As early as next Tuesday, Congress will vote on two bills that will make it easier for the U.S. government and U.S. arms makers to push weapons out the door to foreign clients more quickly, with less time for congressional scrutiny, and, in some cases, with Congress not even being informed that the sales are happening. At a time when arms sales are a centerpiece of U.S. foreign policy…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
David Barnea, the director of Israel’s Mossad spy agency, held meetings in Washington this week seeking help from US officials to convince countries to take hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who Israel plans to ethnically cleanse from Gaza, Axios reported on 19 July.
According to two sources, the Israeli spy chief told White House envoy Steve Witkoff that Israel has been in talks with Ethiopia, Indonesia, and Libya to accept Palestinians as refugees.
While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claims his government’s goal of expelling much or all of Gaza’s population will be “voluntary” for Palestinians, US and Israeli legal experts say it would constitute ethnic cleansing and a clear war crime.
The post Mossad Chief Pushes For US Assistance In Ethnically Cleansing Gaza appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.
This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.
As a new round of negotiations between Hamas and Israel begins in Doha, Israeli forces have intensified their military operations across the Gaza Strip. Nearly 900 Gazans have been killed by U.S.-Israeli forces while attempting to access aid by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which was set up by Israel and the U.S. in May. Each day, Palestinians live under relentless bombardment and witness…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
After months of a confected furore over a BBC documentary supposedly demonstrating pro-Hamas bias, followed by the shelving of a second film on Gaza, an independent review found last week that the broadcaster had not breached impartiality guidelines.
A long list of complaints against Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone – all pushed for months by the Israel lobby, and amplified by the British establishment media – were dismissed one after the other by Peter Johnston, director of the editorial complaints and review body that reports to the BBC director general.
Not that you would know any of this from the eagerness of BBC executives to continue apologising profusely for the failings the corporation had just been cleared of. It almost sounded as if they wanted to be found guilty.
The row is now set to drag on for many months more after Ofcom, the UK’s communications regulator, announced it too would investigate the programme.
All of this is exactly what the Israel lobby and the billionaire-owned media had hoped for.
The aim of manufacturing this protracted storm in a teacup was twofold.
First, the furore was designed to distract from what the documentary actually showed: the horrors facing children in Gaza as they have had to navigate a tiny strip of land in which Israel has trapped them, bombed their homes, levelled their schools, exposed them to relentless carnage for 21 months, destroyed the hospitals they will need in time of trouble, and is starving them and their loved ones.
Second, it was intended to browbeat the BBC into adopting an even more craven posture towards Israel than it had already. If it was reluctant before to give Palestinians a voice, now it will avoid doing so at all costs.
True to form, executives hurriedly removed How to Survive a Warzone from its iPlayer catch-up service the moment the lobby went into action.
The BBC’s ever greater spinelessness has real-world, and dangerous, consequences.
Israel will feel even freer to intensify what the International Court of Justice already suspected back in January 2024 was a genocide and what leading genocide and Holocaust scholars have subsequently concluded is a genocide.
There will be even less pressure on the British government to stop partnering Israel in its genocide by supplying weapons, intelligence and diplomatic cover.
The enduring row will also hand a bigger stick to Rupert Murdoch and other media moguls with which to beat the BBC, making it cower even further.
Signs of the BBC’s defensiveness were already all too evident. While it was waiting for the Johnston report, the corporation ditched a separate documentary, Gaza: Doctors Under Attack, on Israel’s systematic destruction of Gaza’s hospitals and murder of some 1,600 health workers.
It has since been shown by Channel 4.
The BBC argued that – even though this second programme had repeatedly passed its editorial checks – airing it risked contributing to a “perception of partiality”.
What that bit of BBC gobbledygook actually meant was that the problem was not “partiality”. It was the perception of it by vested interests – Israel, its apologists, the Starmer government and the British corporate media – who demand skewed BBC coverage of Gaza so that Israel can carry on with a genocide the British establishment is utterly complicit in.
In other words, truth and accuracy be damned. This is about Israel – and the Starmer government – dictating to the BBC the terms of what can be said about Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.
Which brings us back to the Johnston report. The only significant finding against the BBC was on a single issue in its documentary on Gaza’s children, How to Survive a Warzone.
The film had not disclosed that its 13-year narrator was the son of an official in Gaza’s Hamas-run government.
Even in the current febrile atmosphere, Johnston found no grounds to uphold the manifold accusations of a breach by the BBC of impartiality rules. Nothing in the film, he concluded, was unfair to Israel.
Instead, he stated that it was a breach of “full transparency” not to have divulged the child-narrator’s tenuous connection to Hamas through his father’s governmental work.
Paradoxically, the BBC’s coverage of Johnston’s findings has been far more inaccurate about the child-narrator than the original documentary. But there has been no uproar because this particular inaccuracy from the BBC squarely benefits Israel.
On the News at Ten last week, reporting on the Johnston report, presenter Reeta Chakrabati claimed that the film’s narrator was “the son of an official in the militant group Hamas.”
He is nothing of the sort. He is the son of a scientist who directed agricultural policy in Gaza’s government, which is run by Hamas.
There is zero evidence that Ayman Alyazouri was ever a member of the militant wing of Hamas. He doesn’t even appear to have been a member of its political wing.
In fact, since 2018 Israel had set up a system to vet most officials in Gaza like Alyazouri to ensure they were not linked to Hamas before they were able to receive salaries funded by Qatar.
Johnston himself concedes as much, noting that the programme makers failed to inform the BBC of 13-year-old Abdullah’s background because their checks showed Alyazouri was a civilian technocrat in the government, not involved in its military or political arms.
The team’s only failing was an astounding ignorance of how the Israel lobby operates and how ready the BBC is to cave in to its pressure tactics.
In reality, Johnston’s finding against the BBC was over little more than an editorial technicality, one intentionally blown up into a major scandal.
Johnston himself gave the game away when he noted in his executive summary the need for “full transparency” when the BBC makes programmes “in such a contested setting”.
In other words, special, much stricter editorial rules apply when the corporation intends to make programmes likely to upset Israel.
From now on, that will mean that, in practice, such programmes are not made at all.
The double standard is glaring. The BBC aired a documentary last year, Surviving October 7: We Will Dance Again, offering eyewitness testimony from Israeli survivors of 7 October 2023 at the Nova music festival, where hundreds of Israelis were killed during Hamas’ one-day break-out from Gaza.
Did the BBC insist that the backgrounds of the Israelis interviewed were checked and disclosed to the audience as part of the broadcast? Were viewers told whether festivalgoers had served in the Israeli military, which for decades has been enforcing an illegal occupation and a system of apartheid over Palestinians, according to a ruling last year by the world’s highest court?
And what would it have indicated to audiences had the BBC included such contextual information about its Israeli eyewitnesses? That their testimonies had less validity? That they could not be trusted?
If it was not necessary to include such background details for Israeli eyewitnesses, why is it more important to do so for a 13-year-old Palestinian?
And even more to the point, if the BBC needs to give details of 13-year-old Abdullah Alyazouri’s background before he can be allowed to read a script written by the programme makers, why is the BBC not also required to give important background about Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he appears in reports: such as that he is wanted for arrest by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity.
Exactly how trustworthy a narrator of events in the devastated enclave does the BBC consider Netanyahu to be that it does not think this context needs including?
The gain from this manufactured row for the Israel lobby – and for a Starmer government desperate to silence criticism of its complicity in genocide – were set out in stark detail last week by the makers of the second documentary, about Israel’s destruction of Gaza’s health sector.
In an article in the Observer newspaper, they recounted a series of startling admissions and demands from BBC executives made in script meetings.
The corporation insisted that Doctors Under Attack could not be aired so long as the award-winning investigative reporter leading the programme, Ramita Navai, was given top billing. They demanded that she be downgraded to a mere “contributor” – her role effectively disappeared – because she had supposedly made “one-sided” social media posts criticising Israel for breaking international law.
She was considered unacceptable, according to the BBC, because she had not been “supportive enough of the other side”: that is, of Israel and its military carrying out systematic war crimes by destroying Gaza’s hospitals, as documented in great detail in her film.
In a statement to Middle East Eye on its decision to shelve the documentary, the BBC spokesperson stated that, after Navai appeared on its Today radio programme and “called Israel a ‘rogue state that’s committing war crimes and ethnic cleansing and mass murdering Palestinians’, it was impossible for the BBC to broadcast the material without risking our impartiality.
“The BBC holds itself to the highest standards of impartiality and it would never be acceptable for any BBC journalist to express a personal opinion in this way. We believe this is one of the reasons we’re the world’s most trusted news provider. We were left with no choice but to walk away.”
Seen another way, offering apologias for genocide, as the BBC has been doing for the past 21 months, is apparently a requirement before the corporation is willing to give journalists a platform to criticise Israel.
Also revealing is who the state broadcaster looks to when deciding how to apply its editorial standards.
BBC executives told the film-makers they should not reference the United Nations or Amnesty International because they were supposedly not “trusted independent organisations”.
Meanwhile, the corporation openly and obsessively worried to the film-makers about what fanatically pro-Israel lobbyists – such as social media activist David Collier and Camera, a pro-Israel media monitoring organisation – would say about their film on Gaza.
The team were told BBC News executives were “very jumpy and paranoid” about coverage of Gaza.
This follows a long and dishonorable tradition at the state broadcaster. In their 2011 book More Bad News from Israel, media scholars Greg Philo and Mike Berry reported a BBC producer telling them: “We all fear the phone call from the Israeli embassy.”
If you had been wondering why the BBC has been reflexively both-sidesing a genocide, here is a large part of the answer.
A damning report by the Centre for Media Monitoring last month analysed in detail the BBC’s Gaza coverage in the year following Hamas’ one-day attack on 7 October 2023.
It found a “pattern of bias, double standards and silencing of Palestinian voices”.
These included the BBC running over 30 times more victim profiles of Israelis than Palestinians; interviewing more than twice as many Israelis as Palestinians; asking 38 interviewees to condemn Hamas but asking no one to condemn Israel’s mass killing of civilians, or its attacks on hospitals and schools; and shutting down more than 100 interviewers who tried to refer to events in Gaza as a genocide.
Only 0.5% of BBC articles provided any context for what was happening before 7 October 2023: that Israel had been illegally occupying the Palestinian territories for decades and besieging the enclave for 17 years.
Similarly, the BBC has barely reported the endless stream of genocidal statements from Israeli political and military leaders – a crucial ingredient in legally determining whether military actions constitute genocide.
Nor has it mentioned other vital context: such as Israel’s invocation of the Hannibal directive on 7 October 2023, licensing it to kill its own citizens to prevent them being taken captive; or its military’s long-established Dahiya doctrine, in which the mass destruction of civilian infrastructure – and with it, the likelihood of slaughtering civilians – is viewed as an effective way to deter resistance to its aggressions.
In the specified time period, the BBC covered Ukraine with twice as many articles as Gaza, even though the Gaza story was newer and Israeli crimes even graver than Russian ones. The corporation was twice as likely to use sympathetic language for Ukrainian victims than it was for Palestinian victims.
Palestinians were usually described as having “died” or been “killed” in air strikes, without mention of who launched those strikes. Israeli victims, on the other hand, were “massacred”, “slaughtered” and “butchered”.
None of these were editorial slip-ups. They were part of a systematic, long-term skewing of editorial coverage in Israel’s favour – a clear breach of the BBC’s impartiality guidelines and one that has created a permissive environment for genocide.
