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Category: Palestine

  • Rewarding knowingly illegal conduct – some might say, Israeli terrorism

    Why the recognition of the State of Palestine by Australia is an important development. Meanwhile, New Zealand still dithers. This article unpacks the hypocrisy in the debate.

    ANALYSIS: By Paul Heywood-Smith

    The recognition of the State of Palestine by Australia, leading, it is hoped, to full UN member state status, is an important development.

    What has followed is a remarkable demonstration of ignorance and/or submission to the Zionist lobby.

    Rewarding Hamas
    Let us consider aspects of the response. One aspect is that recognising Palestine is rewarding the resistance organisation Hamas.

    There are a number of issues involved here. The first issue is that Hamas is branded as a “terrorist organisation”. So much is said, apparently, by eight nations compared to the overwhelming majority of UN recognised states which do not so regard it.

    May I suggest that Hamas is not a terrorist organisation: refer P&I, October 23, 2022, Australia must overturn its listing of Hamas as a terrorist organisation. Hamas is a Palestinian Islamist political party which chose to fight apartheid by calling for one state.

    That was Hamas’s objective when it fought the election against Fatah in 2006.

    As an aside, it now results in the lie that it is ridiculous that the Albanese government would recognise Palestine as part of a two-state solution when Hamas rejects a two-state solution. This is just yet another attempt to demonise Hamas.

    Hamas leaders have repeatedly said they would accept a two-state solution. It has only recently done so again.

    On 23 July last, when Hamas responded to a US draft ceasefire framework the Hamas official, Basem Naim, affirmed Hamas’s publicly stated pledge that it would give up power in Gaza and support a two-state solution on the pre-1967 borders with East Jerusalem as the capital of an independent Palestine.

    These are the very borders stipulated by international law — see hereunder.

    The Palestinians constituting Hamas are residents of an illegally occupied territory. International law affords to them the right to resist: Geneva Conventions I-IV, 1949.

    The hypocrisy associated with the demonisation of Hamas is massive. Much is made of hostages having been taken on 7 October 2023 — a war crime according to international law. Those militants who took the hostages might be forgiven for thinking that it was minimal compared with the seven years of non-compliance with Security Council Resolution (SCR) 2334 calling for the end of occupation and removal of settlements.

    The second issue is that Hamas commenced the events in Gaza by its horrific, unprovoked, attack on 7 October 2023. As to October 7 being unprovoked, see P&I, October 9, 2023 Palestinians, pushed beyond endurance, defend their homeland against violent apartheid.

    The events of October 7 are, in any event, shrouded in doubt. This follows from Israel’s suppression of evidence concerning what happened. What we do know is that the Israel Defence Force (IDF) received orders to shell Israeli homes and even their own bases on October 7.

    In addition, the Hannibal Directive justified IDF slaughter of Israelis potentially being taken as hostages. It is also accepted that allegations of rape and beheading of babies by Hamas militants were false. The disinformation put out by Israel, and Israel’s refusal to allow journalists on site, or to interview participants, make it impossible to form any clear or credible understanding of what happened on October 7.

    It is accepted that Hamas militants attacked three Israeli military bases, no doubt with the intention that those bases should withdraw from their positions relative to Gazan territory. Such action can be understood as consistent with an occupied citizenry resisting such illegal occupation.

    Compounding the uncertainty over October 7 is the continuing conjecture, leakage, of information suggesting that the IDF had advance warning of the proposed Hamas attack but chose, for other purposes, to take no action. These uncertainties are never adverted to by our press which repeatedly attributes responsibility for all Israeli deaths on the day to the actions of Hamas militants, which actions are presented as an “abomination, barbarity”. Refer generally to P&I, November 5, 2023 (Stuart Rees) Expose and dismiss the domination Israeli narrative; P&I, January 4, 2024 Israeli general killed Israelis on 7 October and then lied about it.

    The third issue, the major hypocrisy, is that Hamas is being rewarded. Consider the position of Israel. Israel is, and has been, illegally occupying Palestinian territory since 1967. This is undisputed according to international law as articulated in the following instruments:

    • 1967 – SCR 242;
    • 2004 – the ICJ decision concerning The Wall;
    • Dec. 2016 – SCR 2334, not vetoed by Obama, recognising the illegal occupation and calling for its end; and
    • 2024 – the Advisory Opinion of the ICJ of 19 July.

    Israel has done nothing to comply with any of these instruments. It is set on a programme of gradual acquisition.

    The result is that now there are illegal settlements all over the West Bank and East Jerusalem. When Israel is told: the West Bank and East Jerusalem are to be part of a Palestinian state, it will scream, “But large parts are occupied by Jewish Israelis!” These are “facts on the ground”.

    Supporters of Israel ignore the fact that occupation by settlers occurred in the full knowledge that international law branded such occupation as illegal. If the settlements are considered as a “done deal”, that would be rewarding knowingly illegal conduct — some might say, Israeli terrorism.

    So that there can be no doubt about the import of the position it is appropriate to specify the critical parts of SCR 2334:

    The Security Council

    1. Reaffirms that the establishment by Israel of settlements in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, has no legal validity and constitutes a flagrant violation under international law and a major obstacle to the achievement of the two-State solution and a just, lasting and comprehensive peace;
    2. Reiterates its demand that Israel immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, and that it fully respect all of its legal obligations in this regard;
    3. Underlines that it will not recognise any changes to the 4 June 1967 lines, including with regard to Jerusalem, other than those agreed by the parties through negotiations;
    4. Stresses that the cessation of all Israeli settlement activities is essential for salvaging the two-State solution, and calls for affirmative steps to be taken immediately to reverse the negative trends on the ground that are imperilling the two-State solution;.

    Following the ICJ Advisory Opinion of July 19, the UN General Assembly in adopting the same set 17 September 2025 as the deadline for a complete Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territory.

    Negotiated settlement
    And when Israel now says, “Recognition now is going to prevent a negotiated settlement”, it is ignoring the fact that in the six, 12, 20 months, two, three, four years until such negotiated settlement occurs, many more settlements would have been commenced, which of course, are more “facts on the ground”.

    Then we have the response of the Coalition, which demonstrates how irrelevant the Opposition is in today’s Australia. That response is that the recognition will inhibit a negotiated settlement between Israel and Palestinians.

    The Coalition, however, says nothing about the fact that the Israeli government has repeatedly stated that there will never be a Palestinian State. Indeed, Israel has legislated to that effect and is moreover periodically purporting to annex Palestinian land.

    So how does the Coalition believe that a negotiated settlement will come about? Well, one way, over which Israel may have no say, is for Palestine to become a full member State of the UN. One UN member state cannot occupy the land of another.

    Failure of our press to ask any question of pro-Israel interviewees about the end of occupation is a disgrace.

    Next challenge
    Now for the next challenge — to bring about the end of occupation. Israel will not accede readily. Sanctions must be the first step. Such sanctions must be immediate, concrete and crippling.

    They must result in the immediate suspension of trade. That can be the first step.

    Watch this space.

    Paul Heywood-Smith is an Adelaide SC (senior counsel) of some 20 years. He was the initial chairperson of the Australian Friends of Palestine Association, an incorporated association registered in South Australia in 2004. He is the author of The Case for Palestine, The Perspective of an Australian Observer (Wakefield Press, 2014). This article was first published by Pearls & Irritations and is republished with permission.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Journalist Marwa Muslim was killed by Israel and her body left for 44 days

    In one of Gaza City’s neighborhoods, the night was heavy, but the home of journalist Marwa Muslim and her brothers remained a small refuge in the heart of the storm. They had nothing but the walls of their home to shelter them from Israel’s relentless bombardment. Suddenly, there was an explosion, and the roof collapsed on top of them. A thick silence fell, as if the city had stopped breathing.

    For forty-four days, silence was the only companion to their bodies buried under the rubble. No one approached, no one dared, as the bombing surrounded the area and the siege closed the roads. Every night, the cement dust grew heavier on the bones, and every day, life went on outside while they were slowly erased from view.

    When people were finally able to reach the house, they found neither Marwa nor her brothers’ faces, nor even recognizable features. They found only skulls and bones bearing irrefutable testimony to unimaginable brutality, and a silence that screamed what words could not say.

    Marwa Muslim: gone, but not forgotten

    Marwa Muslim, who carried a camera and a pen to write about the pain of Gaza, ended her life as part of that pain. She went from being a witness to the tragedy to a testimony written with her body under the rubble. Her story encapsulates what thousands of civilians in Gaza are experiencing: they are killed in their homes and left for days and weeks under the rubble, without rescue, without farewell, without justice.

    This story is not an exception, but a reflection of a whole approach.

    Human rights and international reports describe what is happening in Gaza as a full-fledged genocide: the bombing of homes, schools, and hospitals; neighborhoods wiped off the map; and numbers that only tell part of the truth. The majority of the victims are women and children, and thousands are still missing, as if life here is written in erasure rather than survival.

    As for journalists, who are supposed to be witnesses to the tragedy, they themselves have become part of it.

    More than 270 journalists have been killed since the war began, the highest number in a single conflict in decades. Cameras lie broken among the rubble, and the voices that sought to convey the truth have become names on lists of martyrs. In Gaza, words are assassinated along with their authors, and narrators are killed along with their stories.

    Her story is a witness to Israel’s genocide

    Marwa Muslim and her brothers left after 44 nights of silence, but their story remains a witness.

    It was not written by a pen, but by rubble, blood, and bones.

    It is an open cry to the world, saying that what is happening here is not a passing war, but a human tragedy that repeats itself every day.

    Marwa, who wanted to write the story with her pen, saw her life become the story itself: the story of a people buried alive, resisting with their voices until their last breath.

    Featured image supplied

    By Alaa Shamali

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Suspended Green MP tells Al Jazeera NZ must stand on ‘right side of history’ over Palestine

    Pacific Media Watch

    The New Zealand Green Party co-leader suspended over criticising government MPs over a “spineless” stance over Gaza has called for action.

