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Category: Palestine

  • Jewish woman has faced “hate campaign” of violent attacks over pro-Gaza protest

    Nadia Yahlom is a Palestinian-Jewish woman. In a peaceful protest, she cut yellow ribbons off the railings of a public park near her home. As a result, she has faced a “targeted hate campaign” from pro-Israel agitators.

    Nadia Yahlom

    As she explained to the BBC:

    I have been the subject of physical attacks, of a doxing campaign, threats of assault and rape and violence that have been threatened against me and my family on the basis that the people behind that campaign want to silence me.

    She insisted:

    I am a Palestinian-Jewish woman living in that community who has every right to take a stance against genocide – a genocide that is being conducted in my name

    She responded to critics of her action by saying:

    I think it’s antisemitic to imply that a Jewish person who is standing in principled opposition to a genocide is driven by hatred.

    Pro-Israel extremists cry over ribbons, but not over the murder of 20,000 children

    Israeli occupation forces have killed over 20,000 children in Gaza since October 2023. The ribbons, meanwhile, represented the remaining 20 Israeli prisoners of war in Gaza. As Nadia Yahlom stressed:

    To me, it’s astonishing that there can be moral repugnance about a handful of ribbons being cut and not generations and generations and generations of bloodlines [in Gaza] being cut.

    And she noted the difference between the response to her action and her own response to the destruction of Palestinian symbols in public. Pro-Israel agitators routinely rip down such symbols (whether flags or stickers), and she said:

    I myself once encountered a woman in Muswell Hill taking down a sticker with a Palestinian flag, I engaged her in discussion about it… What didn’t happen is that I called a mob to attack her, intimidate her, threaten her, film her without her consent, and subject her to a ceaseless campaign of physical attacks, threats against her life and threats against her family…

    Nadia Yahlom described how she considered the yellow ribbons to be ‘offensive, intimidating and threatening’ because they suggest that “the only lives worth commemorating, the only lives that have any value, are Jewish lives”. And this is what the mainstream media has done consistently throughout Israel’s genocide in Gaza, and amid this week’s exchange of hostages. It emphasises the humanity of 20 Israelis leaving captivity, while failing to do the same for 2,000 Palestinian hostages leaving captivity, the thousands that remain in Israeli torture centres, or the many thousands of civilians Israel has killed in the last two years and beyond.

    Consider the coverage of Israeli soldier Matan Angrest‘s release:

    And then consider the many scenes of Palestinian hostages that social media has shown us but mainstream media outlets haven’t:

    And remember, Israel has no problem taking children hostage:

    Nadia Yahlom is absolutely right. The implicit racism of the yellow ribbons, and the thugs who come after you if you touch them, is offensive. The ribbons have become a symbol of selective sympathy from ethnic supremacists who defend genocide. And in the interests of humanity, we must challenge that. Because neither Palestinians nor Israelis will be truly safe until Israel’s decades-long colonial oppression ends.

    By Ed Sykes

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Meet Jacki Karsh: training young journalists to be explicitly pro-Israel

    Last week, Drop Site News reported on a new fellowship set up by prominent US journalist Jacki Karsh, along with her husband Jeff. The fellowship’s website states that:

    The Jacki and Jeff Karsh Journalism Fellowship equips journalists to report with depth, rigor, and clarity on Jewish issues in the United States and around the world. Fellows participate in three intensive retreats — in Los Angeles, New York, and Washington, D.C. — engaging with leading journalists, scholars, policymakers, and innovators across the arts, media, and business.

    As the world’s only journalism fellowship solely dedicated to Jewish topics, the program is resolutely nonpartisan and grounded in the principles of accuracy, independence, transparency, and accountability. Up to ten fellows are selected annually to advance public understanding through uncompromising, high-impact reporting.

    During the year-long course, up to ten fellows will participate in three 3-day retreats. All travel and accommodation expenses are covered by the fellowship. The expert-led sessions will cover topics like ‘How to cover antisemitism’, ‘Jews in the American mosaic’ and ‘Middle-East misinformation’.

    Jacki Karsh and her fellowship: ‘countering media bias’, apparently

    However, Drop Site highlighted the contrast between the fellowship’s professed neutrality and Karsh’s distinct pro-Israel stance.

    Jacki Karsh’s webpage describes her as a “six time Emmy-nominated multimedia journalist”. She’s reported for LA36’s LA County Channel, CityTV Santa Monica, Young Hollywood, Business Rockstars and Westside TV. She wrote about her reasons for starting the fellowship in an article for the Jerusalem Post, published under the headline “Countering media bias against Jews” on 20 August.
    Part of the introduction reads:

    The casual slanders, the subtle omissions, the reflexive framing of Israel as aggressor and Jews as suspect – these are not rare mistakes. They are patterns. And patterns, left unchallenged, become the record of history.

    On the contrary, mainstream US media has shown a historic bias towards Israel, both before and after 7 October. Analysis of the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times’ coverage of the war showed a distinct bias against Palestine. Articles focused disproportionately on Israeli deaths, showed biased use of language, and focused on antisemitism in the US over and above Islamophobia.

    Likewise, “casual slanders” links out to another Jerusalem Post article, titled “Gaza starvation claims: Blood libel revisited”. It frames the claim that Israel is starving the people of people of Gaza as reheated medieval blood libel. The UN has confirmed the famine in Gaza. Over 100 humanitarian organisations signed an open letter criticising Israel for blocking supplies into Gaza.

    ‘Resolutely nonpartisan’

    Given that Jacki Karsh stated that she created the fellowship to help Israel win an “information war”, the description of the program as “resolutely nonpartisan” seems deeply questionable. Drop Site News submitted an inquiry on the matter, and fellowship director Rob Eshmen responded:

    The Karsh Journalism Fellowship trains and supports journalists committed to fairness and accuracy on Israel and Jewish issues. Jacki Karsh’s guiding principle is simple: the best response to misinformation and disinformation on these issues is excellent journalism grounded in evidence, integrity, and independence… Our mentors and fellows will represent a wide range of political and cultural perspectives, and we encourage open, nuanced dialogue on complex issues.

    Unfortunately, Jacki Karsh’s bias also seems to have been mirrored in the choice of expert journalists to lead the sessions. Drop Site reported that:

    Other fellowship mentors include CNN’s Van Jones, who recently issued an apology after drawing intense criticism for comments he made on HBO’s Real Time With Bill Maher on Friday making light of images of dead Palestinian children and saying they were part of an Iran and Qatar disinformation campaign; and Michael Powell, a staff writer at the Atlantic and a former national reporter at The New York Times, whose recent articles include “The Double Standard in the Human-Rights World,” that criticizes groups like Amnesty International and Doctors Without Borders for becoming “stridently critical of Israel.”

    At best, the thinking behind the Jacki and Jeff Karsh Journalism Fellowship illustrates a stark problem with legacy media. If journalists view only one side of the Israel-Palestine war as being capable of accessing truth, then they will inevitably interpret even a neutral report of Israel’s actions as bias against it.

    The UN has officially recognised that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. It joins a long line of other humanitarian agencies in doing so. At this point, if legacy media even begins to appear critical of Israel, well – it’s about damned time.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Alex/Rose Cocker

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Starmer appoints genocide apologists to run university campus ‘antisemitism training’

    The Starmer regime has appointed the Union of Jewish Students to run six hundred so-called ‘antisemitism training’ sessions in UK universities to combat what Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson called the “poison of antisemitism” on UK campuses.

    The Union of Jewish Students is an explicitly pro-Israel and Israel–funded organisation that runs an ‘Israel portal‘ and has boasted of how many of its former members are ‘serving’ in Israel’s genocidal government and military:

    UJS alumni are currently serving in senior positions in Israeli gov, IDF & even the President’s office.

    The Union of Jewish Students

    The Union of Jewish Students is the group that played a key role in the antisemitism smear campaign against Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader. They then hounded professor David Miller out of Bristol University despite two separate barrister-led inquiries finding that he had said nothing antisemitic. A tribunal later found that Miller’s anti-Israel views are protected political speech and awarded him damages against the university, but Bristol did not reinstate him.

    The group also denies Israel’s genocide in Gaza, despite the United Nations, human rights groups – including in Israel, academic genocide experts and ‘plausibly’ the World Court – finding Israel is committing genocide, alongside an endless flood of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The Union of Jewish Students hosted articles by BICOM, an Israel lobby organisation that boasts of its “unique links to key figures in the Israeli government”, that regurgitated Israeli PM Netanyahu’s comments condemning South Africa for bringing its genocide case to the International Court of Justice and dismissing the very idea that Israel is committing genocide as “outrageous”.

    The Union of Jewish Students has since deleted the pages with the BICOM articles, although they were successfully archived on the Wayback Machine up to May this year:

    How the page looks now.

