New polling finds that opposition to sending more military aid to Israel has hit another record high among U.S. voters, further widening the gap between U.S. policy and American opinion as Israel’s genocide continues without an end in sight. In a poll released Wednesday, Quinnipiac found that 60 percent of voters now say they oppose sending more military assistance to Israel to aid in its…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
Killing from the sky has long offered the sort of detachment that warfare on the ground can’t match. Far from its victims, air power remains the height of modernity. And yet, as the monk Thomas Merton concluded in a poem, using the voice of a Nazi commandant, “Do not think yourself better because you burn up friends and enemies with long-range missiles without ever seeing what you have done.”…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
To the world where children are preparing to open their new books and start the new school year, going to school in safety, I write this story as a journalist accustomed to telling people’s stories, and as a father deprived of the most basic right of fatherhood: to see his five children walk to school in Gaza with peace of mind:
In Gaza, school is no longer a building with walls and doors, but has become a distant dream, haunted by a childhood threatened with loss.
As I write, I feel that the words are no longer just letters on paper, but tears falling on the page, as if I were writing a personal letter to the world: Take a moment from the luxury of your schools and give it to the children of Gaza, so that they may know the taste of hope, even if only for a day.
I am a journalist from Gaza. I have written a lot about people, about children who lost their schools and dreams in the turmoil of war, about young children who carried their torn notebooks under the rubble, and about eyes searching for a window of light in the darkness. I wrote about all of them, not realizing that I was also writing about my five children.
It was as if I had been writing a mirror of my pain all along, but I hid my children’s faces between the lines. When I look at them and remember their situation, I realize that every story I told about the children of Gaza was nothing but a chapter of our own story.
I dreamed of a distinguished educational future for them. I followed them year after year, waiting for the back-to-school season to prepare for them what they desired: new backpacks, colored pens, neat clothes, and small wishes floating innocently on their faces. But war took us by surprise, tearing their notebooks apart before their dreams were erased, and wasting two whole years of their childhood without education, without classes, without the school bell.
And now I search among them for remnants of that dream, but all that remains are memories of images: a smile with a new pen, or a small hand turning the pages of a book full of promises. Memory alone has become their school, and I alone have become the teacher who can only tell them stories instead of opening the doors of classrooms for them.
My eldest daughter, Dima (15), I was waiting for her to reach high school, to see her pave her way to university so I could be proud of her like any father in the world. But instead of accompanying her to the classroom, today I see her sitting in a displacement tent, trying to hide her tears as she whispers: “Dad… will I be able to continue my studies?”
I hear her question echoing inside me at night like an absent school bell. I try to smile and tell her, “You will continue,” but my voice betrays me. How can I reassure her when all I have is my pen, while all the roads to school are blocked by rubble?
As for Ibada (13 years old), I saw him as the next support. Every year, he amazed me with his love of learning and his early maturity, as if he were an extension of my heart and mind. Today, he stands before me with confused eyes, asking about his lost books, his school that has been reduced to rubble, and his future that lies lost among the rubble of schools.
As I look at him, I feel that the war has not only stolen his books, but also his certainty about the future. His voice, which used to be full of enthusiasm, has become hoarse with waiting, as if he is growing up before his time, carrying the burdens of adults while still a child.
Salah (12) and Abdullah (10) were the mirror of childhood in my home. Their laughter on the way to school and their running on the way back gave me the feeling that life was still possible despite the war. Today, that innocence has been stolen from them, and they play in the corridors of displacement instead of schoolyards.
Sometimes I see them making pens out of stones and a small blackboard out of dirt, writing their names on it and then quickly erasing them, as if they are trying to tell the world: “When the school doors are closed, playing becomes a lesson, and dreams become a pen and a blackboard.”
What breaks my heart the most is my little girl, Lina (6 years old). She has never been to school, but today she is registered on paper as a second-grade student. She grows up year after year, but she still doesn’t know what a school desk looks like, or what a clean book untouched by war looks like. This alone is enough to leave a father like me in a state of fatal helplessness: how can I write about the children of Gaza when my own child has never been to school?
When I look at her, I feel that her entire childhood is being silently assassinated. She is growing up outside of school, like a flower without water, and her pain alone is enough to fill a thousand news reports. But all I can do is carry her silence and broadcast it to the world.
Today, my biggest dream as a father and husband is for my children to return to school. I don’t dream of luxury or a distant future, just to see them carrying their notebooks and backpacks, sitting among their peers, and hearing the bell ring on a normal day instead of sirens.
I dream a dream that seems trivial in the eyes of others: to wake up early to accompany my children to school, to see them running ahead of me with quick steps, arriving a little late for the bell, and returning with beautiful mischief. It is a simple dream, but for me it is a whole life.
I have written a lot about the stories of Gaza’s children, but my story with my five children remains the most painful. In this war, education is no longer a right, but a dream, a dream that swings between the rubble of schools and the sound of planes, a small dream that is worth the whole world.
So, world, take a moment from your children’s laughter and give it to our children, so that their notebooks may be filled with letters again, not dust. In Gaza, education is no longer just a right, it is a whole life. A life we want for our children, and a dream we hope you will wake up with us to achieve.
Is there anyone who will answer?
Featured image and additional images supplied
By Alaa Shamali
This post was originally published on Canary.
If hallmarks of economic decline are everywhere apparent, it is Washington’s shameless participation in human genocide that has awakened many an American from their dogmatic slumbers. The United States has been a partner in human slaughter in Gaza, arming and funding, providing intelligence to and political cover for Zionist forces in Israel in their fanatical quest to establish a Greater Israel.
This blatant moral failing is the surest sign yet that the liberal West has failed. Liberalism was once a symbol of progress, bourgeoisie and workers and rural peasants banding together to overthrow feudalism and the divine right of kings.
Now it lists in the winds of modernity, an ethical cipher that maintains—like the artificial distortions of Mannerist art—a rhetorical posture of piety. Conservatives declare themselves part of an unfathomable messianic mission to establish mythical free markets and Christian rule, while liberal politicians repeat their multicultural platitudes in data-poor and poorly constructed sophistry that nobody believes.
Both—through their Republican and Democrat political wings—refuse to acknowledge their culpability, reflecting the absolute arrogance that accrues to those too long in power.
We Knew All Along
As the world comes awake to the sickening tango of death being tapped out on the rooftops of Gaza, statements like the following float through the media sphere, unaddressed and unpunished by the world’s leading states:
Evidently calling for collective punishment outlawed by the Geneva Conventions, Israel’s President Isaac Herzog said, “It’s an entire nation that is out there that is responsible.”
Deputy Speaker of the Knesset Nissim Vaturi said Israel needs to “erase Gaza”
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich transparently disguising ethnic cleansing as “the right humanitarian option”
Revital Gottlieb of the Israeli Knesset said, “All of Gaza’s infrastructures must be flattened…We need to stop talking about ‘humanitarian aid’.”
Another member of the Knesset, Nissim Vaturi, added, “Burn Gaza now. No more excuses.”
The New York Times reported that American leaders understood that mass civilian casualties were acceptable to Israeli leadership
Israeli lawmaker Moshe Saada justified widespread calls to “destroy Gaza”
Western corporate media has provided extensive cover for Israel’s criminal campaign, often by insisting everyone on air first answer the slighting question, “Do you condemn Hamas?”, as if this is the moral bedrock on which any opinion on Gaza must establish itself. Yet the corporate media deliberately hides the fact that under the Geneva Conventions, an occupied people have every right to resist, including employing violent means. None of the international rulings from 1967 onward are included in discussions that are ahistorical at best, farcical at worst. Gore Vidal was prescient when he called America the United States of Amnesia.
The feigned outrage and disgust by American pundits over the initial Hamas attack, liberal and conservative alike, only illustrates by contrast the utter callousness and emptiness of the public discourse. Seventy five years of oppression, racism, and bloodshed against Palestinians produced no such horror among the corporate intelligentsia.
And as author Chris Hedges rightly pointed out, “How can you trap 2.3 million people in Gaza, half of whom are unemployed, in one of the most densely populated spots on the planet for 16 years, reduce the lives of its residents, half of whom are children, to a subsistence level, deprive them of basic medical supplies, food, water and electricity, use attack aircraft, artillery, mechanized units, missiles, naval guns and infantry units to randomly slaughter unarmed civilians and not expect a violent response?”
Trump’s Vulgar Sycophancy
Though not the first to support the present ethnic cleansing, President Trump has embraced the Israeli mission with an enthusiasm that betrays his utter subjugation to those that would keep him in power, notably AIPAC. His love for Israel seems to be the means by which he has made a measure of peace with the National Security State, which wanted him imprisoned in his first term for his friendliness with Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un.
Now his administration has ratcheted up the vulgarity of American complicity in the Gaza genocide. For instance, he has:
Tied state aid to each state’s stance on Israel. This is a despicable policy that hitches domestic support to support for a foreign power, which no American citizen should be compelled to provide
Lifted a pause on 2,000-lb bombs, and a couple of ‘human rights’-linked oversight procedures, that had been put in place by the Biden administration as part of its feckless PR campaign to pretend to oppose the slaughter
Approved $7B in munitions and $3B in “emergency” bombs in February 2025 alone
Continues the Memorandum of Understanding from the Obama era under which the United States finances weapons procurement by Israel from U.S. defense firms
Congressional Reporting Service (CRS) notes enhanced military intelligence cooperation with Israel
Vetoed another UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate unconditional ceasefire
Conducted “limited” strikes on Yemen Houthis, which are pro-Palestinian allies of Iran
Has floated various real-estate fantasies about turning Gaza into another riviera once all the unwanted Arabs are removed, while children are trampled by tanks, in a kind of breathtaking display of utter callousness
And much else, though he’s only been in office 8 months
Biden’s Liberal Narcissism
Setting aside the current administration, lest we slip into the fanaticism of the liberal, the more important point to remember is that Democrats are also morally bankrupt, if not as crass, and if marginally better in social uplift statistics. Because if we do not recognize this, the electoral pendulum that swings between corrupt neoliberal capitalist Democrat and corrupt neoliberal capitalist Republican will continue, while the majority suffer economic debasement at home and slaughter abroad.
The conservative critique that liberals prefer virtue signaling to principle is correct. It has been ever since Bill Clinton demonstrated that the New Democrats could win corporate money, co-opt business-friendly Republican policies, and sell them with the rhetoric of social empathy with the plight of the poor and disenfranchised. Coupled with a vigorous identity politics and companion campaign of discrimination against privileged and majority ethnic groups, it was a winning electoral strategy.
Clinton’s triangulation model proved an irresistible rationale for members of the Professional Managerial Class (PMC), who claimed to hope to ‘do well by doing good.’ In the end, doing well meant maintaining their class privileges and material advantages while looking askance as their party practiced counterrevolutionary imperialism abroad, and instead hyping token reform at home.
Where has this left the liberal class? With the following:
The Biden administration was Israel’s most important military, financial, and political backer from the beginning of the genocide to the end of his term in office. We should set aside anonymously-sourced reports of Biden’s anger with Bibi and attend to the facts.
Aside from $3.8B in annual military aid, the Democrats sent emergency arms shipments, and provided additional financial and political support, including:
Military Supplies:
14,000 tank shells in an October 2023 shipment
More than 2,000 2,000-pound bombs, great for mass casualty attacks
15,000 bombs and 57,000 artillery shells in a December 2023 shipment, including bunker busters
F-35 fighter jet parts and $1B in new arms shipments approval in March 2024, the second time Biden used the Arms Export Control Act to bypass pesky Congress to arm the genocidaires
Ongoing intelligence sharing, including satellite imagery and location tracking
Military advisors dispatched by the Pentagon to assist in Israeli attacks
Deployed U.S. warships to block regional intervention
Launched Operation Prosperity Guardian to protect Israeli shipping
The Costs of War Project at Brown University, the United States spent nearly $18B in military aid to Israel in a single year
In August 2024, Biden approved a $20B arms shipment to Israel
Political Cover:
Vetoed three UN Security Council Resolutions calling for a ceasefire, and abstained from a fourth despite a death toll of some 30,000
Attacked the ICJ finding on Gaza as meritless and threatened sanctions on ICC officials
Financial Support:
Continued ongoing $3.8B annual military support deal, inked by the Obama administration, with no stoppage or even threat of stoppage
Added $14.5B in a Supplemental Aid Package in April 2024
Cut funding to UNRWA over unproven Israeli claims, devastating aid delivery. This means that the administration was blocking aid to Gaza while arming Israel
All of this despite a death toll exceeding 30,000 people (likely far higher), the vast majority of which were women and children. And despite famine. And despite hundreds of reported potential violations of international law (rendering bootless the token human-rights verifications attached to some aid).
And despite two leading Israeli rights organizations—B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel—both released reports declaring Israel’s conduct in the war on Palestinians constitutes genocide.
(Even Grok wasn’t having it: “Israel’s actions in Gaza align with genocide indicators per ICJ’s plausible ruling, the UN’s “Anatomy of a Genocide” report, and Amnesty’s findings on intentional mass killings. US funding enables this horror—stop the slaughter.”)
Coda to a Catastrophe
Whatever the particular violent exploitation, there is bipartisan consensus. Whether participating in genocide in Gaza; sparking a bloody proxy war against nuclear-powered Russia in Ukraine; facilitating the wholesale destruction of Syria and whitewashing its terrorist leaders; aggressively working to disarm Iran while arming Israel; encircling China with military force; sanctioning every country that pursues a different model of economic development than Washington’s hegemonic system; or strip-mining Argentina through the IMF with the help of comprador elite. In any and every case, liberals and conservatives will always side with violent fascist imperialism over peaceful socialist mutualism because fascism doesn’t threaten capitalist profits. Rather it reinforces and amplifies them. Historical examples abound.
