towards a wider war,” providing insurance to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he could be protected “from the consequences of his actions.”

    Daniel Davis, a military expert at Defense Priorities, is firmly logical on the point of enlisting US personnel in the Israeli cause. “Naturally, if Americans are killed in the execution of their duties, there will be howls from the pro-war hawks in the West ‘demanding’ the president ‘protect our troops’ by firing back on Iran.”  It was “exactly the sort of thing that gets nations sucked into war they have no interest in fighting.”

    Polling, insofar as that measure counts, suggests that enthusiasm for enrolling US troops in Israel’s defence is far from warm.  In results from a survey published by the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations in August, some four in ten polled would favour sending US troops to defend Israel if it was attacked by Iran.  Of the sample, 53% of Republicans would favour defending Israel in that context, along with four in 10 independents (42%), and a third of Democrats (34%).

    There have also been some mutterings from the Pentagon itself about Israel’s burgeoning military effort, in particular against the Lebanese Iran-backed militia, Hezbollah.  In a report from the New York Times, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., is said to be worried about the widening US presence in the region, a fact that would hamper overall “readiness” of the US in other conflicts.  Being worried is just the start of it.

    The post The US Sends Troops to Israel first appeared on Dissident Voice.


    This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Binoy Kampmark.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Fury as Kamala Harris suggests Israel’s atrocities against Palestinians are ‘less tragic’

    A big issue for Democratic US presidential election nominee Kamala Harris is her party’s handling of Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Many argue that the US could end the suffering overnight by cutting off funding. The fact that the US continues to send money and weapons is seen as a clear endorsement of the situation. Given this, it’s a difficult topic for Harris to talk about, but that doesn’t explain how she could be foolish enough to phrase it like this:

    Harris: what’s ‘most tragic’?

    There’s seldom any benefit in comparing atrocities, but as Harris has decided to go down this route, here are some of the acts she’s chosen to minimise:

    Israel’s actions have led to harrowing scenes like that of displaced Palestinians burning alive in medical tents:

    Understandably, Harris’s response has provoked fury:

     

    Michigan

    It’s always been clear to anyone reading between the lines that Harris thinks more of Israeli lives than Palestinian ones. She’s such an incompetent politician, however, that she’s openly just stating this. In such a tight election, her inhuman stance could be enough to lose her the election.

    Harris was speaking in Michigan which has one of America’s largest Arab American populations. AP reported on Harris’s visit:

    Michigan is one of three “blue wall” states that, along with Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, will help decide the election on Nov. 5. Diverse voting blocs are key to winning virtually any swing state, but Michigan is unique with its significant Arab American population, which has been deeply frustrated by the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s offensive in Gaza following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

    Earlier in October, Rolling Stone reported:

    While Arab Americans voted nearly 60 percent for Joe Biden in 2020, with Donald Trump garnering just 35 percent of their support, the new poll finds Trump winning the Arab American vote 42 to 41 percent over Harris. The picture among likely voters is even worse, with Trump leading 46-42, pointing to a politically perilous enthusiasm gap.

    In the same piece, they interviewed James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute. In an illustrative passage, he said:

    I remember going and seeing somebody at the White House early on, like two weeks into this. And he went on about the trauma of the Jewish people and what happened and how it was unforgivable. And I said, ‘I agree with you. I understand that.’ I grew up with a mother who made me read the Diary of Anne Frank. I had an uncle who was in the infantry in World War II and went into the camps, and told me the stories about what it was like, what he saw. The first time I ever got a headline in a newspaper was The Washington Post in the 70s. And the headline was: “Arab Speaker Chides Community About Antisemitism.”

    What I told him is that I grew up understanding this issue, and I do. I understand the trauma and what it evokes in terms of fear of pogroms and the Holocaust. I said: ‘And there’s another people in this conflict who also have fears and trauma, and what’s happening now is evoking for them, fears of the Nakba.’

    Well, he shot back at me, “What you say sounds like smacks of ‘whataboutism,’” he said, and “Don’t come here with that. It makes me so upset.” I was startled that this guy is advising the president and without an ounce of compassion for Palestinians. I was urging that there be compassion for both people who have suffering and fears. American policy needs to understand both, not prioritize one human life over another.

    Democrats are the ones who wrote in their platform about the equal worth of Palestinian and Israeli lives. Right? I didn’t write it. They wrote it. But when the body counts are 40-to-1, and we still don’t have equal compassion for both, then I’m stuck. I don’t know what to think, or how to operate in this realm.

    Oct. 7 was a horrific tragedy and an act of terror that is inexcusable, and Hamas committed crimes. But my God, the crimes committed afterwards, and the crimes committed before, have to be weighed in the balance. And no one in this crowd is willing or able — they don’t have the perspective to do that.

    The lesser candidate

    Trump’s rhetoric on the genocide is worse than Harris’s, with AP reporting that he said:

    Even as he reached out to disillusioned Arab American voters, Trump suggested he would end efforts to encourage Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to restrain military operations that have killed tens of thousands of Palestinians.

    Even though Biden “is trying to hold him back … he probably should be doing the opposite, actually,” Trump said.

    What Harris would do well to remember is that many voters don’t see it as their duty to vote for the lesser of two evils; they just stay home instead. Democrats can get as angry as they like about that, but their anger may do nothing to inspire the voters whose lives they say matter less.

