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Category: Palestine

  • Beyond Time to Say Who the Real Terrorists Are

    In George Orwell’s book, 1984, the dominant force was able to determine what was true and what was false – hence 2+2=5. Today, those remaining in Gaza, who have survived the intensive bombing of almost all of Gaza’s infrastructure, sniper shootings, and starvation, are hanging onto life by a thread. Yet, it is the Palestinians who are proscribed as the terrorists and their genocidal oppressors who are the victims. Palestinians are labelled as terrorist because they are not willing to bow down to Zionist Israeli despotism. After more than a hundred years of theft and a creeping dispossession of their land, they have formed resistance movements in an attempt to protect their lives and their homes. From the Zionist Israeli perspective even a child, or an unborn Palestinian, is a terrorist because that child could and often does grow up and join his brothers and sisters in resistance against them.

    An individual in the U.K. can receive a custodial sentence for pointing out that; ‘not only under international law, but also under any kind of natural moral law, armed resistance to occupation and genocidal oppression, is not only a right but a duty. How have we reached such a perverse and twisted understanding of natural justice where speaking out about an obvious truth, has become a crime. With the twelve man/woman jury and presumption of innocence before the Law, the British judicial system was once seen as a model of justice and democracy around the world.

    The influence of Zionist fascist ideology didn’t appear overnight. It was a step by step insidious capture that has taken decades to gain hold over all of our institutions, media and government. It is an ideology, created by those who thrive on power and wealth, with a track record of exploiting the divisions that naturally occur between groups of people.

    Syria, a secular country under Assad, had defied Israel and the US by staying loyal to the Palestinian cause. They had been a pivotal part of the resistance movement by facilitating the transfer of weapons from Iran to Hezbollah in Lebanon. Secular Syria no longer exists under the, Al-Julani , HTS (ISIS/al-Qaeda) led regime. Regardless of what one thought about Syria under Assad, Syria today is a place where kidnapping, rape and murder have taken place over the whole of the country with terrifying uniformity.

    Today, apart from evidence of bombed areas, Lebanon on the surface seems to function as it always has, with a stoicism born of adversity. The shops and the cafes are still there where people gather together and talk. However, look deeper and the wounds are apparent under the surface. Just a year ago the Israeli pager attacks, the bombings and the assassination of Lebanon’s revered leaders in the resistance, are wounds where the blood has not yet dried. The ongoing genocide in Gaza reminds the Lebanese and Palestinians of the savagery of Zionist Israel’s intentions of further killings and land grabs. There is a fear that the divisions between the different factions could be exploited. Clearly, exploiting these cracks are the aims of Israel, the US and their Saudi allies.

    One needs to look no further for evidence of this than the monstrosity of the 40 acre US Embassy, cut from a mountain and overlooking the Bay of Beirut, to understand the symbolism of a dominant power. The US and Saudi Arabia, on behalf of the Zionist Israeli entity, are insisting that the Lebanese Parliament disarm Hezbollah, the Lebanese resistance movement’s only real defence against Israel’s further expansion into their sovereign territory. Never before has Lebanese unity been more essential.

    As the local currency in Lebanon continues to plummet the US have proposed an investment of some $72 million to pay the majority of the salaries of the Lebanese army in dollars.
    (‘Beirut and the Birth of the Fortress Embassy’, Habib Battah, Middle East Research)

    ‘Who pays the Piper Calls the tune’. Neither the US nor Israel have a track record of standing by previous agreements. In fact, the absence of being trustworthy would clearly suggest this is a power not to be trusted. The disarming of the PLO in 1982 with the promise of international forces protecting Palestinian women and children, is a glaring example of how catastrophic it can be when agreements are not kept. Zionist Israel is the birth child of the US and under Trump, relations have never been closer. It is not unreasonable to conclude that this is a move to break any resistance from within Lebanon to defend itself against Israel.

    Winston Smith, the protagonist in Orwell’s 1984, was reduced to defying the totalitarian Party’s attempts to crush him of his identity by repeatedly stating his name. Palestinians are being told that they are not Palestinians but Arabs who do not belong on the land of their ancestors. The heavy price they are paying for their commitment to home and to their resistance to the juggernaut powers that oppress them, is starvation and death.

    For those of us in the West, who are not facing this genocide on the front line, the least we can do is to be clear in our minds, in our hearts and in our speech, as to who the terrorist is and who the terrorist is not. Truth cannot be crushed by threats and bombs.

    To quote from someone speaking on behalf of the Lebanese right of resistance; ‘We are all created from the one human soul. The murder of one is the murder of all.’ The resistance movements are not just fighting for the lives of the Palestinians, the lives of the Lebanese, or even just the lives of those in the Middle East, they are fighting for the liberation of all people around the world.

    Let us, in the ‘supposed free world’, speak the truth with a clear strong voice and not join with their persecutors in condemning them.

    The post Beyond Time to Say Who the Real Terrorists Are first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • Alleged war criminals and the racist far-right pile in to criticise the UK recognising Palestine

    On 21 September, the UK finally acknowledged Palestinian statehood. As we reported, there’s a 100+ year history behind this, and the majority of UN nations had already done the same thing. The reason it happened now is because Israel’s genocide in Palestine escalated into a man-made famine, and Western governments needed to give the impression they were doing something.

    In response to this late gesture, senior Israeli politicians (and the British far-right) have blown a gasket. As these same politicians are accused of war crimes, it’s unclear why anyone would take them seriously:


    Two-state solution: Israel is NOT happy

    Yesterday, we covered Palestinian ambassador Husam Zomlot who explained why recognition of Palestinian statehood is overdue. Zomlot said:

    What does 7th of October, Hamas, have to do with the Palestinian right to self-determination? May I ask you, Laura?

    This right to self-determination, the right to exist on our homeland, has come long before Israel, long before Hamas. This is an inalienable right of the Palestinian people, a birthright, long overdue. And the question is never, why should the UK recognise the state of Palestine? The question is why didn’t the UK recognise the state of Palestine all along?

    It’s noteworthy that we don’t withhold recognition of statehood from other countries who do things we condemn. It’s also obviously the case that we refused to acknowledge their statehood long before October 7th. Oh, and do you know who supported Hamas being in power – that’s right – Benjamin ‘war crimes’ Netanyahu – all to make the Israeli project of oppression easier to sell to the West.

    Western politicians have long claimed to be pursuing a ‘two-state solution’ in which Israel and Palestine exist in harmony alongside one another. This is what our apparent ally Netanyahu thinks about that (translated from Hebrew):

    There will be no Palestinian state. The response to the latest attempt to force upon us a terror state in the heart of our land will be given after my return from the United States

    I have a clear message to those leaders who are recognising a Palestinian state after the horrendous October 7 massacre: You are rewarding terror with an enormous prize.

    And I have another message for you: It’s not going to happen. There will be no Palestinian state to the west of the Jordan River.

    For years I have prevented the creation of that terror state, against tremendous pressure, both domestic and from abroad.

    Netanyahu also confirmed a dedication to continued expansion:

    We have done this with determination, and with astute statesmanship. Moreover, we have doubled the Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria, and we will continue on this path.

    People understand it’s bad to expand into surrounding countries, right? Like what Putin is doing in Ukraine, or what Hitler did in Poland, or what the Normans did in England?

    You almost have to feel sorry for our politicians, because it’s getting harder and harder to defend this freak.

    Netanyahu finished by saying:

    The response to the latest attempt to force upon us a terror state in the heart of our land will be given after my return from the United States. Stand by.

    The International Criminal Court (ICC) has an arrest warrant out for Netanyahu for alleged war crimes. They also have an arrest warrant out for his former defence minister Yoav Gallant, who had this to say:

    It’s not just Netanyahu and his allies either:

    Home grown hate

    You know who else is siding with the accused war criminals? That’s right, little Tommy Robinson:


    What a grim bunch, eh?

    And it’s a bigger bunch than you think; here are some allegedly serious Tory MPs siding with the war criminals and the far right:

    People keep saying ‘at this time’ without acknowledging we’re in a moment at which Israel seems to be pushing a final solution against the Palestinians. If something doesn’t happen soon, there may not be another time.

    And to people referencing the hostages, please bear in mind that Israel has repeatedly made it clear it will continue even if the hostages are released.


    How are you going to negotiate a two-state solution when you won’t even acknowledge that one side is a state, or that the other side is committing a genocide (and before that committing an illegal occupation and/or apartheid)?

    Another group supposedly committed to a two-state solution is Labour Friends of Israel, who had this to say:


    Dark times

    As many have noted, there’s a very real risk that recognising Palestinian statehood ends up being little more than an empty gesture. The reason people are opposing it is because the crime of genocide is so great it must be defended at all times from all angles. As soon as those defences fall, the criminals who enacted and supported these acts are in trouble. And whether they like it or not, the defences are falling.

    Featured image via Hindustan Times

    By Willem Moore

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Israel’s latest social media campaign is another exercise in genocide denial

    On September 20, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) – an arm of the Israel’s Defense Ministry responsible for implementing government policies – accused Hamas of directly firing at UN teams via social media. They were preparing a new route for aid trucks from the Israel-Gaza Kerem Shalom crossing to the so called ‘humanitarian zone’ in the south of the Gaza Strip.

    Israel’s COGAT making baseless smears on social media – nothing new

    COGAT claimed the supposed new road is:

    part of the humanitarian component of Operation Gideon’s Chariots II.

    It was scheduled to open in a few days, to increase the number of aid trucks providing:

    food, medical supplies, tents and shelter equipment for families who fled Gaza City and moved south for safety.

    Once the gunmen supposedly forced the UN out, they were then said to have used a stolen UN vehicle to erect a sand barricade to prevent future aid deliveries.

    Ghassan Alian, head of COGAT, who has played a role in the occupation’s atrocities in Gaza and said, in 2023, that “human animals must be treated as such”, took to social media saying:

    Hamas proves again and again it has no interest in the welfare of Gaza’s residents…..Even when Israel works with the UN and international groups to expand humanitarian aid, Hamas desperately tries to sabotage it.

    Alian vowed that Israel would:

    not allow Hamas to create false narratives of a crisis in Gaza.

    As evidence of Hamas firing at UN teams, COGAT published the following photograph:

    A silver van with supposed bullet holes and a flat tire, and damage.

    This supposed incident was reported by Israeli publication Ynet, with the headline: Hamas fires on UN team, steals baby formula in Gaza: ‘Trying to create crisis narrative’.

    Systematic misinformation campaign

    In response to these accusations, Hamas issued a statement of its own, denying the allegations against it, claiming they are:

    entirely baseless and are part of a systematic campaign of misinformation aimed at distorting the facts and reversing the narrative.

    It said it holds the Israeli occupation:

    fully responsible for obstructing humanitarian work and manufacturing security chaos.

    Hamas has long been calling for the full, unhindered access of UN agencies such as UNRWA, to carry out their duties, but instead, the Israeli occupation continues to obstruct aid deliveries, imposes severe restrictions on the work of the UN, bombs its facilities and warehouses, and deliberately targets humanitarian workers.