Is there a difference, then, between the two electoral fronts for corporate power? Let’s ask Hedges, “Of course, there’s a difference. It’s how you want corporate fascism delivered to you. Do you want it delivered by a Princeton educated, Goldman Sachs criminal or do you want it delivered by racist, nativist, Christian fascist?”
A quote from Noam Chomsky should suffice to close this chat: “I don’t know what word in the English language—I can’t find one—applies to people who are willing to sacrifice the literal existence of organized human life so they can put a few more dollars into highly stuffed pockets. The word ‘evil’ doesn’t even begin to approach it.”
The post America’s Bipartisan Shame first appeared on Dissident Voice.This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.
“The task is… not so much to see what no one has yet seen; but to think what nobody has yet thought, about that which everybody sees.” – Erwin Schrodinger
His TED Talk on how to think “against” war and for “peace” is an elevator speech worth listening to:
But you get 60 minutes with David and Paul on Paul’s Finding Fringe: Voices from the Edge. Oct. 8, but here NOW.
Ahh, the War College: [The National War College mission is to educate joint, interagency, and international leaders and warfighters by conducting a senior-level course of study in national security strategy, preparing graduates to function at the highest levels of strategic leadership in a complex, competitive, and rapidly evolving strategic environment.]
Of course, every college, university and junior college with an ROTC program, any school with a drone tech department, and now ALL tech departments are WAR Colleges.
Note:
There are ROTC programs available at over 1,700 colleges and universities across the United States. The programs are offered through the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Space Force.
The breakdown of ROTC programs by military branch is as follows:
The number of programs is greater than the number of host universities due to “crosstown” agreements that allow students from nearby campuses to participate in a host university’s ROTC unit.
Anti-War Colleges? Good luck finding one.
51 Peacebuilding Think Tanks and Peace Research Groups
David and I talked about his radio (half-hour) show, Talk World Radio
Go there and look at the guests he’s had on since 2012.
Irony of ironies, David had Medea Benjamin on, and they talked on that very first show about the little bitsy drone:
That was more than 13 years ago, and now, drones? On fucking steroids.
Will humans soon be entirely “out of the loop” for certain U.S. military actions in remote parts of the world? Battles Beyond the Horizon, a documentary by two journalism faculty members, poses this question and explores technology, AI and the future of war.
Reynolds School of Journalism Associate Dean and Professor Kari Barber directed the film alongside producer, cinematographer and journalism senior lecturer Nico Colombant.
Battles Beyond the Horizon is set mostly in the Nevada desert at Creech Air Force Base, about 45 miles outside of Las Vegas. The base is used for training and operation of daily overseas operations of remotely piloted drone aircraft systems with missions across the globe.
Yeah, quite a long way, baby:
Monsters. Blithely discussing the bug splat and triple taps of the hired guns, drone pilots:
Subject matter expertise was provided by Dr Lindsay Clark, Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Sussex, Major Philippe from the French Air Force currently serving in SHAPE’s Joint Targeting Branch and Mr Ross McKenzie, former Royal Air Force Wing Commander and current Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Officer at NATO’s Defence Investment Division.
Dr. Clark opened the session by sharing her research on the gendered aspects of drone usage and associated discourses. Her research, informed by former US, British, and Australian drone crews, illustrates the implicit gender categorisation in conflict zones. Terms such as “military-aged males” are often used for potential combatants, while “women and children” are assumed to be civilians, influencing targeting decisions and increasing the risk of misidentifying threats. She highlighted that this ingrained assumption underscores a broader thought process affecting how entire campaigns are constructed and how civilian casualties are perceived.
Dr. Clark examined the gendered language around drone warfare, explaining that drone pilots and crews are often viewed differently than fighter pilots. For instance, references to a “PlayStation mentality” or the idea that drone warfare lacks the physical risks of traditional combat subtly diminish the heroism and dedication of drone operators. This language casts drone warfare as “less masculine” and trivialises the emotional toll on operators. Furthermore, she noted that female drone operators are often portrayed as emotionally unstable, a depiction not commonly attributed to their male counterparts. This gendered expectation not only affects perceptions but also impacts the mental health and retention of personnel, as they may feel less inclined to seek psychological support due to a fear of appearing weak.
Next, Maj. Philippe outlined the technical complexities of drone targeting, emphasising that the term “drone” is overly simplistic. These remotely piloted systems can operate at various altitudes and drop munitions similar to fighter aircraft. He outlined processes such as Positive Identification (PID), Rules of Engagement (ROE) and Collateral Damage Estimation (CDE), each designed to minimise harm to civilians. Four guiding principles – distinction, proportionality, military necessity and humanity – help assess whether a strike is justifiable. In this framework, “collateral damage” is considered legally permissible if it is not excessive in relation to military objectives.
Pattern-of-life analysis, a critical tool used by remotely piloted systems, examine a target’s environment and behaviours to prevent misinterpretations that might lead to unnecessary casualties. However, Maj. Philippe noted that the risk of civilian harm remains, especially when women and children are deliberately placed in harm’s way as a tactic of deception. Common factors leading to targeting errors include cultural misunderstandings, poor analysis, psychological biases and behaviour misinterpretation, making it essential to integrate diverse perspectives, including gender, in the decision-making process.
Major Philippe noted that targeting decisions are traditionally made by the Commander and Legal Advisor (LEGAD), but now often include input from a Political Advisor (POLAD) and Gender Advisor (GENAD). GENADs play an increasingly significant role in targeting boards, contributing insights that can help assess the broader effects of military actions on men, women, boys and girls. This expansion of viewpoints helps commanders consider potential secondary effects, such as the impact of disrupted water supplies or other basic resources on vulnerable groups.
Mr McKenzie challenged the media’s use of the term “drone” which he argued implies an autonomous robot, obscuring the fact that a team of humans is operating the system. He noted that the language choice can deflect accountability, as public perception often associates automation with impersonal, robotic decision-making rather than a crew’s calculated judgment. He instead suggested the use of terms like ‘Unmanned Aircraft System’ or ‘Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems’.
This human aspect introduces psychological challenges. Mr McKenzie highlighted that pilots and analysts often work long, intense shifts followed by an abrupt transition to their civilian lives at home, a pattern that can lead to emotional detachment. This lifestyle imposes a unique psychological toll.
Another area of concern Mr. McKenzie raised is the rise of ‘swarming’ technology, where multiple drones operate together autonomously. These true ‘swarms’ could change combat drastically, allowing for complex collaborative tactics. He suggested that while many Nations prioritise keeping humans “on the loop” in decision-making, the potential shift toward entirely autonomous combat poses ethical questions and gender considerations that should inform policy as technology evolves.
Looking ahead, NATO’s policy indicates that within a decade, human pilots may no longer fly fighter planes. As drone technology advances, so too must the ethical frameworks and societal perceptions that govern its use. The perspectives shared by Dr. Clark, Maj. Philippe, and Mr. McKenzie underscore the urgent need to examine the gendered dimensions of drone warfare. Integrating gender perspectives into both operational planning and public discourse can protect personnel and help them make more informed decisions that recognise the full spectrum of impacts on combatants and civilians.
All fucking smiles?
Yemen had to set up a counseling center to help children deal with the psychological trauma of U.S. drone attacks, a Yemeni official told the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child this week.
Clinical and forensic psychologist Dr. Peter Schaapveld has previously explained how children in the impoverished country are “traumatized and re-traumatized by drones,” and described one young girl whose “dreams are of dead people, planes and people running around scared.”
Kat Craig, Legal Director of UK-based human rights group Reprieve, stated that Yemeni “President Hadi’s agreements with the US are trumping Yemen’s responsibility to protect its children. Instead of allowing the U.S. to bomb his country to pieces and then setting up a recovery center, President Hadi should listen to his Parliament and stop the drone strikes.”
In December, the Yemeni Parliament called for an end to U.S. drone strikes on the country following a strike that targeted a wedding party and killed a dozen people. Evidence gathered by Reprieve has forced the administration to investigate the strike.
2014 has brought a continuation of U.S. drone strikes on Yemen, with a Yemeni farmer the being the first known civilian casualty on Wednesday.
Baraa Shiban, Reprieve’s Yemen project co-ordinator, wrote in an op-ed this week:
Our President may reassure the U.S. of his support for drone strikes, but he does so in complete contradiction to the Yemeni people’s wishes. This year, two of Yemen’s greatest democratic institutions made this clear. Yemen’s National Dialogue Conference — praised by Obama as a “historic” institution — and the Yemeni Parliament have both voted overwhelmingly to ban the use of drones.
For a country so often divided, this unanimity from Yemen’s key democratic bodies shows the strength of public opinion against drones. But the people’s cries have been met only with more missiles raining down from the skies above. How can we in Yemen build our fledgling democracy when our collective will is ignored by Western democracy’s most powerful proponent?
I didn’t get to talk about much of David’s background, growing up back east, even going to school with Ollie North’s daughter. He’s been asked “how did you become a peace activist” a hundred times. You can go read that here:
David Swanson is an author, activist, journalist, and radio host. He is executive director of World BEYOND War and campaign coordinator of RootsAction.org. Swanson’s books include War Is A Lie and When the World Outlawed War. He blogs at DavidSwanson.org and hosts Talk World Radio.
On November 10, 2024, Swanson was awarded the Real Nobel Peace Prize by the Lay Down Your Arms Foundation in Oslo, Norway. Swanson was awarded the 2018 Peace Prize by the U.S. Peace Memorial Foundation. He was also awarded a Beacon of Peace Award by the Eisenhower Chapter of Veterans For Peace in 2011, and the Dorothy Eldridge Peacemaker Award by New Jersey Peace Action in 2022, and a Global Peace Leadership & Excellence Award in 2024.
Swanson is on the advisory boards of: Nobel Peace Prize Watch, Veterans For Peace, Assange Defense, BPUR, Military Families Speak Out, Fields of Peace, and Peace in Ukraine Coalition. He is an Associate of the Transnational Foundation, and a Patron of Platform for Peace and Humanity. He is on the Consultative Council of the SHAPE Project. He is on the International Coordinating Committee of No to War – No to NATO. He is on the Steering Group of Warheads to Windmills.
Here, a long-long look at his memoiric life:
The short version of this is: For some reason I don’t like to accept lies and nonsense from figures of authority, and that leaves me seeing war as the worst thing around.
I’ve been asked a number of times to write chapters for books on “how I became a peace activist.” In some cases, I’ve just apologized and said I couldn’t. For one book called Why Peace, edited by Marc Guttman, I wrote a very short chapter called “Why Am I a Peace Activist? Why Aren’t You?” My point was basically to express my outrage that one would have to explain working to end the worst thing in the world, while millions of people not working to end it need offer no explanation for their reprehensible behavior.
Books books books:
We coursed through many topics tied to economic sanctions being worse in terms of “body counts” than kinetic war.
Today, economic sanctions are generally regarded as an alternative to war. But for most people in the interwar period, the economic weapon was the very essence of total war. The initial intention behind creating the economic weapon was not to use it–economic sanctions were intended to be a form of deterrence. In this excerpt from The Economic Weapon: The Rise of Sanctions as a Tool of Modern War, Nicholas Mulder looks at the history of the use of economic sanctions in wartime and elaborates on their effectiveness and consequences.
Can war be banished from the earth? Throughout modern history, world peace has been a powerful ideal. It has also been one of the most elusive. Each major war produced its share of cynics as well as visionaries. Pessimists saw war as an inescapable part of the human condition. Optimists viewed growing wealth, expanding self-government, and advancing technology as drivers of slow but steady moral progress. This veering between hope and desolation took on a new urgency after the unprecedented destruction of World War I. The victors created a new international organization, the League of Nations, which promised to unite the world’s states and resolve disputes through negotiation. The collapse of the global political and economic order in the 1930s and the outbreak of a second world war have made it easy to dismiss the League as a utopian enterprise. Many at the time and since concluded that the peace treaties were fatally flawed and that the new international institution was too weak to preserve stability. Their view, still widespread today, is that the League lacked the means to bring disturbers of peace to heel. But this was not the view of its founders, who believed they had equipped the organization with a new and powerful kind of coercive instrument for the modern world.
That instrument was sanctions, described in 1919 by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson as
“something more tremendous than war”: the threat was “an absolute isolation . . . that brings a nation to its senses just as suffocation removes from the individual all inclinations to fight . . . Apply this economic, peaceful, silent, deadly remedy and there will be no need for force. It is a terrible remedy. It does not cost a life outside of the nation boycotted, but it brings a pressure upon that nation which, in my judgment, no modern nation could resist.”