    Featured image via Forbes

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Government’s Warped Priorities Exacerbate Climate Disasters, Impede Recovery

    This year’s hurricane season has been devastating. Hurricane Helene left a trail of wreckage across the Southeast and Appalachia, where over 230 people have died so far. Barely two weeks later, Milton slammed into Florida, killing dozens more, destroying homes, and leaving over a million people without power. Insurers are predicting that losses from Milton could reach $60 billion.

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Barred From Gaza by Israel, Medical Workers Cry Out for Help

    As more Israeli bombing of the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza killed dozens of people Saturday, health workers from both inside and out of the besieged territory are again pleading with world leaders to bring an end to the indiscriminate attacks and imposed humanitarian crisis that witnesses on the ground increasingly say there are no words to describe. At al Nasser Hospital in Khan…

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    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Results of the 57th session of the Human Rights Council

    At the 57th Human Rights Council session, civil society organisations share reflections on key outcomes and highlight gaps in addressing crucial issues and situations. Full written version below:

    States continue to fail to meet their obligations under international law to put an end to decades of Israeli crimes committed against the Palestinian people, including the genocide in Gaza, and most recently Israel’s war on Lebanon. States that continue to provide military, economic and political support to Israel, while suppressing fundamental freedoms such as expression and assembly, as well as attacking independent courts and experts, and defunding humanitarian aid (UNRWA), are complicit in the commission of crimes. We urge the Council to address the root causes of the situation as identified by experts and the ICJ, including settler-colonialism and apartheid, and to address the obligations of third States in the context of the ICJ’s provisional measures stressing the plausible risk of genocide in Gaza and the ICJ advisory opinion recognising that ‘Israel’s legislation and measures constitute a breach of Article 3 of CERD’ pertaining to racial segregation and apartheid. The General Assembly adopted the resolution titled “The Crime of Genocide” in December 1946, which articulates that the denial of existence of entire human groups shocks the conscience of mankind. We remind you of our collective duty and moral responsibility to stop genocide.

    States have an obligation to pay UN membership dues in full and in time. The failure of many States to do so, often for politically motivated reasons, is causing a financial liquidity crisis, meaning that resolutions and mandates of the Human Rights Council cannot be implemented. Pay your dues! The visa denials to civil society by host countries is a recurring obstacle to accessing the UN; and acts of intimidation and reprisals are fundamental attacks against the UN system itself. The right to access and communicate with international bodies is firmly grounded in international law and pivotal to the advancement of human rights. In this regard, we welcome the action taken by 11 States to call for investigation and accountability for reprisals against individually named human rights defenders. This sends an important message of solidarity to defenders, many of whom are arbitrarily detained for contributing to the work of the UN, as well as increasing the political costs for perpetrators of such acts. We welcome progress in Indigenous Peoples’ participation in the work of this Council as it is the first time that they could register on their own for specific dialogues.

    We welcome the adoption of the resolution that renews the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights in the context of climate change by consensus. 

    We also welcome the adoption of the resolution on biodiversity sending a clear call to take more ambitious commitments at the sixteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity  and acknowledging the negative impact that the loss of biodiversity can have on the enjoyment of all human rights, including the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment. We welcome that these two resolutions recognize the critical and positive role that Environmental Human Right Defenders play. We also welcome the adoption by consensus of the resolutions on the rights on safe drinking water and sanitation; and the resolution on human rights and Indigenous Peoples. 

    We welcome the adoption of the resolution on equal participation in political and public affairs which for the first time includes language on children and recognises their right to participation as well as the transformative role of civic education in supporting their participation. We also welcome the recognition that hate speech has a restrictive effect on children’s full, meaningful, inclusive and safe participation in political and public affairs.

    We welcome the adoption of the resolution from rhetoric to reality: a global call for concrete action against racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. The resolution contains important language on the implementation of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action as well as the proclamation by the General Assembly of a second International Decade for People of African Descent commencing in 2025. We welcome the inclusion of a call to States to dispense reparatory justice, including finding ways to remedy historical racial injustices. This involves ensuring that the structures in society that perpetuate past injustices are transformed, including law enforcement and the administration of justice. 

    We welcome the adoption of a new resolution on human rights on the internet, which recognises that universal and meaningful connectivity is essential for the enjoyment of human rights. The resolution takes a progressive step forward in specifically recommending diverse and human right-based technological solutions to advance connectivity, including through governments creating an enabling and inclusive regulatory environment for small, non-profit and community internet operators. These solutions are particularly essential in ensuring connectivity for remote or rural communities. The resolution also  unequivocally condemns internet shutdowns, online censorship, surveillance, and other measures that impede universal and meaningful connectivity. We now call on all Sates to fully implement the commitments in the resolution and ensure the same rights that people have offline are also protected online. 

    Whilst we welcome the attention in the resolution on the human rights of migrants to dehumanising, harmful and racist narratives about migration, we are disappointed that the resolution falls short of the calls from civil society, supported by the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights of Migrants, for the Human Rights Council to set up an independent and international monitoring mechanism to address deaths, torture and other grave human rights violations at borders. Such a mechanism would not only support prevention and accountability – it would provide a platform for the people at the heart of these human rights violations and abuses to be heard. The study and intersessional mandated in this resolution must be used to enhance independent monitoring and increase access to justice.