    Attacking academics

    One of the accusations the Union of Jewish Students flung at Miller during its campaign against him was that he accused “Jewish charities of ‘aiding genocide in Gaza’”. Despite its apparent unwillingness to consider Israel’s mass slaughter of almost 700,000 Palestinians in Gaza a genocide, it is quite eager to condemn China’s “Uyghur genocide”, despite no court agreeing that it is committing one and China’s critics mostly attacking China for attempting to assimilate the Uyghurs in a ‘cultural genocide’ that erases their separateness, rather than trying to end their existence.

    As well as attacking academics and politicians whose pro-Palestine views it dislikes, the Union of Jewish Students also targets student body leaders. In 2022, its smears against National Union of Students (NUS) president Shaima Dallali led to the NUS removing her from her elected position. Dallali’s ‘antisemitic’ ‘crimes’ were to repeat a slogan supporting Palestinian liberation from occupation – and to criticise the Union of Jewish Students for its “well-documented role” in smearing and attempting to silence Israel’s critics, such as rapper and political commentator Lowkey.

    And vitally, the Union of Jewish Students has been accused of acting to legitimise the Gaza genocide on British university campuses, whitewash the coloniser’s crimes, and de-legitimise Palestinian voices and groups.

    Legitimisation of Israel and Zionism

    In case there is anyone who has been asleep for the past decade and just woke up unable to imagine that a ‘Labour’ government would put the Zionist fox in charge of the university chicken coops in this way, Keir Starmer has long form for doing exactly that.

    Not long after taking over as party leader, as part of his determination to legitimise years of antisemitism smears against his predecessor Jeremy Corbyn and the political left and shore up the antisemitic proposition that all Jews support Israel and its crimes against the Palestinian people, Starmer gave pro-Israel fanatic groups the Board of Deputies (BOD) and the Jewish Labour Movement (JLM) a veto over which groups are allowed to sit on the party’s ‘independent’ ‘advisory board’ on antisemitism. The move was part of manoeuvres that led to mass suspensions and expulsions of left-wing members, with others leaving in disgust – and all smeared by Israel supporting (then-Shadow) Chancellor Rachel Reeves as antisemitic.

    Starmer also gave control of Labour’s antisemitism ‘training’ of members to the JLM and other Zionist groups – training that was then slammed by Martin Forde, the barrister Starmer appointed to investigate racism among Labour staffers (then buried his report and did nothing) as inadequate and deeply one-sided against Jewish party members who do not support Israel and its attempts to control the narrative of its actions.

    Starmer and his fellow-travellers, then, are giving control of ‘training’ on the topic of supposed antisemitism to the Union of Jewish Students – a group that to all appearances exists to legitimise Israel, gloss over its crimes and de-legitimise Palestinians and their Jewish allies – and the move is as unsurprising as it is appalling.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • From 1920s Italy to 1930s Palestine to 1980s Ska Scenes, Antifa Has Many Faces

    The United States is lurching toward neo-fascism with alarming speed, courtesy of President Donald Trump, who is using all the resources of the repressive apparatus of the U.S. state to stifle dissent and crush opposition to his extreme agenda. He is so keen on imposing his dystopian vision on the country that he has sought to criminalize anti-fascist struggle itself. How do we fight back?

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • New Campaign Aims to Flood Churches and Christian Colleges With Pro-Israel Ads

    A newly-created firm called Show Faith by Works is embarking on a “geofencing” campaign to target Christian churches and colleges across the American Southwest with pro-Israel advertisements. The pastors and congregations themselves are seemingly unaware of this campaign, and some have concerns with Israel’s methods to target Christians. According to the firm’s filing under the Foreign Agents…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Israel doesn’t bother hiding that dead Palestinians were bound, tortured, shot

    UK and other Western media have been obsessed with regurgitating Israel’s claims about a few missing bodies of Israelis almost certainly killed by their own side’s bombs but not yet returned by Palestinian militia groups, which Israel has used to justify its decision to again block Palestinians from receiving food after months of blockaded starvation.

    The same media have been silent about the fact that many of the bodies of Palestinians that have finally been released by Israel under the ‘you cease we’ll keep firing’ agreement have not only been returned without any identification, but in many cases still bound and bearing marks of torture, with some still blindfolded after being executed with a shot to the head.

    Tens, likely hundreds, of thousands bodies of Palestinian victims also remain buried under the fifty-five million tons of rubble caused by Israel’s mass destruction of buildings and infrastructure in Gaza. In a gross insult to those victims and their families, Turkiye has announced that it is sending a team of 81 people with equipment to locate the bodies of Israeli captives, who were almost certainly killed by their own side’s bombing.

    Dr Shahd Abusalama, whose family was murdered in Gaza while she was on the Canary-Skwawkbox Your Show at the end of September, asked readers to imagine how that injustice must affect the Palestinians whose loved ones still lie rotting under rubble after Israel’s extermination campaign.

    An initial tweet, when translated, read:

    The Hebrew was: Turkey sends to Gaza a team of 81 people with equipment to locate the bodies of Israeli captives. In addition to an Egyptian-Qatari team

    Dr Abusalama responded:

    Israeli lives and deaths seem to count much more – and not only to ethno-supremacist Israel.

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Damaging report shows how Starmer chose Israel over British democratic rights

    A new report has set out exactly how Keir Starmer has chosen to elevate Israeli interests at the direct expense of British democratic rights. And, the report also finds that, as a whole, Western democracies have turned counter-terrorism and anti-Semitism narratives against Palestine solidarity activists.

    And in doing so, the authors say, the UK and others have abandoned the basic democratic values they claim to espouse.

    The International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) report was published 14 October. It is titled ‘Criminalisation and Narrative Control: Solidarity with Palestine in the Crosshairs’. The report focuses on repression in the UK, France, Germany and the US. FIDH describes itself as “an international human rights NGO federating 188 organisations from 116 countries”.

    the ‘Criminalisation and Narrative‘ report reveals a “dangerous instrumentalization”:

    …of counter-terrorism legislation and anti-Semitism discourse to suppress freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly.

    The authors demonstrate a “growing criminalisation of dissent” against “journalists, human rights defenders,
    activists, students, artists, and even elected officials” who oppose Israel’s violence.

    Starmer part of group weakening ‘democratic safeguards’

    The 56-page document records how:

    Across all the countries studied, the dynamics observed since 7 October 2023 have intensified pre-existing structural trends: the continued shrinking of civic space, the weakening of democratic safeguards, the normalisation of Islamophobia, and the institutionalisation of racial profiling.

    It also shows how  ‘anti-racist’ narratives were selectively used to attack basic democratic rights. In particular, they mean accusations of anti-Semitism.

    The report found that:

    ..governments have weaponised counter-terrorism narratives and the fight against antisemitism to suppress dissent, silence solidarity, and criminalise support for Palestinian rights.

    Solidarity under attack

    One of FIDH’s central concerns is a:

    …growing conflation of antisemitism with legitimate criticism of Israeli state policies. This deliberate confusion has allowed authorities to delegitimise and penalise a wide range of actors, activists, academics, students, artists, and even elected officials, who publicly denounce Israeli actions in Gaza or advocate for Palestinian liberation.

    In doing so, political speech, long regarded as a foundation of democratic life, is increasingly being equated with hate speech or extremist ideology, especially when it concerns Israel or Zionism.

    The authors identify a “surge of pro-Palestine solidarity” after October 7 “which builds on decades of global organising for the rights of Palestinians”.

    As has been noted, this rattled Western states to their core. Leading to “repression and censorship” against supporters of Palestinian rights.

    Tactics include:

    • false accusations of antisemitism and support for terrorism
    • monitoring and surveillance of activists and pro-Palestinian civil society
    • official denunciations of solidarity activists and actions
    • bureaucratic and administrative sanctions
    • threats to academic freedom
    • lawsuits and legal threats against activists and pro-Palestinian civil society
    • legislation against solidarity actions such as the Boycott Divest and Sanctions movement, and
    • criminal investigations and prosecutions -and in some cases the kidnapping and illegal detention – of students expressing solidarity with Palestine.

    Authoritarian Britain

    When it comes to Starmer’s handling of Israel with regards to British policy, the report found:

    The right to protest has come under attack from the British government across administrations and party lines. Protests in solidarity with Gaza and against Israel’s genocide have been met with high levels of police surveillance and police violence.

    Britain’s repression emerges from its historic relationship to colonialism in the region. But also its current economic relationship with Israel:

    The UK and Israel have signed several long term agreements underpinning a close strategic partnership between the two States that encompasses defence and security, cyber-security, trade and the economy and technology among other objectives.

    Sell-out MPs

    Additionally, the authors also note that 180 Members of Parliament:

    are reported to have accepted funding from pro-Israel lobby groups and individuals.

    After all, they add, the Labour Party has been:

    shaped deeply in recent years by polarisation on the issues of solidarity with Palestinians and criticism of Israel.

    Chiefly, the outcome of that is a Labour Party which has backed genocide militarily and politically for two years. The report, which can be read in full here, paints a similar picture of France, Germany and the US.