As a pacifist, David is consistent on why war against Israel would fail humanity, let alone Gazans, on a grand scale:
Here’s David:
But here’s the key question. What the bloody hell would I recommend instead? I would recommend two types of things, both difficult and with no guarantee of success, but with a significant chance of success. One type of thing is stuff that has not been tried yet. The other is vastly more of stuff that has been tried for years now. The war-as-last-resort crowd always rely on the notion that even a token effort, much less a major one, at something other than war makes war the only option. We’re about to hear, for example, that peace negotiations have been tried and failed for Ukraine, even as neither side proposed to ever compromise in the slightest and the neutral arbiter in the White House promised to keep the weapons flowing to one side. People have made heroic efforts for peace in Gaza. People are exhausted from all those efforts. But some of those efforts have worked and could be multiplied a-thousand-fold. Countries and companies have been forced to divest and to stop arming Israel, and more could be. Media outlets have been forced to convey bits of reality, and public opinion has swung dramatically. These facts do not make up a rosy, happy, hopeful picture. They’re sad little semi-wins for a team having a record-bad season. But they are what you can build on. If one dock can block shipments, all docks can. If one pundit can recognize a genocide years too late, all can. If one government can BDS Israel and its suppliers, all can. If a few aid ships can be sent, hundreds can. If some governments can commit to arresting Netanyahu, more can. Nobody’s proposing we give up on the climate struggle and join the people shooting guns at storms; and that struggle has been going a lot longer than this one.
But what hasn’t been tried yet? Of the thousands of tactics of nonviolent activism, most have of course not been tried. But the key tool especially relevant here is UNARMED civilian defense. Here is a leading expert proposing just that. Please read his proposal carefully. One minor point: he quotes Francesca Albanese at greater length than does the pro-militarism paper discussed above, which claims without evidence that she supports “military intervention.”
Has exactly what is needed here been done before with Unarmed Civilian Defense? No. But it has not yet been tried here either. War is NOT the last resort. Unarmed action builds on a stronger success record than armed “interventions” or armed “peacekeeping.” It also has the following interesting advantage over “military intervention.” The more we put into unarmed civilian defense, the more likely it is to succeed (right up to the extreme in which millions of people are involved and success is guaranteed), whereas the more we put into escalating the war with an “intervention,” the more likely the war is to do more damage (right up to the extreme of killing all life on Earth).
Anything countering the genocide and planned starvation and eco/scholastic/frat/culture/ cide of the Jewish State of Israel would be an act of war. They board sailboats with a few provisions in international waters.
But here’s the thought experiment:
Naval boats with a container ship or two just heading to Gaza FILLED with construction equipment, portable hospitals, drip irrigation food growing systems, medicines, and more.
An international force, and if a navy ship is used to escort the supplies, then so be it. Show via video that the cargo is peaceful means cargo, and alas, just head to Gaza.
We need a massive Dunkirk, but way more sophisticated and programmatic and LARGE and all encompassing:
Fuck Israel: Flood the shores of Gaza with AID and AIDES. Flood the shores of Gaza with a thousand ships!
While an exact, precise number is unavailable, maritime traffic analyses suggest over 3,000 vessels of various types are typically in the Mediterranean Sea at any given time. The Mediterranean is a very busy waterway, handling a significant portion of global shipping, but the exact total fluctuates daily and includes commercial cargo ships, ferries, fishing vessels, and yachts.
Key factors and data points:
Make this a peaceful priority, then, World Without War:
Some 700 tons of the aid is from Cyprus, purchased with money donated by the United Arab Emirates to the so-called Amalthea Fund, set up last year for donors to help with seaborne aid. The rest comes from Italy, the Maltese government, a Catholic religious order in Malta and the Kuwaiti nongovernmental organization Al Salam Association.
REPARATIONS!
Resistitution:
This post is the conclusion of a three-part series: What Will Gaza Become After Genocide? Using the Counterfactual Method to Evaluate Three Post-Genocidal Futures. You may access Part 1 here, where I argued that the genocide Israel is perpetrating against the Palestinians is central to the zionist ethos which, like other settler-colonial movements, seeks to remove the native from coveted lands. In the second part, available here, I explore a scenario where Europe actually complies with international law. As many have cautioned, even European legal compliance would leave Palestinians at risk, where rights are affirmed without enforcement, and violations recognised but not remedied. I turn now to a Palestinian Freedom Dream.
What Will Gaza Become After Genocide? Restitution, Reparations, and Renewal (Part 3)
By August 2025, the world was in agony as Israel engineered the starvation of the people of Gaza, images of backbones and protruding ribs breaking hearts and exposing zionism’s final descent into barbarism. UN agencies confirmed that Gaza faced devastating food scarcity, having breached two of three famine thresholds. Hundreds of thousands of children faced acute malnutrition, their bodies withering, waiting in queues under the scorching sun for hours for a single meal, only to be gunned down by Israeli soldiers posing as humanitarians. At the same time, settlers in the West Bank capitalised on the chaos, burning orchards and poisoning wells, seeking to dismantle Palestinian agriculture destroying, among others, Hebron’s only seed bank. By the end of the year, the grotesque irony was inescapable to everyone, even liberals: the heirs of the people starved in German concentration camps were replicating Nazi tactics with remarkable determination. It was this obscenity—infants dying of thirst and parents boiling weeds to survive—that finally wrecked the myth of zionism as a moral project, with any claims to virtue crushed under the rubble of Gaza’s bombed hospitals, schools, bakeries, and bodies. It was in this breaking moment that two figures plotted an exit.
It began with a balled-up tissue, casually tossed into a prison cell. Marwan Barghouti, entering his third decade in captivity, unfolded the note to find a plea from Ehud Olmert, Israel’s former prime minister, then a political outcast: “The occupation has poisoned us both. Let us imagine its end.” Olmert, once unapologetic about settlements, led a clandestine coalition of dissidents—historians like Omer Bartov, legal scholactivists like Neve Gordon, and even former Shin Bet agents who’d grown disgusted of their own shadows. Their message was simple: zionism had reached its natural conclusion—a death cult devouring its own. As did others, Olmert recognised that two-state solution was dead and buried. Even the West’s belated push for Palestinian statehood could not resuscitate it; the only viable path that remained was a single state, built on return, restitution, and cohabitation.
Barghouti was rightly sceptical, wondering if this was another ploy, a factional struggle between fascist zionism and (il)liberal zionism. Perhaps the only thing ringing louder than his alarm bells was the requiem playing in the background, heralding the death of Palestine’s present and its future. He decided to take a chance, responding cautiously but hopefully.
What followed were months of encrypted messages, covert meetings in Cape Town and Beijing, and a series of trade offs, each more painful than the last. In August 2026, news of the secret talks broke, striking Palestinian and Israeli societies—and much of the world—like a sledgehammer. Eager for such a moment, a global solidarity movement erupted like wildfire: BDS escalated to full scale embargoes; ports turned away Israeli ships (some dock workers sunk them); Hollywood stars abandoned Marvel. Karim Khan, cleared of all suspicion earlier that year, immediately requested arrest warrants for most of Netanyahu’s cabinet (the investigations into the support offered by Starmer, Macron, and von der Leyen are ongoing). Zionism had become so addicted to land theft that it could no longer hide behind propaganda, swiftly collapsing under the weight of disgrace and shame brought about by the Great Famine of 2025. The number of Israeli deserters multiplied as they sought refuge from accountability for scores of dead children (alas for them, the world would not overlook the brutalities inflicted and many dual citizens ended up in national prisons). In Gaza, ceasefires held not because of diplomacy, but because the Americans, alone, could no longer sustain the armament supply chains.
On the day the walls fell, it was not governments but grandmothers who led the way. Palestinian elders crossed checkpoints clutching rusted keys and deeds from 1948, while Israeli activists used construction cranes—once tools of settlement—to dismantle the wall. Domestic support for the settlers, already on life support, collapsed once they began shooting fellow Israelis. In Haifa and Jaffa, families returned to homes now occupied by third-generation Israelis; some settlers fled to Canada and Australia, much as South Africans did when that state was liberated from their version ethno-chauvinism. Others stayed, forced to vacate the stolen homes they previously claimed as their own. [Some years later, Daniella Weiss was found hiding in a basement in London, and was swiftly extradited to Palestine to stand trial for her instigation of that final massacre.] The Knesset was dissolved, substituted by a transitional council comprised of Palestinians from the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem, and several Israeli anti-zionists as well (returning Palestinians would be eligible for office once they completed their naturalisation process). Barghouti and Olmert reached a compromise with Meshal: Hamas would disarm in exchange for the proscription of Otzma Yehudit, Hatzionut Hadatit, and Noam and the handover of Ben-Gvir, Smotrich, and Moaz to the Hague where they would join Netanyahu and Gallant to stand trial for their reign of terror.
The prisoners came next. Raised to the sound of cell doors and fluorescent hum, thousands emerged from Israeli jails, blinking at the sun, their anxiety broken by embraces and endless unspent love. Flags were fleeting, as were anthems and chants—instead, the air was filled with voices and screams and laughter as they discovered one another, some for the first time. Zionism’s greatest fear had been realised: Palestinians survived while zionism was on its last leg.
In al Quds, Palestinian and Jewish youth scrubbed racist graffiti from the Old City walls; in Gaza, fishermen launched boats unchained by naval blockades. The new parliament, when it convened, did not debate “peace” but land rights. Land commissions documented thefts dating back to 1948; reparations were paid in stolen orchards and the rebuilding of demolished villages. The two-state solution was archived as a footnote, replaced by a single democracy stretching from the river to the sea—not as a slogan, but a legal fact. Israeli settlers, at least those who stayed, were granted amnesty if they surrendered their rifles, testified about the crimes they committed (murder, rape, and famine were excluded), and provided adequate reparations. Those who did, now queued for Palestinian passports, their birthright of supremacy dissolved like the passbooks of apartheid South Africa.
Zionism died as all ethno-chauvinist projects die—when the people marked for elimination hold on, when the ideology blushes before it own propaganda, and when the world runs out of excuses to look away. When Barghouti and Olmert signed the new constitution, the latter quoted a Hebrew prophet: “You have been told what is good: to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly.” Barghouti, for his part, offered a Shona proverb: “The ax forgets; the tree remembers.” Each phrase hung in the air, epitaphs for dead ideologies and its victims, a dual reminder that hierarchies are always on borrowed time.
Today, the checkpoints have been reconstituted as museums, memorials for those who did not see Palestine’s liberation. Settlements, no longer fearsome, have been renamed in honour of martyrs and are now being desegregated. While records of the famine still shock the soul, it is now taught not only as a human tragedy but as both reckoning and turning point. Zionism, you might say, learned a key lesson before its demise: no people can be caged forever.
*****
Listen to David and Me as we course through some sticky questions of peace and peace activism, sanctions, and the limits of war but the power of the war lords, WALL Street, City of London, Brussels and Switzerland and the Emerites.
SCALE this up for 2 million in Gaza and Palestine.
In 2011 a documentary called Remote Area Medical followed Remote Area Medical — RAM® to a clinic in Bristol, Tennessee. The documentary focuses on RAM’s patients and what services they need from the RAM Clinic. This award-winning documentary is now streaming for FREE on Tubi.
[ https://tubitv.com/movies/377076/remote-area-medical?start=true ]
The documentary follows many patients on their treatment journey as they attend the clinic. Starting in the patient parking lot, the documentary crew talks to patients that have been sleeping in their cars for days for the opportunity to be seen by medical professionals and receive care for free. Many of these patients brought food and provisions to allow them to stay in the parking lot until the clinic opened at 6 A.M. on Friday morning. They chose to stay in the parking lot to guarantee their place in line because RAM Clinics are first-come, first-served until the clinic reaches capacity.
The cost of healthcare is debilitating for many, and they are forced to go without necessary medical, dental, and vision care. In the documentary patients discuss the difficulties affording the care they need because they do not have health insurance or if they do have insurance, they cannot afford the insurance’s co-pay.
“The thing that weighs on me the most is, we have people in desperate need within our borders. Remote areas and medicine? We don’t have to go too remote,” said one RAM Volunteer.
One older patient said to one of RAM’s volunteer providers that he had not been to a doctor since he was a teenager; this patient did not know that he had been experiencing high blood pressure. Others had not gotten a new pair of glasses in as many as seven years, and their inability to see was impacting their ability to work.
The patient stories in the documentary show how prevalent the need for free healthcare is throughout the country. No matter where RAM goes in the U.S., we find patients in need of our services. The clinic in Bristol, Tennessee served more than 2,000 patients, providing more than $606,000 worth of free care in three days.
“These patients are real. Their needs are real. It’s a reminder of the people in America who have no access to the system,” a RAM Volunteer said.
The documentary also shows the emotional connections that are often formed between the patients and the healthcare professionals at RAM Clinics. One dentist shared that seeing patients crying from the pain relief of having an abscessed tooth removed made her cry as well. For her and many others, it’s hard to hold back tears while witnessing patients finally receive the desperately needed dental care they have gone without. Their relief and gratitude inspire volunteers to return time and again.
This documentary covers a RAM Clinic from waiting in the parking lot to taking down tents and loading them back into the trucks, and nearly everything in between. For a more in-depth look into a RAM Clinic and the impact it has on people’s lives, click here to stream Remote Area Medical for free.
Since the documentary aired RAM has been able to help thousands more patients — read Max’s story to see how RAM Volunteers and community members came together to help a high school student in need.
This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.
The father-in-law of the UK’s independent reviewer of terrorism legislation has personal ties to Israel. Jonathan Hall is responsible for assessing whether groups like Palestine Action qualify as terrorist organisations. On Saturday, Hall wrote for the Observer, which defended the decision to proscribe Palestine Action.
This is despite leaked evidence which showed government intelligence revealing it had no grounds to proscribe Palestine Action.
Another example of how UK politics has been corrupted in the interests of a foreign state. The proscription of Palestine Action was a deeply partisan political act @josephpowell https://t.co/wLZ07EkCaK
— Chris Somes-Charlton
(@SomesCharlton) August 25, 2025
But Craig Murray, independent journalist and former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan, recently revealed that Jonathan Hall’s father-in-law is Lord Dyson. He is a patron of UK Lawyers for Israel.
