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Category: Palestine

  • Israeli Forces Only Identify 1 in 4 Palestinians They’re Imprisoning as Fighters

    Israel only identifies roughly a quarter of the thousands of Palestinians from Gaza it’s imprisoning under its combatant law as combatants, a new report of internal military documentation reveals. According to an investigation released Thursday, Israel only identified 1,450 of 6,000 Palestinians in detention under its combatant law as combatants. This means that, even under Israel’s…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Call for ‘blockades’ as Israeli president reportedly heading to the UK

    According to the Guardian, Israeli prime minister Isaac Herzog is coming to the UK on Thursday 11 September. The visit will take place in the run up to the UK recognising Palestinian statehood, leading many to suspect that Herzog is travelling here to turn government ministers off the idea. This has led to significant outrage, with many arguing that Herzog should face arrest for statements he’s made about Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people.

    “Death, destruction, and starvation”

    The Guardian notes that there was another visit from a senior Israeli politician earlier this year, when foreign secretary David Lammy hosted an “unannounced visit” from his counterpart Gideon Sa’ar. Generally, it’s not seen as a good thing when politicians have to obscure their meetings from the public, and it speaks to the irreparable damage that Israel has done to its reputation. Speaking on this new visit, the Guardian wrote:

    However, any meeting between Herzog and Keir Starmer is likely to be hugely controversial within Labour amid the death, destruction and starvation wreaked by Israel’s war in Gaza. No 10 has not confirmed a meeting between Herzog and the prime minister.

    Downing Street has previously indicated that the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, faces arrest if he travels to the UK after the international criminal court issued an arrest warrant for him over alleged war crimes in Gaza.

    Unlike Netanyahu, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has not issued an arrest warrant against Herzog. Some, however, believe this is a mistake, with Herzog having said the following in October 2023 after Israel began its genocide against the Palestinian people (as reported by Human Rights Watch):

    It is an entire nation out there that is responsible. This rhetoric about civilians not aware, not involved, it’s absolutely not true. They could’ve risen up; they could have fought against that evil regime

    The argument is that Herzog was condoning collective punishment, which is a war crime, as Medicens Sans Frontieres explain:

    International humanitarian law posits that no person may be punished for acts that he or she did not commit. It ensures that the collective punishment of a group of persons for a crime committed by an individual is also forbidden, whether in the case of prisoners of war or of any other individuals (GCIII Art. 87, API Art. 75.2.d, APII Art. 4.2.b). This is one of the fundamental guarantees established by the 1949 Geneva Conventions and their 1977 Additional Protocols. This guarantee is applicable not only to protected persons but to all individuals, no matter what their status or to what category of persons they belong, as defined by the Geneva Conventions (GCIV Art. 33).

    Collective punishment is prohibited, based on the fact that criminal responsibility can be attributed only to individuals. Respect for this principle can be ensured solely by establishing guarantees that protect judicial procedures. This principle must also be monitored in the context of disciplinary sanctions procedures.

    Following Israel’s order for Palestinians to evacuate in 2023, the UN special rapporteur on internally displaced persons said:

    Forcible population transfers constitute a crime against humanity, and collective punishment is prohibited under international humanitarian law…

    It is inconceivable that more than half of Gaza’s population could traverse an active war zone, without devastating humanitarian consequences, particularly while deprived of essential supplies and basic services.

    “The Genocide Party”

    Zarah Sultana led the condemnation of Labour:

    X/Twitter user Saul Staniforth highlighted an example of Herzog defending the indefensible:

    Popular left voices Tom London and Craig Murray called for ‘arrests’ and ‘blockades’:

    Green politician Sian Berry referred to Herzog as an “agent of genocide” – a phrase which could equally be levied against the UK ministers who are providing weapons and support to Israel:

    Journalist Hamza Yusuf noted that Herzog committed the depraved act of signing bombs to be used against the Palestinians:

    Trade unionist Howard Beckett posted a picture of this act when Lammy met Herzog in July 2024:

    Herzog visit: this cannot stand

    Labour are obviously rattled by the public outcry against the genocide; if they weren’t, they wouldn’t be threatening to recognise Palestinian statehood. While recognising statehood is far less important than stopping the flow of money, weapons, and intelligence, it is at least something that Israel loathes the thought of happening, and as such we must step up the pressure until it is done.

    Featured image via The Economic Times

    By Willem Moore

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Cancer Is Another Weapon in Israel’s Ever-Increasing Arsenal

    A week after the Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023, a large explosion incinerated a parking lot near the busy Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City, killing more than 470 people. It was a horrifying, chaotic scene. Burnt clothing was strewn about, scorched vehicles piled atop one another, and charred buildings surrounded the impact zone. Israel claimed the blast was caused by an errant rocket fired by…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Israel’s use of booby-trapped robots is a clear war crime, Gaza government tells the Canary

    The director general of the Gaza Government Media Office, Ismail al-Thawabta, confirmed to the Canary that Israeli occupation forces have resorted to using explosive robots as a tool for remote killing and destruction, in a serious violation of international humanitarian law. It follows our revelations on 2 September over Israel’s use of them in Gaza City.

    Israel using booby-trapped robots in Gaza

    In statements to the Canary, Thawabteh emphasized that what is happening reflects a clear policy based on the systematic destruction of residential and urban infrastructure in the Gaza Strip.

    Al-Thawabta said that through these practices, the occupation seeks to inflict as much destruction as possible without exposing its soldiers to danger, considering that what is happening constitutes collective punishment of the civilian population and amounts to war crimes and genocide according to the Rome Statute and the Geneva Conventions.