    We welcome the adoption of the resolution on Afghanistan renewing and strengthening the mandate of the Special Rapporteur. Crucially, the resolution recognises the need to ensure accountability in Afghanistan through “comprehensive, multidimensional, gender-responsive and victim-centred” processes applying a “comprehensive approach to transitional justice.” However, we are disappointed that the resolution once again failed to establish an independent accountability mechanism that can undertake comprehensive investigations and collect and preserve evidence and information of violations and abuses in line with these principles to assist future and ongoing accountability processes. This not only represents a failure by the Council to respond to the demands of many Afghan and international civil society organisations, but also a failure to fulfil its own mandate to ensure prompt, independent and impartial investigations which this and all previous resolutions have recognised as urgent.

    We welcome the renewal of the Special Rapporteur on Burundi. 

    We welcome the renewal of the Special Rapporteur’s mandate on the human rights situation in the Russian Federation. The human rights situation in Russia continues to deteriorate, with the alarming expansion of anti-extremism legislation now also targeting LGBT+ and Indigenous organisations being just the latest example of this trend. The Special Rapporteur has highlighted how such repression against civil society within Russia over many years has facilitated its external aggression. The mandate itself remains a vital lifeline for Russian civil society, connecting it with the Human Rights Council and the broader international community, despite the Russian authorities’ efforts to isolate their people.

    We welcome the resolution on promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka renewing for one year the mandate of the OHCHR Sri Lanka Accountability Project and of the High Commissioner to monitor and report on the situation. Its consensual adoption represents the broad recognition by the Council of the crucial need for continued international action to promote accountability and reconciliation in Sri Lanka and keeps the hopes of tens of thousands of victims, their families and survivors who, more than 15 years after the end of the war, continue to wait for justice and accountability. However, the resolution falls short in adequately responding to the calls by civil society. It fails to extend these mandates for two years which would have ensured that the Sri Lanka Accountability Project has the resources, capacity and stability to fulfill its mandate. 

    We welcome the renewal of the Fact Fin­ding Mission on Sudan with broader support (23 votes in favor in comparison to 19 votes last year, and 12 votes against in comparison to 16 votes last year). This responds to the calls by 80 Sudanese, African, and other international NGOs for an extension of the man­date of the FFM for Sudan. We further reiterate our urgent calls for an immediate ceasefire and the prompt creation of safe corridors for humanitarian aid organisations and groups, and to guarantee the safety of their operations, as well as our call on the UN Security Council to extend the arms embargo on Darfur to all of Sudan and create effective monitoring and reporting mechanisms to ensure the implementation of the embargo. 

    We welcome the renewal of the mandates of the Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela (FFM) and of OHCHR for two more years. The deepening repression at the hands of government forces following the fraudulent Presidential elections in July has made evident the vital importance of continued independent documenting, monitoring and reporting by the FFM and its role in early warning of further human rights deterioration. We are pleased that OHCHR is mandated to provide an oral update (with an ID) at the end of this year. This will be key ahead of the end of the term of the current presidency on 10 January 2025. This resolution is an important recognition of and contribution to the demands of victims and civil society for accountability.  

    We regret that the Council failed to take action on Bangladesh. We welcome Bangladesh’s cooperation with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights including by inviting the Office to undertake investigations into allegations of serious violations and abuses in the context of youth-led protests in July and August, as well as positive steps by the interim government. However, we believe that a Council mandate would provide much needed support, stability and legitimacy to these positive initiatives at a time of serious political uncertainty in the country.

    The Council’s persistent inaction and indifference in the face of Yemen’s escalating human rights crisis is deeply troubling. Since the dissolution of the Group of Eminent Experts, and despite years of mounting atrocities, we have yet to see the type of robust, independent international investigation that is desperately needed. Instead, the Council’s approach has been marked by half-measures and complacency, allowing widespread violations to continue unchecked. Despite the precarious humanitarian situation, the recent campaign of enforced disappearances and arbitrary detention by the de facto Houthi authorities and recent Israeli bombardments, Yemen has increasingly become a forgotten crisis. The current resolution on Yemen represents this failure. Technical assistance without reporting or discussion is an insufficient response. The decision to forgo an interactive dialogue on implementing this assistance is an oversight, undermining the principles of accountability and transparency. We welcome the inclusion of language in the resolution recognizing the vital role of NGO workers and humanitarian staff who the Houthis have arbitrarily detained. We call for the immediate and unconditional release of those who continue to be detained for nothing more than attempting to ensure the rule of law is respected and victims are protected. We urge this Council to act decisively, prioritize the creation of an independent international accountability mechanism, and place civilian protection at the forefront of its deliberations on Yemen. 

    We continue to deplore this Council’s exceptionalism towards serious human rights violations in China committed by the government. On 17 August, the OHCHR stressed that ‘many problematic laws and policies’ documented in its Xinjiang report remain in place, that abuses remain to be investigated, and that reprisals and lack of information hinder human rights monitoring. We welcome the statement by the Xinjiang Core Group on the second anniversary of the OHCHR’s Xinjiang report, regretting the government’s lack of meaningful cooperation with UN bodies, the rejection of UPR recommendations, and urging China to engage meaningfully to implement the OHCHR’s recommendations, including releasing all those arbitrarily detained, clarifying the whereabouts of those disappeared, and facilitating family reunion. It is imperative that the Human Rights Council take action commensurate to the gravity of UN findings, such as by establishing a monitoring and reporting mechanism on China as repeatedly urged by over 40 UN experts since 2020. We urge China to genuinely engage with the UN human rights system to enact meaningful reform, and ensure all individuals and peoples enjoy their human rights. Recommendations from the OHCHR Xinjiang report, UN Treaty Bodies, and UN Special Procedures chart the way for this desperately needed change.