    Greens co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick said in an interview with Al Jazeera that public pressure was mounting on governments to end the Israeli genocide in Gaza.

    The politician continues to push for recognition of Palestinian statehood and sanctions on Israel, despite being ejected from New Zealand’s Parliament for a week for her remarks.

    She refused to apologise in the House last week, telling Al Jazeera that New Zealand must “stand on the right side of history”.

    “We in Aotearoa New Zealand have a long proud history of standing typically on the right side of things, whether that be our anti-nuclear stance or our stance against apartheid in South Africa,” she said.

    “So it really is a question for this current government whether they are now willing to do the right thing and stand on the right side of history, and that was precisely the point that we were making last week in Parliament.”

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Eugene Doyle: Saving Palestine’s Marwan Barghouti is our duty

    COMMENTARY: By Eugene Doyle

    Seeing video evidence this week of the physical and psychological mistreatment of the great Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti sickened me. I have written a number of articles about Marwan.

    Researching and writing builds knowledge and empathy and I am one of those who believes, given the opportunity, he really could be the Palestinian Mandela. How should you and I respond to this criminality by the Israeli state?

    A video clip posted by the Israeli “Security” Minister Itamar Ben Gvir on August 15 showed the bully taunting and intimidating a frail Marwan Barghouti. It sparked international condemnation.

    His own wife did not recognise him

    Marwan’s wife and human rights activist Fadwa Barghouti, was shocked to see the heavy toll the Israelis had inflicted on a man legendary for his indomitable spirit.

    “I didn’t recognise you or your features, and maybe part of me doesn’t want to admit everything your face and body express about what you and the prisoners have endured,” she wrote in a public message to her husband.

    “They are still, Marwan, chasing you and pursuing you even after 23 years in prison and in the solitary cell you’ve been living in for two years.”

    She added: “I know that the only thing that hurts you is the inability to protect Palestinian children.”

    International protocols on prisoner treatment
    The mistreatment of prisoners like Marwan Barghouti is a crime under international law; the relevant international protocols include: Geneva Convention IV (1949) — Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War; Common Article 3 (minimum protections including bans on torture, cruel treatment, and “outrages upon personal dignity”); UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (Nelson Mandela Rules).

    These establish prohibitions against torture, degrading treatment, and requirements for humane conditions of detention. Look at Marwan Barghouti and weep that we support Israel, a state that has defecated on the Geneva Convention, the Genocide Convention and every memorial to the victims of the Shoah.

    The Israelis, “our allies”, have committed rape-murders of prisoners (documented in their own posted videos), killed countless Palestinian leaders and hold thousands of hostages in gruesome captivity — even as they commit ethnic cleansing in the West Bank and forced starvation in Gaza.

    Barghouti, who would win any free and fair elections in Palestine in a landslide, has since 2023, according to human rights organisations, been repeatedly assaulted and subjected to Abu Ghraib-style treatment, had joints dislocated and other forms of torture while our governments turn a blind eye and work day and night to provide the Israelis with the political cover needed to pursue the Greater Israel project.

    Imprisoned Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti
    Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti has now been in prison for 23 years so far . . . he would win any free and fair elections in Palestine in a landslide, but he has been repeatedly assaulted and subjected to Abu Ghraib-style treatment by the Israelis. Image: The New Arab

    Terrible news from Yousef Aljamal
    I also received terrible news this week that my friend Yousef Aljamal had suffered yet another horror at the hands of the Israelis: his sister Somaiya, 35; her husband Anas, 35; and their daughters Hoor, 13, and Sham, 9, had been killed in an Israeli missile attack earlier this month as they slept.

    A third daughter, Noor, 14, was injured and is now the family’s sole survivor.

    I interviewed Yousef in my home in Wellington a few weeks ago; it was a privilege and an education to spend time with the distinguished Palestinian writer. As I said in the subsequent article, the encounter made visceral for me that word genocide.

    Sitting opposite me in my study in my serene Wellington coastal suburb, Yousef told me of the 40 members of his family who had been murdered by the Israelis. Now four more members of his family have been taken.

    These are people like us, with feelings like us. They are not the Hated Others so long painted by our mainstream media as unworthy of naming, unworthy of human dignity.

    The collective West is responsible under law
    The Israelis have turned Gaza into a hellscape that would shock Dante Alighieri. Over two million people are being tortured in the cruellest way every day and our governments refuse to intervene in powerful and meaningful ways.

    According to whistleblower US Green Beret Lieutenant-Colonel (retired) Anthony Aguilar, the Israelis and the American GHF contractors use pepper spray and gunfire instead of signs to direct the human traffic. Waves of suffering humanity are tossed hither and thither on a sea of diabolical inhumanity. Nearly 2000 starving innocents have been gunned down while seeking food.

    To be blunt: If the Israelis don’t want to be likened to the Nazis, they should stop acting like Nazis.

    The responsibility to prevent and punish
    This evil is supported to astonishing lengths by the morally empty governments of Australia, New Zealand, Canada and, of course, the great arsenals of genocide the US, UK and Germany. The leaders of the powerful Western countries are fully aware of what is being done and allow it to continue — and therefore represent the moral nadir of our species.

    Leaders like Anthony Albanese, Christopher Luxon and Keir Starmer make corporeal the term Banality of Evil. They calculate, they mumble and equivocate, then they comply with the Americans. “Genocide enabler” should be their sole epitaph.

    Our countries are signatories to the Genocide Convention, the first Article of which states: “The Contracting Parties confirm that genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and to punish.”

    Prevent and punish. Legal scholars and the ICJ’s opinions affirm that states providing military, financial, or political support with knowledge of likely genocidal acts risk being found complicit.

    Our governments have failed to reach the lowest bar of human decency or fulfil this fundamental duty. It is up to us to act. If it was right to oppose Nazism in the Second World War it is most certainly a moral imperative to oppose the brand of Nazism the Jewish State of Israel has created today. We must find the courage to oppose them.

    The International Court of Justice ruled in 2007 in the ICJ Bosnia Genocide case that Serbia was guilty of breaching its duty to prevent the 1995 genocide at Srebrenica. Countries like the UK, Germany, New Zealand and Australia would likely, if international law was applied evenly, be found similarly culpable for failing to prevent genocide by Israel and the US.

    This is the legal concept of erga omnes partes, the collective responsibility that signatory states share.

    On January 26, 2024, the International Court of Justice ruled that Israel faces credible allegations of genocide in Gaza and imposed urgent, legally binding measures, including an obligation to allow humanitarian access and prevent genocidal acts. All our states are fully aware Israel has defied this ruling.

    War crimes tribunals on the Palestine Genocide will be essential to restore international law. War criminals whether in Tel Aviv, London, Canberra or Wellington must one day face justice.

    In a recent article I described Stéphane Hessel, a leading member of the French Resistance, who survived time in Nazi concentration camps, including Buchenwald. After the war he was one of the co-authors of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), a pillar of international law to this day. The Declaration affirms the inherent dignity and equal rights of all humans.

    In later years Hessel (d. 2013), who was Jewish, saw the treatment of the Palestinians as an affront to this and repeatedly called Israel out for crimes against humanity.

    Hessel argued people needed to be outraged just as he and his fellow fighters had been during the war. In 2010, he said: “Today, my strongest feeling of indignation is over Palestine, both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. The starting point of my outrage was the appeal launched by courageous Israelis to the Diaspora: you, our older siblings, come and see where our leaders are taking this country and how they are forgetting the fundamental human values of Judaism.”

    Imagine what action he would call for today.

    Aaron Bushnell’s challenge to us
    So, back to the core challenge I posed at the beginning. Are we willing to do what it takes to save Marwan Barghouti, to save our brothers and sisters in Palestine?

    As Aaron Bushnell, the active duty US serviceman said the day he self-immolated in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington last year to protest the genocide against the Palestinian people:

    “Many of us like to ask ourselves ‘What would I do if I was alive during slavery? Or the Jim Crow South? Or Apartheid? What would I do if my country was committing genocide?’ The answer is, you’re doing it. Right now.”

    Eugene Doyle is a writer based in Wellington. He has written extensively on the Middle East, as well as peace and security issues in the Asia Pacific region. He contributes to Asia Pacific Report and Café Pacific, and hosts the public policy platform solidarity.co.nz

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Black People Who See Themselves In Palestinians Find Israel Sees The Same

    Zoharah Simmons’ first trip to Israel and its occupied territories in 1994 got off to an inauspicious start. Born Gwen Robinson in Memphis, Tennessee, the great granddaughter of a slave and a former organizer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee who volunteered to work in Mississippi during Freedom Summer, Simmons was hardly unfamiliar with European settler colonialism or the violence that is its motor.

    She was, however, caught off guard by what she experienced upon her arrival in Tel Aviv as part of a peace delegation with the American Friends Service Committee, a social justice organization founded by the Quakers.

    First, there was the matter of getting past Israel’s immigration and customs agents.

    The post Black People Who See Themselves In Palestinians Find Israel Sees The Same appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Why National Education Association Members Voted To Support Palestine

    As an educator, to me, it’s so important that students are part of the struggle. I know when I was in high school during the Vietnam War, anytime I asked about it, I was shot down and told, “What does that have to do with education?” It has everything to do with education. It has everything to do with growing new leadership and teaching students or helping students, assisting students take the leadership in terms of being involved in the movement for justice.

    In a sense, Trump and the policies of the federal government have done a lot of the organizing for us because there’s lots of young people who just really want to know what’s going on and want to be involved in stopping it, whether it be Palestine, fighting ICE, or actions against the terrorism of the police.

    The post Why National Education Association Members Voted To Support Palestine appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • UN Military Force Needed To Halt Israel’s Assault On Gaza, Tribunal Says

    A group of leading academics, legal experts and human rights advocates have called for the creation of a UN-mandated international military force to stop Israel’s 22-month-long war on the besieged Gaza Strip.