Journalists at the BBC are known to be in revolt. More than 100 signed a letter – anonymously for fear of reprisals – condemning the decision to censor the documentary Doctors under Attack. They said it reflected a mix of “fear” and “anti-Palestinian racism” at the corporation.
The BBC told MEE: “Robust discussions amongst our editorial teams about our journalism are an essential part of the editorial process. We have ongoing discussions about coverage and listen to feedback from staff, and we think these conversations are best had internally.”
The journalists, it seems, would prefer that these discussions are had out in the open. They wrote: “As an organisation we have not offered any significant analysis of the UK government’s involvement in the war on Palestinians. We have failed to report on weapons sales or their legal implications. These stories have instead been broken by the BBC’s competitors.”
And they added: “All too often it has felt that the BBC has been performing PR for the Israeli government and military.”
They could have added, even more pertinently, that in the process the BBC has been doing PR for the British establishment too.
A former BBC press officer, Ben Murray, last week gave broader context to the meaning of the corporation’s famed editorial “impartiality”. His role, he wrote, had been a rearguard one to placate the Times, Telegraph, Sun, and most of all, the Daily Mail.
Those establishment outlets are owned by corporations and billionaires heavily invested in the very oil, “defence” and tech industries Israel is central to lubricating.
BBC executives, Murray noted, “were rightfully fearful of these publications’ influence, and often reacted in ways to appease them. Their task was to protect the BBC’s funding model, and by extension, their prestigious jobs and generous salaries.”
None of this went against the grain. As Murray pointed out, most senior BBC staff enjoyed private educations, have Oxbridge degrees, and have been “fast-tracked up the corporate ladder”. They see their job as being “to reinforce and maintain establishment viewpoints”.
If this weren’t enough, senior BBC staff also have to look over their shoulders to the British government, which sets the corporation’s funding through the TV licence fee.
The government, no less than the BBC, needs to keep its main constituencies happy.
No, not voters. Ministers, keen for favourable coverage, similarly dare not antagonise Israel-aligned media moguls. And equally they cannot afford to alienate powerful US administrations that pledge an undying, unshakeable bond to Israel as it projects western power into the oil-rich Middle East.
Which is precisely why Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, was only too keen to jump on the Daily Mail bandwagon in calling for heads to roll at the BBC over the supposed “failings” in its Gaza coverage.
“It makes me angry on behalf of the BBC staff and the whole creative industries in this country,” she said, apparently oblivious to the fact that many BBC journalists’ fury is not over the confected scandals generated by the Israel lobby and billionaire-owned media.
They are appalled at the corporation’s refusal to hold Israel or Nandy’s own government accountable for the genocide in Gaza.
In such circumstances, the BBC’s professed commitment to “impartiality” serves as nothing more than a smokescreen.
In reality, the corporation acts as an echo chamber, amplifying and legitimising the interests of media tycoons, the British government and the Washington consensus, however much they flout the foundational principles of international law, human rights and basic decency.
Anybody who stands outside that circle of influence – such as the Palestinians and their supporters, anti-genocide activists, human rights advocates, and increasingly the UN and its legal organs, such as the International Criminal Court – is assumed by the BBC to be suspect.
Such voices are likely to be marginalised, silenced or vilified.
The BBC has not failed. It has done exactly what it is there to do: help the British government conceal the fact that there is a genocide going on in Gaza, and one that the UK has been knee-deep in assisting.
This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.
Recently, as the Canary previously reported over 70 student officers and almost 120 student groups from across more than 50 campuses in the UK, issued the National Union of Students (NUS) with a letter condemning its silence on Gaza, accusing it of complicity in Israel’s genocide, and demanding it take a decisive stand. Now, the NUS has threatened signatories of the letter with action if they don’t “unsign” it.
At its core, the letter – which was backed by 10 legal, academic and human rights bodies, including ELSC, CAGE UK, BRISMES and the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention – opposed the use of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, which equates anti-Zionism and criticism of Israel with antisemitism.
Adopted by the NUS in 2017, the use of this definition of antisemitism is merely a tactic used to silence those speaking out about Israel’s crimes in the occupied territories, and impede action against its unjust treatment of Palestinians. Even its main drafter, Ken Stern, has described it as ‘a blunt instrument’ that is ‘used to label anyone an antisemite’.
Students have told the Canary that they expected the union to be an agent for justice and solidarity but feel a deep sense of betrayal because it is, instead, an agent of repression.
This could be seen on Friday 18 July, when the NUS leadership wrote to the CEOs of the student unions which signed the letter, demanding that the pro-Palestine sabbatical officers, from universities across the country, remove their signatures from the letter, with Student Unions such as Sussex even being sent a pack called ‘How to convince your officers to unsign’.
These Sabbatical officers – who are elected and employed student representatives and receive a salary – were issued an ultimatum by the NUS: remove their signatures from the letter, or get banned from attending NUS events, including the upcoming Lead and Change national conference, and face the possibility of investigation.
Antonia Listrat, Guild President at the University of Birmingham Guild of Students, told the Canary:
The NUS has reached out to Student Unions and elected officers with threats to intimidate them into removing their signatures. Student trustees have been threatened with investigation from the Charity Commission, and even with losing their jobs.
This is an unprecedented attack on our student movement, and one of the worst cases of conflation between Zionism and Judaism. Not even the government has targeted us in such a direct way, simply for our beliefs and political expression.
Instead of protecting marginalised students, and defending our rights, the NUS is instead paving the way for more repression. I am terrified of losing my job during this cost of living crisis. I’ve just received my first pay cheque, and I was going to use it to pay for the medical treatment I could not afford when I was a student.
Now I am not sure if I will be able to pay my rent in the coming months. But I will not remove my signature. In times like this, we all need to show moral courage, especially in the face of unjust repression.
The NUS leadership made the following claims, among others, in their correspondence with the sabbatical officers:
The reality is that the UJS is a pro-Israel lobby group, which gets funding directly from the Israeli embassy, and has been criticised in recent years for its role in attempting to subvert student democracy.
However, a recent survey by Professor Tamir Sorek of Pennsylvania State University, and published in Haaretz, found that the vast majority of Israeli Jews-82 percent-do actually back expelling Gazans out of the Strip, and almost 55 percent were ‘very’ supportive of this move.
This statement is ridiculous- there is no way of achieving any justice for Palestine if we pretend Israel has done nothing wrong, and prohibit any criticism of the occupation.
The NUS alleges that by not recognizing the IHRA definition, signatories have violated its Code of Conduct, framing them as antisemitic and justifying bans and sanctions, even if they happen to be Jewish.
One signatory, who is refusing to remove their name from the letter, told the Canary:
As a Jewish sabbatical officer, whose family survived cultural genocide and antisemitic persecution, I take the fight against antisemitism seriously.
It’s precisely because of this history that I feel compelled to speak out against the ongoing genocide in Palestine. The right to criticise state violence – including the political application of the IHRA definition of antisemitism- is protected under the Human Rights Act. Silencing students, including Jewish students, for raising these concerns undermines both anti-racist principles and freedom of expression.
I remain committed to protecting student safety, upholding human rights, and ensuring our movement remains democratic, inclusive and accountable.
The Canary has approached the NUS for comment.
Zionism has long been a contentious issue within the NUS, and many concerns have been raised about representation and free political expression. But it is not only the strict enforcement of the IHRA definition of antisemitism which silences critics of Israeli state policies and suppresses Palestine solidarity at universities.
Institutional bias and conflict of interest lie at the heart of the NUS.
People such as Noah Katz, who is not only a member of the NUS UK Board, but also a senior official in the Board of Deputies of British Jews – a prominent pro-Zionist organization. Katz’s overlapping influence raises serious concerns about NUS impartiality, and skew NUS decision-making toward pro-Zionist positions.
The trust of pro-Palestinian students in their union’s impartiality have been seriously undermined, and so to has their confidence in the NUS’s ability to represent their views. They are feeling disillusioned and let down, and are calling for change. This is why they sent the letter to the NUS last week, to try and rectify the situation.
Instead, sabbatical officers now find themselves in conversation with human rights groups and lawyers, and are preparing to bring a joint claim against the NUS for discrimination and exclusion based on anti-Zionist philosophical beliefs.
Featured image via the Canary
By Charlie Jaay
This post was originally published on Canary.
Asia Pacific Report
Palestinian supporters and protesters against the 21 months of Israeli genocide in Gaza marched after a rally in downtown Auckland today across the Viaduct to the Greenpeace environmental flagship Rainbow Warrior — and met a display of solidarity.
Several people on board the campaign ship, which has been holding open days over last weekend and this weekend, held up Palestinian flags and displayed a large banner declaring “Sanction Israel — Stop the genocide”.
About 300 people were in the vibrant rally and Greenpeace Aotearoa oceans campaigner Juan Parada came out on Halsey Wharf to speak to the protesters in solidarity over Gaza.
“Greenpeace stands for peace and justice, and environmental justice, not only for the environmental damage, but for the lives of the people,” said Parada, a former media practitioner.
Global environmental campaigners have stepped up their condemnation of the devastation in Gaza and the occupied Palestinian territories as well as the protests over the genocide, which has so far killed almost 59,000 people, most of them women and children, according to the Gaza Health Department, although some researchers say the actual death toll is far higher.
Gaza war emissions condemned
New research recently revealed that the carbon footprint of the first 15 months of Israel’s war on Gaza would be greater than the annual planet-warming emissions of 100 individual countries, worsening the global climate emergency on top of the huge civilian death toll.
The report cited by The Guardian indicated that Israel’s relentless bombardment, blockade and refusal to comply with international court rulings had “underscored the asymmetry of each side’s war machine, as well as almost unconditional military, energy and diplomatic support Israel enjoys from allies, including the US and UK”.
The Israeli war machine has been primarily blamed.
The report, titled “War on the Climate: A Multitemporal Study of Greenhouse Gas Emissions of the Israel-Gaza Conflict” and published by the Social Science Research Network, is part of a growing movement to hold states and businesses accountable for the climate and environmental costs of war and occupation.
Greenpeace open letter
Greenpeace Aotearoa recently came out with strong statements about the genocidal war on Gaza with executive director Russel Norman earlier this month writing an open letter to Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Foreign Minister Winston Peters, expressing his grave concerns about the “ongoing genocide in Gaza being carried out by Israeli forces” — and the ongoing failure of the New Zealand Government to impose meaningful sanctions on Israel.
He referred to the mounting death toll of starving Palestinians being deliberately shot at the notorious Israeli-US backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) food distribution sites.
Norman also cited an Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz report that Israeli soldiers had been ordered to deliberately shoot unarmed Palestinians seeking aid, quoting one Israeli soldier saying: “It’s a killing field.”
Today’s rally featured many Palestinians wearing thobe costumes in advance of Palestinian Traditional Dress Day on July 25.
This is a day to showcase and celebrate the rich Palestinian cultural heritage through traditional clothing that is intricately embroidered.
Traditional thobes are a symbol of Palestinian resilience.
This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.
In Gaza’s emergency rooms, doctors now face a wave of patients suffering not from injury, but from hunger. The Ministry of Health confirmed that unprecedented numbers of people, from infants to the elderly, are arriving at hospitals in extreme exhaustion due to starvation.
The cause is not a drought or a natural disaster. It is the direct result of Israel’s full blockade, now in its 139th consecutive day. And the death toll is rising.