    Multiple reports and investigations, including from Amnesty International, indicate that the Israeli occupation, not Hamas, deliberately uses starvation as a weapon of war against Palestinians in Gaza. Not only does it control and restrict humanitarian aid, and “routinely opens fire on starving Palestinian civilians”, but the occupation is also intentionally bringing about social collapse, by supporting and protecting armed criminal gangs which create chaos and insecurity by looting aid warehouses and attacking convoys.

    This results in food being diverted from starving Palestinians, and resold in the markets at prices beyond the reach of almost all of the population, fueling violence and corruption. At the same time, the Israeli occupation prevents and targets government security personnel when they attempt to protect these convoys.

    While analysis of aid theft incidents reported between 2023 and 2025 found no credible evidence that Hamas was systematically stealing or diverting humanitarian aid, Ynet’s accusation that Hamas was ‘trying to create a crisis narrative’, is yet another example of the occupation’s denial of famine and food scarcity in Gaza, a false narrative which the occupation has supported by extensive propaganda efforts.

    Multimillion pound campaign attempts to stop criticism from Western countries

    Recently launching a campaign on social media to discredit UN famine reports and humanitarian organisations, the occupation has denied there is any famine in Gaza, showing a video with busy restaurants and markets full of fruit and vegetables with the message:

    There is no famine in Gaza. Any other claim is a lie.

    This is part of a million pound effort involving Google, YouTube, X, and others, in which the Israeli occupation denies the UN’s famine declarations in Gaza, and its own involvement in crimes against humanity and war crimes taking place in the Gaza Strip.

    The video – which does not reflect the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza, where hundreds of thousands face severe malnutrition and food insecurity – along with other advertisements, have reached millions through paid promotion, and aimed to counter international criticism in parts of Europe and North America. But the goods shown in the images are unaffordable for the vast majority of Gazans, most of whom either have no money, or are struggling hugely in a situation where withdrawal fees can reach 50% and banknotes are often refused by businesses.

     

    Shameless Israel social media campaign to deny reality of its continued war crimes

    This social media campaign is being used by Israel to deny the lived reality which it has intentionally created, of the mass starvation of the civilian population, brought on through blockades and military force, while it openly advocates the cutting off of food and water to Gaza.

    The so called ‘humanitarian safe zone’ in the south has been bombed more than 100 times, and has no essential services, hygiene facilities, water or food supplies. According to human rights organisations, the displacement of Palestinians into this area amounts to forcible transfer, with the aim of eventually ethnically cleansing Gaza of its Palestinian population.

    Between October 7 2023 and September 10 2025, 540 aid workers were killed by Israeli occupation forces in Gaza, including 373 UN staff and team members, making this genocide in Gaza the most deadly conflict ever for UN staff. As of September 20 2025, 65,208 Palestinians have been killed and 166,271 injured.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Charlie Jaay

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Clip of Chinese academic dismantling Israeli genocide propagandist goes ultra-viral

    A video of Chinese university dean Yan Xuetong giving an Israeli military propagandist a figurative spanking at a ‘top-level forum’ in China has gone viral after it was posted on X by a popular French political observer.

    Yan Xuetong destroying an Israeli propagandist’s argument

    Arnaud Bertrand posted the attempt of Israeli military spokesman Elad Shoshan to justify Israel’s mass murder of Palestinians based on a few ‘hostages’ being held in Gaza – many of whom have been killed by Israel’s bombing, shot by occupation soldiers or suffocated in Israeli gas attacks – and the astonishingly frank response, given China’s usually circumspect approach, of Yan Xuetong, who asks Shoshan whether, if robbers were holding up a bank, he’d kill all the customers and staff in the bank to get the robbers.

    Bertrand explained:

    Absolutely extraordinary exchange between Israel and China  I’ve never seen such a heated exchange come out of top-level forum in China (this is from the 12th Beijing Xiangshan Forum that started yesterday), this normally never happens.

    The guy speaking is Yan Xuetong, the dean of the Institute of International Relations at Tsinghua University, the most prestigious university in China.

    Speaking for Israel is a military officer apparently called Elad Shoshan.

    Yan Xuetong truly doesn’t hold back:

    – When the Israeli officer tries to bullshit him around how Israel supposedly protects civilians in Gaza, he replies: “You killed more than 70,000 civilians!… The fact is not decided by you… It is not decided by your government. Your government has no legitimacy or the right to decide or defend what is fact”

    – And when told that the war will end when Hamas release hostages he replies: “No, this kind of propaganda have too many. No one believe it! Too many! Too much! No one believe it, except a few Israelis”

    The post has been shared more than 33,000 times and viewed almost 5,000,000. Russell Dobular of the Due Dissidence podcast commented that the death count mentioned by Yan is a massive underestimate – experts have calculated a conservative toll of almost 700,000 killed by direct violence or else by hunger and disease – then went on to describe the video as:

    the best thing you’re going to see all week… that was really amazing, when he says “Yeah no one believes you [but] a few Israelis”.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Labour officials just suppressed 30 conference motions over Israel

    Labour Party officials are attempting to stifle debate on Israel and Palestine at the party conference, to prevent calls for the government to take meaningful steps to end complicity in the Zionist entity’s genocide in Gaza. The disgraceful move comes amid the Labour government’s symbolic, but largely tokenistic – and entirely inadequate in isolation – recognition of recognition of a Palestinian state.

    Labour conference sees shameless suppression of motions for Palestine and against Israel

    Ahead of the party conference in Liverpool which begins on Sunday 28 September, the Conference Arrangements Committee (CAC) met on Thursday. It decided to rule out more than 30 motions constituency Labour Parties (CLPs) and affiliated organisations had submitted.  Shamefully, the CAC ruled out every motion on Palestine.

    Contemporary motions at conference have to meet the criteria that the issue must not have been substantially addressed in the National Policy Framework (NPF) Annual Report 2025 which was published on 8 August. It ruled out of order the overwhelming majority of Palestine motions on the grounds that the motions do:

    not relate to a new issue not substantially covered in the NPF report.

    This is despite the fact many focused on events that took place after the NPF Report was published. This includes the announcement of the Israeli government’s plans to militarily occupy Gaza City on 8 August. And, on the 10 August, Israel murdered five Al Jazeera journalists in Gaza City.

    The motions also make demands on the Labour Party that the NPF Report does not include. For instance, one calls for an end to all arms trade and military cooperation with Israel. Others urge comprehensive sanctions, and a ban on trade that aides or assists Israel’s violations of international law.

    A three-fold increase in Palestine motions: growing anger at the Labour leadership’s position

    The number of motions sent to the Labour conference demanding the party takes more action on Israel and Palestine has dramatically increased since last year. In 2024, CLPs and affiliated organisations sent just three motions to conference. This ten-fold increase shows the growing level of anger from the grassroots at the leadership’s position. Recent polling has found that 72% of Labour’s 2024 voters want a full arms embargo on Israel.

    Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) director Ben Jamal said:

    Just days after a UN Commission of Inquiry confirmed that Israel has committed and is committing genocide in Gaza, it is shocking that Labour officials are trying to block a large influx of motions in solidarity with Palestine from being debated at this year’s party conference. By continuing to deny that Israel is committing genocide, the government seems determined to ignore the overwhelming evidence as well as growing public outrage at its ongoing failure to take meaningful action to end British complicity with Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people. The government needs to accept that it cannot simply clamp down and silence those speaking out against Israel’s genocide. Labour Party members must be allowed to debate these issues in Liverpool.

    John McDonnell MP said:

    With more than 30 motions on Palestine submitted to this year’s Labour party conference, it is clear that party members see Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people as a major issue that needs to be raised on conference floor. This week’s landmark report by a UN Commission of Inquiry, that concluded Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, should be a wake-up call. The government should join those including Sadiq Khan who have spoken out this week to make clear that what we are witnessing in Gaza is genocide and urgently implement sanctions, including a full arms embargo and a ban on all trade that aids or assists Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people. Delegates must not be prevented from discussing these issues at conference.

    Feature image via YouTube/ the Telegraph

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Lawyers file criminal genocide complaint against 11 German politicians and CEOs

    A collective of Berlin lawyers, with the support of the European Legal Support Centre (ELSC), Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy (PIPD), and Law for Palestine, has filed a formal criminal complaint for collusion in Israel’s genocide against eleven German government officials and arms trade executives.

    Germany: complicit in Israel’s genocide in Gaza

    The genocide-related charges are being filed at the Office of the Federal Prosecutor in Karlsruhe (‘Generalbundesanwaltschaft’) against:

    1. Olaf Scholz, former Federal Chancellor
    2. Annalena Baerbock, former Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs
    3. Robert Habeck, former Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection
    4. Friedrich Merz, Federal Chancellor
    5. Dr. Johann Wadephul, Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs
    6. Katherina Reiche, Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy
    7. Boris Pistorius, Federal Minister of Defence
    8. Dr. Jörg Stratmann, Managing Director of Rolls-Royce Solutions GmbH
    9. Dr. Alexander Sagel, CEO of RENK Group AG since February 1, 2025
    10. Ms. Susanne Wiegand, CEO of RENK Group AG until January 31, 2025
    11. Michael Humbek, Managing Director of Dynamit Nobel Defence GmbH

    Zionist former foreign minister Annalena Baerbock, now president of the United Nations General Assembly, recently denied ever saying that Israel was justified in bombing hospitals and other civilian buildings in Gaza, despite having appeared on video saying it:

    In a dossier over a hundred pages long, the lawyers provide extensive evidence for the alleged collaboration in crimes under the Code of Crimes against International Law (CCAIL), specifically the crime of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes committed by Israel.

    The German state has engaged in brutal repression of pro-Palestinian and anti-genocide protest and lists support for Israel as its “Staatsräson”, or reason for existence as a state. Its arms exports to Israel have exceeded half a billion euros a year since the Gaza genocide began in 2023.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Microsoft’s £22bn investment deepens the UK’s complicity in Israel’s Big Tech-facilitated genocide

    Microsoft has recently announced a record-setting £22bn investment in the UK, aimed at developing artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructures and expanding cloud computing capabilities. Central to their plan is constructing the UK’s largest AI supercomputer facility in Essex. There are currently around 6000 employees of Microsoft in the UK, across AI research labs, technical operations, and software development teams, and this funding is expected to create thousands of highly skilled new jobs. Clients of Microsoft’s UK services include Barclays, NHS, Vodafone, the London Stock Exchange, and the UK Met Office, all integrating AI to transform their operational effectiveness.

    But beneath this technological ambition lies a far darker story – Microsoft’s deep and ongoing collaboration with the Israeli military, implicating it in grave human rights abuses, including war crimes and acts of genocide inflicted on Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

    Microsoft complicit in occupation and genocide

    Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, released a landmark report earlier this year, titled From Economy of Occupation to Economy of Genocide. The document uncovers the troubling reality that multinational corporations, including Microsoft, materially contribute to sustaining Israel’s settler-colonial and apartheid regime, and defines an “economy of genocide”, underlining how certain companies provide the necessary technological infrastructure, AI capabilities, and other services that enable Israel to conduct forced evictions, mass killings, and precise surveillance on Palestinian civilians.