    In a statement on Monday, Richard Falk, the president of the Gaza Tribunal Project and a former UN special rapporteur, called on the international community to implement the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) principle.

    “Law has failed, because it has not been enforced,” Falk said at a press conference in Istanbul as he urged the international community to use R2P as a framework for intervention. He noted that the lack of enforcement had left Palestinians unprotected despite clear evidence of mass atrocities.

    The post UN Military Force Needed To Halt Israel’s Assault On Gaza, Tribunal Says appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • More Western Activists Are Traveling to Palestine — and Israel Is Deporting Them

    As settler violence continues to escalate in Palestine, including the killing of activist and documentary filmmaker Awdah Hathaleen by an Israeli settler at the end of July, Western activists who have been watching from afar as Israel commits a genocide in Gaza are increasingly putting their lives at risk in the West Bank to stand in the way of home demolitions and settler invasions. Eli, 19…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Trump Admin Halts Visas for Gazans as Children Arrive for Medical Care

    The State Department announced this weekend that it is suspending visitor visas for Palestinians from Gaza to enter the U.S. after right wingers raged about children entering the country to receive medical care — often for injuries caused by Israel with the U.S.’s backing. “All visitor visas for individuals from Gaza are being stopped while we conduct a full and thorough review of the process…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Palestinian journalists urge international press to get into Gaza, before it’s too late

    Almost two years after the outbreak of Israel’s war of extermination in the Gaza Strip, journalists on the ground have issued urgent calls to their international colleagues to enter Gaza and witness the violations and crimes on the ground for themselves. This comes amid continued bombing and destruction of infrastructure and media institutions, and the killing of dozens of journalists and the serious injury of many others.

    Urgent calls from the heart of Gaza – via its journalists

    Palestinian journalist Momen Qurei, through his Facebook account, called on his international colleagues to go to Gaza, stressing that the occupation has been imposing a war of extermination on the Strip for more than a year and a half. Qurei said:

    I am a Palestinian journalist based in Gaza, and the occupation has been waging a war of extermination against us for more than a year and a half, in which dozens of journalists have been killed and many seriously injured. We are still waiting for unions, associations and independent journalists to come to Gaza, and we are ready to welcome and accompany them.

    This call highlights the dangers faced by journalists in Gaza, where warplanes and missiles directly target their workplaces, making coverage of events on the ground an extremely difficult task that requires courage and high professionalism.

    18 years of photographic testimony

    Photojournalist Mohammed Asaad, who has been covering the wars in Gaza for 18 years, joined the international calls, stressing the need to pressure governments to facilitate the arrival of international journalists to the Strip before any new military operation expected within a month. Asaad said:

    I am photojournalist Mohammed Asaad, covering the wars on Gaza for 18 years. I call on international journalists to pressure their governments to come immediately to Gaza City before the expected occupation operation next month.

    These calls underscore the magnitude of the risks facing local journalists and the urgent need to document crimes and violations on the ground and highlight them at the international level to ensure accountability and protect civilians.

    Targeting of journalists and international warnings

    Since the beginning of the war, Palestinian journalists have been direct targets of attacks, whether through aerial bombardment of media headquarters or targeting of press teams during coverage. Human rights and international reports have confirmed the deaths of dozens of journalists and the injury of hundreds more with varying degrees of severity, while filming and investigative equipment has been completely destroyed.

    The Israeli occupation has deliberately assassinated nearly 270 journalists in Gaza since the start of the war, the latest being the massacre that claimed the lives of six journalists, including Al Jazeera correspondents Anas al-Sharif and Muhammad Qurei.

    International organizations, including the Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders, have repeatedly warned that the continued targeting of media professionals is aimed at concealing crimes and violations committed against civilians.

    These organizations have called on the international community to provide protection for journalists and ensure access to conflict zones without direct threat to life.

    Targeted journalists in Gaza… and international pressure

    The media sector in Gaza has been in an exceptional situation since the beginning of the war. Dozens of journalists have been killed and many seriously injured as a result of their locations and camera equipment being targeted, while it is almost impossible for local journalists to cover events without international assistance.

    The calls by Palestinian journalists come in the context of a global appeal to pressure governments and media organizations to facilitate the entry of international journalists and accompany local colleagues to document violations.

    These calls carry a clear message: the world must see with its own eyes what is happening in Gaza, before the humanitarian disaster becomes even greater than it already is.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Alaa Shamali

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • The ghost of Palestine Action just paid a visit to arms manufacturer Leonardo

    First thing Monday 18 July, Shut Down Leonardo Edinburgh once again took action to shut down the Israel-supplying arms factory in Edinburgh. Once again, brave members of the public are risking arrest to stop the companies world leaders – including the UK and Scottish governments – are enabling to supply arms to Israel for its abhorrent genocide and war crimes in Palestine.

    Shut Down Leonardo: activists target Israel arms supplier

    After blocking the entrance of the factory with a specially adapted van, an activist locked-on inside:

    Activist in spray-painted skull mask is locked-on inside a van behind a Palestine flag and metal barrier, making a peace sign with their hand.

    Another locked-on to the top of the van:

    Activist in a black cap and keffiyeh sits atop a van with a rucksack and a banner draped over the back of the vehicle. Two police cars approach, with cops stood nearby.

    Activist locked-on to top of a van with a Palestine flag displayed, impeding road access to Leonardo, reflected in building windows opposite.

    They smashed glass jars filled with red and green paint around the factory entrances. This was to further impede access, and shut weapons production down:

    Italian-owned Leonardo supplies parts for the F-35 jets and Apache helicopters Israel has used in its genocide in Gaza. At the Edinburgh factory, Leonardo produces guidance systems. The Israeli military has used these to guide the 2000 pound bombs and reduce Gaza to rubble.

    World leaders ignoring Israel’s genocide, so activists keep stepping up

    Despite making hundreds of millions in profits every year, and clear links to Israel’s ongoing genocide, the Scottish government has given Leonardo huge sums of tax-payers money in the form of subsidies.

    The United Nations special rapporteur Francesca Albanese recently named Leonardo the “main military contributor” to the genocide.

    This is the second action by Shut Down Leonardo Edinburgh. On 15 August, the group launched with an action at the factory. At least five van loads of riot police arrived at the plant. Counter-terrorism police arrested the activists, and held them under the Terrorism Act, before eventually releasing them on bail.

    A spokesperson for Shut Down Leonardo said:

    With most world leaders either ignoring Israel’s genocide in Gaza, or actively involved in it, we cannot look aside while our Palestinian brothers and sisters are being exterminated. By shutting down Leonardo, we hope to disrupt the supply chain to the deadly F-35 war planes.

    Featured image and additional images supplied

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Shady AI tech firm Palantir was just caught trying to recruit school kids

    On Monday 18 August, activists from the group Climate Resistance disrupted a training day Palantir was holding for 16-18-year-old students in central London.

    They chanted loudly outside the recruitment event:

    Students say it loud and clear, we reject Palantir.

    Activists also warned attendees against trusting the shady AI technology firm, shouting:

    Hands off our students! Hands off Palestine!

    Unsurprisingly, security were quick to manhandle protesters and remove them from inside the event:

    Palantir: neck deep in Israel’s genocide and warmongering

    Palantir uses AI to create and analyse massive datasets, in many cases to monitor, predict, and target citizens. The company has large contracts with the Israeli military, ICE in the US, and UK police forces to boot. In 2023, NHS England awarded it a £330million contract, on a mission to access NHS data from the backdoor.

    Palantir keeps the specifics of its involvement with the Gaza genocide secret. However, what is known is that its support of Israel includes the AI “kill chain” targeting system Gotham. CEO Alex Karp has described the company killing Palestinians, who he has called “mostly terrorists”. The company continues to power the IDF, and Karp is particularly outspoken in support of modern crusades. Notably, he has told investors that:

    the rise of the West was not made possible ‘by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion … but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence

    And he has stated that Palantir has:

    a consistently pro-Western view, that the West has a superior way of living and organizing itself.

    Peter Thiel trying to ‘groom’ students

    Sam Simons from Climate Resistance said:

    Students shouldn’t be groomed by companies like this. Palantir is enabling an ongoing genocide and helping authoritarian governments track every move of their citizens. Capitalists like Peter Thiel and Alex Karp rely on human rights abuses to grow their share of the pie even larger. As the climate crisis continues, AI-assisted militaries and justice departments will have the power to crush any resistance to the profit drivers of figures like Thiel and Karp. We need to tax these billionaires out of existence before they get even more power over the lives of innocent people. They have already shown their apathy for humanity.

    The richest 1% own more wealth than 95% of humanity. Meanwhile, they are responsible for more emissions than two thirds of the global population. According to YouGov, over half of Brits believe billionaires should not exist and, according to the most recent survey published this year, 78% support a wealth tax. This includes the support of 66% of those with assets over £10 million.

    Featured image supplied

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Activists just began a ‘summer of sabotage’ against genocide and fossil fuel-supporting investors

    Activists have took aim at fossil fuel finance, declaring the start of “disruption like never before”, readying for a ‘Summer of Sabotage’. They begun with a direct action on Monday 18 August, sabotaging utilities infrastructure at the UK offices of three major fossil fuel investors – one of which was JP Morgan.

    A summer of sabotage against global deadly financiers like JP Morgan

    In the City of London, activists cut cables and superglued electrical service cabinets at JP Morgan Chase and Allianz:

    Activists super-gluing JP Morgan's electrical services cabinet. Yellow gloved hands with superglue.

    Activist cutting cables with pliers.

    They demanded companies like JP Morgan stop financing the climate emergency and genocide in Gaza. Activists also targeted the Northampton HQ of Barclaycard, cutting the 5G communications mast serving the building:

    Activists holding pliers and cutting electrical cables.