    Finally, we welcome the outcome of elections to the Human Rights Council at the General Assembly. States that are responsible for atrocity crimes, the widespread repression of civil society, and patterns of reprisals are not qualified to be elected to this Council. The outcomes of the election demonstrate the importance of all regions fielding competitive slates that are comprised of appropriately qualified candidates.  

    Signatories:

    1. International Service for Human Rights (ISHR)
    2. Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA)
    3. CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation 
    4. FIDH 
    5. Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies

    https://ishr.ch/latest-updates/hrc57-civil-society-presents-key-takeaways-from-the-session

    see:

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/oct/11/us-un-human-rights-israel

    https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/oct/08/rights-activists-urge-un-reject-abusive-bid-saudi-arabia-bid-join-human-rights-council

    Following a concerted campaign led by ISHR together with other civil society partners, Saudi Arabia was just defeated in its bid to be elected to the UN Human Rights Council!

    https://crm.ishr.ch/civicrm/mailing/view?reset=1&id=1418&cid=8618&cs=c89686f0b64b411761113a94bbe76c57_1728499812_168

  • Jewish Students Mark Sukkot Holiday With Calls to End Israel’s Genocide in Gaza

    Several Jewish-led student groups are marking the holiday of Sukkot on campuses across the country by constructing small, temporary structures called sukkahs and adorning them with messages of solidarity with Palestinians amid Israel’s genocide. Sukkot, sometimes known as the Feast of Booths, is a weeklong Jewish holiday commemorating the story of the 40 years that Israelites spent in the…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Sisters of Teenager Burned Alive in Israeli Airstrikes Are on Verge of Death

    Tributes have poured in from across the globe for 19-year-old Sha’ban al-Dalou, a software engineering student who burned to death after Israel bombed Gaza’s Al-Aqsa Hospital in central Deir al-Balah on Monday. Photographs and footage of his final moments shocked millions around the world as Sha’ban laid in a hospital bed with an IV attached to his arm as the flames engulfed him.

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • 100 Muslim Labour councillors call out Keir Starmer’s complicity in Israel’s genocide

    Over 100 Muslim Labour Party Councillors have signed a letter to prime minister Keir Starmer calling for an immediate and complete suspension of arms sales to Israel.

    Over 100 Muslim Labour councillors demand Starmer acts

    A letter signed by over 100 Muslim Labour councillors from across Britain has been published on Friday 18 October, calling on Keir Starmer to end arms sales to Israel until international humanitarian law is observed.

    The call organised by the Labour Muslim Network comes following days of escalating violence, including recently reported attacks on schools and hospitals in Gaza and throughout Lebanon.

    The letter from over 100 Muslim Labour councillors claims that the party must “not be complicit in these clear violations of international humanitarian law” and that the party now in government has a “moral obligation” to suspend “all arms sales to Israel until such a time that international humanitarian law is observed and respected”.

    It also says that “in the past few days alone we have seen images of Palestinian children and families burnt alive following Israeli military strikes at Al Aqsa hospital, and the continued shelling of schools used as shelter by displaced civilians”.

    The letter notes that “it is also being reported by the Associated Press that Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu is planning to seal off humanitarian aid to northern Gaza. A plan that, if implemented, would cut off food and water to hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians who have nowhere safe to go.

    This marks only the second time Muslim Labour Councillors have written in such large numbers and united to urge the party to change its policy position pertaining to Gaza. Previously Muslim Councillors had called the then leader of the opposition to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, a call that was eventually heeded by the Labour leadership.

    You can read the full letter here.

    The Labour Muslim Network said in a statement that:

    The world is witnessing unprecedented violations of international humanitarian law in Gaza and in Lebanon. Over 17,000 children have been killed, more than 30 hospitals destroyed, and schools under constant bombardment and shelling. The UK must end any and all complicity in these crimes.

    This powerful letter by Muslim Labour Councillors from every corner of our communities is an important call to meet our moral and legal obligations to act now.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Andrew Garfield just got up close and personal with a Stop Arming Israel banner

    Youth Demand took the calls for the UK Labour Party government to stop arming Israel onto the red carpet on Thursday 17 October – as they disrupted a London film premiere featuring Hollywood ‘star’ Andrew Garfield.

    Andrew Garfield: stand with the Palestinian people

    Two Youth Demand supporters disrupted the red carpet at the film premiere for We Live in Time held at London’s Southbank Theatre, demanding a two-way arms embargo on Israel. One accessed the red carpet, standing in front of the crowd while holding aloft a Palestine flag emblazoned with the words ‘STOP ARMING ISRAEL’:

    The other was apprehended by security before they could gain access. No arrests were made.

    Taking action at the Andrew Garfield premiere was Starr Thomas, 20, a student from South London. They said:

    Our political system is rotten. The only way to achieve justice is through direct action so I will continue putting my body on the line and using my voice. We cannot have business as usual during a genocide.

    The UK government are facilitating genocide. Britain is a death machine and I refuse to follow the rules of a state that profits off of mass death, and stays silent while babies are being blown to pieces.

    Israel has come under fire for burning displaced Palestinian to death by targeting civilian hospitals with bombs. Shocking images of student Shaban Al-Dalu being burnt alive whilst still attached to an IV unit in Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital have been prominent in the media.

    As the Canary previously reported, Shaban was sheltering in a tent in the compound of Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital with his parents and five siblings when an Israeli bomb hit, one of many such attacks. A fireball engulfed him whilst he was still attached to a drip and the images of this atrocity have gone viral around the world.