So far, 69 children have died from malnutrition. Another 620 patients have died due to the lack of food and medicine. Behind every number is a slow, painful process that strips the human body of life one stage at a time.
Stage One: The Hunger Takes Over
In the first 48 hours without food, your body uses up its stored sugar (glycogen) from the liver and muscles. Hunger pangs hit hard. You feel anxious, irritable, and dizzy. Your stomach cramps. You may struggle to focus. Energy vanishes quickly, and even walking becomes a task. Children scream in discomfort or go silent from exhaustion.
Stage Two: Muscle Melts, Immunity Crumbles
After a few days, your body switches to survival mode. It starts breaking down fat into ketones for fuel. But when fat runs low, your muscles become the next target. You begin to lose strength. Your immune system weakens. Small infections grow dangerous. You feel cold, even when it’s hot. Simple tasks like standing or thinking become harder.
Stage Three: Your Organs Struggle to Keep Up
Now weeks in, your body is wasting away. You look skeletal. Your skin turns dry and brittle. Some parts of your body, like your belly or feet, may swell due to protein loss. Your heart rate drops. Your liver and kidneys slow down. Your mind becomes foggy. You may forget where you are. Some start hallucinating. You no longer recognize your own voice or the people around you.
Stage Four: The Final Shutdown
Eventually, your body gives up. You no longer feel hunger. Swallowing becomes impossible. You might fall unconscious or slip into a coma. Your organs (heart, lungs, liver) begin to fail. Death often comes quietly, not from hunger itself, but from a final, irreversible shutdown.
In addition to the rising death toll, the Government Media Office in Gaza released staggering figures today:
650,000 children are now at risk of dying from hunger and malnutrition.
76,450 aid and fuel trucks have been blocked from entering Gaza in the past 139 days.
42 charity kitchens and 57 aid centers have been directly targeted by Israeli forces.
877 people have been killed near American-Israeli “aid centers.”
12,500 cancer patients and 60,000 pregnant women are also facing starvation without access to treatment or food.
Starvation is not just physical. It destroys dignity, memory, and hope. In Gaza, it comes with the added trauma of displacement, bombardment, and abandonment by the international community.
“This is not just a humanitarian crisis,” the Government Media Office stated. “It is a deliberate policy. And the governments who support Israel or remain silent are complicit.”
The office called for immediate global action: opening the crossings, lifting the siege, and allowing unrestricted humanitarian aid into Gaza before more lives are lost.
But as of today, the siege remains. And every passing hour brings Gaza closer to a famine that the world could stop, but hasn’t.
This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.
COMMENTARY: By Refaat Ibrahim
“If words shape our consciousness, then the media holds the keys to minds.”
This sentence is not merely a metaphor, but a reality we live daily in the coverage of the Israeli aggression on Gaza, where the crimes of the occupation are turned into “acts of violence”, the siege targeting civilians into “security measures”, and the legitimate resistance into “terrorist acts”.
This linguistic distortion is not innocent; it is part of a “systematic mechanism” practised by major Western media outlets, through which they perpetuate a false image of a “conflict between two equal sides”, ignoring the fact that one is an occupier armed with the latest military technology, and the other is a people besieged in their land for decades.
Here, the ethical question becomes urgent: how does the media shift from conveying truth to becoming a tool for justifying oppression?
Western media institutions promote a colonial narrative that reproduces the discourse of Israeli superiority, using linguistic and legal mechanisms to justify genocide.
But the rise of global awareness through social media platforms and documentaries like We Are Not Numbers, produced by youth in Gaza, exposes this bias and brings the Palestinian narrative back to the forefront.
Selective coverage . . . when injustice becomes an opinion
“Terrorism”, “self-defence”, “conflict” . . . are all terms that place the responsibility for violence on Palestinians while presenting Israel as the perpetual victim. This linguistic shift contradicts international law, which considers settlements a war crime (according to Article 8 of the Rome Statute), yet most reports avoid even describing the West Bank as “occupied territory”.
More dangerously, the issue is reduced to “violent events” without mentioning their contexts: how can the Palestinian people’s resistance be understood without addressing 75 years of displacement and the siege of Gaza since 2007? The media is like someone commenting on the flames without mentioning who ignited them.
The Western media coverage of the Israeli war on Gaza represents a blatant model of systematic bias that reproduces the Israeli narrative and justifies war crimes through precise linguistic and media mechanisms. Below is a breakdown of the most prominent practices:
Stripping historical context and portraying Palestinians as aggressor
Ignoring the occupation: Media outlets like the BBC and The New York Times ignored the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories since 1948 and focused on the 7 October 2023 attack as an isolated event, without linking it to the daily oppression such as home demolitions and arrests in Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Misleading terms: The war has often been described as a “conflict between Israel and Hamas”, while Gaza is considered the largest open-air prison in the world under Israeli siege since 2007. Example: The Economist described Hamas’s attacks as “bloody”, while Israeli attacks were called “military operations”.
Dehumanising Palestinians
Language of abstraction: The BBC used terms like “died” for Palestinians versus “killed” for Israelis, according to a quantitative study by The Intercept, weakening sympathy for Palestinian victims.
Victim portrayal: While Israeli death reports included names and family ties (like “mother” or “grandmother”), Palestinians were shown as anonymous numbers, as seen in the coverage of Le Monde and Le Figaro.
Israeli political rhetoric: Media outlets reported statements by Israeli leaders such as dismissed defence minister Yoav Gallant, who described Palestinians as “human animals”, and Benjamin Netanyahu, who called them “children of darkness”, without critically analysing this rhetoric that strips them of their humanity.
Distorting resistance and linking it to terrorism
Misleading comparisons: The October 7 attack was compared to “9/11” and described as a “terrorist attack” in The Washington Post and CNN, reinforcing the “war on terror” narrative and justifying Israel’s excessive response.
Fake news: Papers like The Sun and Daily Mail promoted the story of “beheaded Israeli babies” without evidence, a story even adopted by US president Joe Biden, only to be disproven later by videos showing Hamas’ humane treatment of captives.
Selective coverage and suppression of the Palestinian narrative
Silencing journalists: Journalists such as Zahraa Al-Akhras (Global News) and Bassam Bounni (BBC) were dismissed for criticising Israel or supporting Palestine, while others were pressured to adopt the Israeli narrative.
Defaming Palestinian institutions: The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal claimed the Palestinian death toll figures were “exaggerated”, ignoring UN and human rights organisations’ reports that confirmed their accuracy.
Manipulating legal and ethical terms
Denying war crimes: Deutsche Welle stated that Israeli attacks are “not considered war crimes”, despite the destruction of hospitals and the killing of tens of thousands of civilians.
Legal misinformation: The BBC referred to Israeli settlements in the West Bank as “disputed territories”, despite the UN declaring them illegal.
The Israeli military joins settlers in attacks because terrorizing Palestinians is state policy. But Western media doesn’t report it that way.
This is what decades of occupation looks like. pic.twitter.com/PwHxad4vCV
— Assal Rad (@AssalRad) July 18, 2025
Double standards in conflict coverage
Comparison with Ukraine: Western media linked support for Ukraine and Israel as “victims of aggression”, while ignoring that Israel is an occupying power under international law. Terminology shifted immediately: “invasion”, “war crimes”, “occupation” were used for Ukraine but omitted when speaking of Palestine.
According to a 2022 study by the Arab Media Monitoring Project, 90 percent of Western reports on Ukraine used language blaming Russia for the violence, compared to only 30 percent in the Palestinian case.
This contradiction exposes the underlying “racist bias”: how is killing in Europe called “genocide”, while in Gaza it is termed a “complicated conflict”? The answer lies in the statement of journalist Mika Brzezinski: “The only red line in Western media is criticising Israel.”
False neutrality: Sky News claimed it “could not verify” the Baptist Hospital massacre, despite video documentation, yet quickly adopted the Israeli narrative.
Consequences: legitimising genocide and marginalising Palestinian rights
Western media practices have contributed to normalising Israeli violence by portraying it as “legitimate defence”, while resistance is labelled as “terrorism.”
Deepening Palestinian isolation: By stripping them of the right to narrate, as shown in an academic study by Mike Berry (Cardiff University), which found emotional terms used exclusively to describe Israeli victims.
Undermining international law: By ignoring reports from organisations like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, which confirm Israel’s commission of war crimes.
Violating journalistic ethics . . . when the journalist becomes the occupation’s lawyer
Journalistic codes of ethics — such as the charter of the “International Federation of Journalists” — unanimously agree that the media’s primary task is “to expose the facts without fear”. But the reality proves the opposite:
In 2023, CNN deleted an interview with a Palestinian survivor of the Jenin massacre after pressure from the Israeli lobby (according to an investigation by Middle East Eye).
The Guardian was forced to edit the headline of an article that described settlements as “apartheid” after threats of legal action.
This self-censorship turns journalism into a “copier of official statements”, abandoning the principle of “not compromising with ruling powers” emphasised by the “International Journalists’ Network”.
Toward human-centred journalism
Fixing this flaw requires dismantling biased language: replacing “conflict” with “military occupation”, and “settlements” with “illegal colonies”.
Relying on international law: such as mentioning Articles 49 and 53 of the Fourth Geneva Convention when discussing the displacement of Palestinians.
Giving space to victims’ voices: According to an Amnesty report, 80% of guests on Western TV channels discussing the conflict were either Israeli or Western.
Holding media institutions accountable: through pressure campaigns to enforce their ethical charters (such as obligating the BBC to mention “apartheid” after the HRW report).
Conclusion
The war on Gaza has become a stark test of media ethics. While platforms like Al Jazeera and Middle East Eye have helped expose violations, major Western media outlets continue to reproduce a colonial discourse that enables Israel. The greatest challenge today is to break the silence surrounding the crimes of genocide and impose a human narrative that restores the stolen humanity of the victims.
“Occupation doesn’t just need tanks, it needs media to justify its existence.” These were the words of journalist Gideon Levy after witnessing how his camera turned war crimes into “normal news”.
If Western media is serious about its claim of neutrality, it must start with a simple step: call things by their names. Words are not lifeless letters, they are ticking bombs that shape the consciousness of generations.
Refaat Ibrahim is the editor and creator of The Resistant Palestinian Pens website, where you can find all his articles. He is a Palestinian writer living in Gaza, where he studied English language and literature at the Islamic University. He has been passionate about writing since childhood, and is interested in political, social, economic, and cultural matters concerning his homeland, Palestine. This article was first published at Pearls and Irritations social policy journal in Australia.
This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.
National Education Association teachers in support of Palestinian rights are celebrating their breakthrough success at the NEA’s Representative Assembly in Portland this summer.
After years of organizing with both one-on-one conversations and state delegation talks, NEA delegates voted to pass a Drop the Anti-Defamation League motion that rejects the ADL as a curriculum and professional development partner.
“We are witnessing a sea change in people’s understanding of who the Palestinians are and what colonialism has done to them,“ said Merrie Najimy, former president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA) and Founder of MTA Rank and File for Palestine.
The post Lobby Fumes As US Teachers Drop Zionist Curriculum appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.
This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.
Slovenia has declared two top Israeli ministers personae non grata over “genocidal statements” and other violations of Palestinian human rights, barring them from entering the country in what Slovenian officials say is a first for a country in the European Union. Foreign Minister Tanja Fajon announced the sanctions on the pair on Thursday, saying that the government seeks to pressure the…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
This story originally appeared in Mondoweiss on July 17, 2025. It is shared here with permission.