Jonathan Hall KC, the UK’s so-called “Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation”, was on the cttee that approved Palestine Action proscription.
His father in law is Patron of UK Lawyers for Israel.
Hall has visited Israeli “counter-terrorism” bodies, spends family holidays… pic.twitter.com/5HnQH6jQBG
— Craig Murray (@CraigMurrayOrg) August 24, 2025
Terrorism chief exposed for links to Israel
Jonathan Hall, the UK’s Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation—whose role includes assessing whether groups like Palestine Action qualify as terrorist organisations—has personal ties to Israel: his father-in-law, Lord Dyson, is… pic.twitter.com/QU8g82Cr7m
— MintPress News (@MintPressNews) August 27, 2025
This raises questions about the true ‘independence’ of the UK’s independent reviewer of terrorism Jonathan Hall.
Does @terrorwatchdog Jonathan Hall KC have clear family ties to Lawyers for Israel? That would make him very much NOT independent, wouldn’t it? https://t.co/CESRdO09KP
— RedSocks
(@RedSock44420380) August 28, 2025
So called independent reviewer actually a lobbyist for #Israel
No more independent than @YvetteCooperMP @UKLabour deep in #Israeli pockets
Oppose proscription of PalAction
Support Action for #Palestine
—
Roger Heywood
Human rights group CAGE has described UK Lawyers for Israel as “Apartheid apologist”. Recently, they caused outrage when their CEO criticised medical experts for not agreeing that Israel’s food blockage was reducing Palestinian obesity.
UKLFI ?
UK Lawyers for Israel have said the ‘War in Gaza’
will help reduce obesity in Children from Palestine
UKLFI have attacked Amnesty Int. for exposing the truth
UKLFI have attacked ‘Medical Aid For Palestine’
UKLFI have attacked NHS hospital staff for showing Gaza support— DrBroncanuus (@DrBroncanuus) August 27, 2025
The group also intimidated Worcester City Council to remove a pro-Palestine mural, which the artist created to honour Palestinian journalists.
They also pressured Chelsea and Westminster hospital into removing artwork created by children from Gaza, because it was “offensive”.
Did UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) approve the art? pic.twitter.com/hcMYxvdBA9
— BeSmart (@smartthumb) August 28, 2025
The Solicitors Regulation Authority received several complaints about UKLFI for alleged “vexatious and baseless” legal threats to silence support for Palestine.
Shocking but not surprising. UK Lawyers for Israel has its fingers in so many pies in an attempt to
all pro-Palestine support. It’s currently being investigated for its intimidatory legal threats in this regard https://t.co/PdOCu239cg
— Sue Lees (@sue_lees) August 24, 2025
Clearly, Jonathan Hall should have recused himself from any committee responsible for the fate of a pro-Palestine organisation.
You’d think all this might suggest a conflict of interest but if you said it out loud you’d probably be arrested https://t.co/m6rjdBbW8k
— Robbie G D2theI2theD2theF (@Gruntfutuck) August 24, 2025
No, nope, not a smidgeon of conflict of interest in that one.
The stitch up disgusts me…..
do they think we don’t notice? https://t.co/XNHT7bPHMj— Up_Again ItWasAScam
(@up_again) August 24, 2025
Murray also revealed that Hall has spent holidays in Israel and visited its counter-terrorism units.
This guy, Jonathan Hall KC, was appointed by the Home Secretary in the UK as an “independent reviewer” of terrorism laws.
Except he vacations in “Israel”, visits Israeli “counterterrorism” units, and helped get Palestine Action banned.
Sounds like a Zionist to me. https://t.co/MiHff8o92d
— Richard Medhurst (@richimedhurst) August 24, 2025
The govt’s “independent” reviewer of terror legislation, who defends the proscription of Palestine Action as “novel but acceptable”, because they are “serious saboteurs who have given up on parliamentary democracy”, is a disgracefully compromised Zionist https://t.co/Z0Fxjpqkvu https://t.co/bP0VlsgIPS
— Andy Worthington (@GuantanamoAndy) August 24, 2025
The day will come when he is dragged before the Hague on Genocide charges. https://t.co/CltgD6DsBr
— John Adams (@JohnAdams921844) August 25, 2025
Ultimately, nothing about the Labour government’s proscription of Palestine Action has been above board from the start. From the UK government’s collusion with the Israeli embassy in the imprisonment of the Filton 18, to Lord Richard Dannatt’s lobbying, and Israel lobby groups’ (extremely) likely influence on the group’s ban, it has been awash with blatant agenda from the word go.
Now, Jonathan Hall’s links to UKLFI solidify what a total stitch-up it all is.
Feature image via the Canary
By HG
This post was originally published on Canary.
Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has refused to confirm he is an anti-Zionist. In a video posted by the lobbying watchdog Spinwatch and others, he was asked if he would follow the example of Zarah Sultana.
In response to what she called anti-Semitism “smears” ten days ago, Sultana said she was proudly anti-Zionist:
The smears won’t work this time.
I say it loudly and proudly: I’m an anti-Zionist.
Print that. https://t.co/HSZAWnO4cJ
— Zarah Sultana MP (@zarahsultana) August 17, 2025
As the Canary reported at the time:
It’s a renowned tactic of Israeli propaganda to accuse those objecting to the fascism of Zionism as actually being anti-Semitic. However, Sultana quickly nipped that shit in the bud.
We examined Sultana’s various criticisms of Corbynism here.
The post in question shows activist Ani Says asking Jeremy Corbyn to follow follow Sultana’s example:
Earlier today, a long-time anti-Zionist supporter of Jeremy Corbyn asked him whether he would follow Zarah Sultana’s lead and openly declare himself an anti-Zionist.
He refused.
The Instagram post said:
When @ani.says2 pressed further, she was pushed aside by Oly Durose, Corbyn’s adviser and former aide to David Lammy, who urged journalists to turn their cameras off.
The post also asks:
Why is Jeremy Corbyn, even after leaving the genocide-supporting Labour Party and setting up a new left-wing alternative, still refusing to oppose Zionism as a Jewish supremacist ideology?
It adds that “another Corbyn adviser, James Schneider” also recently “refused to say he was an anti-Zionist”:
Any anti-racist must by definition be anti-Zionist.
View this post on Instagram
Ani Says later posted further comments on her social media. She said she’d been a fan of Jeremy Corbyn for nearly two decades and had voted or him many times.
Says said that as someone with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), she saw the world in very black and white ways. And as a committed pro-Palestine activist, she couldn’t understand why Sultana had stated she was anti-Zionist but Corbyn had not yet done so.
She said she felt sad and disappointed about the incident.
Featured image via screengrab
By Joe Glenton
This post was originally published on Canary.
Brighton and Hove Albion FC have banned a season ticket holder for wearing a Palestine shirt.
Roger Wade, founder of @Boxfresh, has been banned from Brighton & Hove Albion for 5 games for wearing a Palestine football kit.
A ST holder for 10 years, he was pulled out mid-game with no explanation. Instead of dialogue, the club sent him a ban letter. @OfficialBHAFC pic.twitter.com/onqe2r4L51
— Leyla Hamed (@leylahamed) August 25, 2025
At half-time during the Brighton FC v Fulham game on August 16, stewards asked Roger Wade to leave the hospitality section of the stadium, with no explanation.
Social media users initially speculated that stewards removed Wade due to wearing a football shirt in the hospitality section of the stadium, which most clubs ban.
However, he made it clear that he covered the shirt with his jacket, whilst in hospitality. Additionally, when the club responded to his complaint and issued a five-match ban, they did not mention this.
Here is Mr Wade’s formal complaint to Brighton regarding the incident, along with the club’s response — which makes no reference to the required dress code in Hospitality, nor cites it as the reason this fan was removed. pic.twitter.com/B4fyE8TenM
— Leyla Hamed (@leylahamed) August 25, 2025
Previously, people had reported Tomer Hemed, a former footballer and academy mentor, for inciting violence against Palestinians online. He posted photos with Israeli soldiers during a genocide.
Back in October, many of us reported to Brighton, @FA, and @kickitout that former footballer & academy mentor Tomer Hemed was inciting violence against Palestinians online, even posting photos with soldiers in the midst of the genocide.
No action was taken. https://t.co/wf0Dvr7pvv
— Leyla Hamed (@leylahamed) August 25, 2025
Journalists like @richimedhurst were arrested in the UK for reporting the truth on the genocide in Gaza.
Now we have an ACADEMY MENTOR at a football club openly calling for the killing of children, men, women, elderly in Gaza.
What are you going to do about this? @Keir_Starmer pic.twitter.com/Ful0mbK2yd
— Leyla Hamed (@leylahamed) October 14, 2024
Are the footballing community more triggered by a football shirt than war crimes?
Absolutely baffles me that this guy gets a 5 game ban for wearing a shirt, but the club turns a blind eye to hemed calling Palestinians human animals and that they should die a death of suffering https://t.co/J2FDUMMNXw
— yasin ayari
(@AyariGoat) August 25, 2025
The majority owner of Brighton FC is Tony Bloom – an ‘English sports better, poker player, and entrepreneur’ who has his hands in many Zionist pies.
News that @OfficialBHAFC – owned by Tony Bloom (a @JamTarts‘ minority shareholder) – has banned a fan for wearing a Palestine top should anger many, but surprise no one.
https://t.co/bcLgojEeMa pic.twitter.com/rCaPD4ncvs
— Scottish Sport for Palestine (@ScotSport4Pal) August 25, 2025
Bloom has injected £2.4 million into Israel.
Since 2019 – through his foundation alone, he has injected £2.4 million into Israel.
This does not include his support of other Zionist organisations, including @CST_UK, the ‘authority’ on antisemitism in the UK which serves to police pro-Palestinian activists. pic.twitter.com/RJgJ28aLqx
— Scottish Sport for Palestine (@ScotSport4Pal) August 25, 2025
The aims of his foundation, The Bloom Foundation, include:
Creating a more cohesive society in Israel, fostering shared purpose and advocacy that unite diverse segments of society.
In its 2024 annual report, the word ‘Israel’ or ‘Israeli’ is mentioned 19 times. While claiming to promote ‘community cohesion’ for all members of ‘Israeli society’. Yet, there is not one single mention of Palestine or Palestinians.
His foundation clearly prioritises Israeli lives.
The Bloom Foundation makes it clear it prioritises Israeli lives through its mysterious On Guard Initiative – an apparent attempt to eliminate community tensions within Israel – with no mention of how Israel is trying to eliminate generations of Palestinians off their land. pic.twitter.com/jaiOCGw8dC
— Scottish Sport for Palestine (@ScotSport4Pal) August 25, 2025
But it’s not just Brighton FC that are refusing entry to fans wearing Palestine shirts. A few weeks ago, a similar thing happened to an Everton fan.
A mother was stopped at the entrance to Bramley-Moore stadium and told she had to cover her Palestine football kit if she wanted to take her kids in.
This is what football is teaching our kids these days: solidarity with genocide victims is not okay.
Care to comment, @Everton? pic.twitter.com/VQUfNw4y56— Leyla Hamed (@leylahamed) August 10, 2025
The Palestine national football team is represented by the Palestinian Football Association and is a member of FIFA.
What muppets Brighton are. It’s the shirt of a FIFA member nation, that was recently playing in AFC World Cup qualifiers. Would he get banned for wearing an Italy shirt, or a Brazil shirt, or any other FIFA member shirt?
— Neville Bartos (@NevilleBartos19) August 25, 2025
Both Brighton FC and FIFA are complicit in Israel’s genocide.
So FA fifa and Brighton fc are complicit with terrorist Israel ( genocide)
Shame on you pic.twitter.com/eRVffwBjW4— AK ah (@AKah05598248374) August 25, 2025
Unless FIFA and Premier League clubs are about to ban all international shirts, then this is a clear case of discrimination.
Back in 2021, Brighton FC released a kit in solidarity with Ukraine after Russia launched their attacks. But now, the very same club has issued a 5 match ban to a lifelong supporter for simply wearing a Palestine shirt.
Feature image via YouTube/ Millhouse Speaks
By HG
This post was originally published on Canary.
Billionaire Taylor Swift has announced her engagement to American footballer Travis Kelce. And, Swifties are flooding the internet with their comments and takes on Tay Tay’s latest relationship. However, as ever with Swift, there’s something more than a little off with her public persona.
As a left-wing news outlet, she isn’t our usual fodder. But, the image that Swift has curated throughout her long career is rife with controversies that just won’t go away. And, for many people. she’s become a symbol of what’s wrong with our societies.
For many of her fans, Taylor Swift is a powerful woman overcoming misogyny from the music industry and the press to become a glass-ceiling-busting billionaire. She’s an apparent inspiration to young girls, and has toured the world in record-breaking tour after record-breaking tour. But, Swift’s experiences of misogyny certainly doesn’t exempt her from the racist spats she’s created. And, a billionaire girlboss is still a billionaire. Last I checked around here, it’s simply not possible to become a billionaire without exploitation.
At a time when people around the world are struggling to feed themselves, to afford suitable housing, and see their pay checks swallowed up instantly, Swift’s billionaire status is less girlboss done good, and more parasite rights in action. Swifties often point to her billionaire status as a sign of her success. The thing is, it’s not a sign of success. It’s a sign of how limited collective understandings of success are. Why should girls have role models whose success is built on capitalist exploitation?
And, it’s not 2007. We don’t need to re-tread the very well-worn ground over white feminism’s allegiances to racial capitalism.