    According to the data presented by Al-Thawabta, the occupation has completely or partially destroyed thousands of residential units in the neighborhoods of Al-Zaytoun, Al-Sabra, Al-Shuja’iya, Al-Tuffah, Jabalia Al-Balad, and Al-Nazla, in operations aimed at wiping out entire neighborhoods and bringing about systematic demographic change.

    He considered this a flagrant violation of Article 53 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits the destruction of private property except in cases of extreme military necessity.

    He noted that the toll of the aggression on Gaza City since its inception has reached 1,100 martyrs and more than 6,000 wounded, at a time when the occupation has used more than 100 explosive-laden robots and carried out more than 70 direct airstrikes. He described what is happening in Jabalia and Al-Nuzla as “the crime of the century,” as the occupation continues to destroy what remains of homes without any military justification.

    The ongoing genocide

    On the humanitarian front, Al-Thawabta emphasized that the situation in Gaza has reached a catastrophic stage, with an almost complete lack of food, water, and medicine, and a total collapse of infrastructure and basic services.

    He added that the ongoing displacement has forced tens of thousands of citizens to gather in cramped areas west of the city, amid dangerous health and environmental conditions, the spread of infectious diseases, and a lack of safe shelter.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Alaa Shamali

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • The True, the BRrave, the Few

    Be not intimidated… nor suffer yourselves to be wheedled out of your liberties by any pretense of politeness, delicacy, or decency. These, as they are often used, are but three different names for hypocrisy, chicanery and cowardice.

    — John Adams, “A Dissertation on the Canon and the Feudal Law,” No. 3, National Archives.

    Victims of great crimes deserve to be memorialized. So, too, those who bravely protected them. Hitler’s genocide indeed is solemnly recognized in prominent votive memorials – in Berlin, in Russia-Babi Yar, in Washington. The heroes and heroines who put themselves at risk to save innocent souls are honored at Yad Vashem in Israel.

    A decent respect for humanity and the opinion of mankind obliges us to similarly honor those who have fought against mass murder of the Palestinians – and sought to balm their suffering, who have called out the atrocities inflicted on them by the Israelis. In this case, incidents of direct physical action by outsiders are nonexistent because the victims are inaccessible. Still, they present outstanding examples of integrity and empathy that transcend parochial boundaries of ethnicity or nationality. To do so, they resisted the intemperate pressures from all sides to conform or to stay silent. Some paid a price for that temerity. Instead, they felt the imperative to fix a revealing light on the Gazan horrors, and to testify to the shameless conduct of their tormentors.

    [I am not aware of a single occasion where Israeli Jews succored Arabs. Admittedly, the Gazans and Jewish Israelis were not mingled since the former already were segregated in a virtual concentration camp. On the West Bank, though, the ongoing violent ethnic cleansing has allowed for acts of decency – none appear to have occurred.]

    This is not the place to identify those virtuous individually. For any attempt to compose a list runs the risk of overlooking some worthy parties. Besides, they are well known – especially so because their numbers are relatively few. The cadre include former American ambassadors whose singular accomplishments are historic landmarks of the past century, courageous commentators and independent journalists who have seized the opening created by alternative electronic media to speak truth to abusive power and specious argument, and those who amplified the damning report of Francesca Albanese, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

    Pride of place should be given those thousands of students who exhibited in protest demonstrations their conviction that American ideals and universal humanistic principles demanded a stop to the wholesale killing – only to be betrayed cruelly by high university officials, moral eunuchs, who chose instead to pay massive indemnities to a deranged, sordid extortionist who proclaims himself the Prince of Righteousness; why? for tolerating (briefly) public condemnation of despicable crimes against humanity. Among the “not in my name” protestors were hundreds of Jewish students whose character and conscience were formed by a blend of American civic virtue and the ideals of their religious heritage.

    Equally noteworthy are the many accomplices – active or passive – in the Gazan genocide. 99 Senators, 400+ Representatives, the publishers/owners/editors of every mainstream media organization, the Presidents or Chancellors of nearly all the nation’s universities and colleges, foundation directors, think tanks, the mute churchmen, the inert professional associations of America’s vaunted civil society. All bear a measure of culpability for our country’s genocidal behavior. They forever will bear the mark of their infamy.

    Where should these votive memorials be placed? Most appropriate are the South Lawn of the White House, the Capitol rotunda, the State Department courtyard, 251 ‘H’ St D.C., the foyer of The New York Times building, Harvard Square, Columbia University.

    The post The True, the BRrave, the Few first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • A Yank and a Dutchman Exploring on their BettBeat Channel The World

    They’ve had skin in the game — the Podcast and Substack game — for four years.

    Amazing guests, and unfortunately for us, but fortunately for us, too, they have been covering the genocide in the Jewish State of Raping and Murdering and Starving and Maiming and Poisoning Palestine: Going on TWO goddamned years.

    One of their favorite guests, and mine too: Assal Rad, Peter and Karim examine the ongoing genocide in Gaza and the failure of international institutions to respond effectively. The conversation explores how Israeli propaganda has become increasingly ineffective as images of starvation make their justifications harder to sell, yet Western governments continue providing unwavering support despite shifting public opinion.

    An outright assault on all Palestinian Life Anywhere.

    Listen to BettBeat Media’s Karim and Peter here, on my show, Finding Fringe, KYAQ FM:

    Now, both are floundering, as they start a new semester in Hong Kong. Floundering because the world and their own adopted country, China, isn’t doing anything to stop the genocide. Here, a telling interview with a Portuguese fellow, also in China, talking about the lack of soft power from China toward the West, and the odd bullshit in China’s textbooks describing Palestine as a terrorist place:

    But, let’s not forget, that the Jewish Illegal State of Israel has a lot of cadres in their camp that have committed settler colonial genocide and mass murder.