    The authors conclude:

    Ultimately, the crackdown on solidarity with Palestinians reveals a profound crisis: not only of human
    rights in the occupied territories, but of freedom itself , in societies that claim to be democratic.

    The legitimacy of the international human rights framework is at stake. Whether these states choose
    to uphold their principles or betray them in favor of political expediency will have far-reaching
    consequences, not only for Palestinians, but for the future of rights and freedoms worldwide.

    All in all, the fight for Palestinian rights and self-determination is a fight for democracy everywhere.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Joe Glenton

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Holocaust survivor Agnes Kory: there’s no end to Israel’s atrocities for Gaza’s children

    Holocaust survivor Agnes Kory has told the Metro that she:

    sees no end to the suffering for children in Gaza, even when they return to their homes under a ceasefire agreement.

    Holocaust survivor speaks out

    In August, Kory, 81, who survived the Nazis’ attempt to exterminate Hungary’s Jews and has spent sixty-five years researching the Holocaust, accused Israel of constructing ‘Nazi show camps’ in Gaza to parade Palestinian survivors while continuing their extermination and expulsion from their homeland.  Now, with a supposed ‘ceasefire’ in place, she has pointed to Israel’s daily violations of its agreement and continued slaughter of Palestinian civilians, saying that:

    After I survived, nobody was trying to bomb me and kill me anymore. There was an end to the atrocities, but I don’t see any end for the Palestinian children. I am not convinced that these people in Gaza will not continue to be under threat of being killed and hurt.

    The Israeli government does not want a Palestinian state, I don’t believe that there is any peace coming to the Palestinians.

    She also pointed to Israel’s continued and unpunished ethno-supremacism, as well as the ingrained dishonesty of both Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and US president Donald Trump:

    Once the Holocaust was over I had equal rights with everybody else.

    The Palestinians, including the Palestinian children, they still don’t have equal rights like with Jewish citizens of Israel. The ceasefire is just a con. Mr Trump was keen to get his Nobel Prize.

    They’re not even getting the whole of Gaza back. So the big concentration camp where they once lived, now it’s going to be a smaller concentration camp. Netanyahu did announce that if the Palestinians don’t behave, then the ceasefire will stop, so the Israelis are still the rulers.

    Kory said she had been “haunted” by the Nazis’ murder of her family but that finding stability in the UK after the war had allowed her to have “a good life” that is being denied to Palestinian children:

    I have had a good life, which was haunted by memories and the memories of my family.

    All the children in Gaza now will be damaged for life, and they have had a sustained campaign against them. They had to live in fear for two years. They were starved.

    Human nature can be resilient. The Palestinians did show amazing, astonishing resilience. Presumably a lot of them will be hopeful because if you don’t hope, you cannot live.

    And Kory said that she is “outraged” by the tactic of Israel and its mouthpieces of presenting its genocide as if it has been done on behalf of all Jews and is supported by all Jews – and as if those who oppose it are therefore antisemitic ‘hate marchers’:

    That’s not a war. It was a killing field and what else can you call a killing field? It’s a genocide. A lot of what Israel does is supposed to be doing in the name of Holocaust survivors, in the name of Jews.

    I resent that. I’m outraged by it. It’s definitely not in my name.

    Targeting of anti-Zionist Jews

    To protect Israel’s narrative, UK media continue to airbrush out the many Jews who are front and centre of the anti-genocide movement’s marches every week. During the summer, Agnes Kory and hundreds of anti-Zionist Jews signed a letter to PM Keir Starmer demanding action to end the genocide and his government’s collaboration in it. Starmer refused to allow them to deliver their letter to Downing Street and did not reply after they posted it to him.

    Many anti-Zionist Jews are among those being targeted by the Starmer regime misusing anti-terror laws against peaceful peaceful protesters, just as he targeted left-wing Jews to hound them out of the Labour party.

    Featured image via YouTube screenshot/IJAN UK

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • ‘Ex-Israeli’ writer urges activists to make copies of genocide info as ‘scrubbing’ cover-up begins

    An anti-Zionist Jewish writer has called on activists in the anti-genocide movement to start copying – and saving in multiple locations – online evidence of Israel’s genocide after social media giant Meta deleted all posts by Palestinian journalist Saleh al-Jafarawi. Saleh was murdered by an Israel-funded criminal gang last weekend. Archives of his articles were also deleted.

    Alon Mizrahi, who describes himself as an “ex-Israeli, anti-Zionist Arab Jew”, posted the call on his X account:

    Mizrahi’s warning comes on the back of observations by Palestinian author Susan Abulhawa, who also noted the deletion of al-Jafarawi’s posts and linked it to previous warnings that Israel was about to ‘scrub the internet’ of references to its genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity:

    The ‘Wayback Machine’ archive shows results for al-Jafarawi’s Instagram, but the linked archives are not there.

    Al-Jafarawi is not the only account apparently hit similarly. After Israel attacked the Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) of humanitarian, volunteer-crewed boats, abducted its crews and seized its vessels this month, the GSF’s X account disappeared, along with its record of Israel’s bombing of the crew in other nations’ waters, the ultimate attacks on its forty-plus boats and the video testimonies of its volunteers:

    If you have time and storage capacity, save what you find to ensure that the ‘scrubbing’ fails.

    Featured image via Unsplash/Julio Lopez

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Video: ITV described captured Israeli soldier as ‘kidnapped from tank’

    ITV’s Good Morning Britain has described Israeli tank driver Matan Angrest, who was released this week in Gaza as part of the ‘ceasefire’ deal, as ‘kidnapped from a tank during a battle’:

    It seems the term ‘prisoner of war’ is too much of a stretch for the UK ‘mainstream’ media – though even that is too kind a description when what Israel is doing in Gaza is perpetrating genocide, not ‘war’. ‘Captured terrorist Matan Angrest’ would be a more apt decision, even if the Greens are the only UK political party honest enough to designate the occupation military as a terrorist organisation while the Starmer regime hunts supporters of a non-violent protest group as ‘terrorists’ and actively assists in the genocide.

    Featured image via YouTube screenshot/Good Morning Britain

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Video: EU chief spokesperson refuses to say Israel should build Gaza like Russia ‘should’ Ukraine

    A senior European Commission (EC) spokesperson has refused to say that Israel should pay to rebuild Gaza after its two-year campaign of genocide and wholesale destruction – despite the EC saying that Russia should pay to ‘rebuild’ Ukraine, which has been far less damaged.

    Asked by Italian journalist Gabriele Rosana, the spokeswoman would only call it “definitely an interesting question” but one on which she had no comment to make:

    The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has calculated that Israel’s genocide in Gaza and its war on Palestinian homes, schools, hospitals, industry, commercial buildings, water treatment, and sanitation have left more than 55,000,000 tons of rubble and that the rebuilding will cost at least seventy billion dollars and take years, far beyond any comparable regional disaster. Thousands of victims remain buried under the rubble and Israel refuses to allow any heavy equipment into Gaza to begin clearing the destruction as survivors reel from their psychological devastation.

    Even after two years of inflicting a Holocaust on the people of Gaza as well as attacking most of its neighbours and murdering and torturing international aid workers, Israel continues to enjoy impunity from governments and organisations that have covered for and abetted its crimes all along.

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Italian journalists put BBC to shame in their remembrance of murdered Palestinian journalists

    With FIFA conspicuously still failing to ban Israel despite its genocide in Palestine, Italy had to end the apartheid state’s chances of entering the 2026 World Cup itself. And as it did, its state broadcaster put its British counterpart to shame by openly honouring the hundreds of journalists Israeli occupation forces have killed in the last two years.

    BBC shamed for ignoring murdered journalists in Palestine

    RAI journalist Alessandro Antinelli explained to viewers why he was wearing a black ribbon, highlighting that more than:

    250 journalists killed in the war in Gaza, in what the United Nations commission of inquiry defined as a genocide. They tried to report, but regrettably, it is a fact that they didn’t return home.

    Another journalist reporting on the match suggested that, despite all of the international impunity Israel has benefited from, “at least we could beat Israel on the pitch”:

    Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza has killed at least 273 journalists and media workers since October 2023. That means it’s taken the life of at least one journalist every three days in the last two years. Scholars say the apartheid state has committed infocide (journocide / mediacide) in Gaza, systematically waging information warfare not only via propaganda efforts but by working to ensure the censorship or murder of Palestinian journalists.

    It’s almost unimaginable that the BBC would highlight Israel’s systematic murder of Palestinian journalists in the same way. Instead, the BBC has consistently echoed Israeli propaganda over the last two years while demonstrating racist double standards in their reporting of Palestinian and Israeli suffering.

    Italians refused to give Israel an easy ride

    Italian coach Gennaro Gattuso had said before the match:

    There is nothing worse than what we have seen in the last two years.