Speaking about Palestine is speaking about resistance in the heart of horror. That is how Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, summed it up at an emergency conference in Bogotá, Colombia. The same Albanese who is currently facing sanctions imposed by the U.S. government for, according to them, making antisemitic remarks, after repeatedly denouncing the brutalities committed by Israel against the Palestinian people.
Despite these accusations, Albanese remains firm in her denunciations. She reiterated on several occasions that we must not allow these actions to distract us from what truly matters: the genocide that, for the past twenty months, has escalated against the people of Gaza, and the massive human rights violations taking place across Palestine, which have left more than 60,000 people dead, most of them women and children.
“The global majority [also known as the Global South] has been the driving force behind actions against Israel’s genocide, with South Africa and Colombia playing key roles in this process,” she told Mondoweiss during a press conference on the first day of the Emergency Conference for Gaza, convened by the governments of Colombia and South Africa. “These actions have led to the creation of spaces for sanctions and resistance. What we’ve been insisting on all along is that more and more countries must join these efforts.”
The Hague Group coordinated this Emergency Conference, which brought together representatives from over 30 states, including China, Brazil, Spain, Mexico, Turkey, and Qatar. Initially formed by Colombia and South Africa, the group seeks to establish specific sanctions against Israel that, according to Colombia’s Vice Minister for Multilateral Affairs, Mauricio Jaramillo Jassir, aim to move beyond discourse and into action.
Heads of state and their representatives emphasized that these sanctions are not retaliatory but are in full compliance with international humanitarian law. They are part of the international community’s commitment to ending the genocide. One of the central calls made was for more nations to join this effort and uphold their duty to defend human rights.
All 30 participating states unanimously agreed that “the era of impunity must end— and that international law must be enforced.” To begin this effort, 12 states from across the world — Bolivia, Colombia, Cuba, Indonesia, Iraq, Libya, Malaysia, Namibia, Nicaragua, Oman, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and South Africa — committed to implementing six key points:
1. Prevent the provision or transfer of arms, munitions, military fuel, related military equipment, and dual-use items to Israel, as appropriate, to ensure that our industry does not contribute the tools to enable or facilitate genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other violations of international law.
2. Prevent the transit, docking, and servicing of vessels at any port, if applicable, within our territorial jurisdiction, while being fully compliant with applicable international law, including UNCLOS, in all cases where there is a clear risk of the vessel being used to carry arms, munitions, military fuel, related military equipment, and dual-use items to Israel, to ensure that our territorial waters and ports do not serve as conduits for activities that enable or facilitate genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other violations of international law.
3. Prevent the carriage of arms, munitions, military fuel, related military equipment, and dual-use items to Israel on vessels bearing our flag, while being fully compliant with applicable international law, including UNCLOS, ensuring full accountability, including de-flagging, for non-compliance with this prohibition, not to render aid or assistance in maintaining the situation created by Israel’s illegal presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
4. Commence an urgent review of all public contracts, in order to prevent public institutions and public funds, where applicable, from supporting Israel’s illegal occupation of the Palestinian Territory which may entrench its unlawful presence in the territory, to ensure that our nationals, and companies and entities under our jurisdiction, as well as our authorities, do not act in any way that would entail recognition or provide aid or assistance in maintaining the situation created by Israel’s illegal presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
5. Comply with our obligations to ensure accountability for the most serious crimes under international law through robust, impartial and independent investigations and prosecutions at national or international levels, in compliance with our obligation to ensure justice for all victims and the prevention of future crimes.
6. Support universal jurisdiction mandates, as and where applicable in our legal constitutional frameworks and judiciaries, to ensure justice for all victims and the prevention of future crimes in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
Both Jaramillo and Zane Dangor, Director-General of South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation, emphasized that these actions must not be seen as reprisals, but rather as part of an international effort to break the global silence that has enabled atrocities in Palestine.
This decision is aligned with Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s renewed order to halt all coal exports from Colombia to Israel: “My government was betrayed, and that betrayal, among other things, cast doubt on my order to stop exporting coal to Israel. We are the world’s fifth-largest coal exporter, which means the country of life is helping to kill humanity. Colombian coal is still being shipped to Israel. We prohibited it, and yet we are being tricked into violating that decision. We cannot allow Colombian coal to be turned into bombs that help Israel kill children.”
In his closing speech, Petro reaffirmed that Colombia would break all arms trade relations with Israel and would continue to support the Palestinian people’s right to resist.
The legitimacy of the Hague Group and these decisions has also been backed by several multilateral organizations that have denounced the genocide. As Varsha Gandikota-Nellutla, Executive Secretary of the Hague Group, stated: “The International Criminal Court (ICC) has already clearly denounced the genocide. The United Nations has stated that Gaza is the hungriest place on Earth. What we lack now is not clarity, it’s courage. We need the bravery to take the necessary actions”.
These words were echoed by Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Mansour, who emphasized that, together with the Madrid Group (a coalition of over 20 European and Arab countries also taking action against Israel and led by Spain), they could be the key to breaking Israel’s siege of horror: “This will not be an exercise in theatrical politics. The time has come for concrete, effective action to stop the crimes and end the profiteering from genocide. We will defeat these crimes against humanity and give the children who are still alive in Palestine a future full of promise, independence, and dignity. Recognizing Palestine is not a symbolic gesture, it is a concrete act of resistance against colonial expansion”.
His statement was followed by that of Palestinian-American doctor Thaer Ahmad, who worked in Nasser Hospital in Gaza and left the territory two months ago. In his testimony, he said he is certain that official death tolls do not even come close to reality, that Gaza is currently hell on Earth, and that every day the genocide continues brings devastating consequences for Palestinian children: “How can we look ourselves in the mirror? When this ends, if it ends, what will we say? ‘Sorry, we did everything we could’? They can’t afford to keep waiting for vague responses. They are surviving genocide every day. So now, how do we ensure that the effort to erase Palestinians from history does not succeed?”
Although the agreed-upon actions are significant, even the attending delegations acknowledge that their efforts will not be enough. Broader and more forceful measures are required. Yet, one day earlier, standing at the podium of Colombia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Francesca Albanese reaffirmed the historic importance of this event. She stated it could be: “A historical turning point that ends, with concrete measures, the genocide-based economy that has sustained Israel. I came to this meeting believing that the narrative is shifting. Hope must be a discipline that we all preserve.”
Correction: The original version of this article said that all 30 countries participating in the gathering had endorsed the six action points. The article has been updated to make clear that only 12 of the participating countries have committed to implementing the measures at this time.
This post was originally published on The Real News Network.
Avon and Somerset Police have decided not to continue their investigation into Kneecap’s performance at Glastonbury.
One element of the political policing intimidation attempt is over.
We played a historic set at Glastonbury. Whole area closed an hour before due to crowds. A celebration of love and solidarity. A sea of good people at the world’s most famous festival.
Shortly afterwards we… pic.twitter.com/S0BsMeOM83
— KNEECAP (@KNEECAPCEOL) July 18, 2025
It is clear that opening the investigation was nothing more than a political stunt, aimed at inflicting intimidation.
The email stated:
RE: Your Clients: (1) Liam Og Hanna, (2) Naoise O’Caireallain and (3) James John O’Dochartaigh, commonly known
‘Kneecap’I am Senior Investigating Officer for Avon and Somerset Police’s investigation into Kneecap’s performance at the Glastonbury Festival on 28th June 2025 [REDACTED}
Following a review of the evidence, I have determined there will be no further
action.
I would be grateful if you could communicate this to your clients, and/ or advise me of an alternative way of contacting them.
Thank you for your assistance in this matter.
Regards [REDACTED]
Detective Superintendent [REDACTED]
The police announced the investigation publicly, and with a huge show of force from the media. But now, they have decided to close the investigation in a private email chain to two people.
The disparity of not announcing that the investigation has been closed, vs the huge press announcing that it had started is awful. What are your thoughts @Kier_Starmer_PM @ShabanaMahmood?
— cd / (@cd_slash_x) July 18, 2025
Of course, you can quietly retract an accusation you put out at full volume.
Loudly accuse @KNEECAPCEOL, softly retract. pic.twitter.com/Lp0Rbu3HDo
— Aisha (@Aishalifett) July 18, 2025
“no evidence and no action” say Avon & Somerset Police [very quietly] https://t.co/wwxvyFOzwJ
— bat020 (@bat020) July 18, 2025
The establishment has forever operated through unfounded front page slander, followed only by, at best, back page retractions. https://t.co/aFEl2ixBIU
— atomless (@atomless) July 18, 2025
Where’s the public apology for reputational damage? Kneecap had gigs cancelled amid the media uproar. Manchester council have also been ‘in talks’ over dropping them from the Wythenshawe Park lineup in August.
Political intimidation: Publicly say you’re investigating someone knowing no crime occurred, then after the world sees you’ve been “investigated” send the target of harassment a private letter saying no crime took place & no action will be taken. Public damage is done. https://t.co/yoh7wiMrPm
— Aimee Sukol
(@SukolVentures) July 18, 2025
The group were set to play at the TRNSMT festival in Glasgow this weekend. The festival pulled them from the lineup following concerns raised by the police. Despite that, they played a replacement show at Glasgow’s O2 Academy, which sold out in 80 seconds.
Similarly, Radar Festival pulled Bob Vylan from their lineup in Greater Manchester earlier in July. This was after they led “death to the IDF” chants during their Glastonbury set.
Of course, broadcasters can call for disabled people to be shot or starved, but a band calling for death to a genocidal army is somehow crossing a line?
Clearly, though, the government and police have already damaged both of their reputations.
Smear campaigns like this don’t require criminal proceedings or convictions to be wildly effective https://t.co/DduUKn2hrD
— Cian Ó Concubhair (@CianOConcubhair) July 18, 2025
The investigation was nothing more than a witch-hunt designed to unnerve anyone standing up for Palestine.
Good stuff, lads! The witch-hunt has been appalling! Shame on Starmer and his flunkies! https://t.co/SPobkGeEqo
— Jason Reid (@JasonReidUK) July 18, 2025
In a country where most sexual offences go unsolved, the government and police think a good use of their time is intimidating a pop-trio standing up for dead babies. If nothing else, that shows you the morals of the people both governing and policing us.
This is how the government want to use your tax money.
95% of burglaries are still unsolved but they’ll will always find more money for this.
Pathetic https://t.co/H8hvwJKY52
— Tom Dibb (@tomdibb123) July 18, 2025
Over and over again, the police have overstepped when it comes to shutting down protests against genocide. They are disguising their own police harassment as ‘anti-terror policing’.
The police, government and wider British establishment continue to try and silence artists like Kneecap who use their platform to challenge Israeli genocide and our country’s complicity.
But it won’t happen. They are on the right sight of history and humanity. https://t.co/U7SxM8AUI5
— Michael Sharpe (@ThinkSharpe) July 18, 2025
The police would charge anyone else for wasting their time.
The police should be charged with wasting police time. https://t.co/tPkrv6R2Mx
— Bostoniano Improprio (@ImproperBoston1) July 18, 2025
It should not take a band to set the standard for leadership by standing up against genocide. But here we are.
In the test of time. People will ask why did it take the likes of @KNEECAPCEOL and other music and arts acts to show political leadership calling out and standing up against genocide and where were the so called political world leaders? Beir bua a chairde
https://t.co/xKrkP51GKE
— Mícheál Ó Dubhghaill
At least the police have now backed off. However, they had already done serious reputational damage to a band that has shown more morals than every police force in the country, and the government, put together.