    Man, oh, man, the Jews of Israel have solid genocidal ground to stand on: Let us put this in a historical perspective: the commemoration of the War to End All Wars acknowledges that 15 million lives were lost in the course of World War I (1914-18).

    The loss of life in the Second World War (1939-1945) was on a much larger scale, when compared to World War I: 60 million lives, both military and civilian, were lost during World War II. (Four times those killed during World War I).

    The largest WWII casualties were suffered by China and the Soviet Union:

    • 26 million in the Soviet Union,
    • China estimates its losses at approximately 20 million deaths.

    Ironically, these two countries (allies of the US during WWII) —  which lost a large share of their population during WWII — were under the Biden-Harris administration as categorized  as “enemies of America”, which are threatening the Western World. Under Trump? Same continuation of the hatred.

    Germany and Austria lost approximately 8 million people during WWII, Japan lost more than 2.5 million people. The US and Britain respectively lost more than 400,000 lives.

    Here’s a carefully researched article by James A. Lucas documenting the more than 20 million lives lost resulting from US led wars, military coups and intelligence ops carried out in the wake of WWII, in what is euphemistically called the “post-war era” (1945- ).

    The extensive loss of life in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Ukraine and Libya, Palestine is not included in this study.

    Nor are the millions of deaths resulting from extreme poverty — largely induced by economic sanctions and Western interference in nations’ ability to democratically elect who they want. Selling weapons to both sides of a revolution or war, well, that has its multiplier effect.

    The causes of wars are complex. In some instances nations other than the U.S. may have been responsible for more deaths, but if the involvement of our nation appeared to have been a necessary cause of a war or conflict it was considered responsible for the deaths in it. In other words they probably would not have taken place if the U.S. had not used the heavy hand of its power. The military and economic power of the United States was crucial.

    This study reveals that U.S. military forces were directly responsible for about 10 to 15 million deaths during the Korean and Vietnam Wars and the two Iraq Wars. The Korean War also includes Chinese deaths while the Vietnam War also includes fatalities in Cambodia and Laos.

    The American public probably is not aware of these numbers and knows even less about the proxy wars for which the United States is also responsible. In the latter wars there were between nine and 14 million deaths in Afghanistan, Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, East Timor, Guatemala, Indonesia, Pakistan and Sudan.

    But the victims are not just from big nations or one part of the world. The remaining deaths were in smaller ones which constitute over half the total number of nations. Virtually all parts of the world have been the target of U.S. intervention.

    The overall conclusion reached is that the United States most likely has been responsible since WWII for the deaths of between 20 and 30 million people in wars and conflicts scattered over the world.

    To the families and friends of these victims it makes little difference whether the causes were U.S. military action, proxy military forces, the provision of U.S. military supplies or advisors, or other ways, such as economic pressures applied by our nation. They had to make decisions about other things such as finding lost loved ones, whether to become refugees, and how to survive.

    And the pain and anger is spread even further. Some authorities estimate that there are as many as 10 wounded for each person who dies in wars. Their visible, continued suffering is a continuing reminder to their fellow countrymen.

    It is essential that Americans learn more about this topic so that they can begin to understand the pain that others feel. Someone once observed that the Germans during WWII “chose not to know.” We cannot allow history to say this about our country. The question posed above was “How many September 11ths has the United States caused in other nations since WWII?” The answer is: possibly 10,000. — James A. Lucas

    Here, a bio on Karim:

    I am interested in how the asymmetrical cultural flow from the West into societies across the world, reinforced by corporate hegemony in a neoliberal global political economy (e.g., dominance in the spheres of social media, the movie industry and fashion), influences the individual psychology of the global population. In particular, the effects of racism/white supremacy, capitalism and colonialism hold my strong attention. My research revolves around questions such as: Why do racism and colorism follow highly similar patterns across the globe; How do (Western) social media platforms perpetuate racial hierarchies in cultures across the globe; What are the psychological ramifications of colonialism; What is the relationship between neoliberal political economies and our understanding of human nature?

    Peter’s a serious scholar: Publications

    Work in Progress

    “When Left is Right and Right is Left: The psychological correlates of political ideology in China” (Under Review). [Link]

    “Knowing what the electorate knows: Issue-specific knowledge and candidate choice in the 2020 elections” (Under Review). [Link]

    *****

    We intended to get into geopolitical or political economy, but we ran out of time: Here, a primer with Peter Phillips, former director of Project Censored and professor of Political Sociology at Sonoma State University. His new book Giants: The Global Power Elite details the 17 transnational investment firms which control over $50 trillion in wealth—and how they are kept in power by their activists, facilitators and protectors.

    Ahh, we did get briefly into the Fertile Crescent, when agriculture highjacked humanity:

    Picture

    Ahh, Peter Beattie said things have been messed up for 10,000 years: Think about this evolution of the brain and psyche for two million years, or more, and now what, the Fertile Crescent fucked us up big TIME.

    • 2 million years ago: The earliest evidence of a hunter-gatherer culture emerges with the appearance of the genus Homo.
    • 1.9 million years ago: The lifestyle became more developed and accelerated with Homo erectus, a species with a larger brain and physique suited for long-distance walking to acquire meat.
    • 700,000 to 40,000 years ago: Hunting and gathering was the way of life for later hominins, including Homo heidelbergensis and Neanderthals, who used increasingly sophisticated tools.
    • 200,000 years ago to ~12,000 years ago: The hunter-gatherer lifestyle continued through most of the existence of our own species, Homo sapiens. This period ended with the Neolithic Revolution, which led to the development of agriculture.