    A national strike showing solidarity with Palestine had previously gone to Italy’s national training centre to call for the cancellation of the match against Israel. But Italy ‘had to play’ to avoid forfeiting the game, Gattuso stressed. And he added:

    it’s very sad to see what’s happening to innocent people, children, it hurts my heart to see all of that.

    More than 10,000 people protested peacefully before yesterday’s match, calling for Israel’s suspension from FIFA. There was a heavy police presence, and officers eventually used “water cannons and tear gas” against protesters. With helicopters flying over the city and a number of restrictions in place, one resident insisted that “such a deployment of forces for a match should never take place”.

    The demonstration included a massive Palestinian flag and banner saying “Show Israel the red card”:

    Show Israel the red card!

    FIFA and UEFA have faced significant criticism for their hypocrisy, having suspended Russia but refused to suspend Israel. And FIFA may even seek to punish Italy now in response to some of its fans booing the apartheid state’s national anthem.

    For now, Israel’s defeat has only been on the field. But the movement to ban the settler-colonial nation from the sport altogether is growing. And the more people join those efforts, the harder the corrupt officials at the top of the sport will find it to ignore the demands.

    Featured image via X

    By Ed Sykes

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Breaking: Israeli tanks open fire on civilians in northern Gaza

    Israeli tanks have opened fire on civilians in several places in northern Gaza, including in Gaza City, according to local sources.

    The occupation regime, which murdered at least nine civilians in Gaza yesterday, has violated the supposed ‘ceasefire’ every day since it came into force last week.

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Trump keeps admitting that he is bought and owned by the world’s richest Israeli

    COMMENTARY: By Caitlin Johnstone

    It’s bizarre how little mainstream attention is given to the fact that the President of the United States has repeatedly confessed to being bought and owned by the world’s richest Israeli, especially given how intensely fixated his political opposition was on the possibility that he was compromised by a foreign government during his first term.

    During a speech before the Israeli Parliament (Knesset) on Monday, President Donald Trump once again publicly admitted that he has implemented Israel-friendly policies at the behest of Israeli-American billionaire Miriam Adelson and her late husband Sheldon, this time adding that he believes Adelson favours Israel over the United States.

    Here’s a transcript of Trump’s remarks:

    “As president, I terminated the disastrous Iran nuclear deal, and ultimately, I terminated Iran’s nuclear program with things called B2 bombers. It was swift and it was accurate, and it was a military beauty. I authorized the spending of billions of dollars, which went to Israel’s defense, as you know. And after years of broken promises from many other American presidents — you know that they kept promising — I never understood it until I got there. There was a lot of pressure put on these presidents. It was put on me, too, but I didn’t yield to the pressure. But every president for decades said, ‘We’re going to do it.’ The difference is I kept my promise and officially recognized the capital of Israel and moved the American Embassy to Jerusalem.

    “Isn’t that right Miriam? Look at Miriam. She’s back there. Stand up. Miriam and Sheldon [Adelson] would come into the office and call me. They’d call me — I think they had more trips to the White House than anybody else, I guess. Look at her sitting there so innocently — got $60 billion in the bank, $60 billion. And she loves, and she, I think she said, ‘No, more.’ And she loves Israel, but she loves it. And they would come in. And her husband was a very aggressive man, but I loved him. It was a very aggressive, very supportive of me. And he’d call up, ‘Can I come over and see you? I’d say ‘Sheldon, I’m the president of the United States. It doesn’t work that way.’ He’d come in. But they were very responsible for so much, including getting me thinking about Golan Heights, which is probably one of the greatest things ever happened. Miriam, stand up, please. She really is, I mean, she loves this country. She loves this country. Her and her husband are so incredible. We miss him so dearly. But I actually asked her, I’m going to get her in trouble with this. But I actually asked her once, I said, ‘So Miriam, I know you love Israel. What do you love more? The United States or Israel?’ She refused to answer. That means — that might mean Israel, I must say, we love you. Thank you, darling, for being here. That’s a great honor. Great honor. She’s a wonderful woman. She is a great woman.”

    Sheldon Adelson reportedly gave Trump and the Republicans more than US$424 million in campaign funding from 2016 up until his death in 2021. His widow Miriam continued her husband’s legacy and poured a further $100 million into Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign.

    On the 2024 campaign trail Trump also admitted to being controlled by Adelson cash.

    Here’s a transcript of those remarks:

    “Just as I promised, I recognize Israel’s eternal capital and opened the American embassy in Jerusalem. Jerusalem became the capital. I also recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights.

    “You know, Miriam and Sheldon would come into the White House probably almost more than anybody outside of people that work there. And they were always after — and as soon as I’d give them something — always for Israel. As soon as I’d give them something, they’d want something else. I’d say, ‘Give me a couple of weeks, will you, please?’ But I gave them the Golan Heights, and they never even asked for it.

    “You know, for 72 years they’ve been trying to do the Golan Heights, right? And even Sheldon didn’t have the nerve. But I said, ‘You know what?’ I said to David Friedman, ‘Give me a quick lesson, like five minutes or less on the Golan Heights.’ And he did. And I said, ‘Let’s do it.’ We got it done in about 15 minutes, right?”

    Legitimising Israel’s illegal annexation of the Golan Heights and moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem were two of the most controversial moves Trump made in Israel’s favour during his first term, which have now been eclipsed by his backing of the genocide in Gaza and his bombings of Iran and Yemen.

    And here he is openly admitting that his billionaire Zionist megadonors have been using the access their donations bought them to push him to take drastic action in favour of Israel.

    Just imagine for a second if someone had leaked documents to the press proving that Trump and received extensive financial backing from a Russian oligarch to whom he doled out favors of immense geopolitical consequence.

    It would be the biggest scandal in the history of American politics, bar none. But because it’s an Israeli oligarch, he can admit to it openly and repeatedly without anyone batting an eye.

    During Trump’s first term his political rivals spent years pushing a bogus conspiracy theory that he was controlled by Vladimir Putin, despite his having spent that entire term aggressively ramping up cold war hostilities against Russia. Entire political punditry careers were birthed trying to create a scandal out of a narrative that could be plainly seen as false just by looking at the movements of the US war machine and Washington’s actions against Moscow.

    But here’s Trump openly admitting to bending over backwards to give an Israeli oligarch whatever she wants because she gave his campaign huge sums of money, while pouring weapons into Israel to facilitate its mass atrocities and engaging in acts of war on Israel’s behalf. And it barely makes a blip in mainstream Western politics or media.

    This is because mainstream Western politics and media understand that we are living in an unofficial oligarchic empire to which both the US and Israel belong. They never acknowledge it, they never talk about it, but all high-level politicians, pundits and operatives in the Western world understand that they serve a globe-spanning power structure run by a loose alliance of plutocrats and empire managers.

    They understand that states like Israel are a part of said power structure, while states like Russia, China and Iran are not. So they spend their time normalising the corruption and abuses of imperial member states while facilitating the empire’s efforts to attack and undermine the states which have successfully resisted being absorbed into the imperial power umbrella.

    I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the only thing I like about Donald Trump is his infantile tendency to say the quiet part out loud. He advances the same kinds of abuses as his predecessors who were no less corrupt and controlled, but he exposes the underlying mechanics of those abuses in ways that more refined presidents never would.

    Caitlin Johnstone is an Australian independent journalist and poet. Her articles include The UN Torture Report On Assange Is An Indictment Of Our Entire Society. She publishes a website and Caitlin’s Newsletter. This article is republished with permission.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Israel Violates Ceasefire With Deadly Attacks On Palestinians In Gaza

    The Israeli army killed several Palestinians in Gaza on 14 October despite the new ceasefire agreement which has taken effect across the strip.

    In total, nine Palestinians were killed by Israeli ceasefire violations, Palestinian media reports said. Three bodies arrived at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, while another six arrived at Gaza City’s Baptist hospital. An Israeli quadcopter targeted civilians in Gaza City’s Shujaiya neighborhood while they were inspecting their homes.

    Israeli artillery also shelled areas in Jabalia and Al-Tarans, accompanied by gunfire. There was also gunfire reported in the Al-Tahlia area of Khan Yunis in south Gaza.

    Additionally, a group of young men near Al-Fukhari, east of Khan Yunis, was targeted by Israeli forces, resulting in one death.