Taylor Swift is notorious for her gigantic carbon footprint. Carbon Market Watch reported that:
Her private jet usage amounted to an estimated 8,300 tonnes of carbon emissions in 2022 – that’s about 1,800 times the average human’s annual emissions, or 576 times that of the average American and about 1,000 times that of the average European.
Undoubtedly, the climate crisis is a product of global capitalism. It’s not going to be solved by individuals washing out yoghurt pots that their councils may or may not recycle. But, when one individual – no matter how super duper sparkly she is – is generating such a massive carbon footprint, there’s an obvious answer: fucking stop it.
In 2024, after years of criticism and pleading, Swift’s representatives claimed that she had “offset” her carbon footprint. Unfortunately, they didn’t provide any details as to how she had done so. And, of course, there wasn’t any acknowledgement that offsetting isn’t a magic wand that undoes the damage to the planet caused by private jet usage. Obviously, it’s better to not fly as much in the same way that it’s better to use less plastic than to buy more plastic shit that can be recycled.
However, logic has nothing to do with Swift’s public image. For a 35 year old, she’s amassed a remarkable number of accusations of racism. Perhaps the most prominent, or at least the one that just won’t go away, is the allegation that Swift is an alt-right white supremacist darling. During Donald Trump’s first term in office when Nazi marches became a thing again (….yes, really), white supremacist rallied around Swift. The founder of a neo-Nazi site said:
The entire alt-right patiently awaits the day when we can lay down our swords and kneel before her throne […] as she commands us to go forth and slaughter the subhuman enemies of the Aryan race.
It took two years for Taylor Swift to speak up:
There’s literally nothing worse than white supremacy. It’s repulsive. There should be no place for it.
And, a then-28 year old Taylor Swift claimed she was learning as much as she could. The sheer luxury of such a pronouncement isn’t lost on those of us who are not insulated from the real world by whiteness. Since her fanbase’s flirtation with white supremacists, Swift has remained largely tight lipped about her political affiliations. However, that same silence has spoken volumes when it comes to Israel’s genocide in Palestine.
Swift can’t control who her fans are. But, she can control what she says about a genocide documented in real time. And here is the thing that’s most grating about her public persona. She luxuriates in the insulation that being an unfathomably rich, skinny, white woman affords her. She’s free to be on a learning journey, to date scumbags, to blunder around being clumsily racist, and ultimately to be defended by hordes of white women.
In 2015, Taylor Swift stated that misogyny was “ingrained” from birth. How long until a similar realisation about racism? There are much more serious people than Swift unlearning their internalised racism, but apparently we’re supposed to believe she isn’t a racist.
Don’t get me wrong – I am absolutely being a hater here. Swift is far from the only fucked up billionaire singer. She doesn’t have to be – and nor is she expected to be – perfect. But, it’s just not realistic to expect everyone to like her with rabid fervour. To some people, she’s a feminist success story. And to some people, she’s a symbolic marker of how crushing and invalidating white women can be. The standards for white women are entirely different than for women of colour. White women are afforded more grace, space, and time to be themselves. Women of colour are policed socially, culturally, and economically. Having lived, so far, 33 years of it myself, white supremacy shapes how white women are perceived, how they conceive of themselves, and it touches every possible aspect of modern life.
So, why do white women have such allegiance to Taylor? White supremacy isn’t just the preserve of men in KKK hoods. After all, someone has to make the KKK hoods: the handmaidens of white supremacy. Just as misogyny is ingrained into people at birth, so too is white supremacy. Even for nice white people, and even internalised white supremacy for people of colour. The impulse white women feel as a group to defend Swift is perhaps rooted in far uglier roots than they would like to admit. And, ultimately, they’re not reaching for a defence of Taylor as much as they are a defence of the racial capitalist status quo.
Every possible permutation of identity – class, disability, sexuality, gender – moves through the prism of white supremacy. The mediocre lyricist that is Taylor Swift isn’t immune from that.
Featured image via the Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.
Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) is demanding that the government take action to stop Israeli companies and delegates attending one of the world’s largest arms fairs, DSEI, taking place in London this September.
Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) opens at London’s ExCeL centre on 9 September. DSEI takes place biennially, and this year’s event is shrouded in secrecy. Unusually, it has not yet published the full exhibitor list and it is presently only available to registered delegates. However, its website does confirm the presence of a dedicated Israeli country pavilion.
However, CAAT’s research and data teams have started to collate information. They have currently compiled details of over 500 out of 1600 companies due to attend the event in our data browser. These include several Israeli companies such as Rafael and Israel’s largest arms company, Elbit Systems, who make 85% of the drones used by the Israeli Defence Force (IDF).
Alongside them are many UK and international companies complicit in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza. For instance, this includes F35 manufacturers Lockheed Martin and BAE Systems. Israel is using F35s to drop 2000lb bombs on children in Gaza.
This research indicates that war criminals will likely attend DSEI. In addition to the Israeli companies above, CAAT is particularly concerned about the presence of Israel’s Directorate of Defense, Research & Development (DDR&D), a branch of the Israeli Ministry of Defence, and Israel Aerospace Industries at the event.
According to the UK’s Export Control Joint Unit (ECJU):
it is uncontentious that conduct which could, in principle, satisfy the physical component of genocide continues to take place in Gaza.
The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant in November 2024. CAAT is therefore calling on the government to take action to stop the Israeli presence at DSEI. It also urges for the Metropolitan police to investigate those attending DSEI for the crime of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and torture.
CAAT’s media coordinator Emily Apple said of DSEI:
Government ministers, including David Lammy, are acting as though they are powerless to prevent Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Lammy said he was “horrified” by Israel’s attack on Nasser hospital but he has lied about arms sales, and is doing nothing to prevent the war criminals complicit in this abhorrent attack attending an arms fair in London in two weeks.
Israel is committing genocide. It has created a man-made famine. Babies are dying from starvation. Israel is bombing hospitals and killing journalists. These heart breaking atrocities are war crimes. Nothing could be clearer.
The organisers of DSEI are trying to hide their exhibitors because they know they will face scrutiny for their inclusion of Israeli arms companies, and are trying to hide their complicity. But they cannot hide, and they will face the consequences of their actions.
We demand that the government and the police investigate those attending DSEI for war crimes. But we know the reality is the police are far more likely to attempt to repress those protesting war crimes than investigate the actual war criminals. And we know the reality is that the government is likely to continue shedding crocodile tears while doing everything it can to preserve the profits of arms dealers over Palestinian lives.
Featured image via the Canary
By The Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.
In Gaza, schools are no longer just walls and doors, but have become a distant dream that children chase every day amid the rubble and international silence. Since 7 October 2023, every new day added to the lives of children has been filled with fear and waiting, as they watch the sky before they watch their books. It is all thanks to Israel, which continues to carry out both a genocide and educide in the Strip.
The Ministry of Education and Higher Education announced that the number of students killed in Gaza has reached 18,346, with another 27,884 injured. These children, who were supposed to carry their notebooks and backpacks and greet the school day with a smile, have now become witnesses to death and destruction, their educational dreams suspended amid the rubble.
Teachers have not been spared from this violence; 970 teachers and administrators have been killed and 4,533 others injured, while 130 university professors and researchers have been directly assassinated. Those who were once a source of knowledge and hope have become statistics in the war, leaving thousands of students without guidance or mentorship.
The educational infrastructure in Gaza was catastrophically damaged: 160 public schools and 63 university buildings were completely destroyed, while 118 public schools and 93 UNRWA schools were bombed and vandalized. Twenty-five schools have been completely wiped off the educational map, along with their students and teachers, leaving a vast area of education in ruins and the dreams of thousands of children suspended amid the rubble and the roar of aircraft.
The stories behind these numbers are more painful than the statistics: children who lost their friends, books, and teachers, and whose childhoods became prisoners of fear. They used to dream of new notebooks and classrooms, and today they sit in displacement tents trying to remember what school looked like, carrying a part of the world’s patience in their little hearts.
Today, Gaza is not just a city under bombardment, but a large school teaching its children the meaning of waiting and patience, telling the world that education is no longer just a right, but a whole life, and a dream that everyone needs to wake up to save before it disappears forever.
Featured image via the Canary
By Alaa Shamali
This post was originally published on Canary.
In a move that reflects the convergence of cinema with major humanitarian issues, the film The Voice of Hind Rajab by Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania will have its world premiere at the 82nd Venice Film Festival on 3 September, bringing back to the forefront the story of six-year-old Hind Rajab from Gaza, who Israel killed along with her family in January 2024, after her last voice message to Palestinian Red Crescent volunteers bore witness to the tragedy.
The Voice of Hind Rajab is based on real audio recordings of Hind, as she cried for help, saying she was trapped among the bodies of her relatives inside a car in the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza, before the call was cut off and she was later found dead. This tragic moment, which reverberated around the world as a symbol of humanity’s failure, has been transformed into a 90-minute fictional drama that combines documentary and art, raising questions of memory and justice.
The film has attracted exceptional support from major Hollywood names, with Brad Pitt, Joaquin Phoenix, Rooney Mara, Alfonso Cuarón, and Jonathan Glazer joining as executive producers after viewing an early cut of the film. Jemima Khan and Frank Giestra also participated in its production, with institutional support from Film4, MBC, and Brad Pitt’s Plan B.
This presence puts the film in the global spotlight and reflects a clear desire to bring the Palestinian cause to a wider audience through cinema.
The Tunisian director, who was previously nominated for an Oscar for her films The Man Who Sold His Skin and Four Daughters, is known for her interest in real human stories and her ability to convey them in a visually powerful way. In this film, she pushes the boundaries, drawing on actors such as Saja Kalani, Moataz Melhass, and Clara Khoury, alongside music by Amin Bouhafa, to construct a work that evokes both pain and memory.
In addition to its screening in Venice, The Voice of Hind Rajab will be shown at the Toronto International Film Festival in the “Special Presentations” section on 7 September, followed by screenings at the San Sebastian, Busan, and London film festivals, giving it global critical and popular momentum.
The Voice of Hind Rajab release comes at a time of heated debate about the role of culture in confronting war. This year’s Venice Film Festival saw pressure from activists demanding that the crisis in Gaza be highlighted, arguing that cinema cannot be separated from its human context.
In this climate, it becomes more than just a film; it is a cinematic testimony to a crime and a cry against international silence.
The film carries a clear message: that the voice of a child who was unjustly killed can become a tool of resistance, and that cinema can be a forum for holding memory accountable when the law fails.
With the participation of prominent international stars, it becomes difficult for the world to turn its back on The Voice of Hind Rajab, which may go down as one of the most notable cinematic works related to the Palestinian cause in the history of international film festivals.
You can support the Hind Rajab Foundation here.
Featured image supplied
By Alaa Shamali
This post was originally published on Canary.
The rank odour of opportunity seems to have presented itself to Australia’s Albanese government. To balance its apparently principled promise to recognise Palestinian statehood come the 80th United Nations General Assembly next month, it seemed only fair that some firm measure be taken against another Islamic outfit to balance the ledger. The Israelis were watching closely, and a sense of concern had started to bubble along the diplomatic channel that Canberra was proving wobbly. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had made his views felt: “History will remember Albanese for what he is: A weak politician who betrayed Israel and abandoned Australia’s Jews.”
On August 26, it all came to the fore. Iran had become the latest, if only briefest, of bogeymen for political consumption in Australia. The Islamic Republic, charged the Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, had “directed at least two” attacks of an “appalling” and “antisemitic” nature. Expecting revelations of gleeful massacres involving whole families including livestock and uprooted orchards, we are told that these outrageous incidents were ones of arson: an attack on Lewis’ Continental Kitchen in Sydney in October last year, and the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne last December. “These were extraordinary and dangerous acts of aggression orchestrated by a foreign nation on Australian soil. They were attempts to undermine social cohesion and sow discord in our community.”
Mike Burgess, the domestic spy chief, confirmed the claim that the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) had identified “at least two and likely more attacks on Jewish interests in Australia.” These were linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and found through “painstaking investigation” (good to see that investigations at the spy agency are painstaking). The IRGC had been fiendish in concealing its role, using “a complex web of proxies to hide its involvement.” With shamanistic self-confidence, Burgess revealed that he had warned of this very thing earlier in the year. For a sense of restrained balance, he stated that Tehran may not necessarily be “responsible for every act of antisemitism in Australia.”
The action undertaken seemed outsized, involving the expulsion of the Iranian ambassador Ahmad Sadeghi along with three other embassy officials. They have been given seven days to exit the country. The IRGC is also slated for proscription as a terrorist organisation.
The head scratching question in all of this is: Why bother? The Iranian Revolutionary Guards have larger fish to skin, fry and broil. Tehran, for all its appetites in seeking power and influence in the Middle East, has tended to keep its targets beyond the region to Israeli embassies and property and, most notably of all, dissidents. To target the Australian Jewish community would seem to be a needless expenditure of effort and resources. Australia’s resident talking head on the wickedness of the mullahs, Kylie Moore-Gilbert, herself having spent time incarcerated in Iran on suspicions of espionage, is hardly illuminating in her explanation. “It’s difficult to say what Iran’s direct motivations are, other than to undermine Australia’s social cohesion.” She opts for the primary colour approach, streaked with syllogism: as the Iranian regime is antisemitic, and as Israel is the main enemy, it follows that all Jews, according to the dotty haters in Tehran, are “an extension of Israel.”