    I’m adding this here in the DV piece:

    Locking up the food and fencing in the hunter/ gatherer and nomadic and pastoral lands caused:

    • Social stratification
    • Specialization and gender roles
    • Warfare

    While in 1995 there appeared to have been at least a 1,500-year gap between plant and animal domestication, it now seems that both occurred at roughly the same time, with initial management of morphologically wild future plant and animal domesticates reaching back to at least 11,500 cal BP, if not earlier. A focus on the southern Levant as the core area for crop domestication and diffusion has been replaced by a more pluralistic view that sees domestication of various crops and livestock occurring, sometimes multiple times in the same species, across the entire region. Morphological change can no longer be held to be a leading-edge indicator of domestication. Instead, it appears that a long period of increasingly intensive human management preceded the manifestation of archaeologically detectable morphological change in managed crops and livestock. Agriculture in the Near East arose in the context of broad-based systematic human efforts at modifying local environments and biotic communities to encourage plant and animal resources of economic interest. This process took place across the entire Fertile Crescent during a period of dramatic post-Pleistocene climate and environmental change with considerable regional variation in the scope and intensity of these activities as well as in the range of resources being manipulated.

    Against the Grain: How Agriculture Has Hijacked Civilization

    Check out my interview with Manning here:

    Scroll Down and find the old show illustrated above HERE.

    *****

    Peter has a big essay —  “The Pull of Humanitarian Interventionism: Examining the Effects of Media Frames and Political Values,” (with Jovan Milojevich) International Journal of Communication 12: 831–855 (2018). [Link]

    (Oh, winning those hearts and minds with intervention of the Western Humanitarian (sic) kind!)

    The Candy Man Soldiers of Good Will?

    Propaganda:

    Edward Bernays anyone?

    “If we understand the mechanism and motives of the group mind, it is now possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without them knowing it.” — Edward Bernays, from Propaganda

    Soft power into murderous coups:

    We talked about soft (not mashed banana) power: Edward Bernays’ promotional stunts were only a smokescreen for a not-so-innocent deep-state strategy. With sly public relations tactics, he began to influence American media toward discrediting the new Guatemalan President and ultimately incite action against the duly-elected leader. In 1954, a CIA-backed coup d’état turned the government of Guatemala over to what was ostensibly a leader hand-picked by the U.S. government and indirectly by a U.S. corporation — the United Fruit Company.

    I’ll have them both on again, soon: Peter Beattie

    The media create frames to transmit information to the public, and the frames can have varying effects on public opinion depending on how they combine with people’s values and deep-seated cultural narratives. This study examines the effects of media frames and values on people’s choice of resolution of conflict. The results show that neither values nor exposure to frames are associated with outcome. Participants overwhelmingly chose the humanitarian intervention option regardless of frame exposure and even in contrast to their own political values, demonstrating the influence of the mainstream media’s dominant, humanitarian interventionist frame on public opinion.

    In early 2013, the Syrian crisis was growing worse by the day, and violence was escalating at a rapid pace. Then–U.S. president Barack Obama was weighing the option of a full-scale military intervention, based on humanitarian grounds, in the troubled state. Islamic State was wreaking havoc throughout the country; however, it was Syrian president Bashar al-Assad who was primarily making the headlines in the United States for alleged atrocities and violations of the Geneva Accords and human rights. The seemingly perpetual beat of war drums in the United States did not take long to sound off, and they grew louder each day President Obama did not declare war on Assad. The media played along, and, generally, so did the political elite. Even former U.S. president Bill Clinton contributed by stating that if Obama chose not to go to war because Congress voted against it, he would risk “looking like a total wuss” (Voorhees, 2013)—a feeble and desperate attempt to demean the president into taking the United States to war. Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton and Senator John McCain, never ones to shy away from a military confrontation (Johnstone, 2015; Landler, 2016), echoed Bill Clinton’s sentiment as they were both displeased with Obama’s foreign policy decision making on Syria (Landler, 2016; Voorhees, 2013). Highly emotive phrases—popular in interventionist frames—such as, “History will judge us,” “We don’t want to be on the wrong side of history,” “We cannot look the other way,” “The world is watching us,” and “What will and “What will the world think,” dominated the headlines and news reports. Then–secretary of state John Kerry touched on almost all of these in his speech at a State Department briefing in August 2013, at a time when President Obama was deliberating possible recourses in response to an alleged chemical attack by Assad’s forces.

    Kerry stated,

    As previous storms in history have gathered, when unspeakable crimes were within our power to stop them, we have been warned against the temptations of looking the other way. . . . What we choose to do or not do matters in real ways to our own security. Some cite the risk of doing things. But we need to ask, “What is the risk of doing nothing?” . . . So our concern is not just about some far-off land oceans away. That’s not what this is about. Our concern with the cause of the defenseless people of Syria is about choices that will directly affect our role in the world and our interests in the world. It is also profoundly about who we are. We are the United States of America. We are the country that has tried, not always successfully, but always tried to honor a set of universal values around which we have organized our lives and our aspirations. . . . My friends, it matters here if nothing is done. It matters if the world speaks out in condemnation and then nothing happens. History would judge us all extraordinarily harshly if we turned a blind eye to a dictator’s wanton use of weapons of mass destruction.