Featured image via the Canary
By HG
This post was originally published on Canary.
On 1 July 2025 DAWN issued a response to reports of a new Israeli directive to ban employees of DAWN, along with other respected human rights and legal advocacy organizations including Al-Haq Europe, Law for Palestine, and Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights (LPHR), from entering Israel, aiming to punish and suppress accountability efforts for war crimes, apartheid, and genocide, DAWN issues the following:
“Israel is now banning human rights organizations from even entering the country to expose and seek accountability for the atrocities and crimes it is committing,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, DAWN’s executive director. “Israel’s ban against organizations seeking accountability for IDF abuses is only the latest indication of its growing isolation in the international community.”
“Israel’s decision to blacklist DAWN is a desperate attempt to block scrutiny of its crimes against the Palestinian people,” said Raed Jarrar, advocacy director at DAWN. “We will not be intimidated by authoritarian tactics and will continue our work to expose Israel’s violations of international law until there is full accountability and justice.”
“It’s hard to imagine greater validation of DAWN’s work to hold accountable Israeli officials and soldiers than being banned from entering the country specifically because of that work,” said Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man, director for Israel-Palestine at DAWN. “This is nevertheless a worrying harbinger of even greater Israeli repression of human rights defenders, be they Palestinian, Israeli, or American.”
This post was originally published on Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards.
Hungry, thirsty, and desperate for some relief, Sha’da Abu Jabal, 36, and her six-year-old son Ahmad headed to a water distribution point in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on Sunday, July 13. Each carried a jerrycan, hoping to return to their displacement center with clean drinking water. The mother and young son joined a long line of people waiting their turn…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
An arch crowns the entrance of a long, dusty, multi-laned street in the outskirts of Syria’s capital, Damascus. The text on the arch has been freshly painted — “Yarmouk camp” — with the Palestinian and Syrian Independence flags ensconced between the two words. The street is dotted with small businesses getting back on their feet after over a decade of war in Syria.
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
Cardiff Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) welcomes the motion passed at Cardiff Council meeting on Thursday 17 July (by 57 for, 4 against) on the topic of Gaza and divesting the council’s pension fund from complicity with Israel’s potential genocide and breaches in international law.
This follows today’s submission to the same council meeting of a petition from 1,200 Cardiff residents calling to disinvest from Israel’s genocide and apartheid against Palestinians. The petition was sponsored by PSC and the Muslim Council of Wales.
As noted by the proposer, Cllr Andrea Gibson (Plaid Cymru, Pentyrch and St Fagans ward) in her summation before the vote, the Council’s decision is in line with public opinion in Cardiff. She said:
Plaid Cymru’s motion to Cardiff City Council today, offers it the opportunity to be the first local authority in Wales to move its pension fund away from investing in companies complicit in war crimes and breaches in international law. This will hopefully speak to all involved in the pension scheme and express a clear view against contributing to harmful practices against Palestinians in Gaza, and is a practical step to advancing ethical public policy in the capital.
Also, across the country, a clear majority now exists which supports a full arms embargo on Israel and a call for selective sanctions on Israeli goods and government representatives.
The motion states, in particular, that Cardiff Council:
Notes the ongoing, deeply concerning and harrowing conflict in Gaza has resulted in significant loss of innocent life…
Believes public sector pension fund investments in Cardiff and across Wales should not fund war crimes, human rights violations, or the potential breaking of international law regardless of how profitable they are…
Agreed to express in strong terms its view that it does not wish to be associated with companies potentially complicit in war crimes in conflicts.
PSC has identified that Cardiff pension fund invests £117m in 52 companies which are in breach of international law by facilitating genocide and illegal land settlement.
Examples of Cardiff Pension Fund’s current complicit investments include:
The £117m represents a mere 3.7% of the total pension fund investment pot.
Following the passing of this motion, PSC said:
It would expect it to be perfectly feasible to achieve the total divestment of these companies without impacting fiduciary responsibilities to achieve the best returns for pensioners.
It is noted that our research result has come to a larger amount of complicit investment than that reported by the Council’s pension fund committee. Our research is at the disposal of Cardiff Council’s Pension Fund Committee, if it can help with identifying complicit entities.
More and more institutions are taking steps to divest from companies enabling Israel’s war crimes against Palestinians, as a result of grassroots campaigning. This timeline lists a selection of divestment milestones in Britain.
Farooq Toor from the Muslim Council of Wales, submitting the petition to Cardiff Council, said:
The human cost of Israel’s war against Palestinians is immense. It is the greatest human catastrophe of our generation. The international community has failed in its duty to protect Palestinians or to curb Israel’s unchecked aggression.
Clive Haswell, Co-Chair of Cardiff PSC, said:
The Council is to be congratulated today in taking a bold step towards divesting its pension fund from companies collaborating in genocide, ethnic cleansing and land theft – all war crimes or breaches of international law. As we witness, every day, examples of these crimes are being committed against Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied territories. There is no time to waste in applying this new policy to its full extent to bring pressure to bear on complicit companies, and on Israel itself.
Featured image via the Canary
By The Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.
The odious idea of a camp within a camp. The Gaza Strip, with an even greater concentration of Palestinian civilian life within an ever-shrinking stretch of territory. These are the proposals ventured by the Israeli government even as the official Palestinian death toll marches upwards to 60,000. They envisage the placement of some 600,000 displaced and houseless beings currently living in tents in the area of al-Mawasi along Gaza’s southern coast in a creepily termed “humanitarian city”. This would be the prelude for an ultimate relocation of the strip’s entire population of over 2 million in an area that will become an even smaller prison than the Strip already is.
The preparation for such a forced removal – yet another among so many Israel has inflicted upon the Palestinians – is in full swing. The analysis of satellite imagery from the United Nations Satellite Centre (UNOSAT) by Al Jazeera’s Sanad investigations unit found that approximately 12,800 buildings were demolished in Rafah between early April and early July alone. In the Knesset on May 11 this year, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave words to those deeds: “We are demolishing more and more [of their] homes, they have nowhere to return to. The only obvious result will be the desire of the Gazans to emigrate outside the Strip.”
Camps of concentrated human life – concentration camps, in other words – are often given a different dressing to what they are meant to be. Authoritarian states enjoy using them to re-educate and reform the inmates even as they gradually kill them. Indeed, the proposals from the Israel’s Defense Department carry with them plans for a “Humanitarian Transit Area” where Gazans would “temporarily reside, deradicalize, re-integrate, and prepare to relocate if they wish to do so”.
The emetic candy floss of “humanitarian” in the context of a camp is a self-negating nonsense similar to other experiments in cruelty: the relocation of Boer civilians during the colonial wars waged by Britain to camps which saw dysentery and starvation; the movement of Vietnamese villagers into fortified hamlets to prevent their infiltration by the Vietcong in the 1960s; the creation of Pacific concentration camps to detain refugees seeking Australia by boat in what came to be called the “Pacific Solution”.
Those in the business of doing humanitarian deeds were understandably appalled by Israel’s latest plans. Philippe Lazzarini, head of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), stated that this would “de facto create massive concentration camps at the border with Egypt for the Palestinians, displaced over and over across generations”. It would certainly “deprive Palestinians of any prospects of a better future in their homeland.” Self-evidently and sadly, that would be one of the main aims.
A few of Israeli’s former Prime Ministers have ditched the coloured goggles in considering the plans for such a mislabelled city. Yair Lapid, who spent a mere six months in office in 2022, told Israeli Army Radio that it was “a bad idea from every possible perspective – security, political, economic, logistical”. While preferring not to use the term “concentration camp” with regards such a construction, incarcerating individuals by effectively preventing their exit would make such a term appropriate.
Ehud Olmert’s words to The Guardian were even less inclined to varnish the matter. “If they [the Palestinians] will be deported into the new ‘humanitarian city’, then you can say that this is part of an ethnic cleansing”. To create a camp that would effectively “clean” more than half of Gaza of its population could hardly be understood as a plan to save Palestinians. “It is to deport them, to push and to throw them away. There is no other understanding that I have at least.”
Israeli political commentator Ori Goldberg was also full of candour in expressing the view that the plan was “for all facts and purposes a concentration camp” for Gaza’s Palestinians, “an overt crime against humanity under international humanitarian law”. This would also add the burgeoning grounds of illegality already being alleged in this month’s petition by three Israeli reserve soldiers of Israel’s Supreme Court questioning the legality of Operation Gideon’s Chariots. Instancing abundant examples of forced transfer and expulsions of the Palestinian population during its various phases, commentators such as former chief of staff of the IDF, Moshe “Bogy” Ya’alon, are unreserved about how such programs fare before international law. “Evacuating an entire population? Call it ethnic cleansing, call it transfer, call it deportation, it’s a war crime,” he told journalist Lucy Aharish. “Israel’s soldiers had been sent in “to commit war crimes.”
There is also some resistance from within the IDF, less on humanitarian grounds than practical ones. To even prepare such a plan in the midst of negotiations for a lasting ceasefire and finally resolving the hostage situation was the first telling problem. The other was how the IDF could feasibly undertake what would be a grand jailing experiment while preventing the infiltration of Hamas.
This ghastly push by the Netanyahu government involves an enormous amount of wishful thinking. Ideally, the Palestinians will simply leave. If not, they will live in even more carceral conditions than they faced before October 2023. But to assume that this cartoon strip humanitarianism, papered over a ghoulish program of inflicted suffering, will add to the emptying well of Israeli security, is testament to how utterly desperate, and delusionary, the Israeli PM and his cabinet members have become.
The post Making Concentration Camp Gaza Inbox first appeared on Dissident Voice.This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.
On Saturday 19 July, dozens of people across the country are expected to be arrested under counter-terrorism legislation for holding cardboard signs. It is, of course, over the government’s proscription of Palestine Action. Locations include:
Since home secretary Yvette Cooper ordered that Palestine Action be banned as a ‘terrorist organisation’ on 5 July, after the group entered an RAF base at Brize Norton and spray-painted two military planes red, more than 100 people have been arrested around the country for holding cardboard signs saying:
Last Saturday, in Orwellian scenes, peaceful protestors in Cardiff were arrested under Section 12 of the Terrorism Act, kept in police custody for an extended period, while their homes were raided and their personal belongings seized.
In further evidence of the chilling effect of the ban, on Monday Kent Police threatened to arrest a woman, Laura Murton, on terrorism charges simply for holding a sign referring to Israel’s genocide with a Palestinian flag, on the basis that that was sufficient to provide grounds for ‘suspicion’ that she was a supporter of a proscribed group:
View this post on Instagram
Despite such extreme repression that is shocking to the conscience of democracy, the protests are expected to resume on Saturday, including in Parliament Square, Bristol, Edinburgh, Manchester, and Truro.
Saturday’s protests come ahead of a High Court hearing on Monday 21 July in the legal challenge to the ban, in which the Claimant, Huda Ammori, will seek permission for a full judicial review of the proscription.
A spokesperson for Defend Our Juries, which is supporting the campaign to de-proscribe Palestine Action, said:
These protests will see many more ordinary people across the country take a stand, who don’t want to be handcuffed and detained in a police cell but refuse to stand by while our country collapses into an Orwellian nightmare where opponents of genocide are criminalised and silenced, and arrested just for holding a sign.
Protest groups targeting property, not people, in order to disrupt the flow of arms to Israel’s war machine while it commits horrific atrocities – is obviously not terrorism. It aims to stop violence and terrorism being committed against the Palestinian people. How long until this unprecedented, authoritarian proscription is used against racial justice, climate, disability rights groups and trade unions, unless we resist the ban now, before it’s too late?