    Albanese’s findings explicitly named Microsoft as a major enabler, and claimed that its technologies are integral to the continuation of crimes that violate international law – including unlawful settlements, military operations causing immense civilian suffering, and systemic repression.

    Israel using Microsoft mass surveillance and automated targeting algorithms against Palestinians

    Microsoft’s relationship with Israel has long roots, but its involvement with the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) deepened significantly after a 2021 meeting between CEO Satya Nadella and the commander of Israel’s elite Unit 8200 which conducts wide-scale signals intelligence and cyber warfare. After this meeting, Microsoft created a dedicated, segregated area within its Azure cloud platform for exclusive use by Israeli military intelligence.

    According to leaked internal documents and multiple insider sources, this cloud environment was designed to handle unprecedented volumes of intercepted Palestinian data. It provides near-limitless storage, enhanced security protocols, and advanced AI tools to mine and process intelligence for military operations. Since early 2022, the Israeli military intelligence has stored millions of Palestinian phone calls on Microsoft’s Azure servers daily. These intercepted conversations, from Gaza and the West Bank, amount to over 200 million recorded hours, as of August 2025.

    Directly informing lethal military decisions

    Microsoft’s engineers have collaborated closely with Israeli military units, developing encryption and cybersecurity mechanisms to secure this surveillance infrastructure. The intelligence gained is not just collected for data analysis, but directly informs lethal military decisions. The IDF uses this data to plan targeted airstrikes, raids, and detentions, leading to massive civilian casualties. Many of the neighbourhoods under attack have been densely populated with residential buildings, schools, and hospitals, drawing accusations of war crimes and violations of international humanitarian law.

    Microsoft provides artificial intelligence algorithms, including access to OpenAI’s GPT-4 via Azure, rapidly sifting through and interpreting data for what Israeli intelligence calls ‘target banks’ – databases of individuals or locations tagged for potential military action. The use of AI-driven tools transforms the time-intensive intelligence gathering process into near-real-time analysis, allowing fast and often indiscriminate targeting.

    This AI-assisted warfare raises unprecedented ethical concerns about algorithmic decision-making in life-and-death situations and has been linked to operations that have decimated large swathes of civilian infrastructure and led to thousands of unnecessary deaths.

    Integration in repression and prison systems

    Beyond military applications, Microsoft technology is embedded in Israeli systems which enforce apartheid policies, including biometric controls, checkpoint monitoring, and surveillance infrastructure limiting Palestinians’ freedom of movement and expression.
    Microsoft also supports surveillance and control technologies tied to Israeli prisons known for routinely engaging in torture and other inhumane treatments of Palestinian detainees.

    Microsoft says no evidence has emerged of deliberate misuse of its technology to target or harm individuals, and publicly distances itself from allegations of wrongdoing, claiming internal audits have shown compliance with its policies and international human rights standards. But insider leaks reveal an awareness across the company regarding the military implications of their work. Internal emails describe the partnership with Israeli military intelligence as ‘critical’ to Microsoft’s growth plans.

    The UK’s complicity and legal obligations

    Starmer officially welcomed Microsoft’s £22bn investment as a technological ‘game-changer’, stressing the job creation aspect and AI leadership in the UK economy, but has failed to address Microsoft’s active role in the occupation. This raises serious legal and moral issues because, according to international legal frameworks including the 1948 Genocide Convention and rulings by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), states have a duty to stop genocide and must do everything they can to prevent genocide.

    The ICJ, in 2024, concluded that Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories, and its security policies, are unlawful, and ordered all states, including the UK, to refrain from facilitating these actions, including via corporate partnerships. The UK’s encouragement of Microsoft’s expansion, while neglecting these responsibilities, makes it complicit, yet again, in continued atrocities in the West Bank, and genocide in Gaza.

    The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement says “Microsoft is perhaps the most complicit tech company in Israel’s illegal apartheid regime and ongoing genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza” and has stepped up its efforts against the corporation, highlighting its role in enabling the Israeli military’s surveillance and lethal operations through Azure and AI technologies. BDS has called for a global boycott of Microsoft’s gaming division, and for customers to cancel subscriptions, avoid purchasing any Microsoft gaming products, and pressure institutional divestments from the tech giant.

    Holding Microsoft to account

    Microsoft is facing growing global scrutiny for its involvement in Israeli crimes against Palestinians, and protests have escalated, drawing attention and helping to raise awareness about the company’s complicity. Activists are demanding Microsoft cut all ties with the Israeli military, halt sales of AI-enabled surveillance technologies used in the occupation, and pay reparations to affected Palestinian communities.

    Microsoft’s use of its technologies in facilitating the Israeli occupation and its genocide in Gaza, exposes a growing ethical dilemma – one where innovation and oppression coexist, and internationally recognised rights are trampled on under the guise of technological progress.

    Profits must never come at the expense of human rights. Technology should uplift and protect lives – not be used to surveil, oppress, or kill. Until Microsoft is held accountable for how its tools enable harm against Palestinians, the UK should not strike any trade deals or investments that effectively give a green light to this complicity.

    This is not just about business or jobs, but about the values we decide to uphold. The UK must demand transparency, responsibility, and respect for human dignity from powerful tech firms like Microsoft. Anything less, and our government risks becoming even more complicit in injustice than it already is.

    Feature image via Youtube/Democracy Now!

    By Charlie Jaay

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Jewish peace campaigners plan public fast for Gaza on Yom Kippur

    A group of older Jewish women of conscience have been organising support for Gaza under the name Jewish Peaceniks UK. And they’re now planning a fast to mark the second anniversary of the escalation of Israel’s genocide of people in Gaza. They are inviting other Jewish people to join them in a public fast on Yom Kippur, which falls this year between 1 October and 2 October. The aim is to express their “horror and outrage at the starvation of the Gazan population”. In a statement, they say:

    The public fast will begin at sunset at 6.24 pm on Wednesday October 1st and end at 7.25pm on October 2nd.

    Reflecting and trying to put things right this Yom Kippur

    Yom Kippur is a day of atonement, and is “the most sacred and solemn day in the Jewish calendar”. It’s an opportunity to “reflect on the past year” and “put things right”. Many Jewish people pray during the day and “break their fast in the evenings”. The Jewish Peaceniks UK fast will take place in Westminster, but the campaigners will disclose the exact location closer to the date. The plan, they explain, is for all participants to attend until 8.30pm on 1 October for the Kol Nidre declaration. The Kol Nidre sets Yom Kippur services in motion. Then, on 2 October, participants will be able to “choose to attend for different periods of the day”.

    People interested in attending the Yom Kippur Fast for Gaza can complete an online registration form.

    This year, the Canary has reported on two prior protests by the Jewish Peaceniks women in Hampstead and Highgate, London. They stood with placards highlighting that the number of children in the area is similar to the number Israel has murdered in Gaza since its genocide escalated in October 2023. Israeli occupation forces have killed at least 19,424 children in the Palestinian territory so far.

    Featured image supplied

    By Ed Sykes

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Israel just massacred 25 members of the same family in Gaza City

    In another deadly massacre against displaced families during Israel’s genocide, around 25 members of the Dughmush family were killed, after multiple airstrikes flattened a residential block in Al-Sabra area of Southern Gaza City last night, while residents were asleep.

     

    Palestinian doctor Ashraf Mohammad Abu Mohsen, along with his wife and children were also killed in the same strike.

    Israel commits another deadly massacre as it makes situation in Gaza City ‘catastrophic’

    This attack comes as Fares Afanah, director of emergency and medical services in north Gaza, described the situation in Gaza City as catastrophic on Saturday, saying Israeli occupation forces had bombed four inhabited buildings in the Al-Sabra area without warning, killing at least least 17 people and injuring more than 30.

    Ambulance crews transported the victims to Al-Shifa Medical Complex, while many remain missing under the rubble.

    Afanah said the military had escalated their attacks in the Al-Sabra, Tel al-Hawa, and Al-Shati neighbourhoods, and emergency teams had worked flat out to evacuate the dead and wounded, despite constant danger.

    Israeli occupation forces (IOF) said it is intensifying fighting in the Gaza Strip, with tanks now invading deeper into Gaza City.

    Featured image via screengrab

    By Charlie Jaay

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Harrowing accounts of Israel’s systematic torture of Palestinian prisoners have once again emerged

    The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society has released a briefing following extensive legal visits to several Israeli prisons, exposing a grim and escalating reality for Palestinian political prisoners.

    Lawyers who visited Naqab, Megiddo, Ramla, Ofer, Shatta, Gilboa, and Damon prisons documented testimonies from men, women, and children. Their accounts point to systematic abuse, deliberate medical neglect, degrading conditions, and an unprecedented rise in detainee numbers since Israel’s genocide in Gaza began.

    Disease and deprivation in Naqab Prison

    Naqab Prison, in the south of the country, is one of the largest detention centres, holding thousands of Palestinians. It has become both a laboratory of repression and an epicentre of disease. More than 20 detainees were visited there, with most suffering from scabies infections, often recurring despite previous treatment.

    Prisoners reported a severe shortage of basic necessities such as clean clothing, with some not allowed to change their clothes for six months, and also said they are denied cleaning products, while electricity and light are frequently cut off for long stretches. Even the right to shower is weaponised – since it is only permitted during ‘break time’ in the prison yard, guards can ensure prisoners remain unwashed simply by denying them yard time.

    The testimonies described cell life plagued by itching and rashes left untreated, pain met with mockery instead of medicine, and food so contaminated it often carried bird droppings, rotten vegetables, or even soap residue. Yet detainees said they had no choice but to eat it. Medical staff, who should provide care, use humiliation as a tool of punishment instead.

    Adding to this, violent raids by Israeli occupation forces (IOF) ‘suppression units’ have sharply increased in frequency and brutality since 7 October 2023. In Naqab, the notorious ‘Keter Unit’ carried out a particularly violent raid on 10 September, hurling stun grenades and firing rubber-coated bullets that wounded at least one prisoner. Strip searches and demeaning treatment accompany these assaults, with even detainees brought to meet lawyers facing beatings out of sight of cameras.

    Neglect and abuse of Palestinian prisoners across other prisons

    In Megiddo Prison, untreated injuries, chronic pain, and worsening infections dominate testimonies. Prisoners with fractured bones or severe wounds said they were left without proper medical attention or even basic painkillers. Raids occur every two to three weeks, usually at dawn or the dead of night, when prisoners are most vulnerable. Dogs, stun guns, batons, and verbal abuse accompany these crackdowns, leaving many injured. Skin diseases such as boils, fungal infections, and eczema continue to spread, highlighting the dire shortage of clothing and hygiene supplies.

    Ofer Prison tells a similar story but with an even darker twist. Here, medical neglect extends indiscriminately to children. Over 210 Palestinian children are currently held in Ofer, many infected with scabies and other untreated illnesses.

    At Damon Prison, women detainees face compounded layers of abuse. Testimonies describe suffocating humidity, widespread insects, food supplies unfit for consumption, and increasing restrictions on outdoor time. They endure raids, strip searches, and physical assaults. Feminine hygiene needs are deliberately denied, despite cases of prisoners suffering from illnesses and psychological distress that worsen under these conditions.