    …

    Continued, Beattie:

    One of the main cultural themes in the United States is the nationalism theme, with the global responsibility nationalism theme—which emerged after World War II—being the most dominant. As Gamson (1992) articulates, “With the advent of World War II and the cold war, public discourse fully embraced the global responsibility theme” (p. 142), and the American public threw its support behind the United Nations and the idea of collective security. Democrats and Republicans alike “embraced a dominant U.S. role in the creation of political-military alliances, not only in Europe but in other regions as well” (Gamson, 1992, p. 142). The global responsibility theme was the dominant theme during the Cold War and the framing of the U.S. doctrine of containment, and it continues to be the dominant theme today in the framing of the humanitarian interventionist doctrine.

    Prior to World War II, the “America first” nationalist theme was the most dominant; however, the global responsibility (then) countertheme was still quite prevalent. When the America first theme was dominant, the kind of isolationism that it supported “was never incompatible with expansionism in what was regarded as U.S. turf” (Gamson, 1992, p. 141); therefore, the global responsibility (at that time) countertheme actually supported the America first theme rather than countering it. The Monroe Doctrine is evidence of this compatibility, because it reinforced American isolationism—by telling European powers to stay out of the Americas—yet supported U.S. expansionism. The global responsibility countertheme was “reflected in the idea of America’s international mission as a light unto nations” (Gamson, 1992, pp. 141–142), with the belief that the “expansion of American influence in the world would bring enlightenment to backward peoples and confer upon them the bounties of Christianity and American political genius” (p. 142). The global responsibility (then) countertheme clearly embodied the notion of American exceptionalism, just as it does today as the dominant nationalism theme. Nevertheless, we would like to make it clear that we are not claiming that deep-seated cultural narratives in the United States are necessarily pro–humanitarian interventionist. What we are claiming, and will substantiate throughout this section, is that the U.S. media and political elites have tapped into a deep-seated cultural narrative to gain support for pro–humanitarian intervention policy options.

    Many Americans believe, just as Kerry and other political elites publicly pronounce, that their country does try to honor a set of universal values around which they have organized their lives and aspirations and that these values include the notion that the United States is the leading “defender of democracy and human rights” around the world and that it is “exceptional.” Regardless of whether political elites actually believe this or whether it is simply rhetoric on their part, the mere invocation of this notion to justify war (much of the time conducted illegally—without United Nations or congressional approval) is troubling on its own. For instance, American exceptionalism “originally meant that the U.S. had a God given duty to impose its government and ‘way of life’ on lands not already under its control” (Pestana, 2016, para. 3), and it was, therefore, used to justify American imperialism. In more recent times, however, American exceptionalism has morphed into a more idealistic notion, being viewed as a

    belief that the American political system is unique in its form, and that the American people have an exceptional commitment to liberty and democracy. By virtue of this, American exceptionalists assert that America has a providential mission to spread its values around the world. American power is viewed as naturally good, leading to the proliferation of freedom and democracy. (Britton, 2006, p. 128)

    *****

    In the end, really, what is a new semester and a new bunch of students in this time of genocide? The following should lend pause to anyone who is comfortably numb.

    Future Lawyers Don’t Understand Murder

    When it happens to Palestinians…

    Ahmad Ibsais

    The classroom feels smaller than I remembered, like the walls have moved closer while I was gone. Professor X assigns readings on constitutional interpretation, and I watch twenty-three students highlight passages about due process while Palestinians are denied the most basic right of all: the right to exist. The girl next to me underlines “equal protection under law” in yellow marker, and I wonder if she knows that phrase is meaningless when some lives are worth more than others.

    “The framers intended,” someone says, and I stop listening. The framers intended many things, but they could not have intended for us to sit in air-conditioned rooms debating legal theory while children suffocate under rubble. They could not have intended for us to parse the meaning of justice while justice dies in real time, broadcast live, ignored by everyone in this room.

    During breaks, I sit on the steps and watch them. They cluster in their familiar groups, talking about internships and weekend plans and whether Professor Y is a hard grader. Their voices float past me, a steady stream of nothing that matters.

    “I’m so stressed about the bar exam.” “Are you going to the Football game this weekend?” “My parents want me to come home for Labor Day, but like, I have so much reading.”

    I listen for something else, anything else. I wait for one of them to mention that children are being murdered while we debate constitutional amendments. I wait for someone to say the word Palestinian, or genocide, or even just acknowledge that the world exists beyond their study guides and social calendars. I wait for an hour, and then another, and I hear nothing.

    In another class, we discuss mens rea and actus reus, the guilty mind and the guilty act. Professor Z explains how intent matters, how knowledge of wrongdoing affects culpability. I think about my classmates’ guilty minds, their knowledge of genocide coupled with their deliberate choice to say nothing. I think about their guilty acts of scrolling past videos of dying children to double-tap vacation photos. But this kind of guilt will never be prosecuted. This kind of crime never sees the inside of a courtroom.

    “Can someone give me an example of willful blindness?” Z asks.

    I could give twenty-three examples right here in this room, but I stay quiet.

    This is my new reality. Sitting in rooms with people who revealed themselves to be the kind of people who would have looked away during any other genocide. Listening to them complain about reading assignments while Palestinians are denied the right to read anything ever again. Watching them stress about internships while Palestinian children will never have the chance to worry about their futures.

    The loneliness is not in being alone. The loneliness is in being surrounded by people who chose to be strangers to their own moral obligations. It is in sharing space with those who had the chance to speak and chose silence, who had the opportunity to care and chose comfort, who had the moment to act and chose nothing.

    At the coffee shop, I overhear a conversation about whether the new professor is mean. At the library, someone complains that their laptop is slow. In the dining hall, a group debates which Netflix show to binge next. Normal life continues, mundane concerns persist, and the world beyond their bubble might as well not exist.