Featured image supplied
By The Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.
COMMENTARY: By Eugene Doyle
Nobody has a bad word to say about the French Resistance in the Second World War, right? Who would criticise a group confronting fascism, right?
Yet this month the UK group Palestine Action has been proscribed as a “terrorist” organisation by their government for their non-violent direct action against UK-based industries supplying technology to fuel Israel’s destruction of the Palestinian people.
Are they terrorists or the very best of us in the West?
Stéphane Hessel, a leading member of the French Resistance, survived time in Nazi concentration camps, including Buchenwald. After the war he was one of the co-authors of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), a pillar of international law to this day.
The Declaration affirms the inherent dignity and equal rights of all humans. In later years Hessel (d. 2013), who was Jewish, saw the treatment of the Palestinians as an affront to this and repeatedly called Israel out for crimes against humanity.
Hessel argued people needed to be outraged just as he and his fellow fighters had been during the war.
In 2010, he said: “Today, my strongest feeling of indignation is over Palestine, both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. The starting point of my outrage was the appeal launched by courageous Israelis to the Diaspora: you, our older siblings, come and see where our leaders are taking this country and how they are forgetting the fundamental human values of Judaism.”
In his book Indignez-vous (Time for Outrage!) he called for a “peaceful insurrection” and pointed to some of the non-violent forms of protests Palestinians had used over the years.
“The Israeli authorities have described these marches as ‘nonviolent terrorism’. Not bad . . . One would have to be Israeli to describe nonviolence as terrorism.”
How wrong Stéphane Hessel was on this point. The British Parliament has just proscribed Palestine Action as “terrorists” despite them having never attacked anyone, never used weapons, but only undertaken destruction of property linked to the arms industry.
Does Palestine Action really bear resemblance to Al Qaeda or ISIS, or Israel’s Stern Gang or the IDF? Or, like the French Resistance, will they eventually be recognised as heroes of our time? Will Hollywood romanticise them in their usual tardy way in 50 years time?
In respect to the Palestinians, Hessel was clear that resistance could take many forms: “We must recognise that when a country is occupied by infinitely superior military means, the popular reaction cannot be only nonviolent,” he said.
In his time, he lived by those words.
Resistance – a precious band of brothers and sisters
Here’s a statistic that should make you think. In the Second World War less than 2 percent of French people played any active role in the Resistance. Most people just sat back and got on with their lives whether they liked the Germans or didn’t.
The Jews and others were dealt to, stamped on and shipped out, while most of the French could trundle on unharassed. The heavy lifting of resistance was done by a small band of brothers and sisters who took it to the enemy.
History salutes them, as we now salute the Suffragettes, the anti-Apartheid activists, the American civil rights groups and Irish liberation fighters. We’re living through something similar now — and our governments are the bad guys.
I first learned that shocking fact about the composition of the Resistance from my history teacher at l’Université de Franche-Comté, in France in the 1980s. He was the distinguished historian Antoine Casanova, a specialist on Napoleon, Corsica and the Resistance.
Perhaps the low level of resistance is not surprising. Most of the people who put their bodies on the line in Occupied France during the Second World War were either communists or Jews. Good on them. Jewish people made up as much as 20 percent of the French Resistance despite numbering only about 1 percent of the population. This massive over-representation can, understandably, be explained as recognition of the existential threat they faced — but many were also passionate communists or socialists, the ideological enemies of the racist, fascist ideology of their occupiers.
Looking at the Israeli State today, many of those same Jewish Resistance fighters would instantly recognise the racism and fascism that they opposed in the 1940s. We should remember our leaders tell us we share values with Israel.
For anyone not in the United Kingdom (where it is illegal to show any support for Palestine Action) I highly recommend the recently released documentary To Kill A War Machine which gives an absolutely riveting account of both the direct action the group has undertaken and the moral and ideological underpinnings of their actions.
Having seen the documentary I can see why the British Labour government is doing everything in its power to silence and censor them. They really do expose who the true terrorists are. Stéphane Hessel would be proud of Palestine Action.
This week a former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert made clear what is going on in Gaza.
The “humanitarian city” Israel is planning to build on the ruins of Rafah would be, in his words, a concentration camp. Others have described it as a Warsaw-ghetto or a “death camp”. Olmert says Israel is clearly committing war crimes in both Gaza and the West Bank and that the concentration camp for the Gazan population would mark a further escalation.
It would go beyond ethnic cleansing and take the Jewish State of Israel shoulder-to-shoulder with other regimes that built such camps. Israel, we should never forget, is our close ally.
Millions of people have hit the streets in Western countries. A majority clearly repudiate what the US and Israel are doing. But the political leadership of the big Western countries continues to enable the racist, fascist genocidal state of Israel to do its evil work. Lesser powers of the white-dominated broederbond, like Australia and New Zealand, also provide valuable support.
Until our populations in the West mobilise in sufficient numbers to force change on our increasingly criminal ruling elites, the heavy-lifting done by groups like Palestine Action will remain powerful forms of the resistance.
I grew up in the Catholic faith. One of the lines indelibly printed on my consciousness was: “Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” Palestine Action is doing that. Francesca Albanese is doing that. Justice for Palestine and Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa are doing this.
The real question, the burning question each of us must answer is — given there is no middle ground, there is no fence to sit on when it comes to genocide — whose side are you on? And what are you going to do about it? Vive la Resistance! Vive the defenders of the Palestinian cause!
Rest in Peace Stéphane Hessel. Le temps passe, le souvenir reste.
Eugene Doyle is a writer based in Wellington. He has written extensively on the Middle East, as well as peace and security issues in the Asia Pacific region. He contributes to Asia Pacific Report and Café Pacific, and hosts the public policy platform solidarity.co.nz
This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.
The Israeli government has just put forward one of the most brazenly genocidal schemes in modern memory — and unless we act immediately, the world will once again let it happen.
As reported in Haaretz, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz is proposing to force some 600,000 Palestinians — and eventually the entire population of Gaza — into a fenced-in “humanitarian city” to be built on the ruins of Rafah in southern Gaza.
The plan is to “screen” the population, separate out alleged Hamas members, and then pressure the remaining civilians — men, women, and children — to “voluntarily” leave Gaza for another country. Which country? That hasn’t even been determined.
The post Israel’s ‘Humanitarian City’ Plan appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.
This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.
The total violence of colonization in Algeria, Palestine, or Kanaky is therefore physical and symbolic, economic and cultural, political and social, religious and civil. It is literally a matter of substituting one society for another, replacing one people with another, destroying a history to justify an illegitimate present. The victims of these colonizations therefore have only one choice: to resist or disappear. To date, there is no example in human history of a people choosing to disappear. Resistance is inevitable and takes many different and evolving forms.
The post Settler Colonialism In Light Of Frantz Fanon appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.
This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.
The Attorneys of a 22-year-old Palestinian man say their client was detained by immigration authorities at Houston’s Bush Intercontinental Airport for nine days.
According to a statement from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Muhanad J. M. Alshrouf obtained a U.S. immigrant visa before flying to Houston to visit his father on a flight from Dubai on July 5.
Alshrouf reportedly spent days in a secondary screening room at the airport before being released on the evening of July 14. He was not allowed to obtain legal counsel, a change of clothes, or proper food, and authorities gave no reason for his release.
The post Palestinian Man Detained At Houston Airport For Nine Days appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.
This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.
Israel struck the only Catholic church in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, killing three in the religious site that Pope Francis called every night of the genocide up until the final days of his life. The parish priest for the Holy Family Catholic Church, Reverend Gabriel Romanelli, was injured in the strike. Romanelli used to speak with Pope Francis during his nightly calls…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
We speak with leading Israeli American historian Omer Bartov about his latest essay for The New York Times, headlined “I’m a Genocide Scholar. I Know It When I See It.” Bartov cites the United Nations definition of “genocide,” which includes an intent to destroy a group of people that makes it impossible for the group to reconstitute itself. “This is precisely what Israel is trying to do,” he says.
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
Hastings Borough Council passed a historic motion on Wednesday 16 July to back an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, an end to all arms sales to Israel, and to support the town’s deep friendship links with the people of Al Mawasi.
The successful motion comes after three previous attempts over the past 21 months to bring a ceasefire motion were thwarted, with one full council meeting last year completely abandoned by the then Labour mayor.
Hastings is the 22nd council in the country to debate a motion calling for a ceasefire.
During an emotional debate lasting over an hour, many councillors spoke to the importance of the motion, which was carried by a majority of 14 Green and Hastings Independent Group MPs, with three voting against and 11 abstentions, mostly from the Labour Party.
Proposing the motion, Cllr Yunis Smith of the Greens spoke of how compassionate Hastings residents had built deep friendships with the grassroots resilience committee in the coastal community of Al Mawasi in Gaza over many years through regular Zoom calls and WhatsApp chats, pointing out that locals had raised funds for solar panels, the building of a well, a bakery, food parcels and educational resources.
‘From one coastal town to another we’ve shown that solidarity, dignity and human connection shine brighter than cruelty,’ he said:
Al Mawasi, like Hastings, is defined not just by its land but by the resilience of its people. They survive, endure and beckon us to witness their struggle and their strength.
He asked councillors to join him in opposing the ‘horrors of genocide’.
Hastings Borough Council is a borough of sanctuary,’ he went on. ‘That means something, it means we strive for a better community, it means we stand with the oppressed, whoever they are, wherever they are.
And in this case let us be absolutely clear, the occupation is the oppressor, the occupied are the oppressed. Be bold, be brave, stand with Palestine, stand for justice, stand on the right side of history. Free Palestine.
The speech drew loud applause from the packed public gallery where over 40 locals came to listen to the debate, including members of Hastings Jews for Justice wearing t-shirts that read, ‘Not in Our Name’, Hastings Friends of Al Mawasi, and members of Hastings & District PSC.
Several Labour members spoke in the debate and while many decried the ‘atrocities’ taking place in Gaza, they said they could not support the motion because it endorsed the friendship link with Al Mawasi, and they did not know enough about the group.
Green leader of the council Cllr Glen Haffenden said he had received more emails on this subject from his residents than on any other subject since becoming a councillor.
He pointed out that Hastings Friends of Al Mawasi had been at St Leonards Festival the previous weekend and any councillor had the opportunity to discuss any queries with them during the six hours they were present at the event.
He added that the group had also sent round a ‘really helpful factual sheet’ ahead of the meeting giving comprehensive background to the friendship link.
The motion was seconded by Cllr Simon Willis of the Hastings Independent Group, speaking powerfully about his Jewish mother’s family who fled their home in Hamburg during the Second World War. Many of his family who remained perished in Auschwitz:
My beloved Ooma and Oopa and my mother Sabina tried to teach me the lessons they learned about tyranny, about injustice, about inequality, about war.
It made me learn to be very afraid of people who value one group above another and one group of people’s lives above that of another. Following directly from that they taught me to recognise genocide when I saw it, and to value those people who stood against it regardless of personal consequence.
Those of our fellow citizens who in timidity, fear or anger conspire with the continuation of genocide either through silence or indifference or legalistic quibbles will be judged by history just as surely as the old men who are perpetrating this violence in Israel and bringing shame to their ancestors and danger to all Jewish people across the globe, including my beloved wife and children.
I second this motion to stand with my ancestors and I ask you to find within you your humanity and join Yunis and me in supporting this very important motion.