    Weekly raids by suppression units also dominate life in Shatta and Gilboa prisons, where guards deploy electric stun guns and police dogs. In the Ramla Prison Clinic, the very place meant to care for the gravely ill, conditions are described as even more alarming. All prisoners there suffer chronic diseases, yet treatment is virtually absent. The scabies outbreak has even spread here, with ten detainees in isolation out of the 22 in the unit.

    Highest number of prisoners since 2000

    What emerges from these prisons is not only a pattern of humiliation and neglect but one of control, designed to break Palestinian prisoners. As of early September 2025, more than 11,100 Palestinians are held in Israeli prisons – the highest figure since the Second Intifada in 2000. This number excludes those languishing in military camps run directly by the occupation’s army.

    Included within this total are 53 women, among them two from Gaza, and at least 400 children. The surge in administrative detention – prisoners held without charge or trial – has reached almost 3,580 in the West Bank, while more than 2,660 detainees from Gaza have been classified as ‘unlawful combatants’, a category that also extends to Arab detainees from Lebanon and Syria.

    Practices inflicted on Palestinian prisoners are ‘direct extension of the genocide’

    According to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society, the conditions in these prisons cannot be seen in isolation from the broader reality of genocide and ethnic cleansing. Torture, starvation, disease, and humiliation have become extensions of the Israeli occupation’s aggression in Gaza.

    The organisation’s calls to the international community is this:

    The crimes committed have reached a level that words cannot adequately describe. What is taking place constitutes part of a broader process of ethnic cleansing and erasure, and the practices inflicted on prisoners and detainees are a direct extension of the genocide. The continued international silence in the face of these crimes is an affront to all of humanity, and the consequences of this war will reach everyone who used helplessness as an excuse to evade responsibility.

    Special Units of the Israeli Prison Service: instruments of torture and control

    According to Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, prison raids by Israeli Occupation Forces ‘Special Units’, or ‘Suppression Units’ are extremely violent and give way to a host of abuses and human rights violations. They serve as one method of collective punishment, torture, and ill-treatment of Palestinian prisoners and detainees, with the occupation systematically exploiting any excuse to deploy its special forces into prisons to attack and harass the Palestinian prisoners and detainees.

    Back in 2020, Addameer described the attacks in Israeli prisons which it documented:

    Special forces shackle the prisoners, often physically assaulting them without any regard to their medical conditions and using tear gas and pepper spray, along with a plethora of other tactics to further abuse them. More often than not, the prisoners report sustaining grave injuries due to the brutality of the attacks.

    These Suppression Units are heavily armed and trained in combat skills, and represent the hardline enforcement arm of the Israeli Prison Service (IPS), playing a central role in managing supposed ‘unrest’ and ‘security threats’ inside Israeli occupation prisons.

    The Keter Unit is a special guard unit stationed at Naqab Prison, and is one of the main Suppression Units, focuses on enforcing discipline through forceful interventions within the prison, often involved in cell raids and transfer operations. After 7 October, the Keter Unit’s presence inside Naqab Prison has became almost daily, and its members use excessive force on the prisoners during the raids.

    Addameer documented a group of prisoners who were abused and had their ribs broken by the Keret Unit, which is also responsible for beating to death prisoner Thaer Abu Asab, in November 2023.

    Featured image supplied

    By Charlie Jaay

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • For first time ever Israel is right – but not for the reasons it thinks it is

    So Keir Starmer has announced the UK’s recognition – along with that of Canada and Australia – of the Palestinian state.

    A Palestinian state: no change over genocide

    The recognition of the Palestinian state means Britain joins the vast majority – more than three quarters of UN member states – and in the recognition and that four out of five permanent UN Security Council members now recognise Palestine, leaving the US, of course, as the only hold-out. This is symbolically significant, but it does not change Britain’s obligation to prevent or end Israel’s genocide in Gaza and its slaughter of the Palestinian people.

    That obligation already existed and exists whether Palestine is officially a state or not.

    Israel, of course, condemned the three countries’ recognition as ‘rewarding Hamas’ and – because Zionism has no shame – that it means the UK recognises a genocidal entity as a state. It also called it ‘performative’.

    Within hours of Starmer announcing that the UK recognition was imminent, the RAF was again flying spy flights over Gaza and enabling Israel’s bombing attacks that have slaughtered approaching half a million children and 700,000 people, almost entirely civilians, so far during its genocide. Such flights have continued for more than a year, with RAF planes providing surveillance as Israel has targeted civilians, children, journalists, aid workers (some British) and medics for slaughter.

    Starmer’s government still refuses to recognise Israel’s genocide as genocide – because that would leave it no wiggle room to avoid intervening or else breaking international law.

    Israel is right

    So for the first time in its history, Israel is right about something, at least as regards the UK government – though not in the way it wants us to take it. Starmer, who to all intents and purposes appears incapable of honesty and humanity, is being performative over the Palestinian state. He is never anything else.

    Recognising Palestinian statehood without recognising Israeli genocide only allows Starmer to claim he is doing something when in fact he is doing the opposite: not only standing by and doing nothing, but actively collaborating in Israel’s extermination and, at best, expulsion of the Palestinian people from Gaza so that, as Israel’s fascist ministers have said, there is nothing left to recognise.

    Meanwhile, as Starmer performs, scenes like this – an older brother weeping over the body of his little sister, murdered by Israel in the Buraij refugee camp, central Gaza, just moments after Starmer’s announcement:

    ‘My little sister! O world! I seek refuge in Allah!’

    Until Starmer recognises what 99.9% of the world knows – that this is genocide, a Holocaust – everything else he does or says about Israel and Palestine is performative. Just not in the way Israel means it.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Britain’s recognition of the Palestinian state: a correction of history or an escape from responsibility?

    The Palestinian people needed nothing more than the Balfour Declaration to know that Britain had laid the foundation for their century-long tragedy. The declaration, issued in 1917, opened the door to the Zionist project and later led to the establishment of the State of Israel on the ruins of the Palestinian people and the displacement of the majority of them from their land. Today, more than a century later, Britain’s recognition of the Palestinian state is a belated step with symbolic and political dimensions, but it also opens the door to questions about its real value in light of the ongoing occupation.

    Belated recognition of Palestine after a historic crime

    Palestinians realize that British recognition, whatever its political weight, cannot erase the impact of the Balfour Declaration. That promise was not a passing political statement, but a colonial decision that paved the way for the usurpation of Palestine and the displacement of its people, and Palestinians continue to live with its repercussions to this day. Therefore, many view the new recognition as a “belated correction” that falls short of bearing historical responsibility. Recognition in itself is a symbolic step, but Britain must accompany this position with practical measures that acknowledge its initial crime and work to remedy it.

    The current political dimension

    Politically, the recognition carries implications that cannot be underestimated. Britain is one of Israel’s most prominent traditional allies and one of the most influential countries within and outside the European Union. Its decision marks a shift in Western political sentiment, which has grown impatient with the policies of the occupation, especially after the brutal crimes committed in Gaza over the past two years. In this context, the recognition can be seen as a means of exerting pressure on Israel and a clear message that the occupation no longer enjoys the same political cover it has been accustomed to over the past decades.

    However, caution is needed; recognition does not necessarily mean that Britain will radically change its practical positions. The question remains: Will London move from political recognition to exerting actual pressure on Israel by supporting accountability resolutions, imposing sanctions, or halting arms exports? Or will the recognition remain a mere symbolic declaration for diplomatic consumption?

    Between symbolism and reality on the ground for the Palestinian state

    On the ground, recognition does not change the reality of the occupation. Gaza continues to live under bombardment, siege, and mass death, and the West Bank is subjected daily to waves of settlement and displacement. Palestinians therefore fear that British recognition will remain a symbolic step that does not translate into tangible change in their daily lives. Nevertheless, the symbolism of recognition remains important, as it adds to the accumulation of international recognition that reinforces the legitimacy of the Palestinian state in the face of Israeli propaganda.

    Moral and legal responsibility

    Britain’s recognition should not be seen merely as a political move, but as a moral duty that is more than a century overdue. As the author of the Balfour Declaration and the mandatory power in Palestine until 1948, Britain bears direct responsibility for the suffering of the Palestinians. Therefore, any recognition must be accompanied by a formal apology and moral and political compensation for the historical damage inflicted on the Palestinian people. Unless this happens, the recognition will remain incomplete in the eyes of the Palestinians, closer to a whitewash than to an assumption of responsibility.

    What comes after recognition of the Palestinian state?

    The most prominent challenge now lies in how Palestinians will capitalize on this recognition. Rather than considering it a “symbolic victory,” it should be a starting point for broad political and diplomatic moves to pressure other countries to recognize the Palestinian state and its inalienable national rights. It is also necessary to use this recognition as a tool to strengthen legal proceedings against Israel in international courts, especially in light of the clear war crimes and genocide committed by the occupying army.

    Between hope and disappointment

    Ultimately, Palestinians cannot ignore the great symbolism of this recognition, but at the same time, they realize that it does not restore their land or stop the massacre. The hope is that it will mark the beginning of a new path, with Britain beginning to review its colonial legacy and moving towards more effective roles in holding Israel accountable and supporting Palestinian rights. The disappointment will come if the recognition remains just another line in the diplomatic record books, with no impact on the ground and no change in the balance of power.

    Britain’s recognition of the Palestinian state more than a century after the Balfour Declaration represents a watershed moment, but one that is marred by delay and inadequacy. Palestinians see it as a welcome step, but it does not absolve Britain of its historical responsibility or fulfill their full rights. Between symbolism and reality, the real test remains: Will Britain dare to turn recognition into a policy of pressure that will end the occupation and the ongoing tragedy, or will it remain a mere moral declaration that changes nothing?

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Alaa Shamali

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Supporters react as UK ‘finally’ recognises Palestinian statehood

    On 21 September, the United Kingdom of Great Britain formally recognised the state of Palestine. The UK followed Canada and Australia, with the former being the first G7 nation to recognise Palestinian statehood. Following this, “over 150 countries” recognise Palestine, including the majority of UN member states.

    In response to the declaration, UK activists and pressure groups have responded:

    “Intolerable” as Palestinian statehood is recognised

    In recognising Palestinian statehood, Keir Starmer said:

    The starvation and devastation are utterly intolerable.


    As reported by the Canary, Keir Starmer and many members of his cabinet belong to Labour Friends of Israel, an organisation which:

    supports a negotiated two-state solution for two peoples; with a safe and secure Israel, alongside a viable and independent Palestinian state.

    Despite this, Starmer showed no signs of recognising Palestinian statehood before Israel caused the famine in Gaza, leading to intensified criticism of the UK’s complicity in the genocide.

    Starmer also said:

    This death and destruction horrifies all of us

    As reported by the Canary, the UK has continued to provide arms and maintain military links with Israel despite the ongoing genocide, although it has placed an “ostensible ban on arms exports”.