    Shaban was days away from his 20th birthday. He had been supporting his family with a crowdfunding page. His mother also died in the attack.

    Stop arming Israel: Youth Demand

    A spokesperson for Youth Demand said of the Andrew Garfield premiere protest that “Israel is annexing Gaza. They genocide the population, they bulldoze cities, and then they move in. The only way to stop this is to stop arming Israel”.

    Co-starring with Florence Pugh, Andrew Garfield recently spoke out in support of Palestinians experiencing genocide at present. He said in a recent interview:

    We should be putting our energy toward something that actually matters. Maybe the lives of, I don’t know, Palestinians in Gaza right now… Maybe that’s where we put our hearts and our energy in, and anyone suffering, anyone oppressed, anyone that is suffering under the weight of the horrors of our world right now, anyone who doesn’t have a choice in living lives of dignity

    Youth Demand are one of the groups supporting the nonviolent demonstration ‘POLITICS IS BROKEN – THE UMBRELLA MARCH‘ due to be held on 2 November, forming part of the PSC march.

    Featured image via Youth Demand

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Shaban Al-Dalu’s horrific murder by Israel was just projected onto the UK parliament

    Content warning: this article contains graphic footage which some readers may find distressing

    Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) has taken the horrific death of young Palestinian man Shaban Al-Dalu in Gaza direct to the UK parliament – after the image of Israel killing him went viral around the world.

    Shaban Al-Dalu

    PSC has projected a hard-hitting video onto the UK parliament early on Friday 18 October. It depicted the shocking death of 19-year-old Shaban Al-Dalu:

    He was sheltering in a tent in the compound of Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital with his parents and five siblings when an Israeli bomb hit, one of many such attacks. A fireball engulfed him whilst he was still attached to a drip and the images of this atrocity have gone viral around the world.

    Shaban was days away from his 20th birthday. He had been supporting his family with a crowdfunding page. His mother also died in the attack.

    A video made by PSC was projected onto parliament last night, linking this murder, and those of at least 42,000 other Palestinians in Gaza, to the UK’s continued political, diplomatic and military support of Israel, despite it conducting what the International Court of Justice has found to be a plausible case of genocide.

    Last week French president Emmanuel Macron called for a halt on arms deliveries to Israel for use in Gaza and this week Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni said that her country had blocked all new arms sales to Israel shortly after it began its assault on Gaza last October.

    But the UK government has so far suspended less than 10% of arms exports to Israel despite accepting the likelihood they are being used in breach of international law. It refused to halt indirect exports to Israel of components for the F-35 combat aircraft, known to have been used to massacre civilians in Gaza.

    The UK is complicit in Israel’s war crimes and genocide

    PSC’s projection of Shaban Al-Dalu’s killing  onto parliament tells Keir Starmer not to look away from the horrors that are being inflicted by Israel using weapons supplied by Western governments that include the UK.

    It charges him with complicity. Under the Genocide Convention all states are under a duty to prevent and punish this crime but Keir Starmer’s government is instead allied with Israel in its heinous actions. This includes the IDF’s killing of Shaban Al-Dalu.

    Tomorrow, Saturday 19 October, PSC is holding a National Day of Action with nearly 100 branches taking part around the UK. In London a mass rally is being held in Trafalgar Square and tens of thousands are expected to attend.

    Ben Jamal, PSC Director, said :

    In the week that an Israeli missile strike burned 19-year-old Shaban Al-Dalu alive, Israel massacred hundreds more Palestinians in Gaza and bombed civilians and a UN compound in Lebanon, Keir Starmer refused to consider an arms embargo.

    The message he is delivering to Palestinians like Shaban Al-Dalu is your lives don’t count. We will not allow him and his government to turn away from the barbarity which they are supporting by continuing to arm Israel.

    Featured image and video via PSC

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Israel ‘has to’ keep killing in Gaza suggests Howard Jacobson amid backlash over Observer article

    In an off-the-wall Observer article recently, author Howard Jacobson essentially smeared as antisemites anyone who dares to criticise Israel’s murder of almost 17,000 children in Gaza in the last year. And amid the backlash, he has dug in, suggesting that the Israeli occupation forces “have to” keep committing genocide.

    Howard Jacobson: “There was no alternative”

    Speaking to the New Yorker, Howard Jacobson repeated his concern that people would conflate being Jewish to being an Israeli soldier, saying:

    You couldn’t look at a child, pictures of a child being killed every single night without thinking this is making my people, my kin, out to be child murderers.

    Then he added that the Israeli attacks on Gaza after 7 October 2023 “turned out very badly”. And with the caveat that he doesn’t like Benjamin Netanyahu’s government in Israel, he insisted:

    that didn’t mean that something didn’t need doing. There was no alternative to it.

    It is actually tragically sad to see Jacobson back himself into a corner, as he does. Because there’s no recognition that 7 October came in the context of decades of brutal Israeli occupation, apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and war crimes. And there’s no recognition that addressing that context would be the real alternative to trying to genocide Gaza into submission.

    The number of deaths ‘had to be high’

    Howard Jacobson also argued that, after 7 October, it wasn’t possible to “measure life for life”. It wasn’t a case of just avenging the deaths in Israel. Instead, he insisted:

    in the attempt to make sure that this never happened again, the numbers were going to inevitably have to be high.