    The hardest part is not their cruelty. It is their comfort with it. It is how easily they moved on, how quickly they forgot, how completely they have convinced themselves that their silence was not a choice. They live their lives as if Palestinian children were not buried alive while they read for evidence.

    I am back now, walking through classrooms where professors teach about human rights while ignoring the most basic human right being violated in real time. I am surrounded by people who think my people’s elimination is too complicated to have an opinion about, whose cowardice proved stronger than their morality.

    And I still carry shame that I must even share the same air.

    Comfortably LOBOTOMIZED!

    The post A Yank and a Dutchman Exploring on their BettBeat Channel The World first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • Local journalists and fixers are dying at unprecedented rates in Gaza. Can anyone protect them?

    ANALYSIS: By Simon Levett, University of Technology Sydney

    Journalist Mariam Dagga was just 33 when she was brutally killed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza on August 25.

    As a freelance photographer and videographer, she had captured the suffering in Gaza through indelible images of malnourished children and grief-stricken families. In her will, she told her colleagues not to cry and her 13-year-old son to make her proud.

    Dagga was killed alongside four other journalists — and 16 others — in an attack on a hospital that has drawn widespread condemnation and outrage.

    This attack followed the killings of six Al Jazeera journalists by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) in a tent housing journalists in Gaza City earlier on August 10. The dead included Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Anas al-Sharif.

    A montage of killed Palestinian journalists
    A montage of killed Palestinian journalists . . . Shireen Abu Akleh (from left), Mariam Dagga, Hossam Shabat, Anas Al-Sharif and Yasser Murtaja. Image: Montage/The Conversation

    Israel’s nearly two-year war in Gaza is among the deadliest in modern times. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), which has tracked journalist deaths globally since 1992, has counted a staggering 189 Palestinian journalists killed in Gaza since the war began. Two other counts more widely cited have ranged between 248 and 272

    Many of the journalists worked as freelancers for major news organisations since Israel has banned foreign correspondents from entering Gaza.

    In addition, the organisation has confirmed the killings of two Israeli journalists, along with six journalists killed in Israel’s strikes on Lebanon.

     

    ‘It was very traumatising for me’
    I went to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem in Israel and Ramallah in the West Bank in 2019 to conduct part of my PhD research on the available protections for journalists in conflict zones.

    During that time, I interviewed journalists from major international outlets such as The New York Times, The Guardian, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, CNN, BBC and others, in addition to local Palestinian freelance journalists and fixers. I also interviewed a Palestinian journalist working for Al Jazeera English, with whom I remained in contact until recently.

    I did not visit Gaza due to safety concerns. However, many of the journalists had reported from there and were familiar with the conditions, which were dangerous even before the war.

    Osama Hassan, a local journalist, told me about working in the West Bank:

    “There are no rules, there’s no safety. Sometimes, when settlers attack a village, for example, we go to cover, but Israeli soldiers don’t respect you, they don’t respect anything called Palestinian […] even if you are a journalist.”

    Nuha Musleh, a fixer in Jerusalem, described an incident that occurred after a stone was thrown towards IDF soldiers:

    “[…] they started shooting right and left – sound bombs, rubber bullets, one of which landed in my leg. I was taken to hospital. The correspondent also got injured. The Israeli cameraman also got injured. So all of us got injured, four of us.

    “It was very traumatising for me. I never thought that a sound bomb could be that harmful. I was in hospital for a good week. Lots of stitches.”

    Better protections for local journalists and fixers
    My research found there is very little support for local journalists and fixers in the Occupied Palestinian Territories in terms of physical protection, and no support in terms of their mental health.

    International law mandates that journalists are protected as civilians in conflict zones under the Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocols. However, these laws have not historically extended protections specific to the needs of journalists.

    Media organisations, media rights groups and governments have been unequivocal in their demands that Israel take greater precautions to protect journalists in Gaza and investigate strikes like the one that killed Mariam Dagga.

    London-based artist Nishita Jha (@NishSwish) illustrated this tribute to the slain Gaza journalist Mariam Dagga
    London-based artist Nishita Jha (@NishSwish) illustrated this tribute to the slain Gaza journalist Mariam Dagga. Image: The Fuller Project

    Sadly, there is seemingly little media organisations can do to help their freelance contributors in Gaza beyond issuing statements noting concern for their safety, lobbying Israel to allow evacuations, and demanding access for foreign reporters to enter the strip.

    International correspondents typically have training on reporting from war zones, in addition to safety equipment, insurance and risk assessment procedures. However, local journalists and fixers in Gaza do not generally have access to the same protections, despite bearing the brunt of the effects of war, which includes mass starvation.

    Despite the enormous difficulties, I believe media organisations must strive to meet their employment law obligations, to the best of their ability, when it comes to local journalists and fixers. This is part of their duty of care.

    For example, research shows fixers have long been the “most exploited and persecuted people” contributing to the production of international news. They are often thrust into precarious situations without hazardous environment training or medical insurance. And many times, they are paid very little for their work.

    Local journalists and fixers in Gaza must be paid properly by the media organisations hiring them. This should take into consideration not just the woeful conditions they are forced to work and live in, but the immense impact of their jobs on their mental health.

    As the global news director for Agence France-Presse said recently, paying local contributors is very difficult — they often bear huge transaction costs to access their money.

    “We try to compensate by paying more to cover that,” he said.

    But he did not address whether the agency would change its security protocols and training for conflict zones, given journalists themselves are being targeted in Gaza in their work.

    These local journalists are literally putting their lives on the line to show the world what’s happening in Gaza. They need greater protections.

    As Ammar Awad, a local photographer in the West Bank, told me:

    “The photographer does not care about himself. He cares about the pictures, how he can shoot good pictures, to film something good.