    Reporting on the close links between Labour and Israel’s arms industry, Declassified UK recently uncovered the following:

    Response

    Al Jazeera noted how long this issue has been going on for:

    Also commenting on timescales, the Tory Fibs X/Twitter account noted:

    Long-time Palestine supporter Jeremy Corbyn highlighted that the UK still diverges with the UN on the acknowledgement of the genocide:

    The Green Party and SNP voiced a similar position:


    The Liberal Democrats Layla Moran, who is of Palestinian descent, said the following:

    Presenter Sangita Myska noted the legal obligations which the UK would be subject to should it acknowledge the ongoing genocide:

    It’s been argued that Yemen is actually following international law by doing what it can to disrupt Israel’s genocide. The US, meanwhile, has bombed Yemen for its actions.

    Commentator Saul Staniforth suggested that acknowledgement is being presented now as an empty gesture to distract from Britain’s complicity in the genocide:

    Tayab Ali (head of international law) commented on how limited the move is despite the historic significance:


    His message continues:

    What matters now is whether recognition is matched by action. And action means:

    ➡ Stopping the unadulterated annihilation and genocide of the Palestinian people – end the occupation.

    ➡ Ending arms sales where there is a clear risk of war crimes,

    ➡ Imposing sanctions on officials responsible for atrocities and settlement expansion,

    ➡ Regulating UK companies and charities complicit in occupation,

    ➡ And standing firm behind the ICC and ICJ as they pursue accountability, however inconvenient for those in power.

    Sky News’s Ben Bloch noted one change which has resulted from the development:


    Independent MP Iqbal Mohamed warned this step cannot become an empty gesture:


    His message continued:

    This cannot be a hollow recognition that leads to no change in real foreign policy.

    The UK must act on the UN’s determination that Israel has been perpetrating a genocide & take all immediate available actions to stop the genocide. It must impose a full arms embargo, full trade sanctions, & withdraw all diplomatic, political & military support now.

    Featured image via United Nations (Flickr) / Keir Starmer

    By Willem Moore

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Palestine ambassador demolishes Kuenssberg’s ‘propaganda’ question over statehood

    On Sunday 21 September, Husam Zomlot (Palestine’s ambassador to the UK) sat down with the BBC‘s Laura Kuenssberg. As the UK is at odds with the UN’s verdict Israel is committing genocide, Kuenssberg was able ‘both-sides’ the conflict in a fashion which will likely look unimaginable twelve months from now. It didn’t really matter to Zomlot, who was more than prepared to demolish every argument put to him over Palestine statehood:


    ‘Why didn’t the UK recognise Palestine statehood all along?’

    The UK is set to recognise Palestinian statehood later today. While we’ve flirted with doing so for many years, political pressure grew following the announcement of an Israeli-caused famine in Gaza.

    On this topic, Kuenssberg said to Zomlot:

    If The UK announces recognition of Palestine later today, which everybody expects, what would that mean for the people you represent?

    Zomlot responded:

    It would mean a lot, but what would it mean to the people of Britain? … that’s the most important question, because this is more about Britain than it is about Palestine. Palestine existed long before the Balfour declaration. Palestine existed long before Israel. Palestine is the cradle of civilisation, the birthplace of Christianity. So we existed.

    The issue today is ending the denial of our existence that started… a hundred and eight years ago in 1917. And I think today the British people should celebrate a day when history is being corrected; when wrongs are being righted; when recognition of the wrongs of the past are beginning to be corrected, and when taking responsibility of that colonial era, because that era has led us directly to the genocide in Gaza today…

    that era has led to the ethnic cleansing of two thirds of the Palestinian people during the Nakba and during the British mandate.

    Zomlot also said:

    So, of course, we will welcome it, Laura. And, of course, this is a step forward in the direction of peace… in the direction of justice, and in the direction of ending the erasure and the genocide.

    In a more contentious exchange, Kuenssberg put the following to Zomlot:

    Many politicians – we’ve heard that from Malcolm Rifkind here this morning, a foreign secretary of many years – there are many people who believe that giving Palestine statehood today, at this moment in this conflict, does give a propaganda win to Hamas.

    In case we forget, this is what Palestine looks like as it’s receiving this alleged “win”, as documented by Canary journalist Alaa Shamalay:


    Zomlot responded (emphasis added):

    No, no, no. What they’re saying is propaganda. What does 7th of October, Hamas, have to do with the Palestinian right to self-determination? May I ask you, Laura?

    This right to self-determination, the right to exist on our homeland, has come long before Israel, long before Hamas. This is an inalienable right of the Palestinian people, a birthright, long overdue. And the question is never, why should the UK recognise the state of Palestine? The question is why didn’t the UK recognise the state of Palestine all along?

    Zomlot also noted it’s clear the tide is turning:

    This isn’t the first impressive performance from Zomlot:

    Free Palestine

    The fact that we have an ambassador from Palestine while not recognising their statehood highlights the ridiculous games we’ve been playing. We haven’t acknowledged Palestine because America and Israel don’t want us to; not because we don’t believe in it; not because it doesn’t obviously exist.

    As we reported, Keir Starmer and many members of his cabinet belong to Labour Friends of Israel, an organisation which:

    supports a negotiated two-state solution for two peoples; with a safe and secure Israel, alongside a viable and independent Palestinian state.

    Despite this, Starmer showed no signs of recognising Palestinian statehood before Israel’s atrocities became so pronounced that he had to create political distance between himself and Netanyahu (even as we continue to offer military support).

    Writing on Western interference and oppression, Omar El Akkad penned a book titled One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This. Keep this phrase in mind after the UK recognises the genocide and journalists and politicians stop demanding the oppressed Palestinians justify their right to exist.

    Featured image via BBC

    By Willem Moore

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • We’re in the middle of a genocide, and Your Party is engaged in a battle of whataboutery?

    The word “genocide” is often deemed to be provocative and misleading by its perpetrators and enablers.

    Raphael Lemkin, a Polish-Jewish lawyer who coined the term “genocide” in 1944, tirelessly advocated for the recognition of genocide as an international crime, influencing the drafting of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

    This was created under the auspices of the United Nations General Assembly by a committee of experts, with hugely significant contributions from Mr Lemkin and other legal scholars.

    But it goes without saying, the intolerable parasite Starmer knows better.

    Why the mini history lesson?

    Why not?

    When we wilfully fail to learn from the horrors of historical genocides, we doom ourselves to repeat the tragedies of the past, turning a blind eye to the desperate cries of humanity.

    Israel is committing a genocide – yet where is Starmer (again)?

    Just this past week, a United Nations commission of inquiry has claimed that Israel has committed genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza.

    The commission’s report concludes that the war criminal, President Isaac Herzog of Israel — welcomed into Downing Street by the unashamedly complicit Keir Starmer — “incited the commission of genocide” in his speeches and statements.

    Once again, Keir Starmer’s appalling lack of judgement has proven to be fatally flawed and blinded by the blood-soaked flag of the state of Israel.

    Cast your minds back over the last fourteen months. How many hugely critical decisions has Keir Starmer managed to get right?

    Winter fuel allowance?

    Disability benefits?

    Ukraine?

    Freebies?

    Peter fucking Mandelson?

    Now you can add Gaza genocide denial to list of eternal shame.

    Trump, meanwhile…

    Much of the news coverage over the last few days has been taken up by the arrival of the tangerine tantrum and his meeting with Keir Starmer.

    If you were expecting to read about a capitulation to right-wing authoritarianism and neoliberal imperialism, reinforcing the serpent Starmer’s drift away from Labour’s socialist roots toward a centre-right establishment-friendly agenda, I’m afraid that ship set sail some time ago.

    Starmer’s willingness to court a hateful piece of shit like Trump is hardly a shock, but the lavish hosting of the detestable President — complete with some stomach-churning butt kissing for the hope of economic ties — exposes the utter hollowness of his “change” mantra, once and for all.

    Starmer and Trump aren’t really all that different. Neither of them serve any purpose to poor and working-class people.

    Trump fronts an administration that thrives on xenophobia, climate denial, and corporate greed, all while the UK grapples with austerity’s lingering scars and rising inequality under Labour’s own appalling reforms.

    It’s hardly the time to roll out the red carpet for a bankrupt neofascist, is it?

    Britain needs a leader that will challenge Trump’s dangerous reactionary policies, not align with him on key issues.

    Trump told Starmer to halt the “migrant invasion” by any means, including deploying the military, echoing the far-right rhetoric that demonises refugees and asylum seekers as threats to national security.

    The borders that have been fortified by the failures of capitalism — displacement driven by wars, climate change and human exploitation — need breaking down, not reinforcing.

    We want Keir Starmer, a Labour prime minister, to advocate humane immigration policies and international solidarity.

    Weak and isolated Starmer’s failure to publicly push back risks normalising such draconian approaches in the UK, where anti-refugee sentiment has already fueled riots, division and painted fucking roundabouts.

    Pick a side, you say

    It wasn’t that long ago that Labour’s historical commitment to anti-racism and workers unity across borders actually meant something.

    It also wasn’t that long ago that the British left thought they finally had something to be optimistic about with the creation of Your Party.

    I must admit, I kept my optimism firmly on the back burner and I didn’t promote the fledgling party beyond a few paragraphs in my weekly Canary slot.

    Why?

    To be brutally honest, there are only so many egos you can put in one room before everything spills over into a big public mess.

    I have been asked several times whose “side” I am on. Why would anyone care

    Am I diehard Corbynite that thinks St Jezza can do no wrong? Or am I jumping on the Sultana bandwagon in the hope of rejuvenating my online activism?

    Based on what I have seen and heard over the last few days, I will remain on the side of children from Gaza to Gateshead and beyond, and if that means putting my support behind Polanski’s Greens, however insignificant it may be, so be it.

    A battle of whataboutery is an unbelievably selfish thing to do, and there are very few people that can walk away from the Your Party debacle with an ounce of credit and dignity.

    Watching bloody good people chip away at one another doesn’t make me want to pick a side.

    A genocide needs stopping – yet Your Party are navel gazing?

    Maybe it can be saved? Sometimes it seems like a few people need to sit down, put self-ambition to one side, and thrash out a way forward that brings people together and puts the future of the party firmly in the hands of its members, but a decade of online activism tells me this may just be wishful thinking.

    Remember folks. Divided we fall, and if we allow ourselves to tumble to the ground, there might not be a chance to pick ourselves up for at least a generation.

    We have — or at least had — an historic opportunity to create a left alliance to challenge the far-right, Reform UK, and Keir Starmer’s Labour.

    Today’s Labour government is polling lower than any Labour Party that was ever led by Jeremy Corbyn over those five tumultuous years. In fact, it is the lowest ever polling for the Labour Party in eighty years of polls existing.

    Now isn’t the time for anyone with an agenda to engage in navel-gazing.

    DIVIDED. WE. FALL.

    That’s not for me. I want change. We need change. We need a serious opposition to the numerous crises that we are facing today, not an internal power struggle that has only served to embolden the enemies of change.

    Am I asking too much?