    This has consistently been Israel’s strategy in previous attacks on Gaza and elsewhere. And it has never deterred ongoing resistance against Israel’s colonial occupation.

    Despite his awareness that the ongoing genocide has “turned out very badly”, he added:

    I think the West should continue to give them weapons

    The call of Western governments to allow Israel to commit war crime after war crime with impunity was “sound”, he suggested. It has been the people standing up against genocide that “you couldn’t trust”.

    On Israel’s actions in the last year, he said:

    I do not support everything that they have done. But I get why they have to do it.

    No, Howard Jacobson, Israel didn’t “have to” commit genocide

    Howard Jacobson has shown his shameful lack of empathy for the world to see. That’s on his conscience. But in the spirit of empathy, we should try to understand how he got to that position.

    One American-Jewish scholar argued in 1967 that “Israel has only one image of itself: that of an expiring people, forever on the verge of ceasing to be”. This paranoid mindset is powerful.

    In one academic paper, Gilad Hirschberger, Tom Pyszczynski, and Tsachi Ein-Dor explained that a “primordial fear of death is the driving force” of Israel’s military actions. And “Jewish fear of collective annihilation is a crucial element” of them. And psychologically, this pushes many people in Israel to see things in “black and white”, to oppose “concessions for peace”, to “favor violent solutions to conflict, and relax their moral restraints at times of war”.

    A study the paper analysed showed that, when researchers mentioned the Holocaust to Israelis, this “significantly increased support of a pre-emptive strike on Iran when told that the US was opposed to such action”. This showed the “link between Israelis’ fear of annihilation and their siege mentality, such that feelings of isolation perpetuate existential anxieties”. When they learned that the US supported such action, however, it ‘reassured’ them and led to “more measured and less emotional responses”.

    The paper stressed that a:

    sense of security cannot be established with weapons or financial aid. Rather, existential, psychological security is the knowledge that the world recognizes Israel’s basic rights and will support Israel when it makes concessions and takes the necessary risks. Then, when the siege mentality is lifted will Israel feel confident enough to make peace with its neighbors.

    Fear can push you to crazy places

    In short, fear as a result of trauma can be a powerful motivating force.

    It can make you sick, push you to criminal acts, or convince you to support others committing crimes. Or as seems to be the case for Jacobson, it can make you vulnerable to manipulation by cynical propagandists or demagogues, sometimes resulting in the perception of marginalised groups as dangerous enemies who need to be dealt with.

    In this case, fear can push you to justify horrific acts against these perceived enemies, as Howard Jacobson appears to do.

    Obviously, mental anguish is not the same as direct physical pain. Someone making you feel uncomfortable or scared is never the same as someone physically assaulting you, slowly torturing or starving you, or murdering you and your family. However, understanding this mental anguish and addressing it is a crucial part of ending apologism for genocide.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Ed Sykes

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Israel Brings Strategy of Unchecked Destruction to Its Assault on Lebanon

    We get an update on Israel’s war on Lebanon from journalist Rania Abouzeid in Beirut. “We are seeing a definite escalation that started a month ago and doesn’t show any sign of letting up,” she observes, describing unrestrained attacks by Israel throughout the country, on all sectors of society, as Israel carries out its “Dahiya doctrine” in an attempt to foment division among the Lebanese…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • My Uncle in Gaza Had a Lung Condition. Israel Turned It Into a Death Sentence.

    My dear uncle, Mahmoud Attallah, 63, who was suffering from a lung condition called pulmonary fibrosis, passed away on October 12, 2024, after enduring over a cruel year of genocidal war in Gaza. Due to the ongoing war and bombardment, we were unable to bury him in the cemetery. Instead, he will be laid to rest temporarily in the yard of my grandmother’s house. In these dark days we are unable to…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • “Resettle Gaza”: Netanyahu’s Likud Party just said the quiet part out loud

    Defenders of Israel often criticise people who call it a settler-colonial project. But it’s all out in the open. And a series of upcoming events show how Israeli politicians from Netanyahu’s Likud Party want to ‘resettle Gaza’ in the wake of the ongoing genocide.

    The UN and human rights organisations have long condemned illegal settler activity in the occupied West Bank. Even Israeli allies in the UK and the US have. It’s common knowledge. It’s modern colonialism. But what hasn’t made it into the mainstream Western media much is the fact that many people in the Israeli government and in Israeli society want to recolonise Gaza too.

    Netanyahu’s party invites people to ‘resettle Gaza’

    War criminal prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling party, Likud, has just invited people to an event about “Preparing to Resettle Gaza”. And numerous politicians from the party, and others, are planning to attend. The event will take place near Israel’s apartheid barrier with occupied Gaza, close to the small colonial city of Sderot.

    A poster for the 21 October event reads:

    we will stand together — Likud members, regional [Likud] branch chairs, MKs and ministers — to jointly declare that ‘Gaza is ours. Forever.’

    The Nachala movement, which has established illegal outposts in the West Bank, has organised the Likud-backed event.

    As Haaretz noted, the group says this is “not just a theoretical conference, but a practical exercise”, adding that “the return to settlement in Gaza is no longer just an idea but a process that is already in advanced stages, with government and public support”.

    And this is not a new resettle Gaza movement. As the Times of Israel reported:

    Nachala organized another conference in January, which also advocated for the reestablishment of Israeli settlements in Gaza in addition to “encouraging voluntary emigration” of Palestinians out of the Strip. The gathering was attended by over two dozen ministers and lawmakers.