The expulsion’s salience would have been more significant if it had been done in response to activities undertaken against members of the Iranian Australian community, a far more widespread and evident problem. Yet on this point, the Albanese government proved tardy, despite ample evidence of harassment and surveillance orchestrated at Tehran’s behest. In February 2023, the then Minister for Home Affairs Clare O’Neil stated in her Australian National University address that ASIO had “disrupted the activities of individuals who had conducted surveillance in the home of an Iranian-Australian, as well as conducted extensive research of this individual and their family.” The previous month, a spokesperson for Foreign Minister Penny Wong expressed deep concern at “reports of foreign interference, including the harassment and intimidation of Australians online and in-person.” These matters had been raised with Iran “in no uncertain terms.”
Iran had also proved to be a more convenient, if selective target. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, for instance, Indian intelligence operatives have been creating much mischief, snooping, harassing and leaving their warning signs, most notably when it comes to the global Sikh diaspora. Concerned about the pangs of longing for the independent state of Khalistan, the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not been above resorting to assassination. Melbourne taxi driver Harjinder Singh is one who can attest to threats from the Indian authorities regarding his pro-Khalistan activities, notably to his family back in India.
To add to this, India was found to have engaged in such friendly activities as cultivating access to sensitive defence technology in Australia and securing airport security protocols. In 2020, Burgess announced that his agency had “confronted” the spies in question “and quietly and professionally removed them.” Despite this fuss, there were no diplomatic expulsions. A façade of excruciating politeness was maintained.
Least surprising of all was the hearty approval of the Australian move by Israel. With Netanyahu venomously spouting at the Australian Prime Minister that he was feeble and incapable of protecting Jews in Australia, the expulsion was automatically assumed to be a product of constructive Israeli interference. Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer, after explaining the reasons for Netanyahu’s hectoring, thought it a “positive outcome” that Australia was “taking the threats against Israel and the Jewish people, Jewish Australians living in Australia […] seriously”.
Australia’s Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke dismissed efforts on the part of the Israeli government to claim the lion’s share of credit as nonsense. “We’ve taken this action because Iran has attacked Australians. No other country is involved in terms of that conclusion.”
Short of WikiLeaks finding out the inner strangeness of this, we await further evidence why Iran would ever bother to expend any time on focusing on a country so far from its interests as to be satirically irrelevant. That said, the nature of much intelligence is that it is often short of being particularly intelligent.
The post Expelling Iran’s Ambassador to Australia first appeared on Dissident Voice.This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.
Asia Pacific Report
About 120 journalists, film makers, actors, media workers and academics have today called on Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and two senior cabinet ministers in an open letter to “act decisively” to protect Gaza journalists and a free press.
“These are principles to which New Zealand has always laid claim and which are now under grave threat in Gaza and the West Bank,” the signatories said in the letter about Israel’s war on Gaza.
The plea was addressed to Luxon, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Media and Communications Minister Paul Goldsmith.
Among the signatories are many well known media personalities such as filmmaker Gemma Gracewood, actor Lucy Lawless, film director Kim Webby, broadcaster Alison Mau, and comedian and documentarian Te Radar, and journalist Mereana Hond.
The letter also calls on the government to urgently condemn the killing of 13 Palestinian journalists and media workers this month as the death toll in the 22-month war has reached almost 63,000 — more than 18,000 of them children.
Global protests against the war and the forced starvation in the besieged enclave have been growing steadily over the past few weeks with more than 500,000 people taking part in Israel last week.
Commitment to safety
The letter urged Luxon and the government to:
1. Publicly reaffirm New Zealand’s commitment to the safety of journalists worldwide and make clear this protection applies in every conflict zone, including Gaza.
2. Reiterate the Media Freedom Coalition call for access for international press, ensuring safety, aid and crucial reporting are guaranteed; paired with New Zealand’s existing call for a ceasefire and safe humanitarian access corridors.
3. Back international action already underway, by publicly affirming support for ICC investigations into attacks on journalists anywhere in the world, and by advocating that the United Nations adopt an international convention for the safety of journalists and media workers so that states parties meet their obligations under international law.
4. Formally confirm that New Zealand’s free press and human rights principles apply to Palestinian journalists and media workers, as they do to all others.
The letter said these measures were “consistent with New Zealand’s values, our history of independent foreign policy, and the rules-based international order we have always claimed to champion, and for which our very future as a country is reliant upon”.
It added: “They do not require us to choose sides and they uphold the principle that a free press and those who embody it must never be targeted for doing their jobs.”
Condemn the killings
The recent deaths brought the number of Palestinian journalists and media workers killed in Gaza since October 7, 2023, to at least 219 at the time of writing, said the letter.
“Many more are injured and missing. Many of those killed were clearly identified as members of the press. Some were killed alongside their families,” it said.
The letter called on the government to urgently condemn the killings of:
● Al Jazeera journalists Anas al-Sharif and Mohammed Qreiqeh, and camera operators Ibrahim Zaher and Mohammed Noufal, along with freelance journalist Mohammad Al-Khalidi and freelance cameraman Momen Aliwa, who were targeted and killed in, or as a result of, an August 10 airstrike on their tent in Gaza City.
● Correspondents Hussam al-Masri, Hatem Khaled, Mariam Abu Daqqa, Mohammad Salama, Ahmed Abu Azi and Moaz Abu Taha, all killed in a strike on Nasser hospital in Khan Younis on August 25.
● Journalist and academic Hassan Douhan, killed in Khan Younis on August 25.
“From Malcolm Ross to Margaret Moth, Peter Arnett to Mike McRoberts, New Zealand has a proud history of war correspondents. The same international laws that have protected them are meant to protect all journalists, wherever they work,” said the letter.
“Today, those protections are being violated with impunity.
“Our media colleagues are being murdered, and we have a duty to speak up.”
As journalists, editors, producers, writers, documentary-makers, media workers and storytellers, said the letter, “we believe in the essential role of a free press.
“These killings are in violation of international rules-based order, including humanitarian law, and are intended to erase witnesses to the truth itself. These media professionals are doing their jobs under extremely challenging conditions, and are civilians worthy of protection under human rights laws.
“This is not only a matter of professional solidarity, this is a matter of principle. Journalists are civilians. They are witnesses to history. They deserve the same protection anywhere in the world.”
“We urge you to lead, knowing you have the voices of Aotearoa’s storytellers and history-keepers standing with you.”
This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.
Abbas Araghchi, Iranian foreign minister, called for more concrete collective action against Israel, asserting that mere verbal condemnations are no longer enough to prevent its “insatiable” Zionist ambitions to ethnically cleanse Palestinians and expand their occupation in the region.
Araghchi reiterated that the Israeli war in Gaza “is not merely a fleeting military conflict or an ordinary humanitarian crisis: it is a systematic, full fledged genocide explicitly intended to achieve ethnic cleansing amid the complicit silence of the US and the West more broadly.”
Citing the daily killing of Palestinians seeking humanitarian aid, Araghchi said that Israel has “turned hunger and famine into a new tool of genocide” and “food distribution centers into death traps for hungry women and children”, claiming that the war and genocide in Gaza is amongst the “darkest human tragedies of the modern era”.
The post Iran Demands Concrete International Action To End Israel’s Genocide appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.
This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.
Our churches seem quite unconcerned about saving the Christian presence in the Holy Land.
They have watched the horror in Gaza day after day for nearly 23 months and the brutal military occupation of the Holy Land for over 7 decades. They surely know about Israel’s Zionist-driven ambition to destroy the lives of the Palestinian people and seize their homeland, “the very place where Jesus Christ walked upon the earth and where walls now separate families and the children of God — Christian, Muslim and Jew — in a deepening cycle of violence, humiliation and despair”.
It is 20 years since the Patriarch and Local Heads of Churches issued their ‘Jerusalem Declaration on Christian Zionism’, which stated: “We categorically reject Christian Zionist doctrines as false teaching that corrupts the biblical message of love, justice and reconciliation…. We further reject the alliance of Christian Zionist leaders and organizations with the governments of Israel and the United States that are imposing their domination over Palestine.” And they condemned Zionism for advancing racial exclusivity and perpetual war.
Then, in 2007, came the ‘Amman Imperatives’ from the World Council of Churches (WCC), insisting that “the Churches are part of the conflict, because the Churches cannot remain silent while there is still suffering”. The WCC spouted fine words about UN resolutions and Geneva conventions being the basis for peace and how Palestinians had the right of self-determination, Israel and Palestine were both entitled to security, Jerusalem needed to be a shared city for the two peoples and three religions, etc, etc. But what meaningful steps have the WCC, especially its Western Christendom branch, taken over the last 18 years? And what about all those positive-sounding imperatives – “enough is enough”, “no more words without deeds”, “it is time for action”, and so forth?
In 2009, we had the ‘Kairos Document’ calling itself “a cry of hope in the absence of all hope” and saying they had “reached a dead end” in the tragedy of the Palestinian people. It complained that the decision-makers were simply managing the crisis rather than seriously trying to resolve it.
Kairos told the international community bluntly to stop practising double standards and start implementing international resolutions.
More recently (2017), an open letter from The National Coalition of Christian Organizations in Palestine to the WCC warned: “This is no time for shallow diplomacy, Christians…. Things are beyond urgent. We are on the verge of a catastrophic collapse. As a Palestinian Christian community, this could be our last opportunity to save the Christian presence in this land.”
Our churches have been watching the catastrophic collapse in real time. The Holy Land – the wellspring of Christian faith – is being stolen from under their noses. Yet the General Synod – the Church of England’s ‘parliament’ – remains silent, repeatedly delaying a motion calling for support for their Muslim and Christian brothers and sisters in Palestine. I’m told it has been put back again until February 2026, the fifth Synod meeting since that fateful day on 7 October.
Meanwhile, twenty-six bishops sit in our Parliament at Westminster while the genocidal slaughter continues. Is 23 long months of unspeakable evil and devastation not enough to prod them into action? What have they achieved? And where do the other UK churches stand on this never-ending horror show?
Put to the test, Western Christendom, like our political elite, has failed. What would Christ say?
The post Western Christendom fails the test first appeared on Dissident Voice.This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.
Our churches seem quite unconcerned about saving the Christian presence in the Holy Land.
They have watched the horror in Gaza day after day for nearly 23 months and the brutal military occupation of the Holy Land for over 7 decades. They surely know about Israel’s Zionist-driven ambition to destroy the lives of the Palestinian people and seize their homeland, “the very place where Jesus Christ walked upon the earth and where walls now separate families and the children of God — Christian, Muslim and Jew — in a deepening cycle of violence, humiliation and despair”.
It is 20 years since the Patriarch and Local Heads of Churches issued their ‘Jerusalem Declaration on Christian Zionism’, which stated: “We categorically reject Christian Zionist doctrines as false teaching that corrupts the biblical message of love, justice and reconciliation…. We further reject the alliance of Christian Zionist leaders and organizations with the governments of Israel and the United States that are imposing their domination over Palestine.” And they condemned Zionism for advancing racial exclusivity and perpetual war.
Then, in 2007, came the ‘Amman Imperatives’ from the World Council of Churches (WCC), insisting that “the Churches are part of the conflict, because the Churches cannot remain silent while there is still suffering”. The WCC spouted fine words about UN resolutions and Geneva conventions being the basis for peace and how Palestinians had the right of self-determination, Israel and Palestine were both entitled to security, Jerusalem needed to be a shared city for the two peoples and three religions, etc, etc. But what meaningful steps have the WCC, especially its Western Christendom branch, taken over the last 18 years? And what about all those positive-sounding imperatives – “enough is enough”, “no more words without deeds”, “it is time for action”, and so forth?
In 2009, we had the ‘Kairos Document’ calling itself “a cry of hope in the absence of all hope” and saying they had “reached a dead end” in the tragedy of the Palestinian people. It complained that the decision-makers were simply managing the crisis rather than seriously trying to resolve it.
Kairos told the international community bluntly to stop practising double standards and start implementing international resolutions.
More recently (2017), an open letter from The National Coalition of Christian Organizations in Palestine to the WCC warned: “This is no time for shallow diplomacy, Christians…. Things are beyond urgent. We are on the verge of a catastrophic collapse. As a Palestinian Christian community, this could be our last opportunity to save the Christian presence in this land.”
Our churches have been watching the catastrophic collapse in real time. The Holy Land – the wellspring of Christian faith – is being stolen from under their noses. Yet the General Synod – the Church of England’s ‘parliament’ – remains silent, repeatedly delaying a motion calling for support for their Muslim and Christian brothers and sisters in Palestine. I’m told it has been put back again until February 2026, the fifth Synod meeting since that fateful day on 7 October.
Meanwhile, twenty-six bishops sit in our Parliament at Westminster while the genocidal slaughter continues. Is 23 long months of unspeakable evil and devastation not enough to prod them into action? What have they achieved? And where do the other UK churches stand on this never-ending horror show?
Put to the test, Western Christendom, like our political elite, has failed. What would Christ say?
The post Western Christendom fails the test first appeared on Dissident Voice.This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.
This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.
Palestinians are calling out the Israeli military’s obvious lie that it was trying to “dismantle” a camera when it targeted a hospital in Gaza this week in a double tap strike that killed 21 people, including five journalists and the rescue team sent to save them. In a statement on the results of its “initial inquiry” into the attack, the Israeli military claimed that troops operating in the…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
A coalition of over 100 U.S. groups is demanding that Israeli officials release 16-year-old Palestinian American Mohammed Zaher Ibrahim from imprisonment, warning that authorities are starving him and denying him medical care as they’ve barred the child from seeing his family for over six months. The groups called on Secretary of State Marco Rubio to act to end Mohammed’s “unjust”…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
On Tuesday, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF), disguised in a civilian vehicle, stormed Ramallah – the largest city in the occupied West Bank – using tear gas and live bullets, with snipers positioned on the rooftops.