    Underground climate campaign ‘Shut The System’ took action to announce a period of sustained sabotage targeting key financial culprits in the climate emergency till the end of September. They call for civilians everywhere to join a ‘Summer of Sabotage’ by destroying the property and operating systems of financial institutions providing critical support to deadly industries globally.

    The launch action targeted JP Morgan and Barclays. The former is ranked the world’s largest banking investor in fossil fuels, while Barclays is Europe’s largest fossil fuel financier. Allianz, who activists also targeted, is the sixth largest insurer of fossil fuels and an insurer of Elbit Systems. Elbit supplies an estimated 85% of weapons Israel is using in its genocide in Gaza.

    Financing the climate crisis and genocide

    A spokesperson from Shut The System said on the action against JP Morgan and others:

    I am enraged by the financial sector’s continued support for deadly industries. ‘Just doing our job’ wasn’t an excuse in World War II and it isn’t today. They have a choice of which industries they finance. I cannot bear to stand idly by while those in power continue to exacerbate global problems just so the wealthy few can make increased profits. It is unhinged, psychopathic greed at the expense of billions of people.

    Shut The System promises that if the financial sector ignores its demands, then by October it will escalate further.

    The group took similar action in January, cutting the fibre optic cables of major insurance firms, disrupting internet speeds and causing internet shut downs at offices in Leeds and Birmingham. It also later graffitied messages at the multi-million pound properties of three senior Barclays staff members. The same night, activists spray-painted, smashed windows, and super-glued door locks at more than 20 Barclays branches nationwide. This was to coincide with the morning of its annual general meeting in May.

    Another spokesperson said:

    We have been forced underground by draconian anti-protest laws. The British state has recently shown how much they are willing to suppress peaceful protest. History shows direct action and sabotage are highly effective so we cannot stop while the climate emergency wages on and we see the most hopeful path forward is to operate beyond the state’s reach.

    Featured image and additional images supplied

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Gal Gadot just managed to blame her latest box office bomb on Palestine

    Gal Gadot is an actor who’s infamous for not being very good at acting. This is fitting, because she’s also infamous for being a former member and frequent supporter of the IDF – a.k.a. Israel’s immoral purveyor of genocide yet the self-described ‘most moral army in the world‘.

    Gal Gadot: bombing

    Despite her lack of talent, Gadot has starred in hits like 2017’s Wonder Woman. She’s certainly never the selling point of a movie, however, which is why it was unsurprising to see this year’s Snow White fail at the box office. While there seems to be many reasons why Snow White failed, Gadot herself blamed the failure on growing support for Palestinian liberation.

    Some people are making fun of Gadot for saying this, but we’re happy to believe it. After all, if it’s true, it means we’re living in a world in where it may be career ending to supporting a country which is committing genocide.

    Is there anything genocidaires won’t blame on Palestine?

    As reported by The Wrap:

    Gal Gadot was certain the live-action remake of “Snow White” was “going to be a huge success,” she told a group of interviewers in Israel in a wide-ranging interview published this week.

    But then the events of October 7, 2023, took place, and “what’s happening in all kinds of industries and also in Hollywood, is that there’s a lot of pressure on celebrities to bring up things against Israel,” she added.

    As noted, many were quick to mock Gal Gadot for this take:

    Reporting on Gadot’s recent support of Israel and the IDF, the independent Jewish non-profit Forward reported:

    On Oct. 12, as Israel’s incursion into Gaza ramped up, Gadot posted an Instagram story stating, “Killing innocent Palestinians is horrific. Killing of innocent Israelis is horrific. If you don’t feel the same, I think you should ask yourself why that is.”

    The post prompted backlash from Israelis who viewed it as slanderous against Israel. Popular Israeli radio host Ofira Hasayag told Gadot to “sit down and stay quiet.” Gadot shortly thereafter deleted the story on Instagram and issued an apology.

    “All I want is to speak out for Israel in the world and to show the horrors that we are experiencing and to help obtain worldwide support in the face of our critics,” Gadot said.

    The following screengrab is an Instagram post Gadot made in 2014 in which she claims Hamas were “hiding like cowards behind women and children”:Gal Gadot Instagram post from 2014 in which she claims Hamas are hiding behind women and civilians

    In 2014, it was easy to get away with this sort of thing; in 2025, experience has taught people that ‘Hamas is hiding behind women and children’ probably means ‘the IDF is gunning down civilians’.

    While Gal Gadot isn’t winning any awards for her acting, she did win an award for her defence of Israel from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL):

    While the ADL claims it exists to stop antisemitism, critics argue its real aim is to defend Israel. This is because the group does things like defend Elon Musk’s Nazi salute because he’s previously shown support for Israel.

    A positive sign?

    Ultimately, the only acceptable outcome in all of this is for Israel to withdraw from Gaza and for Palestinians to be able to live free. It may be a long journey to get there, but the fact that Israel’s supporters feel the heat of their unseemly solidarity is a step in the right direction.

    Hopefully, once these people – like Gal Gadot – are all to embarrassed to speak up, it will create space for the Palestinians to be heard.

    Featured image via Gage Skidmore (Flickr)

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • From Gaza to Iraq: the British establishment are allergic to accountability.

    Imagine a world in which we didn’t have to see Iraq war criminal Alistair Campbell’s face or hear his voice. A world in which the almost-always incorrect views generated on his smug, shit, Centrist Dad podcast never landed in your algorithm.

    I’d say the same for arch-Tory Rory Stewart who, bizarrely, governed an Iraqi province during the US occupation.

    There are honourable exceptions, sure. Gary Stevenson was on there there recently and he seems likes a decent lad. But on the whole, why are these deeply unserious figures treated like their track record isn’t appalling.

    Now imagine a world in which Tony Blair simply never got a platform to advance his grandiose, yet inevitably ridiculous takes?

    And imagine a world where the core values of Blairism – embodied today in the Magic Bank Manager Keir Starmer – had been consigned to the dustbin of history.

    Sounds alright, doesn’t it?

    Well one of the reasons that world doesn’t exist is that nobody was every remotely held to account over the Iraq War.

    The legacy media is a part of this. We shouldn’t be surprised that an industry dominated by Russell Group-educated Professional Managerial Class (PMC) losers would help recondition figures who represent their own values and ambitions.

    But there are other reasons too.

    The Inquiry Racket – from Iraq to…

    One mechanism to achieve a reckoning would have been a serious public inquiry, the findings of which would have been actionable before the law. But that is simply not what Britain does.

    Chilcot’s inquiry into Iraq delivered a vast report late and over-budget. The process was crippled by the report’s own parameters. It effectively left questions about the legality of the war unanswered. It had no legal power to hold anyone culpable.

    The drippiness of major British inquiries is well established. You can look at everything from Hillsborough to Bloody Sunday all the way through to Iraq. But it’s not simply that heads didn’t roll.

    At worst, there was some surface level reputational damage to a few powerful figures. Certainly not enough to keep them off our airwaves.

    Is that what we’re going to get with Gaza? The signal crime of our lifetimes? A horror much worse than Iraq?

    … a Gaza inquiry?

    Jeremy Corbyn – who else would it be? – is fighting for an inquiry into Israel’s genocidal assault already.

    A Bill to make provision for; to require the inquiry to consider any UK military, economic or political cooperation with Israel since October 2023, including the sale, supply or use of weapons, surveillance aircraft and Royal Air Force bases; to provide the inquiry with the power to question Ministers and officials about decisions taken in relation to UK involvement; and for connected purposes.

    On principle, you’d have to support him in that effort. But the truth is official inquiries are partial, messy and limited affairs. Inquiries often deliver a sense of closure the establishment doesn’t deserve. They take years. They drain those chasing justice of energy.

    Even Oliver Cromwell knew the best way to kill off a pressing issue was to refer it to a committee. To bog it down in bureaucracy, in haggles over language and scope, to slow it down – maybe forever.

    Having covered so many of these big inquiries over the years, I can’t help but feel that is what they are meant to do.

    Accountability never?

    And these the questions of Iraq and Gaza are not separate. Blair’s ideological inheritor is PM of this country. Would there be a Gaza if anybody had been held accountable for Iraq?

    It’s impossible to say.

    Britain founded Israel. It helped guarantee the great displacement of Palestinians long before these began. Israel remains a key node in a network of political and economic control over the Middle East. The British commitment to maintaining the fascistic little outpost it carved out of Palestine has never been clearer.

    But if nothing else, I think some permanently ruined senior political and media careers would have been a small ask. And it might have made it harder to back Israel to the degree we’ve seen. A serious inquiry with legal power might have forced the Labour Party – and the British establishment – into a reckoning with itself.

    And I can’t help but ask, how much of the political alienation people feel in this country comes back to this question. To the sense that no matter how awful its behaviour, the British establishment will always be able to set the scale and scope of its own accountability to zero.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Joe Glenton

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Suleiman Al-Obaid obituary: the Pelé of Palestine, murdered by Israel

    At a time when bread is more expensive than cups, Suleiman Al-Obaid, one of the most prominent football players in Palestinian history and the Palestinian national team’s all-time leading scorer, left his tent in Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, not in search of a new goal in the opponents’ net, but for a piece of bread to feed his children.

    His steps led him to the aid center known as “Al-Tina,” where hundreds of civilians gather under the threat of Israel’s bullets and shelling, hoping to get a little flour or bread. As he tried to take cover behind an earthen mound from sniper fire, an Israeli Quadcopter drone dropped a small bomb that killed him.

    Suleiman Al-Obaid, known as “the brown gazelle” and “Pelé of Palestine,” was not just a talented player, but a popular legend whose goals brought smiles to the faces of Palestinians. Throughout his career, he played for the national team for many years and was the top scorer with his magical touches, achieving statistics that made him one of the pillars of Palestinian football.