    Likud: “Gaza City will be Jewish”

    The Times of Israel also stated in a separate article that, on 20 October:

    activists will hold a large conference on “Jewish settlement in Gaza” at Jerusalem’s International Convention Center that is expected to draw over 3,000 people.

    It added that:

    close to a third of government members and the Knesset do support renewed settlement within the Gaza Strip

    The plan, it explained, would be to follow a settlement strategy that has worked for years in the West Bank, with settlers:

    establishing themselves on the territory or at army locations in small groups as the government and the army turn a blind eye; utilizing connections and political pressure in the Knesset and the corridors of power; and mass events, demonstrations and conferences that push the agenda for new settlements.

    Speaking about the event, Nachala chair Daniella Weiss said the settlements people plan to build “already have names, and there is also an action strategy”. She continued by saying:

    We managed to register 400 families in seven core settlement groups all over Gaza….

    Gaza City will be Jewish…

    We formed serious teams, collected donations…

    In the city of Khan Younis, a Jewish city will be built and we will call it Hanut Yona.

    Thousands of Israeli settlers illegally occupied land in Gaza from 1970 onwards. In 2005, as Amnesty International explained, Israel withdrew its troops and settlements, but maintained an “illegal air, sea and land blockade” which kept a stranglehold on the territory.

    Since 7 October 2023, Israeli demolitions of Palestinian homes in occupied East Jerusalem have increased significantly, as has the establishment of new illegal outposts and settlements in the occupied West Bank. There are now “unprecedented levels” of settler violence, according to the UN.

    “We are occupying, deporting, and settling”

    Netanyahu denies intending to resettle Gaza. However, his actions suggest that he wouldn’t mind if it happened.

    For example, when he addressed the United Nations in September 2023, he “held up two maps of the Middle East with Israel highlighted in blue”. Both of these, as Al Jazeera reported, showed all the territories that Israel occupies, including Gaza, as part of Israel.

    A year later, he showed another map, which erased the West Bank and carved up Gaza with sections under Israeli military control.

    And the reality is, as the Times of Israel reported, that:

    Government ministers, leading Knesset members, public figures and thousands of activists have been vigorously working on the plan since the war with Hamas began on October 7, and have ramped up their efforts in the last few weeks.

    One of Netanyahu’s ministers, for example, said:

    We must promote a solution to encourage the emigration of the residents of Gaza

    Another asserted that Israel “will rule” in Gaza, and that, “in order to rule there securely for a long time, we must have a civilian presence”.

    Back in January, CNN quoted Israeli pollster and journalist Dahlia Scheindlin saying:

    The general range goes from about 25% who want to re-establish permanent communities, Jewish Israeli communities in Gaza, to somewhere in the 40% range…

    That is not a small portion of Israeli society.

    In short, it’s not just movements on the fringe that want to resettle Gaza. It’s a common view, and it has been on display on the killing fields too.

    As CNN reported, Israeli soldiers filmed themselves in front of the devastation in Gaza saying “we are occupying, deporting, and settling”. Soldiers also took a photo with a banner reading “only settlement would be considered victory!”

    Colonialism and genocide go hand in hand. And Israel’s behaviour in occupied Palestine is a perfect example of that.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Ed Sykes

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • “Itching for a War”: Biden Deploys U.S. Troops to Israel as Netanyahu Threatens Escalation with Iran


    This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Ex-State Dept. Official: Israel Is Starving Gaza Now. We Can’t Wait Another 30 Days to Take Action


    This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • “The Gaza Playbook”: Israel Brings Displacement, Death and Destruction to Lebanon


    This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Israel’s War on the World


    Photo credit: Muhammad Mahdi Karim, Wikimedia Commons

    Each new week brings new calamities for people in the countries neighboring Israel, as its leaders try to bomb their way to the promised land of an ever-expanding Greater Israel.

    In Gaza, Israel appears to be launching its “Generals’ Plan” to drive the most devastated and traumatized 2.2 million people in the world into the southern half of their open-air prison. Under this plan, Israel would hand the northern half over to greedy developers and settlers who, after decades of U.S. encouragement, have become a dominant force in Israeli politics and society. The redoubled slaughter of those who cannot move or refuse to move south has already begun.

    In Lebanon, millions are fleeing for their lives and thousands are being blown to pieces in a repeat of the first phase of the genocide in Gaza. For Israel’s leaders, every person killed or forced to flee and every demolished building in a neighboring country opens the way for future Israeli settlements. The people of Iran, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia ask themselves which of them will be next.

    Israel is not only attacking its neighbors. It is at war with the entire world. Israel is especially threatened when the governments of the world come together at the United Nations and in international courts to try to enforce the rule of international law, under which Israel is legally bound by the same rules that all countries have signed up to in the UN Charter and the Geneva Conventions.

    In July, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem since 1967 is illegal, and that it must withdraw its military forces and settlers from all those territories. In September, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution giving Israel one year to complete that withdrawal. If, as expected, Israel fails to comply, the UN Security Council or the General Assembly may take stronger measures, such as an international arms embargo, economic sanctions or even the use of force.

    Now, amid the escalating violence of Israel’s latest bombing and invasion of Lebanon, Israel is attacking the UNIFIL UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon, whose thankless job is to monitor and mitigate the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

    On October 10 and 11, Israeli forces fired on three UNIFIL positions in Lebanon. At least five peacekeepers were injured. UNIFIL also accused Israeli soldiers of deliberately firing at and disabling the monitoring cameras at its headquarters, before two Israeli tanks later drove through and destroyed its gates. On October 15, an Israeli tank fired at a UNIFIL watchtower in what it described as “direct and apparently deliberate fire on a UNIFIL position.” Deliberately targeting UN missions is a war crime.