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Rachael Swindon

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Israel is committing cultural genocide in Gaza – erasing Palestinian identity and memory

    Israel’s relentless military campaign in Gaza City is destroying far more than homes and civilian infrastructure. It is systematically erasing the cultural, historical, and spiritual fabric of Palestinian life. Centuries-old mosques, churches, markets, archives, museums, cemeteries, and archaeological landmarks are all being reduced to rubble, in what amounts to an intentional war against memory, heritage, and identity. This is not collateral damage, but a cultural genocide by Israel; a deliberate assault designed to cut Palestinians off from their own history while the world’s most powerful governments look away, or worse, actively enable it.

    Erasure of Gaza’s historic and cultural history via Israel’s genocide

    The human cost of the Israeli occupation’s holocaust in Gaza is huge. As of 14 September, nearly 64,870 people, including more than 19,400 children, are confirmed to have been killed, and more than 164,600 injured. Almost the entire population has been displaced. But alongside this horror lies an irreversible, quieter catastrophe: the destruction of Gaza’s historical and cultural legacy. Gaza City, with its layered history stretching back thousands of years, is being reduced to ruins.

    UNESCO has warned that the losses are staggering and may be permanent and, without urgent action, Gaza’s cultural landscape will entirely disappear. By mid-August 2025, the UN agency had verified destruction or severe damage to at least 110 cultural sites since Israel’s assault began in October 2023.

    These included 13 religious landmarks, 77 structures of historical or artistic importance, nine monuments, one museum, seven other archaeological sites, and three facilities safeguarding artefacts and archival materials -including the Central Archives building and the main public library in Gaza, which contained thousands of historical documents dating more than 150 years.

    At the time of targeting in 2023, the head of Gaza municipality, Yahya Al-Sarraj, said:

    Targeting the Central Archives poses a great danger to the city, as it contains thousands of historically valuable documents for the community.

    Al-Sarraj pointed out that:

    these documents … represent an integral part of our history and culture.

    Gaza: a historical trade and cultural centre destroyed

    Historically, Gaza was an important trade and cultural centre in the region.

    Inhabited since at least the 15th century BC, Gaza is located on the shores of the Mediterranean. Being at the junction of Asia, Africa, and Europe, the Strip formed an important link between East and West, with its Anthedon Port a regional hub for commerce and culture.

    The Old City of Gaza once formed a vibrant maze of narrow streets, markets, centuries-old stone homes, and landmarks rooted in Islamic, Christian, Ottoman, and Mamluk history. Today, it faces imminent devastation. Israel’s bombardment and ground operations have already largely destroyed the Great Omari Mosque, Gaza’s most revered religious site, which for centuries stood as a centre of worship and scholarship.

    The medieval Church of Saint Porphyrius, believed to be the third-oldest church in the world, has sustained heavy structural damage. Both hold immense cultural and spiritual significance for Palestinians and are part of humanity’s shared heritage.

    Entire marketplaces, defined by their Ottoman and Mamluk-era architecture, have been flattened. UNESCO reports at least 146 historic homes across Gaza’s Old City, many over four centuries old, have been reduced to rubble. The ancient port of Anthedon Harbour, dating back to 800 BC was targeted by 2000lb bombs, and obliterated. Other treasures have been devastated as well. The Monastery of Saint Hilarion, known as Tell Umm Amer is one of the oldest and largest monastic complexes in the Middle East dating to the 4th century and granted enhanced protection under the Hague Convention, has been wrecked by bombardment and bulldozing operations.

    Cemeteries and burial sites have also suffered intentional large-scale destruction, cutting off Palestinians from long-rooted cultural and spiritual traditions. Gaza’s museums and archival repositories, where irreplaceable documents and collections were stored, have also been targeted, further erasing shared memory and identity.

    A pattern amounting to war crimes

    This widespread razing of heritage is not random, nor is it an accident. Israel’s campaign relies on a methodical combination of aerial and artillery strikes, bulldozers, and booby-trapped vehicles to flatten entire districts, ensuring that sites are not just damaged but obliterated. This approach makes restoration impossible. Even cultural landmarks that have not yet been touched face annihilation as swathes of Gaza are bulldozed into dust.

    Legal experts argue that such deliberate targeting of cultural and religious heritage – sites that are not legitimate military objectives – constitutes war crimes under international law.

    International humanitarian law states that cultural property enjoys special protection in war. The 1954 Hague Convention and its 1999 Protocols, along with the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, make cultural destruction a crime. Campaigners warn that this strategy is part of a broader settler-colonial project: to erase the physical and symbolic markers of Palestinian identity, weakening their claim to the land and even to existence itself.

    Israel’s cultural genocide: erasing identity and memory

    Palestinians and international cultural experts emphasise that what is being destroyed is more than ancient stones or historic markets. It is collective memory. Gaza’s religious and cultural landmarks embody centuries of continuity, resilience, and identity. They connect communities across generations. To destroy them is to sever Palestinians from their history and, by extension, their future.

    According to Professor Salah Hussein Al-Houdalieh, general secretary of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) in Palestine, destruction of built cultural heritage:

    systematically erase the identity of targeted communities and undermine their historical continuity, in order to facilitate their subjugation within a colonial framework dominated by the occupying power. The destruction of cultural heritage severs the deep-rooted connections between a people and their past, akin to cutting the primary roots of a centuries-old tree – leaving it vulnerable, incapable of resilience, and unable to bear fruit for future generations.

    This is why cultural and legal scholars describe Israel’s campaign as a ‘cultural genocide’. It sits alongside mass killing, forced displacement, and the razing of civilian homes as part of a systematic effort to uproot Palestinians from their land and destroy the physical anchors of their civilisation. To bulldoze Omari Mosque or flatten Hilarion Monastery is not simply to erase monuments – it is to try to erase a people’s identity itself.

    The West’s complicity – including the UK

    Yet, Israel’s impunity persists, and it is no accident. This destruction is actively sustained by Western complicity. Israel does not act alone. The United States, UK, Germany, France, and other European powers are partners in this erasure.

    They arm Israel with fighter jets, bombs, and bulldozers. They provide billions of dollars in aid that fund the war machine. They shield Israel diplomatically, repeatedly vetoing UN Security Council measures that could intervene, and blocking UNESCO-led initiatives to protect Gaza’s threatened heritage. They continue to sign lucrative trade, technology, and military cooperation deals with Israel even as its forces raze ancient landmarks to dust. These governments are not neutral actors, but collaborators. Their weapons reduce sacred mosques and markets to rubble. Their political cover allows Israel to carry out war crimes in broad daylight. Each historic quarter destroyed, each archive lost to fire, carries not just Israeli responsibility but Western fingerprints as well.

    The time for statements of ‘concern’ has long passed. International bodies and cultural rights groups are now demanding action. UNESCO has repeatedly urged emergency measures to safeguard threatened cultural heritage in Gaza. Legal experts are insisting that the International Criminal Court include the destruction of cultural and religious heritage in its investigations into alleged war crimes and genocide.

    The ICC has already issued arrest warrants for Israeli leaders, including the prime minister and former defence minister. These warrants must be executed. And further indictments are needed, specifically tied to the destruction of cultural memory and identity. International law obliges states to enforce these rulings. To delay this will mean a further eroding of trust in international justice.

    Time for the Israeli regime to face accountability for its 77 years of crimes

    In addition, an immediate arms embargo, bans on dual-use military goods, freezing of Israeli officials’ assets, implementation of travel bans, and suspension of military, economic, and political cooperation agreements are necessary. Trade deals and collaborative initiatives that enable Israel’s crimes must be ended. Anything less makes international law a hollow promise. But accountability cannot be limited to Israel alone. Western governments that arm and shield Israel must also face consequences.

    This is not only a war fought with bombs and tanks. It is a war against continuity, against collective history, against memory. Every destroyed mosque, monastery, ancient home, marketplace, and cemetery silences centuries of Palestinian presence. The goal is clear – to ensure that Palestinians inherit only absence, that their history is torn away along with their homes and lives.

    The destruction of Omari Mosque, the scarring of Saint Porphyrius, the obliteration of Anthedon Harbour, the bulldozing of Saint Hilarion, the flattening of 146 historic homes, old markets, and entire neighbourhoods – these are not isolated acts. They form a pattern: the wholesale destruction of Palestinian identity, of world heritage, of humanity’s shared civilisation.

    Palestinians refuse to be erased by Israel’s cultural, and physical, genocide

    Palestinians refuse to be erased. Even as monuments are reduced to rubble, memory survives in resilience, in storytelling, in oral history, in survivors determined to preserve what has been taken. Gaza’s people continue to resist the erasure of their culture in every way they can.

    The question is whether the world will act. Our governments have a choice: to enforce international law, halt arms sales, sanction Israel and its leaders, and protect Gaza’s surviving cultural heritage, or to remain complicit in genocide. Silence is collusion. Empty statements while supplying bombs is complicity.

    The ruins of Gaza bear witness not only to Israel’s crimes but to the collapse of an international system that pretends to uphold justice, and for the international community to stand by silently, as these treasures vanish into smoke and rubble, is to allow the Israeli occupation’s intentionally manufactured genocide to continue unchallenged.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Charlie Jaay

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Hind Rajab Foundation launches criminal complaints against Israeli war criminals in two countries

    The Hind Rajab Foundation, which is named after a five-year-old Palestinian girl murdered along with her family by 355 machine gun bullets fired point blank by an Israeli tank, has launched war crimes complaints against two alleged Israeli war criminals in Europe.

    Hind Rajab: taking action

    In the Netherlands, the Hind Rajab Foundation’s legal counsel Haroon Raza has filed a criminal complaint with the Dutch National Prosecutor for International Crimes against Adir Yiftach, a former occupation soldier currently in the Netherlands. The complaint includes a full investigative report and an urgent request for arrest and prosecution.

    Yiftach was a combat medic in the 424th ‘Shaked’ Infantry Battalion of the Givati Brigade, under the 401st Armoured, during the Israeli ground invasion of Gaza.

    The Hind Rajab Foundation reports that these units are directly implicated in grave breaches of international humanitarian law, including the destruction of Gaza City and Rafah, the siege of Al-Shifa Medical Complex, and the killing of Hind Rajab and her family.

    And in Greece, the foundation has filed against Israeli tanker Naor Shlomo Dadon for war crimes and genocide in Gaza. Dadon is currently attending a ‘healing retreat’ for Israeli war criminals in Zagora, promoted as trauma recovery.

    The cases add to the growing number of attempts to bring Israeli perpetrators to justice, some of which have been thwarted by the actions of colluding governments or by the accused fleeing with the aid of Israeli intelligence.