    But this time, he did not fall on the grass of the stadium after scoring a decisive goal, but on the soil of his city, whose name he defended in sporting events. The fans who once carried him on their shoulders in moments of victory carried him today, wrapped in a shroud, to his final resting place, while his children’s eyes followed the funeral, waiting for a return that would never happen.

    The shock of death

    On the morning of 6 August 2025, they left the displacement tent that had sheltered them after their displacement, and the family headed to the aid center. Next to the tent, his wife and five children sat, still reeling from the shock of departure and loss of support. At the door of the tent, a commemorative photo of Suleiman al-Obeid smiles at visitors, as if his presence is still among them despite his absence.

    His wife sits in silence, her heart heavy with the pain of a woman who has lost the man who was her support and her dream. Next to them is the voice of their two-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Asia, searching for the embrace of a father she can only find in his smile in the photograph.

    All the child knows is that her father is there in her hands in the frame of the photo, the only presence that connects her to the safety of childhood, while her mother’s pain gnaws at her heart with every glance at her little girl.

    From the playgrounds of Palestine to the tragedy of famine

    Suleiman Al-Obaid was not just a family man; he was a symbol of Palestinian sportsmanship, resistance, and determination.

    On the playing field, he rose from the Beach Services Club to the Al-Amari Club, winning professional league championships with both, before donning the national team jersey and playing 24 international matches, scoring over 100 memorable goals and becoming one of the legends of Palestinian football. Behind the smile and achievements was a loving father and devoted husband, striving to provide for his children amid the war and famine that ravaged the Gaza Strip.

    While scoring goals on the field, his eyes were always looking toward his future and that of his children. He did not allow war and famine to dampen his passion for football. He would gather his friends or go with his son Naseem to play, maintaining his connection to the game he loved, despite the destruction of the stadiums and the suspension of sporting activities.

    In the last days of his life, his passion became a means of survival, as he went to the aid center to bring food to his children, with the fate of sports standing side by side with the tragedy of daily life in Gaza.

    Global response to the tragic loss of Suleiman Al-Obaid

    Suleiman Al-Abed’s death did not go unnoticed on the international stage.

    The Union of European Football Associations described his talent as bringing hope to children even in the darkest of circumstances, while Mohamed Salah reposted the news of his death, asking: “How did he die, where, and why?” – because corporate media headlines refused to name Israel as his killer.

    Mohamed Abu Treika sent a message to FIFA, recalling the 762 Palestinian athletes who had been killed and the destruction of 267 sports facilities, and calling for action against the Zionist occupation.

    The United Nations called for the expulsion of Israeli teams from competitions, stressing that sport must remain free of apartheid, so that the name of Suleiman Al-Obaid remains a testament to the convergence of passion for sport with human suffering, and a symbol of the hope that a single dream can generate even in the most difficult circumstances.

    Suleiman Al-Obaid is gone, but his football legacy will remain a testament to the fact that heroes may leave the playing field, but they never leave the memory of the people who loved them.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Alaa Shamali

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • 40,000 babies are at risk of starving to death in Gaza thanks to Israel

    Amnesty International has accused the Israeli occupation of committing a systematic crime by pursuing a deliberate policy of starvation against the residents of the Gaza Strip, as part of a clear strategy aimed at destroying the health of Palestinians and undermining the fabric of their society.

    Gaza: tens of thousands of children at risk

    In a new report published by Agence France-Presse (AFP), the organization said that recent field testimonies provided compelling evidence that the deprivation of Palestinians of food, medicine, and humanitarian aid is not random, but rather a deliberate policy that the Israeli occupation has been implementing since the start of the ongoing war on the Strip.

    Amnesty International added that these testimonies “represent a stark indictment of the international system that has granted Israel near-total impunity for decades,” noting that the silence of the international community has allowed crimes against civilians to continue without accountability.

    Amnesty International affirmed that starvation in Gaza is being used as a weapon of war, which amounts to a crime against humanity under international law, noting that the deliberate deprivation of food, water, and medicine exacerbates the catastrophic health situation in the Strip and threatens the lives of hundreds of thousands of civilians, especially children, disabled, and older people.

    The organization called for the immediate and unconditional lifting of the blockade on the Gaza Strip, ensuring the safe and adequate delivery of humanitarian aid, and imposing a permanent ceasefire to end the worsening humanitarian tragedy.

    Unprecedented

    In the same context, the government media office in Gaza revealed shocking figures illustrating the scale of the humanitarian disaster, confirming that more than 40,000 infants under the age of one are suffering from severe malnutrition that threatens their lives with gradual death, while more than 100,000 children and patients are suffering from severe malnutrition, which threatens to cause a widespread tragedy.

    The office explained that the occupation continues to prevent the entry of baby milk, nutritional supplements, and hundreds of other essential items, including frozen meat and vegetables, exacerbating the humanitarian crisis and increasing rates of malnutrition and deadly diseases among the most vulnerable groups.

    These reports come at a time of increasing UN warnings of the risk of unprecedented famine in Gaza, with humanitarian organizations reporting that the vast majority of the population is suffering from food insecurity amid a complete collapse of health infrastructure and basic services.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Alaa Shamali

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Yvette Cooper facing contempt of court allegations over Observer article

    On Sunday 17 August, campaign group Defend Our Juries levelled a contempt of court complaint against the home secretary Yvette Cooper over an article in the Observer. Notably, this was after she made repeated insinuations that the government proscribed Palestine Action because of violence against people.

    Yvette Cooper’s Observer article: more lies from the home secretary

    Defend Our Juries addressed the complaint to attorney general Richard Hermer KC MP.

    In the Observer on Sunday, Cooper penned a piece titled Yvette Cooper: Palestine Action’s violent criminality is not lawful protest. In this, she said:

    Demonstrating is vital to free speech but this right does not extend to violence, intimidation and inflicting injuries

    However, as the documentary record disclosed in the legal proceedings before the High Court makes clear, the basis for the proscription was damage to property, specifically damage to the weapons Elbit Systems UK supplies to the Israeli military.

    The Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC) actually advised that:

    In support of its aims and objectives, the group primarily uses direct action tactics, the majority of which would not constitute an act of terrorism as defined under Section 1 of the Terrorism Act 2000, on the basis that any damage to property is typically more minor. Common tactics include graffiti, petty vandalism, occupation and lock-ons.

    It also noted that Palestine Action:

    media channels highly likely will only share footage, or encourage, instances of property damage. PA branded media will highly unlikely explicitly advocate for violence against persons.

    Moreover, the Proscription Review Group (PRG) advised that a ban on Palestine Action would be “novel and unprecedented”, because:

    there was no known precedent of an organisation being proscribed… mainly due to its use or threat of action involving serious damage to property.

    Out of nearly 500 Palestine Action actions since 2020, there is an allegation before the courts that in one of those actions, which took place over a year ago, the arrest process became violent, resulting in an injury to a police officer. However, Defend Our Juries highlighted that these are in fact “contested allegations”. Crucially, these have yet to be tested in a court of law. Yet Yvette Cooper alleged them in her Observer column, regardless.

    Constituting contempt of court: prejudicing the jury

    In its letter to Attorney General, Defend Our Juries said of Yvette Cooper and her Observer column:

    It is not only disingenuous to present this isolated case as characteristic of Palestine Action, it is a contempt of court that prevents fair trials of those who stand accused. Yvette Cooper’s comments have been widely publicised, such that it would be impossible to find a jury unaffected by them.

    We are not naïve regarding the political obstacles to commencing contempt of court proceedings against the Home Secretary.

    But if the rule of law means anything, it is that no-one is above the law, most particularly the rich and powerful, such as Elbit Systems UK and Yvette Cooper. It is particularly egregious for a Home Secretary to abuse their office in this way, to present a false and misleading picture of those who face serious criminal charges.

    Cooper referred to Israel’s starvation and slaughter of the Palestinian people as “crimes against humanity” in her Observer article. She wrote that:

    So anyone who wants to protest against the catastrophic humanitarian situation and crimes against humanity in Gaza, to oppose Israel’s military offensive, or to criticise the actions of any and every government, including our own, has the freedom to do so.

    So far as Defend Our Juries are aware, this is the first time the government has formally recognised that Israel is committing crimes against humanity.

    This recognition comes with profound consequences in terms of the legal obligations that ensue.

    In closing, Defend Our Juries said they will draw their letter to the attention of the legal representatives of those facing trial – known as the Filton 24.  They told the attorney general that they would be grateful for an early response to their letter “given the implications”.

    Ultimately, the group argued that:

    Palestine Action were not proscribed for their own violence, but for exposing the Government’s complicity, when they spray-painted those planes at Brize Norton, drawing attention to the daily RAF flights to Gaza, in support of the perpetrators of crimes against humanity.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • ‘Will I make it back alive?’: Gaza journalists tell of being targeted by Israel

    Pacific Media Watch

    Palestinian journalists have long known Gaza to be the most dangerous place on earth for media workers, but Israel’s attack on a tent housing journalists in Gaza City last Sunday has left many reeling from shock and fear, reports Al Jazeera.

    Four Al Jazeera staff members were among the seven people killed in an Israeli drone strike outside al-Shifa Hospital.

    The Israeli military admitted to deliberately targeting the tent after making unsubstantiated accusations that one of those killed, Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif, was a member of Hamas.

    Israeli attacks in Gaza have killed at least 238 media workers since October 2023, according to Gaza’s Government Media Office. This toll is higher than that of World Wars I and II, the Vietnam War, the war in Afghanistan and the Yugoslavia wars combined.

    Al Jazeera correspondent Hani Mahmoud said in a video report about the plight of journalists this week that  “press vests and helmets, once considered a shield, now feel like a target.”

    “The fear is constant — and justified,” Mahmoud said. “Every assignment is accompanied by the same unspoken question: Will [I] make it back alive?”

    The US-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) have been among several organisations denouncing Israel’s longstanding pattern of accusing journalists of being “terrorists” without credible proof.