After the motion was passed, the council chambers erupted into cheers and applause as members of the public and councillors alike hugged and cried tears of relief and sorrow.
Hastings resident Catherine Eva, who was present in the chamber, said afterwards:
I was deeply moved and proud to have been at tonight’s meeting. Witnessing the motion pass was more than just a political moment, it was a moral one. It was a statement of solidarity, of humanity, and of hope.
What struck me most were the powerful and deeply personal speeches made by councillors who have been directly affected by past genocides, or whose conscience gave them the courage to vote for the motion.
Their determination not to remain silent in the face of injustice reminded us all that history is watching. Their words carried the weight of experience, and their commitment to ensuring we did not stand on the wrong side of history was profoundly moving.
This victory did not come out of nowhere. It is the result of tireless local campaigning. It proves, yet again, that local activism matters. That change starts in town halls, in conversations between neighbours, and in the brave decisions of those who hold public office with conscience. I am incredibly proud to be part of this community — a community with councillors who are willing to listen, to lead, and to stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine. In twinning with Al-Mawasi, Hastings has taken a stand for justice, for peace, and for shared humanity.
Laurie Holden of the Hastings Friends of Al Mawasi said:
This will mean so much to the people of Al Mawasi, who are right now being bombed and starved. To know they are not forgotten. That people thousands of miles away are rooting for them, care about them and doing everything in their power to stop this horrific genocide.
Featured image via Katy Weitz
By The Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.
The Devonport Flagstaff
About 200 people marched in Devonport last Saturday in support of Palestine.
Pro-Palestine flags and placards were draped on the band rotunda at Windsor Reserve as speakers, including Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick and the people power manager of Amnesty International Aotearoa New Zealand Margaret Taylor, a Devonport local, encouraged the crowd to continue to fight for peace in the Middle East.
The Devonport Out For Gaza rally progressed up Victoria Rd to the Victoria Theatre, crossed the road, came down to the ferry terminal, then marched along the waterfront to the New Zealand Navy base.
Swarbrick said the New Zealand government and New Zealanders could not turn a blind eye to what was happening in Palestine.
The rally, organised by the Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa (PSNA), marked the 92nd consecutive week that a march has been held in Auckland in support of Palestine.
Republished with permission from The Devonport Flagstaff.
This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.
Jeremy Corbyn’s Peace and Justice Project has announced the launch of The Gaza Tribunal – after the British government rejected his Bill for a full inquiry into UK complicity with Israel’s war crimes and genocide in Gaza.
The Gaza Tribunal has emerged as a beacon of hope. This people’s inquiry—slated to convene in the UK on 4-5 September—aims to examine Britain’s complicity in Israel’s war crimes in Gaza. Far from being an exercise in blame, it stands as a testament to public demand for legal clarity, transparency and justice. It is precisely the kind of bold initiative needed to illuminate wrongdoing, support victims, and create pressure for tangible change.
The Gaza Tribunal will run over two days, featuring:
expert witnesses including Palestinians on the ground in Gaza, journalists who have covered the conflict, health and aid workers who have worked in Palestine as well as legal experts and UN officials who have intimate knowledge of the situation.
They will be examining Britain’s legal obligations and considering whether the government has met them.
The itinerary is as follows:
Part 1: What has happened in Gaza? 10:00 | Thursday 4 September
Part 2: What are Britain’s legal responsibilities? 12:00 | Thursday 4 September
Part 3: What has Britain’s role been in Gaza? 14:00 | Thursday 4 September
Part 3: What has Britain’s role been in Gaza? (cont.) 10:00 | Friday 5 September
Part 4: Has Britain fulfilled its legal obligations? 14:00 | Friday 5 September
With sections dedicated to analysing the scale of violence in Gaza, the UK’s potential accountability under international law, and state involvement in factors such as arms sales and intelligence sharing, it provides a rare chance for civilian-led oversight. That members of the public, activists, and legal luminaries unite over an independent inquiry sends a powerful signal to policymakers: silence or delay is no longer acceptable.
Jeremy Corbyn said of The Gaza Tribunal:
Just like Iraq, the government is doing everything it can to protect itself from scrutiny. Just like Iraq, it will not succeed in its attempts to suffocate the truth. We will uncover the full scale of British complicity in genocide – and we will bring about justice for the people of Palestine.”
Accountability over war crimes and genocide is not optional.
Without it, there is a risk of normalising civilian harm and undermining international norms. The Gaza Tribunal not only challenges UK authorities to respond, but also galvanises broader public debate. Public hearings and expert findings can influence parliamentary scrutiny, diplomatic engagement, and even judicial processes. This bottom-up model of participatory justice shows that citizen-led initiatives can reinforce the highest standards of human rights and shape foreign policy.
Any meaningful inquiry must also confront the grim statistics. According to Gaza’s Health Ministry and corroborated by independent trackers, the death toll in Gaza by Israel stands at 58,026 Palestinians as of mid-July 2025, including a tragic toll of children and women.
In recent days alone, at least 93 Palestinians were killed in a single 24‑hour period, while separate reports confirm 20 killed in crush incidents at food aid hubs, with Israel-led strikes claiming at least 54 more lives—including 14 children—with UNICEF estimating more than 18,000 child fatalities overall. Such staggering losses emphasise why civilian testimony and independent investigation are indispensable.
Moreover, anguishing shortages of essentials—food, fuel, medical supplies—have transformed aid centres into zones of lethal danger. Since late May, hundreds have died at these distribution points, including documented massacres of aid‑seekers. These are not abstract statistics but the painful backdrop against which accountability initiatives such as The Gaza Tribunal must operate.
What sets The Gaza Tribunal apart is its insistence on listening to voices from Gaza—survivors, healthcare workers, legal experts. It’s not sensationalism. It’s rigorous, rights‑based inquiry. It is in direct continuity with international justice efforts aimed at ensuring war crimes are investigated, victims supported, and state actors held answerable. For British society—supposedly steeped in legal tradition—this independent inquiry is not an affront; it’s an opportunity to reaffirm democratic accountability.
As The Gaza Tribunal gears up for its September hearings, preparations are already shaping up.
Lawyers are drafting submissions, survivors are preparing testimony, and civil society groups continue mobilising public support. The stage is set for a serious, informed reckoning—not just about distant events in Gaza, but about Britain’s role in them.
Even if The Gaza Tribunal lacks formal sanction, its real power lies in public visibility. This includes media coverage, legal discourse, parliamentary debates. That is how change is ignited. As light shines on systemic shortcomings, governments find it harder to ignore or dismiss, and citizens are equipped to demand accountability.
The Gaza Tribunal represents a courageous, necessary endeavour—both morally and strategically. It brings absent voices into conversation, confronts national responsibility, and underscores that human lives, especially those lost at an unimaginable scale, deserve justice.
With over 58,000 people killed by Israel in Gaza, the Tribunal could not be more timely.
It is not only a questioning of events, but a hopeful step towards a world where no government can evade scrutiny.
Featured image supplied
By The Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.
ANALYSIS: By Mick Hall
Collective measures to confront Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people have been agreed by 12 nations after an emergency summit of the Hague Group in Bogotá, Colombia.
A joint statement today announced the six measures, which it said were geared to holding Israel to account for its crimes in Palestine and would operate within the states’ domestic legal and legislative frameworks.
Nearly two dozen other nations in attendance at the summit are now pondering whether to sign up to the measures before a September deadline set by the Hague Group.
New Zealand and Australia stayed away from the summit.
The measures include preventing the provision or transfer of arms, munitions, military fuel and dual-use items to Israel and preventing the transit, docking or servicing of vessels if there is a risk of vessels carrying such items. No vessel under the flag of the countries would be allowed to carry this equipment.
The countries would also “commence an urgent review of all public contracts, in order to prevent public institutions and public funds, where applicable, from supporting Israel’s illegal occupation of the Palestinian Territory which may entrench its unlawful presence in the territory, to ensure that our nationals, and companies and entities under our jurisdiction, as well as our authorities, do not act in any way that would entail recognition or provide aid or assistance in maintaining the situation created by Israel’s illegal presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory”.
The countries will prosecute “the most serious crimes under international law through robust, impartial and independent investigations and prosecutions at national or international levels, in compliance with our obligation to ensure justice for all victims and the prevention of future crimes”.
They agreed to support universal jurisdiction mandates, “as and where applicable in our legal constitutional frameworks and judiciaries, to ensure justice for all victims and the prevention of future crimes in the Occupied Palestine Territory”.
This will mean IDF soldiers and others accused of war crimes in Palestine would face arrest and could go through domestic judicial processes in these countries, or referrals to the ICC.
The statement said the measures constituted a collective commitment to defend the foundational principles of international law.
It also called on the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) to commission an immediate investigation of the health and nutritional needs of the population of Gaza, devise a plan to meet those needs on a continuing and sustained basis, and report on these matters before the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly in September.
Following repeated total blockades of Gaza since October 7, 2023, Gazans have been dying of starvation as they continue to be bombed and repeatedly displaced and their means of life destroyed.
The official death toll stands at nearly 59,000, mostly women and children, although some estimates put that number at over 200,000.
The joint statement recognised Israel as a threat to regional peace and the system of international law and called on all United Nations member states to enforce their obligations under the UN charter.
It condemned “unilateral attacks and threats against United Nations mandate holders, as well as key institutions of the human rights architecture and international justice” and committed to build “on the legacy of global solidarity movements that have dismantled apartheid and other oppressive systems, setting a model for future co-ordinated responses to international law violations”.
Countries face wrath of US
Ministers, high-ranking officials and envoys from 30 nations attended the two-day event, from July 15-16, called to come up with the measures. It is now hoped some of those attendees will sign up to the statement by September.
For countries like Ireland, which sent a delegation, signing up would have profound implications. The Irish government has been heavily criticised by its own citizens for continuing to allow Shannon Airport as a transit point for military equipment from the United States to be sent to Israel.
It would also face the prospect of severe reprisals by the US, as would others thinking of adding their names to the collective statement. The US is now expected to consult with nations that attended and warn them of the consequences of signing up.
The summit had been billed by the UN Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese, as “the most significant political development of the last 20 months”.
Albanese had told attendees that “for too long, international law has been treated as optional — applied selectively to those perceived as weak, ignored by those acting as the powerful”.
“This double standard has eroded the very foundations of the legal order. That era must end,” she said.
Co-chaired by Colombia and South Africa, the Hague group was established by nine nations in late January at The Hague in the Netherlands to hold Israel to account for its crimes and push for Palestinian self-determination.
Colombia last year ended diplomatic relations with Israel, while South Africa in late December 2023 filed an application at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) accusing Israel of genocide, which was joined by nearly two dozen countries.
The ICJ has determined a plausible genocide is taking place and issued orders for Israel to protect Palestinians and take measures to stop genocide taking place, a call ignored by the Zionist state.
Representatives from the countries arrived in Bogota this week in defiance of the United States, which last week sanctioned Albanese for attempts to have US and Israeli political officials and business leaders prosecuted by the ICC over Gaza.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio called it an illegitimate “campaign of political and economic warfare”.
It followed the sanctioning of four ICC judges after arrest warrants were issued in November last year for Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant, for crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Ahead of the Bogota meeting, the US State Department accused The Hague Group of multilateral attempts to “weaponise international law as a tool to advance radical anti-Western agendas” and warned the US would “aggressively defend” its interests.