    The post Israel Violates Ceasefire With Deadly Attacks On Palestinians In Gaza appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Israel Says It’s Halving Aid Into Gaza After Receiving Last 20 Living Captives

    Israel is going to halve the amount of aid that it will allow into Gaza under the ceasefire agreement, aid groups say — a move Israel has attempted to justify by blaming Hamas for supposedly violating the deal that Palestinians have said Israel is working to sabotage. UN officials said they were notified by the Israeli military that it would only allow 300 aid trucks into the famine-stricken…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • 154 Freed Palestinian Prisoners Reportedly Being Forced Into Exile by Israel

    Israel is reportedly forcing over 150 Palestinians freed from Israeli prisons as part of the ceasefire deal into exile, in a move that experts say is a violation of international law. The Palestinian Prisoners’ Media Office says that at least 154 Palestinians released on Monday will be exiled and deported to an unknown country, per Al Jazeera. Almost all had been residents of the occupied…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Israeli Lawmaker Who Was Expelled for “Recognize Palestine” Sign Speaks Out

    As President Trump addressed the Israeli Knesset on Monday, he was briefly interrupted by two lawmakers who waved signs reading “Recognize Palestine.” The two Knesset members, Ayman Odeh and Ofer Cassif with the Hadash-Ta’al alliance, were expelled from the chamber. “Yesterday, there was a disgusting display of flattery and personality cult by two megalomaniacs who are hungry for power and blood,”…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • What Trump said and didn’t say in obscene genocide tribute in Knesset

    COMMENTARY: By Belén Fernández

    United States President Donald Trump had the time of his life on Monday at the Israeli Knesset, where he was welcomed as “the president of peace”. His captive audience showered him with applause, laughs and too many standing ovations to count.

    Two protesting lawmakers undertook a brief outburst in support of “Palestinian sovereignty” but were swiftly bundled out, earning the president more laughs and applause for his remark: “That was very efficient.”

    It was a typical stream-of-consciousness Trump speech although he mercifully refrained from rambling about escalators and teleprompters this time.

    I had initially hoped the fact that the US head of state was promptly due at a Gaza summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, might have kept the tangents to a minimum. Such hopes were dashed, but Trump did manage to devote a good bit of time to speculating about whether his summit counterparts might have already departed Egypt by the time he arrived.

    Trump’s Knesset appearance was occasioned by the ostensible end — for the moment — to the US-backed Israeli genocide in the Gaza Strip, which has over the past two years officially killed more than 67,000 Palestinians. Some scholars have suggested that the real death toll may be in the vicinity of 680,000.

    Obviously, the Palestinian genocide victims were of scant concern at the Knesset spectacle, which was essentially an exercise of mutual flattery between Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a celebration of Israel’s excellence in mass slaughter.

    To that end, Trump informed Israel that “you’ve won” and congratulated Netanyahu on a “great job”.

    ‘Best weapons’
    As if that weren’t an obscene enough tribute to genocide, enforced starvation and terror in Gaza, Trump boasted that “we make the best weapons in the world, and we’ve given a lot to Israel, … and you used them well.”

    There were also various references to what he has previously called on social media the “3,000 YEAR CATASTROPHE”, which he fancies himself as having now resolved. This on top of the “seven wars” he claims to have ended in seven months, another figure that seems to have materialised out of thin air.

    But, hey, when you’re a “great president”, you don’t have to explain yourself.

    In addition to self-adulation, Trump had plenty of praise for other members of his entourage, including US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff — who merited a lengthy digression on the subject of Russian President Vladimir Putin — and Trump’s “genius” son-in-law Jared Kushner, who was also in attendance despite having no official role in the current administration.

    During Trump’s first term as president, Kushner served as a senior White House adviser and a key player in the Abraham Accords, the normalisation deals between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco, which essentially sidelined the Palestinian issue in the Arab political arena.

    Trump’s Knesset performance included numerous sales pitches for the Abraham Accords, which he noted he preferred to pronounce “Avraham” because it was “so much sort of nicer”. Emphasising how good the normalisation deals have been for business, Trump declared that the four existing signatories have already “made a lot of money being members”.

    To be sure, any expansion of the Abraham Accords in the present context would function to legitimise genocide and accelerate Palestinian dispossession. As it stands, the surviving inhabitants of Gaza have been condemned to a colonial overlordship, euphemised as a “Board of Peace” — which Trump has hailed as a “beautiful name” and which will be presided over by the US President himself.

    ‘Path of terror’
    This, apparently, is what the Palestinians need to “turn from the path of terror and violence”, as Trump put it — and never mind that the Palestinians aren’t the ones who have been waging a genocide for the past two years.

    Preceding Trump at the podium was Netanyahu, adding another level of psychological torture for anyone who was forced to watch the two leaders back to back. Thanking the US president for his “pivotal leadership” in supposedly ending a war that, mind you, Netanyahu didn’t even want to end, the Israeli prime minister pronounced him the “greatest friend that the State of Israel has ever had in the White House”.

    Netanyahu furthermore put up Trump as the first non-Israeli nominee for the Israel Prize and assured him he’d get his Nobel, too, soon enough.

    I didn’t time Trump’s own speech although I’d calculate that it was several aneurysms long. At one point in the middle of his discussion of some topic entirely irrelevant to the matter at hand, I wondered if my anguished cries at having to listen to him speak might elicit the concern of my neighbours.

    When Trump at long last decided to wrap things up, his final lines included the proclamation: “I love Israel. I’m with you all the way.”

    And while US affection for a genocidal state should come as no surprise to anyone, it’s also a good indication that “peace” is not really what’s happening at all.

    Belén Fernández is the author of The Darién Gap: A Reporter’s Journey through the Deadly Crossroads of the Americas (Rutgers UP, 2025), Inside Siglo XXI: Locked Up in Mexico’s Largest Immigration Detention Center (OR Books, 2022), Checkpoint Zipolite: Quarantine in a Small Place (OR Books, 2021), Exile: Rejecting America and Finding the World (OR Books, 2019), and other books and has written widely for global news media. This article was first published by Al Jazeera.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • What Trump said and didn’t say in obscene genocide tribute in Knesset

    COMMENTARY: By Belén Fernández

    United States President Donald Trump had the time of his life on Monday at the Israeli Knesset, where he was welcomed as “the president of peace”. His captive audience showered him with applause, laughs and too many standing ovations to count.

    Two protesting lawmakers undertook a brief outburst in support of “Palestinian sovereignty” but were swiftly bundled out, earning the president more laughs and applause for his remark: “That was very efficient.”

    It was a typical stream-of-consciousness Trump speech although he mercifully refrained from rambling about escalators and teleprompters this time.

    I had initially hoped the fact that the US head of state was promptly due at a Gaza summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, might have kept the tangents to a minimum. Such hopes were dashed, but Trump did manage to devote a good bit of time to speculating about whether his summit counterparts might have already departed Egypt by the time he arrived.

    Trump’s Knesset appearance was occasioned by the ostensible end — for the moment — to the US-backed Israeli genocide in the Gaza Strip, which has over the past two years officially killed more than 67,000 Palestinians. Some scholars have suggested that the real death toll may be in the vicinity of 680,000.

    Obviously, the Palestinian genocide victims were of scant concern at the Knesset spectacle, which was essentially an exercise of mutual flattery between Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a celebration of Israel’s excellence in mass slaughter.

    To that end, Trump informed Israel that “you’ve won” and congratulated Netanyahu on a “great job”.

    ‘Best weapons’
    As if that weren’t an obscene enough tribute to genocide, enforced starvation and terror in Gaza, Trump boasted that “we make the best weapons in the world, and we’ve given a lot to Israel, … and you used them well.”

    There were also various references to what he has previously called on social media the “3,000 YEAR CATASTROPHE”, which he fancies himself as having now resolved. This on top of the “seven wars” he claims to have ended in seven months, another figure that seems to have materialised out of thin air.

    But, hey, when you’re a “great president”, you don’t have to explain yourself.

    In addition to self-adulation, Trump had plenty of praise for other members of his entourage, including US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff — who merited a lengthy digression on the subject of Russian President Vladimir Putin — and Trump’s “genius” son-in-law Jared Kushner, who was also in attendance despite having no official role in the current administration.

    During Trump’s first term as president, Kushner served as a senior White House adviser and a key player in the Abraham Accords, the normalisation deals between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco, which essentially sidelined the Palestinian issue in the Arab political arena.

    Trump’s Knesset performance included numerous sales pitches for the Abraham Accords, which he noted he preferred to pronounce “Avraham” because it was “so much sort of nicer”. Emphasising how good the normalisation deals have been for business, Trump declared that the four existing signatories have already “made a lot of money being members”.

    To be sure, any expansion of the Abraham Accords in the present context would function to legitimise genocide and accelerate Palestinian dispossession. As it stands, the surviving inhabitants of Gaza have been condemned to a colonial overlordship, euphemised as a “Board of Peace” — which Trump has hailed as a “beautiful name” and which will be presided over by the US President himself.

    ‘Path of terror’
    This, apparently, is what the Palestinians need to “turn from the path of terror and violence”, as Trump put it — and never mind that the Palestinians aren’t the ones who have been waging a genocide for the past two years.

    Preceding Trump at the podium was Netanyahu, adding another level of psychological torture for anyone who was forced to watch the two leaders back to back. Thanking the US president for his “pivotal leadership” in supposedly ending a war that, mind you, Netanyahu didn’t even want to end, the Israeli prime minister pronounced him the “greatest friend that the State of Israel has ever had in the White House”.

    Netanyahu furthermore put up Trump as the first non-Israeli nominee for the Israel Prize and assured him he’d get his Nobel, too, soon enough.