    Smears no coincidence
    “It is no coincidence that the smears against al-Sharif — who has reported night and day for Al Jazeera since the start of the war — surfaced every time he reported on a major development in the war, most recently the starvation brought about by Israel’s refusal to allow sufficient aid into the territory,” CPJ regional director Sara Qudah said in the aftermath of Israel’s attack.

    In light of Israel’s systematic targeting of journalists, media workers in Gaza are forced to make difficult choices.

    Palestinian reporter Sally Thabet told Al Jazeera: “As a mother and a journalist, I go through this mental dissonance almost daily, whether to go to work or stay with my daughters and being afraid of the random shelling of the Israeli occupation army.”

    "It's about time for Luxon to grow a spine"
    “Journalism is not a crime . . . oppressing it is” placards at the Auckland free Palestine rally in Te Komititanga Square last weekend. Image: Asia Pacific Report

    Across the street from the ruins of the School of Media Studies at al-Quds Open University in Gaza City, where he used to teach, Hussein Saad has been recovering from an injury he sustained while running to safety.

    “The deliberate targeting of Palestinian journalists has a strong effect on the disappearance of the Palestinian story and the disappearance of the media narrative,” he said.

    Saad argued the Gaza Strip was witnessing “the disappearance of the truth”.

    While journalists report on mass killings, human suffering and starvation, they also cope with their own losses and deprivation. Photographer and correspondent Amer al-Sultan said hunger was a major challenge.

    “I used to go to work, and when I didn’t find anything to eat, I would just drink water,” he said.

    Palestinian journalists under fire.             Video: Al Jazeera

    ‘We are all . . . confused’
    “I did this for two days. I had to live for two or three days on water. This is one of the most difficult challenges we face amid this war against our people — starvation.”

    Journalist and film director Hassan Abu Dan said reporters “live in conditions that are more difficult than the mind can imagine.”

    “You live in a tent. You drink water that is not good for drinking. You eat unhealthy food …

    “We are all, as journalists, confused. There is a part of our lives that has been ruined and gone far away,” he said.

    Al Jazeera’s Mahmoud said that despite the psychological trauma and the personal risks, Palestinian journalists continue to do their jobs, “driven by a belief that documenting the truth is not just a profession, but a duty to their people and history”.

    Al Jazeera correspondent Hani Mahmoud
    Al Jazeera correspondent Hani Mahmoud . . . the fear in Gaza is constant – and justified – after Israel’s targeted attack killed four colleagues. Image: Al Jazeera

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Pro-Palestinian protests across NZ call on government to sanction Israel

    RNZ News

    Protesters staged pro-Palestinian demonstrations across Aotearoa New Zealand at the weekend, calling on the government to place sanctions on Israel for its war on Gaza.

    The government announced last week it was considering whether to join other countries like France, Canada and Australia in recognising Palestinian statehood at a United Nations leader’s meeting next month.

    Demonstrators took to the streets in about 20 cities and towns on Saturday in a “National Day of Protest”, waving Palestinian and other flags, holding vigils, and banging pots and pans to represent what a UN-backed food security agency has called “the worst case scenario of famine”.

    They also condemned Israel’s targeted killing of journalists.

    In Wellington, about 2000 protesters gathered at Te Aro Park, and formed a crowd almost a kilometre long during the march, an RNZ journalist estimated.

    One demonstrator, who carried a sign which read “Palestine is in our hearts”, said the government had been “woefully silent” on what was happening in Gaza.


    The Wellington Gaza protest on Saturday.    Video: RNZ

    It was her first protest, she said, and she intended to go to others in order to “agitate for our politicians to listen and take a stand”.

    “I hope the country comes out in force today right across all of our regions, to give Palestine a voice, to show that we care, and to inspire action from our politicians — who have been woefully silent and as a result compliant in the genocide in Palestine.”

    Pro Palestinian protesters gather in Wellington on 16 August 2025 as part of nationwide demonstrations.
    A protester’s “Palestine is in our hearts” placard at the Wellington protest. Image: Mark Papalii/RNZ News

    She said she wanted to see the New Zealand government sanction Israel and take a global stand against the war in Gaza.

    Another protester said the killings of four Al Jazeera journalists in Gaza this week was what had spurred him to join the crowd.

    Wellington Gaza protest
    A “grow a spine Luxon!” placard at the Wellington protest in reference to Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s “woeful” stance on the Israeli war on Gaza. Photo: Mark Papalii/RNZ

    “You know hearing about the attack on the journalists, the way they were targeting just one purportedly but were willing to kill [others] just to get their man.

    “It’s not right.”

    Pro-Palestinian protesters gather in Wellington on 16 August 2025 as part of nationwide demonstrations.
    Pro-Palestinian protesters condemn the killing of journalists by Israel and call for the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador as part of nationwide demonstrations. Image: Mark Papalii/RNZ

    Others in the capital carried signs showing Palestinian journalist Anas al-Sharif and his three Al Jazeera colleagues who were killed by an Israeli strike on a tent of reporters in Gaza.

    The IDF claimed that al-Sharif was working for the Hamas resistance — something Al Jazeera has strongly denied.

    Wellington Gaza protest
    Some of the demonstrators at the Wellington protest against Israel. Image: Mark Papalii/RNZ


    This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by Pacific Media Watch.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Gazans Go On Hunger Strike In The Midst Of Famine

    Wadea Abu Soud, a reporter for Yemen TV in Gaza and father of four, declared his hunger strike on July 20 alongside two of his colleagues. He says his hunger strike is a message to the world about the famine in Gaza, where most families can’t feed their children.

    “I am a starving journalist who is attempting to convey the suffering of his starving people,” Abu Soud says.

    Abu Soud is one of a growing number of journalists and first responders in Gaza who have declared that they are going on hunger strike in the midst of a famine. Their demand is that all of Gaza’s children must be fed.

    “Our voices are reaching the world,” Abu Soud says. “The occupation has failed to launder its lies to the world.”

    The post Gazans Go On Hunger Strike In The Midst Of Famine appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • New Yorkers Mobilize For Gaza As Protests Grow Around The World

    This month has been an especially horrific one in the nearly two-year-long genocide of Gaza. Israel is intentionally starving Gazans, threatening total occupation, and expanding their ethnic cleansing of Palestinian land to the West Bank. But this has all only fueled greater support for the movement for Palestine. The passive sympathy for Palestine which has been growing for a long time has begun to show more publicly. This was apparent in the August 16 rally for Gaza in New York City.

    The action was initially called by Palestinian Youth Movement and the Party for Socialism and Liberation, groups which have regularly called mobilizations since the start of the genocide.

    The post New Yorkers Mobilize For Gaza As Protests Grow Around The World appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • UEFA uses Palestinian children as damage control while allowing Israeli teams to play

    UEFA is using Palestinian children as damage control while allowing the people who want them dead to represent the brand.

    Two Palestinian children accompanied the head of UEFA at the 2025 UEFA Super Cup medal ceremony.

    Meanwhile, UEFA allowed three Israeli teams to play in its tournament on 14 August.

    UEFA are parading Palestinian children around, whilst letting Israeli teams continue wearing the UEFA badge on their shirts.

    UEFA hypocrisy

    Ahead of the Super Cup final, UEFA displayed a banner which said ‘Stop Killing Children, Stop Killing Civilians’. They could have been directing it at Russia, the Congo, Sudan, or a number of other countries.

    The banners did not mention Israel or Palestine, but if the shoe fits.

    Zionists immediately jumped on the social media bandwagon. Because, of course, ‘stop killing children’ is ‘jew hating’.

    UEFA banned Russia from competing in its tournaments in 2022. Israel though? They allowed them to continue competing, despite trying to wipe Palestine off the map and murdering thousands of children.

    Palestinian footballers murdered

    The Canary has previously reported on Israel murdering Palestinian footballers. However, they have not stopped.

    As of November 2024, Israel had murdered 344 Palestinian footballers. Obviously, that figure will now be higher. Only last week, the ‘Palestinian Pelé’, Suleiman al-Obeid, was killed while waiting for humanitarian aid.

    And this week? The terrorist state has murdered at least two more footballers.

    On July 3, Diogo Jota, the Liverpool centre-forward, was killed in a car crash with his brother.

    UEFA posted on X to pay tribute.

    Whilst the organisation did post in tribute to Suleiman al-Obeid, if you compare the two posts, it leaves a lot of questions.

    UEFA gave Jota a ‘we are deeply saddened’, whereas Suleiman? A ‘Farewell’. Anyone would think he’d just retired, not that a genocidal army had murdered him.

    And what about the other over 300 footballers’ deaths? The silence from the association is deafening.

    You might find this under the dictionary definition of ‘performative’.

    If UEFA were serious, and this wasn’t just some poxy PR campaign, they’d ban Israel from competing immediately. It also would not have taken them until August 8 2025, to make any mention at all of ‘Palestine’ or ‘Palestinian’ on the official Twitter account.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By HG

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Activists are mobilising to shut down the UK’s biggest arms fair

    67 national and regional organisations from Scotland to Cornwall are uniting and mobilising for ‘The Big One’: a coalition action to shut down one of the world’s biggest – and the UK’s largest – arms fairs, DSEI.

    DSEI: shut down the UK’s largest arms fair

    Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) is taking place at the ExCeL centre in London between 9-12 September. ‘The Big One: Shut Down DSEI 2025’ aims to build a mass mobilisation to stop the arms fair taking place on its first day – Tuesday 9 September.

    In 2023, 1500 exhibitors, including the world’s largest and worst arms dealers, networked with 35,000 delegates representing nearly 100 countries. This included official government invited delegations from Israel, Saudi Arabia, the United States, Bahrain, Turkey, and Qatar.