    This is far from the first time the soldiers of UNIFIL have come under attack by Israel. Since UNIFIL took up its positions in southern Lebanon in 1978, Israel has killed blue-helmeted UN peacekeepers from Ireland, Norway, Nepal, France, Finland, Austria and China.

    The South Lebanon Army, Israel’s Christian militia proxy in Lebanon from 1984 to 2000, killed many more, and other Palestinian and Lebanese groups have also killed peacekeepers. Three hundred and thirty-seven UN peacekeepers from all over the world have given their lives trying to keep the peace in southern Lebanon, which is sovereign Lebanese territory and should not be subject to repeated invasions by Israel in the first place. UNIFIL has the worst death toll of any of the 52 peacekeeping missions conducted by the UN around the world since 1948.

    Fifty countries currently contribute to the 10,000-strong UNIFIL peacekeeping mission, anchored by battalions from France, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Italy, Nepal and Spain. All those governments have strongly and unanimously condemned Israel’s latest attacks, and insisted that “such actions must stop immediately and should be adequately investigated.”

    Israel’s assault on UN agencies is not confined to attacking its peacekeepers in Lebanon. The even more vulnerable, unarmed, civilian agency, UNRWA (UN Relief and Works Agency), is under even more vicious assault by Israel in Gaza. In the past year alone, Israel has killed a horrifying number of UNRWA workers, about 230, as it has bombed and fired at UNRWA schools, warehouses, aid convoys and UN personnel.

    UNRWA was created in 1949 by the UN General Assembly to provide relief to some 700,000 Palestinian refugees after the 1948 “Nakba,” or catastrophe. The Zionist militias that later became the Israeli army violently expelled over 700,000 Palestinians from their homes and homeland, ignoring the UN partition plan and seizing by force much of the land the UN plan had allocated to form a Palestinian state.

    When the UN recognized all that Zionist-occupied territory as the new state of Israel in 1949, Israel’s most aggressive and racist leaders concluded that they could get away with making and remaking their own borders by force, and that the world would not lift a finger to stop them. Emboldened by its growing military and diplomatic alliance with the United States, Israel has only expanded its territorial ambitions.

    Netanyahu now brazenly stands before the whole world and displays maps of a Greater Israel that includes all the land it illegally occupies, while Israelis openly talk of annexing parts of Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

    Dismantling UNRWA has been a long-standing Israeli goal. In 2017, Netanyahu accused the agency of inciting anti-Israeli sentiment. He blamed UNRWA for “perpetuating the Palestinian refugee problem” instead of solving it and called for it to be eliminated.

    After October 7, 2023, Israel accused 12 of UNRWA’s 13,000 staff of being involved in Hamas’s attack on Israel. UNRWA immediately suspended those workers, and many countries suspended their funding of UNRWA. Since a UN report found that Israeli authorities had not provided “any supporting evidence” to back up their allegations, every country that funds UNRWA has restored its funding, with the sole exception of the United States.

    Israel’s assault on the refugee agency has only continued. There are now three anti-UNRWA bills in the Israeli Knesset: one to ban the organization from operating in Israel; another to strip UNRWA’s staff of legal protections afforded to UN workers under Israeli law; and a third that would brand the agency as a terrorist organization. In addition, Israeli members of parliament are proposing legislation to confiscate UNRWA’s headquarters in Jerusalem and use the land for new settlements.

    UN Secretary General Guterres warned that, if these bills become law and UNRWA is unable to deliver aid to the people of Gaza, “it would be a catastrophe in what is already an unmitigated disaster.”

    Israel’s relationship with the UN and the rest of the world is at a breaking point. When Netanyahu addressed the General Assembly in New York in September, he called the UN a “swamp of antisemitic bile.” But the UN is not an alien body from another planet. It is simply the nations of the world coming together to try to solve our most serious common problems, including the endless crisis that Israel is causing for its neighbors and, increasingly, for the whole world.

    Now Israel wants to ban the secretary general of the UN from even entering the country. On October 1st, Israel invaded Lebanon, and Iran launched 180 missiles at Israel, in response to a whole series of Israeli attacks and assassinations. Secretary General Antonio Guterres put out a statement deploring the “broadening conflict in the Middle East,” but did not specifically mention Iran. Israel responded by declaring the UN Secretary General persona non grata in Israel, a new low in relations between Israel and UN officials.

    Over the years, the U.S. has partnered with Israel in its attacks on the UN, using its veto in the Security Council 40 times to obstruct the world’s efforts to force Israel to comply with international law.

    American obstruction offers no solution to this crisis. It can only fuel it, as the violence and chaos grows and spreads and the United States’ unconditional support for Israel gradually draws it into a more direct role in the conflict.

    The rest of the world is looking on in horror, and many world leaders are making sincere efforts to activate the collective mechanisms of the UN system. These mechanisms were built, with American leadership, after the Second World War ended in 1945, so that the world would “never again” be consumed by world war and genocide.

     A US arms embargo against Israel and an end to U.S. obstruction in the UN Security Council could tip the political balance of power in favor of the world’s collective efforts to resolve the crisis.

    The post Israel’s War on the World first appeared on Dissident Voice.


    This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J.S. Davies.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.