    “But he needs to be in a good place that is safe for him.”The Conversation

    Simon Levett is a PhD candidate in public international law, University of Technology Sydney. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Israelis committed over 1,600 attacks against Palestinians in August alone

    The Colonisation and Wall Resistance Commission has reported that Israeli occupation forces (IOF) and settlers carried out 1,613 attacks against Palestinians and their property during the month of August, 2025, as part of the occupation’s ongoing terror onslaught and violence against the Palestinian people, their land, and property.

    Israeli settlers running amok in the Occupied West Bank

    Minister Mu’ayyad Shaaban, head of the Commission, stated in the monthly report titled Israeli Occupation Violations and Colonial Expansion Measures, that the IOF was responsible for 1,182 attacks, while illegal Israeli colonial settlers carried out 431 attacks, making August one of the months of highest settler violence.

    The assaults were concentrated in the governorates of Ramallah and Al-Bireh, which had 321 attacks, Nablus which had 274 attacks, and Hebron with 220.

    The report also documented the killing of two Palestinian civilians, Mu’in Subhi Diriya from Aqraba and Thamin Khalil Dawabsheh from Duma, in direct settler gunfire, and recorded the uprooting of 11,700 trees, the demolition of 125 structures, and the seizure of more than 10 acres of Palestinian land.

    Shaaban also highlights in the report, that settlers attempted to establish 18 new colonial outposts across the occupied West Bank – which are the first steps taken by settlers to steal Palestinian land – and are often little more than a caravan or two, used as a base for the settlers, who harass, intimidate and attack Palestinians on their own land – while Israeli occupation authorities advanced 31 settlement master plans, approving projects for more than 6,800 new settlement units on an area of Palestinian land equivalent to around 2970 acres.

    Featured image supplied

    By Charlie Jaay

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • EXPOSED: far-right Israeli mercenary group operating with impunity in Gaza

    On Wednesday 3 September, the Hebrew newspaper Haaretz revealed the existence of an irregular Israeli group called “Uriah,” comprising settlers from the West Bank, which has been demolishing Palestinian homes in the Gaza Strip for about a year, under limited supervision by the Israeli army.

    The newspaper explained that the group sends soldiers into tunnels and buildings that may contain explosives or armed men, and uses Palestinians as human shields, without it being clear to what extent it is subject to military command.

    An independent Israeli force under the cover of the army

    The “Uriah” force is linked to Bezalel Zani, brother of the head of the General Security Service, and uses heavy engineering equipment to destroy buildings as a small independent unit rather than an organized military framework.

    Most of its members are recruited through construction companies and work to demolish houses and tunnels, endangering the lives of soldiers and Palestinians.

    The force includes about 10-15 operators of engineering tools, and its latest activity was in Khan Yunis.

    The newspaper quoted two officers as saying that the team members do not report their work to the battalion or brigade, and it is not known who supervises their movements, even though these procedures are supposed to be in place to ensure the safety of soldiers.

    Recruitment from the far right for Uriah

    Uriah members are recruited through social media groups, and some are active in the far right.

    Army officers point out that a lack of experience and subordination to the military structure allows these teams to operate independently, increasing the risks on the ground.

    Each member of these teams receives 6,000 shekels ($1,775) per day, making the work financially attractive in addition to ideological motivations.

    The Israeli army responded that the force members are part of the reserve and operate engineering equipment, and that any claim that they are an irregular force is “false.”

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Alaa Shamali

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • The mothers of Gaza: war defeats the spirit before the body

    In Gaza, where Israel’s genocide has been raging for years, women and mothers are not only exposed to the dangers of bombing and hunger, but also to enormous psychological pressure that leaves a deep mark on their lives and those of their families.

    Children who witness destruction and death around them, and women who have lost their homes or loved ones, live in an environment of constant terror and unrelenting anxiety, which directly threatens the mental health of Palestinian women.

    The mothers of Gaza

    Mothers who find themselves forced to search for food and medicine in relief queues live with a constant feeling of helplessness and fear for their children. Often, they discover that the food or medicine they have received is insufficient or runs out quickly, increasing their feelings of guilt and helplessness.

    This psychological burden leads to increased mental health disorders, including depression, chronic anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder, and directly affects a mother’s ability to care for her children and continue her daily life.

    Women who have lost their partners or relatives during the bombing or famine experience double trauma, as they bear the responsibility of maintaining their families amid an environment of social and economic collapse.

    Overcrowded tents and shelters, some of which lack clean water, electricity, or even basic sanitation, become a daily scene of psychological and emotional stress. This constant pressure affects sleep, appetite, and even the ability to think and make decisions, increasing the likelihood of exacerbating both physical and mental health problems.

    In addition, the blockade imposed on the sector prevents the entry of psychiatric medications or psychological support and rehabilitation programs, leaving women deprived of any safety net or psychological support.

    The humanitarian response that occasionally reaches Gaza does not cover urgent psychological needs, while the pressures of daily life increase with continued bombardment and lack of resources.

    Long-lasting scars

    The psychological effects of war are not temporary, but leave long-lasting scars on women and mothers, which are often passed on to their children, creating a generation of children vulnerable to psychological stress, depression, and developmental disorders.

    Women living alone or with their children in tents or temporary shelters are also often exposed to additional risks of violence or exploitation, further exacerbating their psychological and physical vulnerability.

    According to the Government Media Office in Gaza, an estimated 60,000 pregnant women are at risk, while more than 3,500 miscarriages have been recorded since the beginning of this year as a result of food and healthcare shortages.