    However, even when unsuccessful these actions put pressure on Israeli war criminals and ‘shrink the world’ to which they have access without fear of consequences – so much so that the Israeli government has warned its citizens to hide their military history if they decide to travel abroad.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Google Allows Israel-Sponsored Propaganda About Global Sumud Flotilla

    Evidence posted over the weekend online appears to show that tech giant Google has allowed the government of Israel to purchase sponsored content spots so that online users searching on the Global Sumud Flotilla will be shown inaccurate, propagandized content accusing the flotilla particpants as being allied with violent, terrorist elements. The Sumud Flotilla — a group of international…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Here’s What Life Is Like Inside One of Gaza’s Last Remaining Hospitals

    In the heart of a city at war, al-Wafa Rehabilitation Hospital struggles to survive. This site of healing and recovery has now been transformed into a place overwhelmed by cruel suffering. Please don’t be fooled by the Israeli military propaganda that has asserted that this “building does not currently serve as a hospital” — an assertion conveniently circulated by The Jerusalem Post in…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • CPJ: Israeli Strike in Yemen Was Largest Attack on Journalists in 16 Years

    Israel’s airstrikes on a media complex in Yemen last week resulted in the largest single attack on journalists the world has seen in 16 years, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. In a report released Friday, the group said that 31 journalists from two government-run newspapers based in Sana’a were killed in the strikes on September 10, along with four others…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Kids Under Fire in Gaza

    When Dr. Mimi Syed returned from her first volunteer trip to Gaza in the summer of 2024, she started flipping through her notes and came to a shocking conclusion: In one month, the ER physician had treated at least 18 children with gunshots to the head or chest. And that’s only the patients she had time to make a note of. 

    “They were children under the age of 12,” she says. “That’s something I saw every single day, multiple times a day, for the whole four weeks that I was there.”

    Syed’s not the only one. Other physicians who’ve worked in Gaza report seeing similar cases on a regular basis, suggesting a disturbing pattern. The doctors allege that members of the Israeli military may be deliberately targeting children. 

    This week on Reveal, in partnership with Al Jazeera’s Fault Lines, we follow Syed from Gaza to the halls of Congress and the United Nations, as she joins a movement of doctors appealing to US and international policymakers to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.  

    This is an update of an episode that originally aired in May 2025.

    Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

    This post was originally published on Reveal.

  • Bernie Sanders Is a Ghoulish Zionist

    Bernie Sanders finally issued a statement acknowledging the indisputable fact that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza after two years of adamantly refusing to do so. The statement begins as follows:

    “Hamas, a terrorist organization, began this war with its brutal attack on October 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 innocent people and took 250 hostages. Israel, as any other country, had a right to defend itself from Hamas.

    But,”

    Dude goes two years refusing to call a genocide a genocide, then issues a statement which begins by placing blame for the genocide on the victims of said genocide. He also lumps the hundreds of IDF troops slain in the attack in with “innocent people”, ignores the large percentage of the death toll that would have been killed by Israeli troops under the Hannibal Directive, and babbles about Israel’s “right to defend itself” against an occupied population.

    The rest of the statement is standard liberal Zionist fare, acknowledging the horror of the situation in Gaza while blaming it all on Benjamin Netanyahu and not the murderous apartheid state which would be doing what it’s doing with or without Netanyahu. It’s just progressive-sounding Israel apologia accompanied by a denunciation driven by the inability to escape finally calling this thing what it is.

    This is the face of what passes for the “left” in modern US politics. Absolutely ghoulish.


    https://x.com/caitoz/status/1968350298537341310

    Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich described Gaza as a “real estate bonanza” on Wednesday, saying Israel is in talks with the United States negotiating how the two countries will divide up the enclave.

    “We are checking how this becomes a real estate bonanza — I’m not joking — and pays for itself,” Smotrich said, adding, “I’ve begun negotiations with the Americans, and I’m saying this seriously, because we paid a lot of money for this war. We need to work out how we share percentages on the land. The demolition phase, the first stage of urban renewal, we’ve already done. Now we need to build.”

    It’s absolutely incredible how often Smotrich and his buddy Itamar Ben-Gvir will just come out and admit that Israel is doing the thing everyone says it’s doing. If this information had come out as a WikiLeaks drop or something it would have been a bombshell revelation, and this guy is right here just bloody saying it.

    *****


    https://x.com/caitoz/status/1968432422208348233

    *****

    There’s another report from Haaretz about the horrific things Israeli soldiers say they’ve been doing to civilians in Gaza, including descriptions of the murders of children.

    Whenever I read these accounts I can’t help thinking about how there are westerners joining the IDF to participate in this genocide. People travel to Israel to massacre civilians and then fly back home to their real countries and resume their lives as though nothing happened, like they went backpacking in Europe or something. And now they walk among us in our communities, and we’re supposed to be fine with it.

    *****

    Netanyahu says he has been invited to visit with President Trump for the fourth time this year. At this point they should just save on jet fuel and move him into a room in the White House.

    *****

    Trump is repeatedly bombing civilian vessels under the ridiculous justification that drug traffickers are “terrorists”, without even providing evidence that they are drug traffickers. Trump has now admitted to the US bombing three Venezuelan boats on these completely evidence-free grounds.

    When Yemen was attacking ships to enforce a blockade against a genocide, Trump declared them all terrorists and massacred hundreds of civilians. Now Trump is attacking civilian boats and calling them the terrorists.

    *****

    Ask a scientist when the universe began and they’ll tell you 13.8 billion years ago.

    Ask a Young Earth creationist when the universe began and they’ll tell you six thousand years ago.

    Ask a Zionist when the universe began and they’ll tell you October 7, 2023.

    The post Bernie Sanders Is a Ghoulish Zionist first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • Amnesty Calls for States to “Pull the Plug” on Economy Backing Israel’s Genocide

    Amnesty International is calling on economic actors to “pull the plug” on the economy supporting Israel’s genocide and apartheid in Palestine, naming 15 companies, including U.S. surveillance firm Palantir, acting as major backers. In a report published Thursday, the human rights groups named a litany of actions that governments, companies, and other groups must take to eliminate the…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • US Vetoes Gaza Ceasefire for Sixth Time, as Death Toll Tops 65,000

    The U.S. has once again vetoed a UN Security Council resolution that calls for a ceasefire and captive release in Gaza, just days after a UN human rights inquiry concluded that Israel is committing genocide and the official death toll tops 65,000 people. This is the sixth time that the U.S. has exercised its power to veto as one of the only five permanent members of the Security Council to…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • In Gaza, malnutrition among children worsens as 1.7 million people are without clean water

    The UN Special Rapporteur on the right to water, Pedro Arrojo-Agudo, has warned that the forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza City constitutes “a new step in Israel’s war of extermination” that has been ongoing for 23 months.

    He pointed out that Israel has deprived 1.7 million Palestinians of clean drinking water amid an unprecedented humanitarian crisis.

    Israel using water as a weapon of extermination

    Arrojo-Agudo emphasised that the internationally recommended minimum consumption per person is 15 litres of water per day. Meanwhile citizens in Gaza have access to only 5 litres. This is one-third of the amount necessary for survival.

    He added that Israel’s repeated targeting of water stations and destruction of infrastructure exacerbates the disaster.

    He considered that “the use of drinking water as a weapon of war is a crime against humanity”. In particular, he warned that the continuation of this situation puts the legitimacy of international institutions at stake. This is particularly the case in light of the occupation’s continued impunity.

    Arrojo-Agudo stressed that “silence on the crime of genocide in Gaza is a form of complicity”. Ultimately, he called for an immediate ceasefire, an end to Israel’s illegal occupation, and an embargo on arms exports to Israel.

    Starving Gaza’s children

    In a related context, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) revealed the worsening malnutrition crisis among children in the Strip. The rate has risen from 8.3% in July to 13.5% in August.

    OCHA’s update stated that there are “roughly 28,000 cases of acute malnutrition” among children under five. It detailed how this exceeded the:

    combined total of malnutrition cases identified in the first six months of 2025 (about 23,000 cases).

    The report noted that Gaza City has the highest rates, with nearly one in five children (19%) suffering from malnutrition. At the same time, the severest forms of malnutrition are affecting more than 23% of cases. This was up from 15% between January and June 2025. Crucially, this level of severe acute malnourishment directly threaten their lives.

    Recent UN reports paint a grim picture of the situation in Gaza: water scarcity, widespread malnutrition, and continued bombing and displacement. According to UN experts, these cumulative crises confirm that civilians are paying the highest price in a war described as the most dangerous humanitarian crisis in recent decades.

    It is all amid the international community’s inability to impose a ceasefire or hold those responsible for violations accountable.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Alaa Shamali

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Amnesty International reveals names of 15 companies involved in genocide in Gaza

    In a report Amnesty International released Thursday 18 September 2025, the human rights organisation has accused countries, public institutions, and major companies around the world of enabling Israel to commit genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, and to entrench the apartheid regime and illegal occupation of the occupied Palestinian territory.

    Amnesty International report: countries and companies are propping up Israel’s genocide in Gaza

    The organisation said that these entities profit from the violations by supplying weapons and technology. They do this through settlement projects, or by remaining silent and failing to hold Israel accountable.

    Amnesty International’s secretary-general Agnès Callamard said:

    The illegal occupation would not have lasted 57 years, the apartheid regime would not have been entrenched for decades, and the genocide in Gaza would not have continued for months on end, had it not been for the continuous flow of weapons and preferential trade relations. Human dignity is not a commodity. While Palestinian mothers and children are dying of hunger, arms and technology companies are reaping huge profits.

    Significantly, the briefing singled out 15 companies Callamard condemned as:

    responsible for sustaining a government that has engineered famine and mass killing of civilians and denied Palestinians fundamental rights for decades. Every economic sector, the vast majority of states, and many private entities have knowingly contributed to or benefited from Israel’s genocide in Gaza, and its brutal occupation and apartheid in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

    Corporations ‘contributing to Israel’s unlawful occupation’

    Unsurprisingly, multiple major arms companies cropped up in Amnesty’s catalogue of shame. It included the following corporations profiting from the military industrial complex.

    Boeing

    The company has supplied Israel with bombs and guidance systems Israel uses in illegal airstrikes in Gaza. This includes for instance the Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM) and GBU-39 small-diameter bombs, which has killed dozens of civilians, including children.

    Lockheed Martin

    It provides supply and maintenance services for Israel’s fleet of F-16 and F-35 aircraft, the backbone of the Israeli Air Force bombing Gaza.

    Elbit Systems

    Infamously supplies drones, loitering munitions, and surveillance systems to the Israeli military. It is one of the main beneficiaries of Israel’s military operations.

    Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI)

    The firm supplies Israel with missile systems, drones, and military technologies the occupier has used in attacks on Gaza.

    Technology and surveillance companies complicit in genocide

    Amnesty’s briefing also named a number of technology and surveillance companies, highlighting how:

    Many surveillance, AI, and cloud infrastructure companies supply equipment and services to Israel related to its surveillance of the Palestinian population and its security and military activities within the OPT.

    Hikvision

    It supplies Israel with video surveillance technology that supports the apartheid system against Palestinians. Notably, it identified that Israel uses the company’s biometric surveillance products, including facial recognition technology “extensively” to maintain its “continued domination and oppression” of Palestinians in the occupied territory.

    Corsight

    Corsight also develops facial recognition software used by the Israeli military in its attacks and security operations in Gaza. The briefing highlighted how the firm’s technology has “powered Israel’s surveillance operations in the Gaza Strip” since the start of its genocide.

    Palantir Technologies

    An American company specialising in artificial intelligence and data analysis, it provides the Israeli military and intelligence agencies with systems linked to military operations in Gaza.

    Infrastructure and services companies wrapped up in apartheid

    Besides arms and technology companies, Amnesty drew up a list of other notably complicit corporations. Companies operating infrastructure and services across occupied Palestine featured heavily among the worst offenders.