They broke into a currency exchange shop in the centre of the city, looting the money and confiscating all the equipment, and arresting several people at the shop:
The IOF opened fire, injuring at least 58 people including children, women, and older people. They brutally assaulted shop owners and threw sound grenades inside stores in the crowded market.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said its medical crews dealt with the following injuries during the IOF raid: eight from live bullets – including a 13-year-old child, 5 from shrapnel, 14 from rubber bullets – including a 71-year-old man, and 31 from tear gas suffocation. Associated Press (AP) photojournalist Imad Saeed, and other journalists were also assaulted.
According to Quds Network News, the IOF stole nearly one million shekels, equivalent to more than £200,000, claiming – without evidence, as usual, the business transferred funds to Hamas. The IOF described the raided business, to the Jerusalem Post as:
the last exchange bank in the West Bank that launders terror funds
So it will be interesting to hear what the excuse will be for the next raid on these shops.
Although the occupation has, for years, raided gold and money exchanges, and even banks – with no need for explanations or warrants – this has become routine since October 2023, and the IOF has managed to get away with looting huge amounts, worth tens of millions of pounds. These actions not only help destroy the Palestinian economy, but continue to stamp the occupation’s control over every aspect of Palestinian life, even money.
Although currency exchanges are accused by the occupation of ‘funding terrorists’, the Palestinian Authority denies this. The reality is that these businesses are well regulated and transparent, being licensed by the Palestinian Monetary Authority, which has records detailing every transaction.
While the occupation carries out its genocide in Gaza, its army is waging a campaign of violence and destruction across the West Bank, tightening its control over Palestinians, all the while knowing they will not be held to account for their crimes.
In July 2025 alone, the IOF carried out more than 1,300 raids on Palestinian towns and villages – compared to 673 in July 2023.
Many of these places, including Ramallah, are considered to be in Area A, meaning they are in the 18% of the occupied West Bank which, according to the Oslo Accords, is exclusively administered by the Palestinian Authority. But ultimately, the occupation does anything it wants to do.
Featured image and additional images/video supplied
By Charlie Jaay
This post was originally published on Canary.
Like the Virgin Mary, Rawan Aljuaidi speaks with dignity, each word chaste and carefully chosen; only facts and intention are allowed when spoken.
Can you do a story about my infant son, Aboud? He suffers from malnutrition.
I’ve known Rawan for almost eighteen months, and this is the first time she’s asked me to write a story for her. Most refugees beg for help, pleading as if their lives depend on it. Maybe that’s because their lives do depend on it. But Rawan waits patiently like an elder, even though she’s only twenty-eight years old. And that’s fitting, because our online fundraising group functions like a tribal council, where members of a global village come together to weigh in on matters of life and death.
Yes, I can do a story.
After I give Rawan a list of questions for her to answer, she ends our messaging politely like she always does: Thank you for reaching out and for your willingness to hear our story from Gaza—a story that is often silenced, misunderstood, or ignored. I’ll try to tell you everything with honesty, though sometimes words fail to capture the pain we carry.
Such a tone comes naturally to Rawan. I’ve been helping her with the intricacies of communicating with humanitarian aid organizations and native English speakers since we first met. But the dignity she speaks with is all her own; it’s not something that can be taught. She fits perfectly into our ancestral council of spiritually minded Americans who follow a Sufi path and appreciate the grace of a humble woman.
Rawan exists in a world shaped by war and genocide; the monsters fighting to control the hearts and minds of innocent people just like us. In between the bombs and bullets, she scrounges for money, hoping to collect enough to get a temporary wi-fi card. Contact with the outside world is a piece of heaven for Rawan; it gives her time to dream of better days and the privilege of listening to something other than the ongoing destruction of her homeland.
Death is Rawan’s constant companion as she explains the fate of her family: My sister-in-law’s husband left to run errands…and never came back—he just disappeared. No one knows what happened to him. My cousin’s husband was killed by an airstrike while trying to fetch water for his family. At least we had a body to bury. My aunt had severe dysentery, and with no medicine or IVs at the hospitals, her body couldn’t rehydrate. We watched her fade day by day until she took her last breath in our overcrowded tent. No help to summon. No hope for miracles. That’s how people die in Gaza.
But Rawan doesn’t run away. Like Hans Christian Anderson’s Steadfast Tin Soldier, she stands still, facing adversity even though it may all end in a fiery explosion. That’s the price one pays for loyalty and courage. So, with her delicate paper heart charred and torn, Rawan perseveres, making diamonds out of dust; creating a child, where before there was only barrenness.
I was pregnant with my son Aboud during the first year of the war, carrying my baby while bombs fell all around us. There were days I didn’t know if either of us would survive—not because of a direct hit by a bomb or missile, but because there was no food, no water, no shelter, and no medical care.
As the war raged on, my belly grew, and my clothes no longer fit. So I wore old, tattered, loose-fitting dresses donated by relatives or kind neighbors in the camps. I had no options, no alternatives. I was simply trying to cover my body with whatever was available.
I went into labor on a chilly night in December 2024 as warplanes bombed the world around me. I reached Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat, not knowing whether my baby or I would come out alive. Near the entrance: rubble, shards of glass, and wounded souls lay scattered across the asphalt. Inside: darkness and chaos, screams an omnipresent sound. Doctors rushed through narrow hallways, no medical equipment to be found. No delivery room. No bed. No medicine. No privacy. No comfort. And with the power out, no light. Only pain and the will to survive. I gave birth sitting on a plastic chair.
Aboud didn’t get neonatal care after birth. I simply left the hospital with him. No check-ups, no diapers, no infant formula. It costs four hundred dollars a month for diapers, which we can’t afford. Often, I keep him in the same diaper for long hours. I know it’s wrong. I know it’s harmful. But I have no choice. Now I have a plastic reusable diaper that I fill with rags. I wash them in brackish water every day.
Aboud was born into a world that doesn’t welcome babies. His first clothes were, like my maternity garments, pieces donated by friends and relatives. That winter, I dressed him in whatever would keep him warm. He’s never known the touch of clean, soft baby clothes since the day he was born. And now that he’s growing, nothing fits.
I still try to breastfeed my son, but my body is too weak. I live off flour, salt, and sorrow. I weighed 70 kg before October 7th, but only 55 kg now. How can I produce milk when I don’t have enough to eat? Formula, when it’s available, costs around $100 per can. Aboud is slowly starving, and all I can offer him is my arms…and my tears. I try to feed him bits of mashed lentils or bread, but it’s not nearly enough for a growing seven-month-old infant. His body is already showing signs of malnutrition, and I fear for what that means long-term. He’s just a baby, and I already feel like I’ve failed him.
Recently, I carried my little boy to the clinic… holding him close to my chest, as if I could shield him from the truth I feared. The doctor measured the upper part of his tiny arm, paused for a moment, and looked at me with eyes that said more than words. “His mid-upper arm circumference has decreased by 4 millimeters… the malnutrition is worsening.” Just 4 millimeters! It might seem small, but in our world it’s the difference between hope and despair.
Then she looked at me again and said: “You too… you’re losing weight. Your body is weakening.” I stood there in silence, trying to find the words to explain how I give up my meals so that Aboud can eat. How I’ve learned to hide my hunger—but I can’t silence his cries.
The doctor handed me a long list: vitamins, therapeutic peanut butter, nutritional supplements… All things my child desperately needs to regain his strength. But I cannot afford such things. I have nothing. Nothing but my body, and the exhaustion of a mother trying to remain standing for her son. I haven’t even had a taste of sugar since the day Aboud was born.
Basic things like eating, sleeping, and bathing become immense challenges. After our home was bombed, we moved again and again. Now, we live in the fragments of a house in northwestern Gaza. There’s no water, no electricity, and no doors—only a leaky ceiling held up by bullet holes and battered walls. There are twenty of us left: my baby, my husband Ahmed, and I, plus my in-laws: Ahmed’s parents, his siblings, and their children. We sleep on the floor. We huddle underneath thin blankets. With all the smoke, dust, and smoldering debris, we can’t breathe, and we can’t keep clean. We share whatever bread we can find. We grow hungry together.
They show aid on the news channels, but it’s just a performance. Aid doesn’t reach us. It doesn’t touch our lives. It exists only in press releases. How can you eat a press release? How can you drink a politician’s speech? What U.N. resolutions heal the wounded? What reaches us is hunger, cold, and pain.
Sometimes, when I look around, I feel like we are no longer seen as humans. And yet, we are just like you—we dream of peace, we long for normal lives. But we are being starved and buried in silence. We are not asking for political change—not even for justice anymore. We’re simply asking to live. To feed our children. To survive another day.
Before October 7th, I was happy. I was a pharmacist and studying for a Master’s degree in Public Health. I came from a family of teachers and medical professionals. My husband was a lawyer who helped families—often for free. He ran a barbershop in his spare time, just for the joy of bringing a smile to someone’s face. Now it’s all gone—the pharmacy, the law office, and the barbershop. Only memories remain.
Rawan’s grace reminds me of Siddhartha, from Herman Hesse’s novel of the same name.
Siddhartha does nothing; he waits, he thinks, he fasts,
but he goes through the affairs of the world like a stone through water,
without doing anything, without bestirring himself;
he is drawn and lets himself fall.
Likewise, Rawan waits for our weekly meeting without complaint. She prepares her words thoughtfully. She eats only one meal a day. Who are we to compare ourselves to her? Who among us has waited for hours to fetch brackish water to wash diapers with? Who among us has tried to translate one’s words into a foreign language as bombs land nearby? Who among us has starved themselves to keep their child alive?
Rawan does what she’s called upon as a mother to do. And we, those who listen to her every week, are blessed with her presence, for it is Rawan who leads us through the genocide. It is Rawan who is a role model for those seeking to love thy neighbor.
One of our fellow Americans, named Sue, wrote this about her experiences with Rawan:
Eloquent, poignant, evocative, and touching…it feels like her words reach through the screen and go straight to my heart.
I know what it is like to be a young mother of an infant for the first time, caring for a helpless and infinitely precious innocent being who needs so much love and attention. Then add a war and a genocide. It’s unimaginable. Yet Rawan squarely faces all her tragedies, such as losing her milk supply as she starves, then losing access to baby formula, and now watching her baby sicken and waste away from malnutrition. Even in her pain, she persists in holding unwavering love for her baby, soothing him as he cries, taking him to the hospital under fire, and using all her wits to find him food, medicine, and shelter.
Rawan is so heartfelt that I find it easy to connect with her across the oceans between us. She is never impolite, she addresses us as friends, she works with her limited English to communicate the hardships she endures, and seems endlessly patient even as she insists upon survival and her need for help.
Rawan welcomes my words of compassion and care, and replies with “I love you,” a phrase laden with emotion and shaped by memory. Meeting Rawan has been, for me, the heart of sincerity. She has taught me how simple it can be to love her, as a sister on the path, as a friend holding her hand, as a mother holding her heart. Despite how painful it is to hear her suffering, I feel honored to know Rawan and support her. Truly, it is Rawan who has given me so much.
But such epiphanies can’t be savored for long. Aboud is sick again. Malnutrition has caught up to him. Rawan sends me a video of his current state. His skin is covered in a rash, he has a fever, he’s coughing, he’s crying, he’s vomiting, and he has diarrhea. I suspect that, if he weren’t malnourished, he wouldn’t be ill. But he is, and none of the hospitals, medical clinics, or pharmacies have any of the medications he needs. Death is one step closer, and Rawan is worried:
I returned from the hospital today carrying my little boy in my arms—holding him with fear, love, and trembling hands, as if I were carrying the last thread of life itself. I watch him closely, waiting for a miracle.
The post A Palestinian Mother and Son Starve with Dignity first appeared on Dissident Voice.This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.
On Wednesday 27 August, activists from Shut Elbit Down Bristol took direct action against the headquarters of Elbit Systems UK, Israel’s number one weapons manufacturer.
Two people cycled up to the entrance of the building and used lock-on devices built into the bikes, to blockade access to the site:
They did so to draw attention to Elbit’s direct involvement in the genocide in Gaza, and to disrupt Elbit’s British operations, which the company controls from the Aztec West HQ.
Elbit is Israel’s biggest manufacturer of military hardware. It produces 85% of the attack drones, which Israel have used to decimate the civilian population of Gaza. These include the quadcopter drones, which mimic the sounds of crying children, drawing others in to be killed. The company advertises its weapons as “battle tested”, but it is no secret that they have actually tested them on Palestinian civilians.
Activists took action just as the Ministry of Defence (MOD) may imminently grant Elbit Systems a £2bn contract to train 60,000 British soldiers. If this happens, it will make Israel’s biggest weapons firm a strategic partner of the MOD – at a time when the company is actively arming and fueling the genocide in Gaza.
Elbit’s premises throughout Britain, including the Aztec West site, have been the scenes of many previous protests.
Before cycling to Elbit, one action taker said:
Today we are blocking the entrance of the Elbit factory in Bristol. Elbit are an active participant in the ongoing genocide in Gaza. They supply drones and F-35 fighter jet parts for the Israeli occupying forces.
Our own Ministry of Defence (MOD) may imminently sign a £2bn contract with Elbit to train 60,000 British soldiers. This is a company that is actively enabling the killing of journalists and civilians, and they’re about to become a strategic partner of the MOD. We can’t allow this to happen, so today we’re shutting Elbit down.