    I didn’t time Trump’s own speech although I’d calculate that it was several aneurysms long. At one point in the middle of his discussion of some topic entirely irrelevant to the matter at hand, I wondered if my anguished cries at having to listen to him speak might elicit the concern of my neighbours.

    When Trump at long last decided to wrap things up, his final lines included the proclamation: “I love Israel. I’m with you all the way.”

    And while US affection for a genocidal state should come as no surprise to anyone, it’s also a good indication that “peace” is not really what’s happening at all.

    Belén Fernández is the author of The Darién Gap: A Reporter’s Journey through the Deadly Crossroads of the Americas (Rutgers UP, 2025), Inside Siglo XXI: Locked Up in Mexico’s Largest Immigration Detention Center (OR Books, 2022), Checkpoint Zipolite: Quarantine in a Small Place (OR Books, 2021), Exile: Rejecting America and Finding the World (OR Books, 2019), and other books and has written widely for global news media. This article was first published by Al Jazeera.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Israel waged a two-year genocide war to free the prisoners – and still failed spectacularly

    For two full years, Israel waged one of the fiercest wars in modern history, a war described as a ‘slow-burn genocide.’ It used all kinds of prohibited weapons and relied on international intelligence agencies, yet failed to achieve its primary goal: recovering its prisoners from Gaza.

    Since October 7, 2023, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu framed his war on Gaza as a battle for “existence and security,” using the liberation of the prisoners as a pretext. However, after 735 days of continuous bombardment, Israel dropped more than 200,000 tons of explosives—the equivalent of approximately 13 Hiroshima bombs—over an area no larger than 365 square kilometres, turning Gaza into a scorched, lifeless wasteland.

    The result, as revealed by the facts, was horrific: more than 67,000 martyrs and missing, 170,000 wounded, and the near-total collapse of civilian infrastructure.

    Israel’s genocide

    The Israeli failure here is multifaceted. First, it was a military failure in converting firepower into tangible political results. Second, it was an intelligence failure in locating the prisoners or securing routes leading to their recovery. Third, it was a moral and political failure, as this process produced bloodshed and destruction, perpetrated by a government that relied on war as the only solution to internal and political pressure.

    On the other hand, what happened reflects the resistance’s tactical and organisational superiority: its ability to withstand a besieged structure, its ability to manage a sensitive issue such as the prisoners, and its ability to intelligently use information as a tool of pressure and dignity. The issue here is not just that the prisoners survived; rather, the resistance was able, in a single hour, to transform years of bombardment into a spectacle announcing the enemy’s failure to achieve its central goal.

    In a moment that seemed to sum up the futility of two years of genocide, the Qassam Brigades announced the handover of living prisoners during the first phase of the ceasefire agreement—a move that effectively ended the war that force had failed to end.

    Israel’s twisted actions

    While Israel needed two years of bombing to fail to free a single prisoner, the resistance was able to hand over the living prisoners within just one hour, in a scene that observers considered:

    a symbolic end to a futile war waged by Netanyahu in the name of electoral deception and political survival.

    This was not merely a symbolic event; it was a stark reflection of the shifting balance of power. The resistance, besieged and cut off from electricity, water, and medicine, maintained its organisational, military, and intelligence capabilities until the very last moment.

    Israeli military analyst Yaron Avraham bitterly remarked on Channel 12:

    They had maps of Israeli army bases, so what’s so strange about them having the family numbers of soldiers?

    This statement reads like an implicit admission of the failure of the Israeli military and intelligence establishment, which had spent two years searching in the dark. While Israel utilised satellites, aircraft, and artificial intelligence, the resistance was able to hide prisoners in a small, besieged territory completely exposed to the world.

    How did Israel have the backing of the world and still fail?

    As the tanks withdrew from the rubble, the most important question within Israel returned: How could a state with its entire military and technological arsenal fail, while the besieged resistance succeeded in preserving its prisoners and managing their situation intelligently and professionally?

    Thus, the short communication from Gaza became something of a final statement of the war. Israel did not win with weapons, but was defeated by sound—a sound coming from under the rubble, carrying messages that did not require missiles to hit their targets.

    Israel wanted to recover its prisoners to prove its strength, but its war ended to prove the opposite: that force does not provide security, that annihilation does not produce victory, and that Gaza, despite the ashes, is still capable of redefining the meaning of survival.

    The conclusion is harsh: bombs do not restore spirit or build confidence. Massive firepower may destroy cities, but it does not guarantee political or intelligence results. More importantly, it does not deter a people built from its ashes with the capacity to endure and manage critical issues. Thus, after two years of annihilation, which Israel intended as a final resolution, the war did not empty its adversary; rather, it revealed that victory in the age of media and intelligence is not measured by destruction, but by the ability to protect people, narrate their stories, and capture them—a capacity the resistance succeeded in preserving when the state machinery failed.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Alaa Shamali

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Instagram accused of killing Saleh Al-Jafarawi for a second time by removing his reporting

    Israel-aligned extremists reportedly killed Palestinian journalist Saleh Al-Jafarawi in recent days. And now, Instagram faces accusations of ‘killing him for a second time’ after his popular account on the platform disappeared.

    Saleh Al-Jafarawi: another crime of Israel’s infocide in Gaza

    Saleh Al-Jafarawi warned just weeks ago that Israeli occupation forces had been threatening him, just as they had with many other journalists covering the genocide in Gaza. Al Jazeera says Israel’s genocidal campaign has killed 273 journalists and media workers since October 2023. That means it’s taken the life of at least one journalist every three days in the last two years. As International Federation of Journalists general secretary Anthony Bellanger wrote recently:

    silence is a victory for the executioners. It allows them to say that nothing happened.

    Scholars say the apartheid state has committed infocide (journocide / mediacide) in Gaza, systematically waging information warfare not only via propaganda efforts but by working to ensure the censorship or murder of Palestinian journalists. And in Al-Jafarawi’s case, it seems both have happened.

    Palestinian-American writer Susan Abulhawa suggested that Instagram removing Al-Jafarawi’s account may be about efforts from Israeli occupation forces (and their supporters) to “try to scrub the internet as much as possible of evidence of their crimes”.

    Reports have previously exposed the ways in which billionaire corporation Meta – the owner of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp – has helped to manufacture consent for Israel’s genocide in Gaza by systematically targeting and silencing Palestinian voices.

    UN expert Francesca Albanese, who has been documenting Israel’s crimes meticulously, has called large corporations out for their participation in Israel’s “economy of genocide”. And responding to the news of Al-Jafarawi’s murder and censorship, she called for a future Genocide Museum to honour voices like his, insisting that:

    Deleting a killed journalist’s account is to kill them twice.

    Hold the war criminals to account for infocide and genocide

    Saleh Al-Jafarawi enjoyed singing, but committed much of his time to showing the world the decimation of Gaza:

    Censorship, however, was not new. Instagram had already removed his account just months before:

    Days before his murder, he expressed hope for the future and posted a message with some of Gaza’s children:

    As the Quds News Network noted regarding the apparent wiping of his reporting:

    Observers warn that these developments may signal “a new phase in efforts to erase evidence of Israeli war crimes from the internet.”

    Researchers, however, have been diligently collecting and documenting evidence over the last two years. So it’s unlikely Israel will be able to hide all the proof of its crimes. And the apartheid state will find it hard to change the overwhelming consensus among genocide experts, legal scholars, and human rights organisations that it has committed genocide in Gaza. But the international community must also take steps to hold Israeli war criminals to account for their infocide too. We must not allow it to forget or ignore the bravery of Saleh Al-Jafarawi and his colleagues.

    By Ed Sykes

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Israeli quadcopter murders six in Gaza City in blatant ceasefire breach

    Israel has murdered at least six people by shooting them from quadcopters in the Shuja’iyya district of Gaza City today, as they inspected the ruins of their homes, despite the supposed ‘ceasefire’ in force. Several others were shot and wounded in Khan Younis. Israel continues to control almost two thirds of Gaza and to shoot civilians who try to reach their homes close to the occupied zones:

    Despite the blatant criminality of these Israeli attacks during an agreed ceasefire, western ‘mainstream’ media continue to whitewash Israel’s crimes through dishonest framing, as these graphics by Newscord exemplify:

    UK ‘MSM’ are no better, headlining Israeli narratives to gloss over the war crimes:

    Israel has murdered dozens of Palestinians since the supposed ‘ceasefire’ began, with new drone bombings and tank shootings every day. Every damned day. Israel will not stop being a terror state until it is forced to do so through sanctions and armed international intervention. Its perpetrators and the western media and political figures who collude and collaborate belong on trial in the Hague.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Gaza’s students triumph in education from under the rubble

    In an extraordinary scene that sums up the resilience of Palestinians in the face of one of the harshest contemporary wars, the Ministry of Education and Higher Education in the Gaza Strip announced the results of the 2026 general secondary school exams on Tuesday afternoon. Of course, this comes at a time when the Strip is experiencing the most difficult humanitarian and educational conditions in decades.