Signs of division in the West
Most of those attending came from nations in the Global South, but not all.
Founding Hague Group members Belize, Bolivia, Colombia, Cuba, Honduras, Malaysia, Namibia, Senegal and South Africa attended the Summit. Joining them were Algeria, Bangladesh, Botswana, Brazil, Chile, China, Djibouti, Indonesia, Iraq, Republic of Ireland, Lebanon, Libya, Mexico, Nicaragua, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Qatar, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Uruguay, and Venezuela.
However, in a sign of increasing division in the West, NATO members Spain, Portugal, Norway, Slovenia and Turkey also attended.
Inside the summit, former US State Department official Annelle Sheline, who resigned in March over Gaza, defended the right of those attending “to uphold their obligations under the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide”.
“This is not the weaponisation of international law. This is the application of international law,” she told delegates.
The US and Israel deny accusations that genocide is taking place in Gaza, while Western media have collectively refused to adjudicate the claims or frame stories around Israel’s ethnic cleansing of the strip, despite ample evidence by the UN and genocide experts.
Since 7 October 2023, US allies have offered diplomatic cover for Israel by repeating it had “a right to defend itself” and was engaged in a legitimate defensive “war against Hamas”.
Israel now plans to corral starving Gazans into a concentration camp in the south of the strip, with many analysts expecting the IDF to exterminate anyone found outside its boundaries, while preparing to push those inside across the border into Egypt.
Asia Pacific and EU allies shun Bogota summit
Addressing attendees at the summit yesterday, Albanese criticised the EU for its neo-colonialism and support for Israel, criticisms that can be extended to US allies in the Asia Pacific region.
Independent journalist Abby Martin reported Albanese as saying: “Europe and its institutions are guided more by colonial mindset than principle, acting as vessels to US Empire even as it drags us from war to war, misery to misery.
“The Hague Group is a new moral centre in world politics. Millions are hoping for leadership that can birth a new global order, rooted in justice, humanity and collective liberation. It’s not just about Palestine. This is about all of us.”
The Australian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade was asked why Foreign Minister Penny Wong did not take up an invite to attend the Hague Group meeting. In a statement to Mick Hall in Context, a spokesperson said she had been unable to attend, but did not explain why.
She said Australia was a “resolute defender of international law” and added: “Australia has consistently been part of international calls that all parties must abide by international humanitarian law. Not enough has been done to protect civilians and aid workers.
“We have called on Israel to respond substantively to the ICJ’s advisory opinion on the legal consequences arising from Israel’s policies and practices in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
“We have also called on Israel to comply with the binding orders of the ICJ, including to enable the unhindered provision of basic services and humanitarian assistance at scale.”
When asked why New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Winston Peters had failed to take up the invitation or send any of his officials, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) spokesperson simply refused to comment.
She said MFAT media advisors would only engage with “recognised news media outlets”.
Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and New Zealand’s Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, as well as a number of his ministers, have been referred to the ICC by domestic legal teams, accused of complicity in the genocide.
Evidence against Albanese was accepted into the ICC’s wider investigation of crimes in Gaza in October last year, while Luxon’s referral earlier this month is being assessed by the Chief Prosecutor’s Office.
Delegates told humanity at stake
Delegates heard several impassioned addresses from speakers on what was at stake during the two-day event in Bogota.
Palestinian-American trauma surgeon, Dr Thaer Ahmad, told the gathering that Palestinians seeking food were being met with bullets, describing aid distribution facilities set up by the US contractor-run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) as “slaughterhouses”. More than 800 starving Gazans have been killed at the GHF aid points so far.
“People know they could die but cannot sit idly by and watch their families starve,” he said.
“The bullets fired by GHF mercenaries are just one part of the weaponisation of aid, where Palestinians are ghettoised into areas where somebody in military fatigues decides if you are worthy of food or not.”
Palestinian diplomat Riyad Mansour had urged the summit attendees to take decisive action to not only save the Palestinian people, but redeem humanity.
“Instead of outrage at the crimes we know are taking place, we find those who defend, normalise, and even celebrate them,” he said.
“The core values we believed humanity agreed were universal are shattered, blown to pieces like the tens of thousands of starved, murdered and injured civilians in Palestine.
“The mind and heart cannot fathom or process the immense pain and horror that has taken hold of the lives of an entire people. We must not fail — not just for Palestine’s sake — but for humanity’s sake.”
At the beginning of the summit, Colombian Deputy Foreign Minister Mauricio Jaramillo Jassir told summit delegates the Palestinian genocide threatened the entire international system.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro wrote in The Guardian last week: “We can either stand firm in defence of the legal principles that seek to prevent war and conflict, or watch helplessly as the international system collapses under the weight of unchecked power politics.”
Meanwhile, EU foreign ministers, as well as Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar and Syrian counterpart, Asaad Hassan al-Shaibani, met in Brussels at the same time as the Bogota summit, to discuss Middle East co-operation, but also possible options for action against Israel.
At the EU–Southern Neighbourhood Ministerial Meeting, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas put forward potential actions after Israel was found to have breached the EU economic cooperation deal with the bloc on human rights grounds. As expected, no sanctions, restricted trade or suspension of the co-operation deal were agreed.
The EU has been one of Israel’s most strident backers in its campaign against Gaza, with EU members Germany and France in particular supplying weapons, as well as political support.
The UK government has continued to supply arms and operate spy planes over Gaza over the past 21 months, launched from bases in Cyprus, while its military has issued D-Notices to censor media reports that its special forces have been operating inside the occupied territories.
Mick Hall is an independent Irish-New Zealand journalist, formerly of RNZ and AAP, based in New Zealand since 2009. He writes primarily on politics, corporate power and international affairs. This article is republished from his substack Mick Hall in Context with permission.
This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.
The Hague Group, a bloc of countries from around the world, are meeting for an emergency summit about Israel’s violations of international law. The meeting is co-hosted by Colombia and South Africa, and according to the group, seeks to:
halt the genocide in Gaza.
Meanwhile, in spite of this principled action from majority Global South states, the EU disgraced itself entirely. Twenty seven foreign ministers from the EU refused to suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement in a move that Amnesty International have called a:
cruel and unlawful betrayal.
There are eight member states of the Hague Group: Colombia and South Africa as co-chairs, Bolivia, Cuba, Honduras, Malaysia, Namibia, and Senegal. Each of the member nations are located in the global south. Given how fond Western states are of bleating about how they’re the civilised heartbeat of the globe, how they possess freedom, democracy, and principles unseen except in majority white states, their lack of dominance at the summit is notable.
Middle East Eye reported that:
In addition to Colombia and South Africa, states attending the summit include Algeria, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Chile, China, Cuba, Djibouti, Honduras, Indonesia, Iraq, Ireland, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia, Mexico, Namibia, Nicaragua, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Portugal, Spain, Qatar, Turkey, Slovenia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Uruguay and Venezuela.
The member states will, alongside the other attendees:
announce concrete actions to enforce international law through coordinated state action — to end the genocide and ensure justice and accountability.
Speaking at the summit of the conference Francesca Albanese said:
For too long, international law has been treated as optional – applied selectively to those perceived as weak, ignored by those acting as the powerful.
Indeed, the inaction of Western powers in sanctioning Israel has created a two tier international rule of law. Israel has been allowed to operate with impunity in committing genocide across Palestine. Albanese continued:
This double standard has eroded the very foundations of the legal order. That era must end. The law must either be universal, or it will cease to mean anything at all. No one can afford this selective approach.
Special Rapporteur Albanese was forceful in her condemnation of complicit states:
Here in Bogota, a growing number of states have the opportunity to break the silence and revert to a path of legality by finally saying: enough. Enough impunity. Enough empty rhetoric. Enough exceptionalism. Enough complicity.
The time has come to act in pursuit of justice and peace – grounded in rights and freedoms for all, and not mere privileges for some, at the expense of the annihilation of others.
The EU’s refusal to suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement is the epitome of rights and freedom for some, and annihilation for others. The trade agreement makes Israel the EU’s third-biggest trading partner in the Mediterranean. In 2024, the trade in goods between the EU and Israel totalled $42.6 billion. The EU is undoubtedly in a position to use economic sanctions to deter Israel’s genocide against Palestine.
Instead, these craven and complicit states:
agreed to “keep a close watch” on Israel’s compliance with a recent agreement to improve humanitarian aid access into Gaza.
At this stage of the conflict, when so many Palestinians themselves and organisations working in the area have documented the cruelty and depraved conduct of Israel, ‘keeping a close watch’ is all these morally bankrupt states have done. They sit back and watch, as Israel chases Palestinians across the country with bombs, demolishing homes, hospitals, schools. The EU has done nothing but watch as children have been blown to pieces.
Now, they’ve bravely resolved to watch and do nothing as Israel’s siege starves Palestinians. People are being killed queuing for food and water – most notably children.
Nevertheless, diplomat Kaja Kallas said after the decision:
The aim is not to punish Israel, the aim is to improve the situation in Gaza.
How exactly they aim to improve the situation in Gaza without stopping Israel slaughtering and starving Palestinians is unclear.
Of course, were it Russia aggressing Ukraine, then the useless EU would trip over themselves in their rush to roll out economic and diplomatic sanctions, while their citizens collectively carried out a cultural boycott. When it’s not Arabs being killed, there’s no difference between punishment and aid. After all, so precious is (white) human life that we must all band together to show we cannot abide the killing of civilians.
The EU’s decision has, of course, gone largely unreported across Western media. Unfortunately for them, some of us are paying attention. Amnesty International’s Secretary General Agnès Callamard said:
The EU’s refusal to suspend its agreement with Israel is a cruel and unlawful betrayal – of the European project and vision, predicated on upholding international law and fighting authoritarian practices, of the European Union’s own rules and of the human rights of Palestinians.
Whilst EU member states clearly don’t care about the atrocities Israel is committing against Palestinians, they have claimed to care about the European project. We’ve repeatedly been told that project EU is a question of strict adherence of international law, in order to promote peace and security. However, as Callamard said:
The EU’s own review has clearly found that Israel is violating its human rights obligations under the terms of the Association Agreement. Yet, instead of taking measures to stop it and prevent their own complicity, member states chose to maintain a preferential trade deal over respecting their international obligations and saving Palestinian lives.
This is more than political cowardice. Every time the EU fails to act, the risk of complicity in Israel’s actions grows. This sends an extremely dangerous message to perpetrators of atrocity crimes that they will not only go unpunished but be rewarded.
The EU and other Western states may not realise it yet, but their inaction over Israel’s genocide in Palestine has irrevocably weakened their global standing and pretence at moral superiority. The Hague Group have shown them up for the useful idiots that they are. How are any states from the global south to take this group of charlatans remotely seriously when they bleat about justice and safety?
Israel is unleashing hell on Palestine, and it is doing so with the explicit and tacit support of Western powers. Were it not for the Hague Group, Palestinians would be truly alone.
Featured image via the Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.
According to Folha de S. Paulo, Brazil will formally request to participate in the lawsuit filed by South Africa against Tel Aviv. The Brazilian news outlet stated that the complaint before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) seeks to have the actions committed by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip recognized as genocide.
South Africa filed a case at the ICJ in 2023, accusing Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. The complaint, rooted in the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, alleges that Israel’s military operations since October 2023 have targeted the Palestinian population with the intent to destroy their group in whole or in part.
The post Brazil To Join South Africa’s Complaint Against ‘Israel’ At International Court Of Justice appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.
This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.