    Mekorot

    The Israeli government water company manages water networks in the West Bank in a discriminatory manner that deprives Palestinians and serves settlements.

    Construcciones E Oxicarril (CAF)

    A Spanish company building the light rail project in Jerusalem that serves and expands settlements.

    HD Hyundai

    A South Korean company that provides heavy equipment used in the demolition of homes in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, as well as maintenance services.

    Online travel companies were also among those Amnesty called out in no uncertain terms. These included the likes of Airbnb, Booking.com, Expedia, and TripAdvisor. Despite warnings, these companies continue to list illegal settlements in the West Bank and occupied Jerusalem, thereby contributing to their economic support.

    Amnesty International said these companies represent just a “small sample” of a vast network of companies and industries that have profited from the occupation and apartheid.

    Urgent calls to suspend all ties to Israel

    Amnesty International called on companies to suspend all sales and contracts that support Israeli violations. Otherwise, it warned they face potential civil and criminal liability for complicity in international crimes. The organisation’s call included:

    • Imposing a comprehensive ban on arms, security, military, and technological equipment destined for Israel.
    • Halting investments and purchases from implicated companies.
    • Preventing these companies from participating in exhibitions, contracts, and government grants.
    • Imposing sanctions such as asset freezes and travel bans on those involved.

    Callamard concluded by saying:

    It is unacceptable for companies to profit from the death and suffering of Palestinians. The economic complicity that perpetuates the occupation and genocide must end immediately.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Alaa Shamali

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • ‘We’re doing this video because we know we might die at any time’ – Gaza volunteer surgeons

    Two doctors went in front of a camera this morning to talk frankly about the brutality of life in Gaza under Israel’s occupation and starvation blockade – cruel even to the point of taking away baby formula they tried to bring with them. They describe the murder of colleagues, the dead still trapped in the ruins of the hospital and the constant attacks they face from helicopters, planes and drones – and they appeal for our help.

    Comedian Jen Brister posted the video (Skwawkbox has added subtitles) and asked readers to help raise awareness:

    PLEASE WATCH THEN SHARE THIS REEL

    A brutal account of the cruel reality of what every medic is up against in Gaza right now. This reel was recorded just a couple of hours ago.

    Featured image via author

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Life and death in Tulkarem refugee camp

    Established in 1950, Tulkarem refugee camp in the occupied West Bank became home to Palestinians driven from their native lands during the 1948 Nakba (“Catastrophe”), which saw over 700,000 people expelled in a campaign of ethnic cleansing to create Israel. Since January of 2025, the camp has been forcibly depopulated by Israel and largely destroyed as part of the IDF’s Operation Iron Wall, which has displaced over 40,000 Palestinians in West Bank refugee camps. In April 2024, before their forced displacement, TRNN was granted access to the Tulkarem refugee camp and spoke to residents about life and death in what was once one of the most densely populated camps in the West Bank.

    Credits:

    • Produced by Ross Domoney, Antonis Vradis, Abdalrahman Abdrabboh
    • Filmed and edited by Ross Domoney
    Transcript

    Narrator:
    In April 2024, The Real News Network was granted access to the Tulkarem refugee camp in occupied Palestine. Israeli army raids would happen sporadically without much warning.

    To capture these interviews, the crew slipped in and out, forced to leave multiple times by drones and the fear of incoming raids. We wanted to understand how decades of occupation had shaped the residents’ subconscious.

    Established in 1950, it became home to Palestinians driven from their native lands during the Nakba, also known as the catastrophe, which saw over 700,000 expelled in a campaign of ethnic cleansing to create Israel.

    The refugee camp is located within the city of Tulkarem, it’s one of the most densely populated camps in the West Bank, housing more than 27,000 registered refugees.

    At every turn, Israel has added pressure, erasure and violence. The camp’s armed resistance had gone into hiding, but symbols of their influence were everywhere. Every person we spoke to had a traumatic story of what the army had done.

    Mu’tasim ‘Abd E-Rraheem, Tulkarem refugee camp resident:
    My friend Mus’ab was martyred on 11/14/2023. We were happily staying up late at  night like any group of guys. Suddenly, the Israeli Army entered the camp. I was the last one standing among our group of three.

    I see Mus’ab a lot in my dreams. Sometimes, I dreamed that we are both walking in the street. Mus’ab came from above, you get me? He was calling for me. He was saying: “You’re not in prison. What brought you up here to me?” He then asked me to take care of his little brother.

    Well, surely when the camp is safe, life is great. But when there are raids, martyrs, prisoners, and wounded [people] every day, it’s horrible, especially since the entire camp shares a common ancestry.

    Narrator:
    Most people we spoke to say they were targeted despite having no ties to armed groups. Like this man who was hunted by a bomb drone.

    Ahmad Jamal Ahmad Ghanim, Tulkarem refugee camp resident:
    It’s not my fault what happened to me.I was just going to work. I had nothing to do with the army, or being wanted, or anything of the sort. I was just going to work. I have to provide for this little girl. How would I do that? Through others’ charity? We just want to work.

    I dream about how I was shot and hit. I don’t know… At night I wonder where is my arm. Where is… where is my arm? How would I hold my daughter? How would I work? How would I… How would I work or do anything? There is no… Without an arm or a leg, one cannot dream of work.

    Narrator:
    As Palestinians resist for their basic rights. Soldiers raid with futuristic weapons. Shooting for fun as if it’s a video game.

    Nabeel Muhammad Abdallah ‘Amer, Tulkarem refugee camp resident:
    So, our sons were around, three of them were standing [here], and probably three to four others were there, watching the three jeeps which were below. Now, there is this… Jeep that is equipped with AI-guided weapons. Once it detected the group of people standing here, it fired one bullet… It penetrated Nabeel’s head. He fell to the ground and the rest hid back.

    One of the things I dreamed about while being imprisoned… Apparently, I was in a desert area. While I was asleep, I wasn’t able to see anything. One night… I woke up screaming. Shouting that we’re not in prison. That the situation we’re in has ceased to exist, and that Palestine is liberated.

    Narrator:
    Since January 2025, the camp has been forcibly depopulated of all its residents. Now much of it sits destroyed and is occupied as part of the IDF Operation Iron Wall, which has displaced over 40,000 Palestinians in West Bank refugee camps.

    Residents are allowed back for just 20 minutes, to gather what personal items they can, before being forced out once again.

    Nabeel Muhammad Abdallah ‘Amer, Tulkarem refugee camp resident:
    When I actually woke up and found the barbed wire around me and our life was still under the tents and watchtowers… I fell back into a state of despair and psychological stress.

    Closing text slides:
    The Israeli army has largely destroyed Jenin, Tulkarem, and Nur Shams Refugee camps.

    They remain depopulated.

    Ever wondered how political stories are crafted from the ground up? Ross Domoney, the filmmaker behind this piece, invites filmmakers, journalists, and activists into his community newsletter, where he unpacks the art and strategy of impactful political storytelling. Sign up and read for free: https://www.shadowgraph.co

    This post was originally published on The Real News Network.

  • Tony Blair gets Trump’s green light for Gaza postwar plan

    Dictator-loving former UK prime minister and at-large war criminal Tony Blair has a green light to implement his postwar plans for Gaza. The Times of Israel reported Thursday 18 September that Blair has US president Donald Trump’s permission to lobby regional and global allies.

    Multiple undisclosed sources told the paper Blair had been told to:

    …rally regional and international stakeholders around the former UK prime minister’s proposal to establish a postwar transitional body to govern the Gaza Strip until it can be handed over to the Palestinian Authority.

    The Times said Blair had started crafting the plan early in the genocide. It has since evolved into a fuller framework for “effectively ending the war”:

    …as the Trump administration has reached the conclusion that agreement from major stakeholders regarding the body that will replace Hamas in Gaza is essential for securing a permanent ceasefire and hostage release deal.

    Blair meets Trump

    Blair reportedly attended a White House policy session on the plans in late August 2025. The Times has seen a draft of the report:

    Previous reporting has linked Blair to efforts aimed at displacing Palestinians from Gaza or at building a “Trump Riviera” in the Strip, but the former British premier’s actual proposal makes no mention of those ideas and even envisions the establishment of a “Property Rights Preservation Unit,” aimed at ensuring that any voluntary departure of Gazans does not compromise their right to return to the enclave or retain property ownership.

    Trump’s son Jared Kushner attended the same meeting. Kushner previously touted Gaza as a potential real estate investment zone.

    In March 2024, Kushner said:

    Gaza’s waterfront property, it could be very valuable, if people would focus on building up livelihoods.

    The Butcher of Baghdad’s latest scheme

    The Times cited an anonymous ‘US official’ who said:

    This spring, Kushner commissioned the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI) — which was already engaged on the issue thanks to the former UK prime minister’s ties with Israeli, PA and Arab leaders — to come up with a postwar plan…

    TBI has long served as a front for Blair’s ambitions and his regular (often unwelcome) public interventions. As the PM who led Britain into the illegal Iraq War, Blair is a pariah in his own country.

    As we wrote in 2020:

    Along with the eternal stain that the disastrous invasion of Iraq left on his time in power, his domestic record speaks for itself. Because his government used token progressive policies to hide its true right-wing nature.

    It abandoned and ignored working-class communities (along with Labour members and trade unions); continued financial deregulation to please wealthy elites; kick-started the privatisation of the NHS; propped up the very structures which created the capitalist crisis of 2007–2008; and lost five million voters between 1997 and 2010.

    His government left people across Britain with a lack of trust in politics; and this helped to spark the disenchantment that fuelled the Brexit vote, with many people perceiving overwhelmingly that living standards had been deteriorating for decades.

    But we’ll leave the final word to Maggie Thatcher, who once said her ‘greatest achievement’ was Blair’s New Labour.

    Featured image via YouTube screenshot/Milken Institute

    By Joe Glenton

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • From ‘selfie cruise’ to ‘Hamas flotilla’ – Israel smears humanitarian convoy as prelude to attack

    The Israeli government has made a sinister change to its propaganda attacking the humanitarian ‘Global Sumud Flotilla’ of fifty-plus boats heading to Gaza with crucial supplies – almost certainly as a prelude to attacking it.

    While the colonisers’ early smears against the convoy were dismissive, for example calling it a ‘selfie cruise’ as if its volunteers were just attention-seekers, the official narrative now uses smear-by-association to paint the convoy as ‘Hamas’ based on – shock of shocks – the resistance group calling for the world to support humanitarian aid reaching the people of Gaza whom Israel is starving to death:

    Flotilla volunteers, who include many anti-genocide Jews, have seen through the scam and are, rightly, raising concerns about what it means:

    The flotilla has now, however, been backed by sixteen governments, who have warned Israel against attacking it.

    The governments of Turkey, Bangladesh, Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia, Ireland, Libya, Malaysia, the Maldives, Mexico, Pakistan, Qatar, Oman, Slovenia, South Africa, and Spain confirmed that their citizens are participating in the mission and warned of consequences if the ships come under attack or if participants are detained.

    Featured image via YouTube screenshot/Al Jazeera English

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.