    Amidst the destruction and rubble, between displacement tents and the constant sounds of bombing, Gaza’s students insisted on turning darkness into opportunity and suffering into achievement, writing a new chapter in the story of their indomitable will.

    Gaza education under fire

    Despite the occupation’s destruction of more than 670 schools and 165 universities and educational institutions, and the killing of more than 13,500 students, 830 teachers and 193 academics since the outbreak of the war, tens of thousands of students have managed to complete their academic year in almost impossible conditions.

    High school exams were conducted electronically between 6 and 15 September, despite frequent power cuts, a shortage of equipment, and the lack of a safe learning environment.

    In temporary tents and crowded shelters, students sat in front of simple phone screens, surrounded by the sounds of aircraft and sirens, confirming that the pursuit of knowledge in Gaza is no longer a luxury, but an act of resistance and survival.

    Joy from under the rubble

    During a press conference held at the ministry’s headquarters, the names of the top students in various fields — science, literature, law, entrepreneurship and business, industry, and home economics — were announced in an atmosphere of joy mixed with tears.

    Success here is not measured by numbers, but by the amount of suffering these students have endured to reach this moment.

    The ministry spokesperson said that this announcement represents:

    a symbolic victory of knowledge over war

    He also said that the students efforts were a message to the world that:

    awareness cannot be bombed, and will cannot be destroyed, no matter how severe the siege or how long the oppression.

    Gaza’s message to the world

    The educational experience in Gaza over the past two years is one of the rarest in the history of global education. Students and teachers have continued their journey amid destruction, without electricity, infrastructure or adequate educational materials.

    But, as the ministry says, they have chosen to:

    write with hope what the occupation could not erase with fire.

    While reports speak of impending famine and a near-total collapse of services, Gaza’s students prove that knowledge does not die even in the darkest of circumstances.

    A lesson for the whole world

    The people of Gaza have done it again, triumphing over hunger with knowledge, over siege with determination, and over darkness with the light of a small candle.

    They have shown the world that education in Palestine is not just an academic pursuit, but an act of dignity and existence.

    From the rubble, joy was born. From the heart of hunger, the flower of knowledge blossomed.

    In Gaza, dreams are not bombed, but shine brighter after every war.

    Featured image supplied via the author

    By Alaa Shamali

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Cost of rebuilding Gaza estimated at $70 billion

    The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has revealed that the estimated cost of rebuilding the Gaza Strip is around $70 billion, given the widespread destruction caused by the recent war, which the programme described as unprecedented in the history of modern conflicts.

    In a statement issued on Tuesday, the programme explained that the scale of destruction in the Strip requires unprecedented international efforts in terms of both funding and technical capabilities. They also noted that the reconstruction process will be long and complex given the massive destruction that has affected almost all buildings in various areas of the Strip.

    The UNDP official noted that there are currently ‘very good indicators’ regarding the financing of the reconstruction process. Several Arab countries, along with European partners and the United States, have expressed their willingness to provide support and contribute to international efforts to rebuild Gaza.

    Rebuilding Gaza means shifting 55 million tonnes of rubble

    The report indicated that the volume of rubble in the Strip is estimated at no less than 55 million tonnes, which represents a huge challenge for removal and reconstruction teams and requires enormous human and technical resources to deal with this amount of debris before new construction can begin.

    Regarding the expected timeframe, the programme explained that the reconstruction of Gaza could take a decade or more, and possibly extend to several decades given the extent of the destruction. They also stressed that the success of the process depends on stable security and political conditions, the availability of sustainable funding and continued international support.

    The programme concluded its statement by emphasising that Gaza is facing one of the greatest humanitarian and urban disasters in the modern world, calling on the international community to shoulder its historic responsibility to support the Palestinian people and help them rebuild their lives after long months of destruction and suffering.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Alaa Shamali

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Online ghouls spread disinformation about female Israeli hostages

    Since Hamas released the remaining Israeli hostages in Gaza, the following rumour has spread online:


    Disinformation regarding Israeli hostages

    As can be seen above, Olympian Sharron Davies is one of those spreading the lie:

    Davies is also an anti-trans rights activist or ‘terf’. For whatever reason, there is a strong cross over between people who oppose trans rights and people who oppose the Palestinian freedom movement:

    Another person spearheading the current disinformation campaign is Laura Loomer:

    Loomer is a key confidant of Donald Trump, and has exerted influence over who he hires and fires:

    GB News panelist Adam Brooks also got involved:


    Never ending

    This latest campaign is a key example of how toxic the online space has become. Every day is a battle against waves of misinformation, with every event turned into a wedge issue by hateful weirdoes with a Twitter addiction.

    While it’s exhausting, we all need to keep pushing back against those who wage war and those who provide cover for the war mongers.

    Featured image via Daily Express (YouTube) / Laura Loomer (YouTube)

    By Willem Moore

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • For Gazans, ‘there is no optimism’ the war will actually end

    After two years of Israel’s genocidal destruction of Gaza, Palestinians have welcomed the tenuous ceasefire that began last week. However, there is little hope that the ceasefire will lead to lasting peace or an end to the occupation. “There is no optimism,” one Gaza resident, Nusfat Modin, says. “You can’t negotiate with these people. A deal, no deal—we have no hope. No one—ask anyone.”

    TRNN asked Gazans what they thought about the latest ceasefire deal. This is what they told us…

    • Credits:
    • Producers: Belal Awad, Leo Erhardt
    • Videographers: Ruwaida Amer, Mahmoud Al Mashharawi
    • Video Editor: Leo Erhardt
    Transcript

    NUSFAT MODIN: 

    The Sumud Flotilla is a very beautiful thing: to break the siege and to show the world who the Zionist occupiers are. They detained them, and people have seen what Ben Gvir did to them. These people are not terrorists. It’s not terrorism; it’s about breaking the siege. These are heroes of humanity and heroes of freedom. 

    ADAM KHIDR HAMMOUDEH: 

    These are the ones who embodied dignity and who responded to the call for help and the call of humanity. They brought this message of love, peace, and security to the people of Gaza. 

    ABU MUSTAFA AL ABID: 

    Free people—you are free people—you began something good, and you should continue on your path, steadfast. The whole world is with you, all free people are with you, and all nations are with you. 

    MAZEN ABBAS ABU JABAL: 

    This is not the first flotilla; there were many attempts before by peace-loving activists and supporters of the Palestinian cause around the world. Every time, they are faced with brute military force, with the support, approval and blessing of the U.S., through the Israeli navy, which abducted and threatened them. 

    ADAM KHIDR HAMMOUDEH: 

    When the Israeli occupation army arrested those who were on board the Sumud Flotilla, there was great sadness on the streets in Gaza. We send our message to those who were on board the Sumud Flotilla, which is a flotilla of dignity and a flotilla of hope. They wanted to bring happiness to the hearts of the people of Gaza, but the Israeli occupation army arrested them to stop the supplies of aid and relief that they wanted to bring to Gaza. 

    NUSFAT MODIN: 

    Let the world see what is really happening here, and know that the Zionist occupation is the biggest problem. [The flotilla activists] didn’t come for politics or anything else; they came to break the siege. They came as humanitarians; everyone knows they came for human rights. They were bringing food and medicine—and [the Israeli forces] confiscated their ships? It’s a big problem. 

    MAZEN ABBAS ABU JABAL: 

    International law is very clear with regards to international waters. By hijacking these ships and taking them to the port of Ashdod, Israel is committing a crime against humanity—an organized crime committed by a state that claims to be democratic.

    ABU MUSTAFA AL ABID: 

    This is the height of terrorism. Detention—you are detaining people outside your borders, not within your borders. How can you do this? It’s terrorism. It’s piracy. 

    MAZEN ABBAS ABU JABAL: 

    I say to them: I wish I could welcome you into my home, but unfortunately, my home has been destroyed by the occupation twice, once by bombing and once by bulldozer. 

    NUSFAT MODIN: 

    The siege is beyond comprehension. It’s very difficult. Very, very difficult. Famine and displacement, lack of water and electricity… Even electricity—I don’t think about it. All I think about is food and water. And if you think the siege has finished—it hasn’t. It’s hard. 

    ABU MUSTAFA AL ABID: 

    Occupation, killing, destruction: trees, rocks, people, children, women, buildings—everything. No accountability, because no one is holding them back. 

    NUSFAT MODIN: 

    There is no optimism. You can’t negotiate with these people. A deal, no deal—we have no hope. No one—ask anyone. 

    ABU MUSTAFA AL ABID: 

    There’s no optimism. Impossible. Are you optimistic? Optimistic? Are you optimistic the war will end? No. See! There isn’t any. There’s no optimism. No optimism. Why? Because, you know, Trump is a child—a crazy person—him and Netanyahu. They play with the whole world. He might end it today, then the next day they’ll say “we found the Qassam rockets” and then start the war again. There is no faith in them. 