    Israel always plays a prominent role at DSEI, with the UK government inviting an official Israeli government delegation. If this happens in 2025, it will be our government continuing to roll out the red carpet to legitimise and enable war criminals. They will come to shop for even deadlier weapons to wage their genocide against the Palestinian people.

    Israel’s pavilion at DSEI

    DSEI is currently advertising the presence of Israel’s country pavilion. While it has not yet published its list of exhibitors, several Israeli arms companies are confirmed as attending. This includes Israel Aerospace Industries, who are promoting their presence with a brochure of military equipment Israel has used to commit genocide in Gaza.

    In 2023, brigadier general Dr Danny Gold, head of directorate of defense research and development for the Israeli Ministry of Defence gave a keynote speech. In addition to this, 48 domestic Israeli arms companies exhibited at the event. These are companies that are directly responsible for, and directly profiting from, Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the war crimes it is committing in the West Bank and Lebanon.

    A call to action: shut down the profiteers from genocide

    The call to action states that DSEI:

    is a marketplace in death and destruction. It takes place every two years and is where arms dealers and politicians meet and make deals for genocide, war, and more human rights abuses. This is where they stock up on the latest lethal weapons and tools for repression – all with the backing of the British state.

    British colonial violence did not end when hard fought liberation struggles were waged around the globe. Instead, as empires crumbled, global colonial and imperialist forces adapted. Now, arms fairs, like DSEI UK, continue to back the profiteers of state-led death, occupation and violence that has never ceased.

    This is where war starts. This is where repressive border policies start. This is where torture starts. This is where the contacts are made and the lucrative deals done that fuel genocide, war crimes and human rights abuses around the world. This is why we have to shut it down.

    It continues:

    DSEI is massively important to the British government. We can shut it down – but only if we have numbers! Our government is hoping we’ll be scared to take to the streets. But we say no! We say we’ll stop genocide profiteers in their tracks. This is our moment to come together, across our movements, to show that proscription won’t stop us taking actions against the arms trade.

    A spokesperson for the coalition said:

    Our government is allowing Israeli war criminals to come to London to buy and sell more weapons to further fuel their genocide against the Palestinian people. This is not only illegal and immoral, it is downright evil. We cannot allow this to happen. This is a government complicit in genocide, that lies about arms sales, and that has lost all legitimacy.

    It hoped that banning Palestine Action would stop direct action against the arms trade. But the number of national and regional groups endorsing our coalition shows this has failed. Across the country people are mobilising and showing they are willing to do what is necessary to shut DSEI down.

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • One million women and girls are now on the brink of starvation in Gaza

    The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has issued a stern warning about the Israel-induced worsening humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.

    UNRWA confirmed that nearly one million women and girls are at risk of mass starvation, amid Israel’s continued policy of blockade and starvation since the start of its latest assault on the Strip.

    Israel committing systematic starvation

    UNRWA said in a tweet on its X account that women and girls bear the brunt of this war, as they lack food, medicine, and safe shelter:

    It stressed that the situation is no longer limited to a “humanitarian crisis,” but has turned into systematic starvation targeting the entire community, exposing the most vulnerable groups to a slow death.

    These warnings come at a time when humanitarian aid and adequate food supplies continue to be blocked, along with the destruction of large areas of agricultural land and warehouses, which the agency described as a “war of starvation” being waged against civilians.

    UNRWA noted that mothers are forced to reduce their meals in order to provide a small bite to eat for their children, while pregnant and lactating women suffer from severe malnutrition that threatens both their lives and those of their children.

    According to UN estimates, more than 2.3 million people in Gaza suffer from food insecurity, nearly half of whom are women and girls, which threatens a complete collapse of the social and health fabric in the Strip if urgent action is not taken.

    UNRWA: urgent call for international action

    UNRWA and other organizations have repeatedly emphasized that preventing food and medicine from reaching civilians is a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law, and have called on the international community to exert immediate pressure to open humanitarian corridors and ensure the delivery of essential supplies.

    The agency said: “The world cannot stand by and watch as a million women and girls are left to face starvation and slow death.”

    While the occupation’s war continues to claim lives through bombardment, deadly hunger may be the next silent killer, especially for the most vulnerable groups of women and children.

    In Gaza, bread and medicine have become weapons of war, and the victims are women and girls trapped between hunger and death.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Alaa Shamali

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Netanyahu’s expansionist delusions threaten regional stability, warn 21 Arab nations

    The foreign ministers of 31 Arab and Islamic countries, along with the secretaries-general of the Arab League, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and the Gulf Cooperation Council, strongly condemned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s statements about so-called “Greater Israel,” considering them “a violation of international law and a direct threat to Arab national security and regional and international peace.” .

    Netanyahu: flagrant violations

    This came in a joint statement issued on Friday 15 August by the foreign ministers of 21 Arab countries, including Palestine, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Morocco, Algeria, Jordan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Lebanon, Sudan, Libya, Somalia, Mauritania, Djibouti, and the Comoros.

    The statement also included the foreign ministers of ten other Islamic countries, most notably Turkey, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, in addition to representatives from Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Chad, Gambia, and the Maldives.

    The statement affirmed that Netanyahu’s remarks represent “a flagrant violation of the rules of international law and the United Nations Charter,” stressing the signatory countries’ rejection of policies of force and domination and their commitment to the option of a just and comprehensive peace.

    In the same context, the ministers condemned Israel Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s approval of the settlement plan in the “E1” area, considering it “a flagrant violation of international law and Security Council resolutions, particularly Resolution 2334,” which criminalizes settlement in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem.

    The statement also reiterated the advisory opinion issued by the International Court of Justice on the illegality of the Israeli occupation, warning of “the danger of Israeli policies aimed at annexing Palestinian territories and expanding settlements, including attempts to undermine Islamic and Christian holy sites, foremost among them Al-Aqsa Mosque.”

    The ministers noted that the practices of settlers, daily incursions into Palestinian cities and camps, systematic destruction and displacement of residents “directly contribute to fueling the conflict and undermining the chances of achieving peace.”

    Widespread condemnation

    On the issue of Gaza, the statement reiterated its condemnation of “Israel’s ongoing aggression and its acts of genocide and ethnic cleansing,” stressing the need for an immediate ceasefire, unhindered access for humanitarian aid, and an end to the Israeli blockade of the Strip.

    The ministers affirmed their absolute rejection of the displacement of Palestinians under any pretext and held Israel, as the occupying power, fully responsible for the consequences of its crimes in Gaza, including the collapse of the health and relief systems.

    They also called on the international community, especially the Security Council and the United States, to assume their legal and moral responsibilities, compel Israel to cease its aggression, and enable the Palestinian people to obtain their legitimate rights, foremost among which is the establishment of their independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Alaa Shamali

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Gerard Otto on Palestine, genocide and the media: ‘Not if – but when – but not now’

    COMMENTARY: By Gerard Otto

    This morning there is no article on the political page of The New Zealand Herald about the plight of people in Gaza, the same is the case at The Post and at RNZ. Even the 1News political page is Gaza free but what may stun you over a Sunday morning coffee is the fact that there is also no mention of Gaza on the “World Pages” of any of these so-called news organisations.

    It’s not news in the world of our mainstream media journalists.

    Instead, there is articles about “no deal” between Trump and Putin, 300 dead in Pakistan, Trump will meet Zelenskyy, Stone Age Humans were picky about what stones they used . . . and other things — in fact the only article in the “big ” New Zealand mainstream media “World” pages about Gaza is at Stuff and it’s a link to a three minute news video item from yesterday’s Auckland protest about Neil Finn supporting Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick.

    Chlöe said the evidence is pretty clear and you don’t kill journalists for no reason when Israel laughed off claims that people in Gaza were starving.

    Last night, TVNZ 1News broadcast a news item that led with Neil Finn singing “Don’t Dream it’s Over” and Simon Mercep interviewing Chlöe about her stance on an apology.

    The news Chlöe would be back next week at Parliament probably shocked Duncan Garner but there was precious little coverage of what was said in protest speeches because the limitations of broadcasting news concision (a sequence of soundbites) prevent the New Zealand public from hearing too much about Gaza from our own mainstream news services.

    Gordon’s action list
    Over on social media many people are sharing Gordon Campbell’s article around — where he details the actions you could take and points out how the people of Gaza don’t have time for symbolic stances and the kinds of actions that might help — like sanctions and UN peacekeeping intervention on the ground.

    Gordon Campbell has “a go at” the stance taken by the NZ government that “it’s not a matter of if, but when” by adding “but not now” and why not now?

    One reason for “but not now” pitched by Campbell is that with Todd McClay now heading over to the US to beg for a return to 10 percent tariffs, New Zealand is stalling and playing a wait and see game — watching whether Australia will be punished for backing a Palestinian state and whether tariffs will be part of the game.


    G News on yesterday’s Palestine solidarity rally in Te Komititanga Square, Auckland.

    A map of the nations in the world who support a Palestinian state shows most of it in green — and the holdouts in white — with New Zealand holding out in white as we recite “Not if, but when, but not now”.

    The editorial at The New Zealand Herald this morning is about how Labour MPs should have shown up and performed publicly at the Covid Circus Phase 2 Royal Commission of Inquiry in the opinion of the Herald (run by Steven Joyce and cookers from The Centrist) — because an urgent Taxpayers’ Union Poll claims 53 percent say so with a giant margin for error not even mentioned — nor how the Royal Commission has all the information it needs from the previous government but it needs the same questions answered in public.

    The priorities and partisanship of The NZ Herald are on show as it campaigns hard against Labour and the left bloc even while there’s an unfolding genocide taking place in the world and it’s “World” pages are empty about this — while decent people cancel their subscriptions.

    Many of us are still aghast at the way senior political correspondent Audrey Young wished Chlöe would go away when all she was doing was asking National MPs to act with their conscience and Speaker Gerry Brownlee had taken offence and dished out injustice — which now has backfired at grassroots level across the nation and media starve us all of the real content in those speeches.