Another action taker added:
Today we’re at Aztec West, the Elbit UK headquarters because the UK should not house factories that are actively involved in murdering thousands of Palestinians.
A few days ago it was reported that Elbit are trying to win a contract with the Ministry of Defence to train British soldiers. Elbit is deeply complicit in the genocide of the Palestinian people. To them this genocide is just a way to make money. They say that their weapons are ‘battle-tested’ – this testing is done on Palestinians, real people who are getting killed. A famine has been declared, Palestinians are being starved by Israel, yet the UK continues to remain complicit.
Images via Shut Elbit Down Bristol
By The Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.
A journalist on Israel’s i24 television channel has openly called for the murder of all journalists in Gaza. Zvi Yehezkeli, who served in the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) and worked for Shin Bet unleashed his diatribe after Israel carried out a ‘double tap’ bombing on a hospital in Khan Yunis. That bombing killed five journalists: Mohammad Salama, Hussam al-Masri, Mariam Abu Daqqa, Moaz Abu Taha, and Ahmed Abu Aziz. And, as the Canary reported:
It has only been fifteen days since Israel killed six journalists, after striking a different hospital, Al-Shifa in Gaza City.
According to UN estimates, Israel have now targeted and killed 240 Palestinian journalists.
However, this wasn’t enough for the bloodthirsty Yehezkeli.
SKWAWKBOX reported that Yehezkeli said:
If Israel has indeed decided to eliminate the journalists, then it’s better late than never.
He then repeated the Zionist propaganda of seeing Hamas everywhere:
To be clear, these are journalists hiding in hospitals, setting up operations rooms there, and presenting to the world a completely opposite image, while continuing to serve opposite interests.
The latest group of slain journalists worked for, amongst other outlets, Al Jazeera, Middle East Eye, Associated Press, and Reuters. Israel have routinely bombed hospitals, schools, refugee shelters – and this from the most moral army in the world with apparently world-leading precision weapons.
Yehezkeli continued:
One could say they are the spearhead of Hamas’s military wing, these so-called journalists. Therefore, Isreal did well to eliminate them.
In my opinion, it was far too late, but there are still many of them causing damage to Israel’s image and narrative in a battle that, unfortunately, we are not very skilled at.
SKWAWKBOX explained how Nazi Julius Streicher:
did not participate in Hitler’s military or the Holocaust, yet was sentenced to death for crimes against humanity for his incitement of the persecution and murder of Jews at a time when he must have known that what he was inciting was taking place.
Israel’s genocide in Palestine has been arguably the most well-documented genocide in real time. There is no chance that Yehezkeli is unaware of Israel’s bloody attempt to exterminate all journalists in Palestine. So much so, that Yehezkeli is, incredibly, urging on the systematic killing of anyone documenting the genocide of their own people.
We are far past the point where a two state solution is possible – if it ever even was a realistic prospect. Western media is entranced with their own notions of showing ‘both sides’ in a conflict. But, in doing so, they’re only whitewashing Israel’s genocidal actions and numerous war crimes as something that is a ‘defence.’ Every repetition about the reach of Hamas, or about the release of hostages is an alignment and defence of Israel’s genocide of Palestine. Yehezkeli is one of many Israeli settlers who want more for Palestinians: more starvation, more genocide, more terror.
Be it Israeli ministers, settlers attacking Palestinians themselves, or, as i24 News themselves reported:
A new poll by the Accord Center has found that 62% of Israelis believe that “there are no innocent people in Gaza,” reflecting widespread hardline attitudes nearly a year into the ongoing conflict.
There is willing consent for Israel’s policy of starvation, bombing, and ethnic cleansing of Palestine. And, as is the case with Yehezkeli, an appetite for even more destruction.
Over the past few days, thousands of Israelis have demonstrated against the planned incoming bombardment of Gaza. A huge group of people rallied to urge the Israeli government to bring hostages home. One protester told the Guardian:
We could have ended the war a year ago and brought all the hostages and soldiers home. We could have saved hostages and soldiers, but the prime minister chose, again and again, to sacrifice civilians for the sake of his rule.
Another said:
We just want to stop the war, bring home the hostages and stop the starvation in Gaza.
However, it is one thing to want to bring hostages home and stop starvation, and quite another to resist and oppose the genocide of Palestinians. The limits of the protesters wishes are stark, as associate editor of The Electronic Intifada, Nora Barrows-Friedman, pointed out:
Dozens of "Israeli" "peace activists" are busy holding rallies in "Tel Aviv" when they could (easily) instead go to the army bases at the Gaza boundary or the drone operations centers and physically stop their neighbors and sons and brothers from committing this genocide
— Nora Barrows-Friedman (@norabf) August 27, 2025
Barrows-Friedman’s comments calls to mind a particular moment from Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land. Throughout the film, Palestinian Basel Adra and Israeli Yuval Abraham navigate their uneasy friendship as the reality of settler colonialism impacts them very differently. Basel is evidently bereft, feeling trapped with no future. Yuval, meanwhile, is able to cross borders with ease and confront IDF soldiers with the confidence of having citizenship with the occupying power. No Other Land confronts the limits of such a relationship against a backdrop of Western fantasy about friendship and brotherhood conquering all.
Barrows-Friedman is right. Just as Basel and Yuval discovered, when it comes time to go home their realities are markedly and painfully different. What did those Israelis at the protests do, the evening after the protest? Have homes to go to? Food to eat? Living as they do in the heart of a genocidal settler colonial colony, and gathering for mass dissent means very little if there isn’t collective dissent that culminates in physically stopping their own communities from starving, bombing, and torturing a historically besieged population.
Yehezkeli and his comments are not an aberration or an anomaly. They are a product of a murderous settler colonial society.
Featured image via Wikimedia/Ran Yehezkel via Creative Commons 3.0
This post was originally published on Canary.
The best reference for understanding the Palestine-Israel crisis is a book by Dan Kovalik. The Case for Palestine: Why It Matters and Why You Should Care is a carefully researched, meticulously documented, scholarly analysis of the longstanding confrontation, presenting a detailed account of the conflict’s history.
I confront the bottomless depths of despair and uncontrollable weeping when I think about the horrors currently unfolding in Gaza. Therefore, I’ll try to keep this brief, without avoiding the ugly realities of the barbaric campaign by Israel to ethnically cleanse “Greater Israel” of the Palestinian people.
Zionist propaganda — which is all we get from mainstream Western media — would have us believe that the Israeli destruction of Gaza is a reaction to the terrorist acts of Hamas on October 7, 2023. History didn’t start on that date. The Hamas attack on Israel was a reaction to the brutality and oppression of the Palestinian people by Israel without pause for 75 years.
It began in 1948 with what the Palestinians call the ‘Nakba’. Translation: the Catastrophe. For decades prior to 1948, Zionists had been buying up land in Palestine. “[But] by 1948, the Jewish settlers constituted only one-third of the population of Palestine (and the vast majority of these were European settlers who were newcomers immigrating after 1917) and owned less than 6 percent of the land. And yet, the United Nations, in General Assembly Resolution 181 — the result of the intense lobbying by the Zionists as well as the guilt the Europeans rightly felt from the Holocaust — allocated 56 percent of the land, and the very best land, for the creation of the new Jewish state.”
Now it was time for the settlers to get serious about taking over the region. The Nakba was the way. Palestinians were thrown off the land they had owned and occupied for centuries. 800,000 were quickly uprooted, and 532 Palestinian villages were destroyed. The indigenous population was sent packing. Killings and rape occurred not infrequently. This was the beginning of the terror campaign by Israel with the explicit intention of cleansing Palestine of its native population.
What has happened since, including the October 7 reaction by Hamas, is the direct consequence of this policy. Israel’s intent to drive the Palestinians from their homeland and create a purely Jewish Greater Israel has now expanded into a full-blown genocide.
Gaza Destruction_120_.jpg
It is very difficult to determine the exact number of casualties — which include women and children — resulting from Israel’s unrelenting bombardment of Gaza, and the military operation daily unfolding there. Official numbers of dead are compiled from those delivered to the morgue. But tens of thousands are buried under the rubble, unaccounted for. Additionally, people are dying every day from starvation and lack of medical treatment. Israel has barred food and other aid from entering the conflict zone.
But the official number of deaths, as I’m writing this, exceeds 58,000.
The real death toll, by some estimates, is more than three times that, or nearly 8 percent of Gaza’s pre-October 7th population.
A substantial number of Israeli citizens make no secret of the fact that they consider the Palestinians sub-human, insects, mere animals, and their presence in Greater Israel is not welcome. They are to be eliminated by whatever method is required. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have herded Palestinians into “safe” tent encampments, then bombed them in their tents. The IDF attacks schools, mosques, and has destroyed every hospital in Gaza. Hundreds of videos are circulating social media showing children mangled, mutilated, or in advanced stages of starvation; whole families killed by the bombing; horrifying scenes reminiscent of the Holocaust which Jews are so fond of citing as evidence of their own victimhood, of people being burned alive, victims of incendiary weaponry dropped on the homes and apartments of innocent civilians; journalists, doctors and other medical professionals, and aid workers, have been targeted for assassination.
None of this is rumor or propaganda. Hundreds of credible eyewitnesses have fully corroborated it — many of them working for humanitarian organizations and human rights groups, including UNICEF, WHO, United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), the World Food Programme, the Red Cross, the Red Crescent, Doctors Without Borders, and Amnesty International.
Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, has spoken out, and her message is loud and clear: Israel’s assault on Gaza is the “shame of the century”.
The latest Israeli gambit is to announce the availability of food, drive the food truck to a designated spot, and, when emaciated, desperate Palestinians show up for what scraps they can get, to gun them down in cold blood. Mercenaries from the U.S. are participating in this.
The horror show in Gaza is being referred to as the first genocide in history to be televised. Just a few clicks on a computer mouse or swipes on your smartphone, and you can watch the slaughter unfold as it happens.
As a relevant aside, Israelis are at the same time continuing their longstanding efforts to rid the West Bank of Palestinians, demolishing homes and entire communities, evicting Palestinians from property they’ve owned for generations. Forcing Palestinians to leave and stealing their land has always been the official policy of Israel, though it has for decades been hidden under a shroud of hypocritical blather. The apartheid state established by Israel in the West Bank has made life miserable, often completely intolerable for Palestinians.
Make no mistake about it …
The U.S. is fully complicit in this savagery. The pro-Zionist Congress, administration, and mainstream media all parrot the Israeli propaganda claim that the slaughter of the Palestinian people and wholesale destruction of Gaza reflect Israel’s “right to defend itself”. Anyone who has the integrity and basic decency to object to the carnage inflicted by the IDF is subject to penalties and prosecution. The U.S. is providing all the weaponry Israel is using in its genocidal campaign. From October 7, the date of Hamas’ attack on Israel, till January of this year, $22 billion in military equipment and ordnance has been given to Israel by America. The U.S. military also provides logistical support, conducts rigorous surveillance, and shares intelligence data, which facilitates identifying targets for bombing and Israeli troop assaults.
President Trump has even explicitly stated his full, unwavering support for the entirety of Israel’s agenda, specifically stipulating relocating the Palestinians from Gaza.
This is by far the cruelest, sickest, most inhumane, barbaric, and criminal official action by state actors — in this case, Israel and the U.S. — I’ve witnessed in my lifetime. That the U.S. is not fully, unhesitatingly, forcefully condemning it is disheartening and distressing. That, in fact, our tax dollars as U.S. citizens are being used literally to pay for a campaign engineered to uproot and destroy a people is appalling and unconscionable.
As U.S. citizens, we’re paying the tab for a genocide.
As U.S. citizens, we all bear the shame for this new holocaust.
As U.S. citizens, it’s our duty to remove from power any individual who supports such heinous war crimes and any foreign entity or leader who is responsible for this monstrous slaughter.
As U.S. citizens, it’s up to us to reclaim our country and demand America return to the values we believe reflect the true goodness, courage, and moral character of everyday citizens.
[ This is an excerpt from my upcoming book, “America’s Hijacked Peace Dividend”, available late October or November at fine bookstores across the globe. ]
The post The Case for Palestine first appeared on Dissident Voice.This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.
We, the undersigned scholars, educators, and education practitioners write to express our alarm at the Harvard Education Publishing Group’s (HEPG) cancellation of a special issue on Palestine and Education in the Harvard Educational Review (HER). Such censorship is an attempt to silence the academic examination of the genocide, starvation and dehumanisation of Palestinian people by the state of Israel and its allies.
As reported by The Guardian, contributing authors of the special issue were informed late into the process that the publisher intended to subject all articles to a legal review by Harvard University’s Office of General Counsel. In response to this extraordinary move, the twenty-one contributing authors submitted a joint letter to both HEPG and HER, protesting this process as a contractual breach that violated their academic freedom.
The post A Public Call For Accountability At The Harvard Education Publishing Group appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.
This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.
Norway’s $2-trillion sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest, announced on 25 August that it has dropped US-based construction and mining equipment manufacturer Caterpillar and five Israeli banks over their involvement in rights abuses in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
The banks – Hapoalim, Leumi, Mizrahi Tefahot, First International Bank of Israel, and FIBI Holdings – were cut after the fund’s Council on Ethics warned they posed an “unacceptable risk” of enabling serious violations.
The Council said Caterpillar’s machinery has been used by Israeli forces in “extensive and systematic violations of international humanitarian law” through the destruction of Palestinian property.
The post Norwegian Wealth Fund Drops Caterpillar, Five Israeli Banks appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.
This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.