    MAZEN ABBAS ABU JABAL: 

    I’m not optimistic that Israel, which is imposing an unjust siege on the Gaza Strip for more than 23 years—since 2000—Israel has imposed a blockade and refused to allow anything into the Gaza Strip without its consent and the consent of its civil administration. So the idea that there would be a port for Palestine and that there should be international recognition of the Palestinian cause and of a Palestinian state is what Netanyahu and those around him don’t want. Netanyahu sees himself as nothing less than a god, and everyone must obey him. Therefore, obedience to his wishes means that we must leave Gaza, and this is in his delusional dreams—him and Trump, who is his partner. There is no citizen in the world who has endured a month of war and is sad when it ends, let alone a person who has been displaced since October 10 [2023], approximately 23 times, and every time we go out under heavy fire and death. Where are you, world leaders? Leaders of the democratic world, from this country that you call democratic, but in practice does not implement democracy except

    in name? If they, inside their own land and among their own people who share the same Jewish religion, treat them according to their origins—where they came from—then how about us? 

    MOHAMED AL GHOULA: 

    Trump’s plan in the Gaza Strip that is being forced on us—this is not a plan. This is complete occupation. Today, the project that they are working on, for us, is the displacement project. The project that Trump says Hamas must agree to—what is this called? This is called collaboration with the occupation. It’s a joint venture with the occupation. 

    MAZEN ABBAS ABU JABAL: 

    It’s basically Netanyahu’s plan, not Trump’s plan. The American administration, or successive American administrations, that say yes to Israel unconditionally, ignoring its crimes and covering them up with American money and supporting it with weapons. I am not being killed by Israeli weapons; I am being killed by American weapons paid for with American taxes. The Americans are killing me, so the American people are unwittingly participating in this crime. They say a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces. Where will they withdraw to? Secondly, how long will the withdrawal take? What is required of the Middle East, Kushner, Witkoff, and the entire American administration is to give me, as a Palestinian citizen, a plan and timetable for the withdrawal so that I know when I will return to my home and when I will be able to live a normal life. And most importantly, when the siege will be lifted and the crossings opened so that I can go out and come in as I wish and bring in goods as I wish, so that I can eat in peace. 

    MOHAMED AL GHOULA: 

    If the war ends and lasts a year, two years, three, four, five, ten, twenty… If this project is implemented, it will be implemented next on the rest of the Muslims and Arabs who are asleep. We say to them, you are asleep; wake up, because our people are here to wake you. 

    ADAM KHIDR HAMMOUDEH: 

    Our message from inside the Gaza Strip to those who were on the Steadfastness [Sumud] Flotilla and who want to sail again and come to the Gaza Strip is: We love you. We love this humanity and this freedom that you came for, to relieve the suffering people inside the Gaza Strip.

    This post was originally published on The Real News Network.

  • Denial of Denial

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • Pacific Media Watch backs RSF call for urgent end to Gaza media blockade

    Pacific Media Watch

    Pacific Media Watch supports the call by the Paris-based global media freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) for justice for the victims of crimes against journalists in Gaza, and its demand for immediate access to the Palestinian enclave for exiled journalists and foreign press.

    The ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, confirmed on Friday, 10 October 2025, came after two years of unprecedented massacres against the press in Gaza.

    Since October 2023, the Israeli army has killed nearly 220 journalists, including at least 56 slain due to their work.

    Reporters Without Borders (RSF), which has filed five complaints with the International Criminal Court, has called in a statement for justice for the victims, and the urgent evacuation of media professionals who wish to leave.

    The ceasefire agreement in Gaza under US President Donald Trump’s peace plan has so far failed to produce an end to the media blockade imposed on the besieged Palestinian territory.

    According to RSF information, several bombings struck the north of Gaza on the day the agreement was announced, 9 October. One of them wounded Abu Dhabi TV photojournalist Arafat al-Khour while he was documenting the damage in the Sabra neighbourhood in the centre of Gaza City.

    While the agreement approved by the Israeli government and Hamas leaders allows humanitarian aid to enter Gaza, it does not explicitly mention authorising access for the foreign press or the possibility of evacuating local journalists.

    ‘Absolute urgency’
    Jonathan Dagher, head of the RSF Middle East Desk, said in a statement: “The relief of a ceasefire in Gaza must not distract from the absolute urgency of the catastrophic situation facing journalists in the territory.

    “Nearly 220 of them have been killed by the Israeli army in two years, and the reporters still alive in Gaza need immediate care, equipment and support. They also need justice — more than ever.

    “If the impunity for the crimes committed against them continues, they will be repeated in Gaza, Palestine and elsewhere in the world. To bring justice to Gaza’s reporters and to protect the right to information around the world, we demand arrest warrants for the perpetrators of crimes against our fellow journalists in Gaza.

    “RSF is counting on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to act on the complaints we filed for war crimes committed against these journalists. It’s high time that the international community’s response matched the courage shown by Palestinian reporters over the past two years.”

    Since the start of the Israeli offensive in Gaza in October 2023, the Israeli army has killed nearly 220 journalists in the besieged territory. At least 56 of these victims were directly targeted or killed due to their work, according to RSF, which has filed five complaints with the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the past two years, seeking justice for these journalists and end impunity for the crimes against them.

    In addition to killing news professionals on the ground and in their homes, the Israeli army has also targeted newsrooms, telecommunications infrastructure and journalistic equipment.

    Famine hits journalists
    Famine continues to afflict civilians in the Strip, including journalists, yet aid is barely trickling in and all communication services have been destroyed by two years of bombing.

    On October 9, Israeli authorities and Hamas leaders reached a 20-point ceasefire agreement in Cairo, Egypt’s capital, as part of Donald Trump’s plan to establish “lasting peace” in the region.

    This is the second ceasefire in Gaza since 7 October 2023, the first put in place at the beginning of the year and broken in March 2025, shortly after a strike killed the renowned Al Jazeera journalist Hossam Shabat.

    Israel is ranked 112th among the 180 nations surveyed by the annual RSF World Press Freedom Index and Palestine is 163rd.

    Pacific Media Watch collaborates with Reporters Without Borders.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • NHS doctor targeted by Israel lobby says “the death threats are worse than ever”

    Rahmeh Aladwan is a British-Palestinian doctor in the NHS. She has been “withstanding a two-year long coordinated assault campaign by the UK ‘Israel’ lobby for standing against the Holocaust in Palestine”. And on 13 October, she said:

    The death threats are worse than ever. I have had to call the police for the second time this year to protect my family.

    She added that the lobby’s campaign, which pro-Israel health secretary Wes Streeting has backed, “is political violence”. And she stressed:

    You have painted a target on an innocent NHS doctor’s back.

    Also on 13 October, activist and independent journalist Ani Says issued a worrying video about the situation on Instagram:

     

    View this post on Instagram

     

    A post shared by Ani Says (@ani.says2)

    Aladwan has also insisted that her harassment represents something much bigger – the state’s crackdown on free speech and the idea of “innocent until proven guilty”:

    Persecution in service of genocidal colonialism

    We don’t need to agree with all the opinions someone holds, or the way they express them, to support their right to free speech. Rahmeh Aladwan, for example, has been very outspoken in ways that some supporters of Palestinian liberation may disagree with. But as her crowdfunder says, Palestinian people have just experienced two years:

    of genocide, of heartbreak, of constantly losing loved ones

    Anyone who is not full of indignation at this point has not been paying attention.

    But for Aladwan, these two years have also been a period of:

    doxxing, smears, defamation, threats, and harassment from the UK ‘israel’ lobby and jewish supremacists (zionists).

    She has defended herself against the claims of the lobbyists targeting her livelihood by stressing that the main issue is her opposition to:

    genocide caused by jewish supremacy, extremism, and unadulterated terrorism.

    Who we should be condemning: Rahmeh Aladwan is right

    Rahmeh Aladwan has consistently refused to condemn Hamas or its actions, insisting that Israeli colonialism is the root cause of Palestinians’ resistance.

    And it’s true that Hamas is not the organisation behind a brutal, decades-long colonial occupation. Nor has it murdered over 20,000 children in the last two years. Palestinian people, meanwhile, very much have the legal right to resist occupation, but Israel does not have the legal right to decimate a territory it occupies. For these reasons and more, the UK’s illogical stance on Israel’s colonial regime in Palestine has sparked challenges to the UK’s proscription of Hamas.

    Pointing this out, however, doesn’t mean Hamas is a progressive champion. Because it’s not. But its crimes pale in comparison to those of the genocidal apartheid state it’s resisting. And the groups going after Aladwan are attacking free speech in Britain because of their support for that state.

    On Wednesday 15 October, there will be a protest in London against British state censorship on behalf of Israeli war criminals. And anyone who truly cares about free speech should support it.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Ed Sykes

    This post was originally published on Canary.