    Chlöe has said from the start this is not about her and she was telling people this again yesterday as folks thanked her for taking an unapologetic stand.

    Green Party's Chlöe Swarbrick has said from the start this is not about her and she was telling people this again
    Green Party’s Chlöe Swarbrick has said from the start this is not about her and she was telling people this again yesterday as folks thanked her for taking an unapologetic stand. Image: Stuff screenshot APR

    Who controls the spotlight? Media!
    We wanted to hear from Chlöe and we wanted to hear those speeches.

    I personally felt I had let down the show yesterday because my cell and sound gear seized up in the bitter cold wind and rain so I missed Chlöe’s speech and some of the other messages — Hey Now Don’t Dream it’s Over — but with no umbrella, no raincoat and standing in the rain my frozen fingers took some time to come right and I sat on a ferry in cold wet clothes like a failure afterwards but it is what it is.

    My apologies for not being better prepared.

    It was pointed out in speeches at the rally (there has almost been 100 of them now) how NZ journalists do not support their colleagues who are being murdered for doing their jobs in Gaza and when I got home and warmed up we discussed the way Al Jazeera is a good news channel and how crap things are in New Zealand media.

    Gordon Campbell and a few other notable exceptions keep the faith and his observation “but not now” has done the thinking for many of us about the spineless government who are stalling and pretending this is complex and needs to take weeks while every day more people starve to death, get shot going for food. And it all just happens as if — it’s “a mystery” – while our government names Hamas strongly but nobody else.

    Criticism of State Terror is more toned down and we care more about our US relationship than anything much else it seems — putting our own interests first and not reporting much about the facts.

    RNZ has finally published “Spine and Punishment: A review of Swarbrick v Brownlee” because the media spotlight was on this local issue and the history of Speakers’ rulings versus “a new decency” because Gerry was offended and overreached.

    Gerry must withdraw
    In my opinion, Gerry has got to withdraw and apologise or step down and any more stick about this towards Chlöe is going to further the focus on National MPs who are silent and hiding behind “But not now”.

    If only six of 68 National MPs voted with their conscience and not their party “but not now” instructions then we’d be actively progressing a new law to sanction Israel — and our actions would speak louder than merely words and symbolic gestures.

    “But not now” is the order of the day for New Zealand’s mainstream media as Dr Paul Goldsmith is caught out supporting what David Seymour wrote to the UN — Education Minister Erica Stanford overreaches banning Te Reo words, Public Service Minister Judith Collins is threatening to prevent strikes, and PM Christopher Luxon is now loathed by the business community as his fluffers at The NZ Herald look the other way.

    The unfolding genocide in Gaza seems to be going to plan as NZ news media also lack a spine and any kind of support for their dead colleagues while this one term government clings to “Not if, but when — but not now”.

    Might as well carry on starving until September.

    “He’s lost the plot” – “but not now”.

    Because this government and its sycophantic media need more time to argue about this very “complex” issue.

    Gerard Otto is a digital creator and independent commentator on politics and the media through his G News column and video reports. Republished with permission.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Palestinian Youth Movement Makes Genocide Support Costly For Maersk

    After two years of continuous effort in research, agitation and direct action, the organizers of the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) celebrated a landmark organizing victory in late June. Their “Mask Off Maersk” campaign had sought to prove the complicity of the Danish freight-logistics titan A.P. Møller – Maersk A/S in the genocide in Gaza.

    Maersk, as it’s generally known, was found by PYM to be contributing to the ongoing crimes against humanity in Gaza by shipping arms transfers to the perpetrating Israeli military; these shipments included critical parts for the F-35 fighters that have been used to bomb Gaza’s civilian population.

    The post Palestinian Youth Movement Makes Genocide Support Costly For Maersk appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Oppression Starts With Concrete and Ends With the Mind at West Bank Crossing

    Checkpoint 300 is between two of the most important centers of Palestinian life, Jerusalem and Bethlehem. Built into Israel’s West Bank wall (the “separation barrier”), the checkpoint complex is itself an extraordinary organization of space: turnstiles and corridors corral and subordinate a colonized population for inspection and validation by soldiers and security staff. Crushing queues…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Luxon ‘get a spine’ chants as big rallies call for NZ to recognise Palestine state

    Asia Pacific Report

    “Grow a spine for Palestine!” was a frequent theme among about 5000 people protesting in the heart of New Zealand’s largest city today as the protesters demanded that the coalition government should recognise the state of Palestine and stop supporting impunity for Israel.

    More than 62,000 people, mostly women and children, have been killed in Israel’s war on Gaza in the past 22 months and the country’s military have doubled down on their attacks on residential areas in the besieged enclave.

    Several speakers, including opposition parliamentarians, spoke at the rally, strongly condemning Israel for its genocidal policies and crimes against humanity.

    Many children took part in the rally at Te Komititanga Square and the return march up Queen Street in spite of the bitterly wet and cold weather. Many of them carried placards and Palestinian flags like their parents.

    One young boy carried a placard declaring “Just a kid standing in front of his PM asking him to grow a heart and a spine”. The heart was illustrated as a Palestinian flag.

    Other placards included slogans such as “Wanted MPs with a spine” and “Grow a spine for Palestine”, and “They try to bury us forgetting we are seeds” with the resistance watermelon symbol.

    Many placards demanded sanctions and condemned Israel, saying “Gaza is starving. Words won’t feed them — sanction Israel now”, “NZ government: Your silence is complicity with Israeli genocide” and “Free Palestine now”.

    Disillusionment with leaders
    One poster expressed disillusionment with both the coalition government and opposition Labour Party leaders, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Chris Hipkins, denouncing “apologists for genocide”.

    Another poster challenged both Hipkins and Luxon over “what values” they stood for. It said:

    “Our ‘leaders’ have refused to call for a ceasefire even after 10,000+ innocent civilians have been brutally murdered in their own homes, including 4000+ CHILDREN all under the name of “Kiwi values”.

    “They, like a lot of other world politicians, are apologists for genocide.”

    A "Palestine forever" banner at the head of the Auckland march
    A “Palestine forever” banner at the head of the Auckland march today as it prepares to walk up Queen Street. Image: APR

    Frustration has been growing among the public with the government’s reluctance to declare support for Palestinian statehood after 96 consecutive weeks of protests organised by the Palestinian Solidarity Network Aotearoa (PSNA) and other groups, not just in the largest city of Auckland and the capital Wellington, but also in Christchurch and in at least 20 other towns and communities across the motu.

    The “spine” theme in chants and posters followed just days after Parliament suspended Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick following a fiery speech about Gaza when she said government MPs should grow a spine and sanction Israel for its atrocities.

    She had refused to apologise to the House and supporters at the rally today gave her rousing cheers in support of her defiance.

    ‘We need your help’
    Te Pati Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer told the crowd: “We need you to help her put the pressure on so that we can fight together in that place [Parliament] for our people to free, free Palestine; from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.

    “Return our dignity Aotearoa. Stand up for what is right. There is only one side to support in genocide, only one side. And Te Pati Māori will only work with those.”

    When Swarbrick spoke to the crowd, she repeated her goal to find six government MPs “with a spine” to support her bill to “sanction Israel for its war crimes”.

    She also said the Palestinian people were being “starved and slaughtered by Israel” in Gaza, adding that their breath was being “stolen from them” by the IDF (Israeli “Defence” Force).

    “It is our duty, all human beings with breath left in our lungs, with the freedom to chant and to move and to demand action from our politicians, to do all that we can to fight for liberation for all peoples,” she said.

    Other politicians speaking were Orini Kaipara, the Te Pati Māori candidate for the Tāmaki Mākaurau byelection, and Kerrin Leoni, mayoral candidate for Tamaki.

    Targeted assassinations
    Earlier, the targeted assassinations of six journalists by the Israeli military last Sunday — taking the toll to 272 — was condemned by independent journalist and Asia Pacific Report editor Dr David Robie. He also criticised the NZ media silence.

    Noting that New Zealand journalists had not condemned the killings or held a vigil as the Media Alliance (MEAA) had done in Australia, he cited an Al Jazeera journalist, Hind Khoudary, whose message to the world was:

    “We are being hunted and killed in Gaza while you watch in silence. For two years, your fellow journalists here have been slaughtered.

    What did you do? Nothing.”

    Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick (left) and Te Pati Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer
    Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick (left) and Te Pati Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer at today’s rally in Te Komitanga Square, Auckland. Image: APR

    A recent poll on whether New Zealanders want sanctions to be imposed on Israel, showed that of those who gave an opinion, 60 percent favoured sanctions.

    The PSNA commissioned survey by Talbot Mills in July with 1216 respondents gave a similar result to one commissioned by Justice for Palestine a year ago.

    Popular support for sanctions
    PSNA co-chair John Minto said the numbers showed strong popular support for sanctions. The 60 percent overall rose to 68 percent for the 18–29 year category.

    “The government is well out of step with public opinion and ignores this message at its peril.  There is popular support for sanctions against Israel,” he said.

    “People see that Israel is committing the worst atrocities of the 21st century with impunity. It is starving a whole population.

    “It has destroyed just about every building in Gaza. It is assassinating journalists. It holds 7000 Palestinian hostages in its jails without charge.  Its goal of occupying all of Gaza and ethnically cleansing its people into the Sudan desert, is all public knowledge.”

    Minto said Israel’s “depraved Prime Minister” who was wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICJ) for war crimes and crimes against humanity, had boasting that if Israel was really committing genocide, “it could have killed everyone in Gaza in a single afternoon”.

    “The poll shows New Zealand First supporters are most opposed to sanctions against Israel (59 percent of those who gave an opinion were opposed) so it’s little surprise Winston Peters is dragging the chain.”

    "Just a kid" with his message to Prime Minister Christopher Luxon
    “Just a kid” with his blunt message to Prime Minister Christopher Luxon. Image: APR