    Ultimately, the mental health of women and mothers in Gaza reflects the tragedy of all-out war, which not only kills the body but also shatters the spirit and leaves lasting scars that extend beyond the war itself, confirming that humanitarian crises are not just numbers or statistics, but real stories of women trying to survive with their children amid ongoing destruction.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Alaa Shamali

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • SNP’s Humza Yousaf compares Israel’s genocide to the Holocaust

    Scotland’s former first minister Humza Yousaf has likened Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people to Nazi Germany’s genocide of European Jews and minority groups. It comes after Yousaf spoke out against the UK government’s proscription of Palestine Action:

    Humza Yousaf: “never again”

    Speaking in Holyrood (Scottish parliament) on Wednesday 3 September, Humza Yousaf said:

    Never again. These are the words we repeat every single year when we attend Holocaust Memorial Day. We rightly gather and promise to honour the memories of the 6,000,000 Jews and all of those killed during the evil of the Holocaust. Never again, we say. I’m not sure if in the annals of human history we’ve ever told ourselves a bigger lie.

    Try telling the parents of 17,000 children murdered in Gaza ‘never again’. Look into the eyes of tens of thousands of children who have become orphans and tell them that we really meant it when we said ‘never again’. Hospital workers, journalists, aid workers, all massacred with absolute impunity – tell their families ‘never again’.

    So awful is the genocide that we are witnessing, we’re having to create new lexicon just to describe the horrors that we are witnessing. Doctor Tanya Haj-Hassan, a Canadian paediatrician who’s worked in Gaza, tells us that doctors had to create a new abbreviation for the children they were treating.

    ‘WCNSF’ – ‘wounded child, no surviving family’.

    What has become of us, that we can allow ourselves to be so divided by the geopolitics when a massacre of tens of thousands of children is happening in front of our very eyes, and the world does virtually nothing about it?

    Shame on us.

    Gaza is the cemetery upon which our collective humanity has died.

    Yousaf has shown support for Palestine online:

    Palestine Action

    On 1 September, Humza Yousaf spoke out against the proscription of Palestine Action by the UK government. Writing in the Daily Record, he said:

    The Government’s moral compass needs seriously recalibrated when we live in a country where people are arrested under terrorism legislation for protesting against a genocide, meanwhile, the UK continues to provide support to the regime that is committing the very genocide people are opposing.

    The UK Government has only suspended 10% of arms licences to Israel, leaving 90% of export licences untouched, including the F-35 supply chain. When non-violent Scots are handcuffed for a slogan, and the state keeps shipping components to a military campaign that has levelled neighbourhoods, starved families and killed children, you can forgive people for concluding that we are living through an episode of Black Mirror.

    In the same piece, Yousaf called for Scotland to forego policing the UK government’s new terror restrictions:

    In Scotland, we have an immediate, practical way to demonstrate that we will not partake in the charade of treating non-violent protestors as terrorist sympathisers. Earlier this year, the Lord Advocate, Dorothy Bain KC, published a prosecution policy for Glasgow’s safer drug consumption room. She concluded it would not be in the public interest to prosecute people for simple possession within the facility. That was a humane and evidence-based judgment, and one I support.

    I have written to the Lord Advocate today asking her to adopt a similar public interest policy: that peaceful protestors who merely express support for Palestine Action should not be prosecuted under counter-terror laws.

    He added:

    Treating non-violent citizens as terrorists for a slogan is not proportionate policing; it is an abuse of extraordinary powers against ordinary people.

    As Palestine Action has never perpetrated acts of violence, Amnesty International referred to the proscription as “unprecedented legal overreach”. Amnesty Scotland spoke favourably of Yousaf’s intervention:

    As reported by the BBC, Scotland’s solicitor general Ruth Charteris responded to him on behalf of the lord advocate, stating:

    Whilst I recognise the fundamental right of people to protest within legal boundaries, it would not be an appropriate use of the lord advocate’s authority to issue a statement of prosecution policy of the type you request.

    Furthermore, I would consider such a statement to be contrary to the lord advocate’s obligation to independently enforce the criminal law.

    Featured image via Scottish Parliament

    By Willem Moore

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Labour purges Black and brown councillors over Palestine support, but leaves white ones in place

    A former Labour Party member in Brent, London, has revealed a controversial purge of Black and brown councillors over their opposition to Israel’s genocide in Gaza. White councillors who’ve expressed solidarity with Palestine, however, remain in place.

    As Wembley Matters revealed on 3 September:

    Labour’s Ruling Body (National Executive Committee) have imposed all Labour council candidates in Brent without any say from thousands of local party members or long serving MPs.

    This includes barring eight sitting BAME Councillors, including Labour’s Chief Whip Cllr Iman Ahmadi Moghaddam and Cabinet Member Cllr Harbi Farah from standing in the May 2026 council election.

    All of the councillors Labour has barred were signatories of “a statement calling for a ceasefire in Gaza in October 2023”, which the member believes is “the primary motive for their deselection”.

    The story gets even murkier, however, because “white councillors who also signed the same statement survived the purge”. As the article insists, this:

    will undoubtedly raise some difficult questions for Labour on the doorstep amongst Brent’s diverse communities.

    Corrupt, racist Labour establishment purging the party into oblivion?

    One non-selected candidate reportedly said:

    The selection process was as corrupt as it’s ever been.

    Another insider lamented that “half of the left councillors have been deselected”.

    A “corporate lobbyist” supporter of Labour’s purger-in-chief Keir Starmer led the panel that made the decision. Other Starmerites may have also played a part. One, MP Georgia Gould, apparently has a track record of such behaviour:

    The article further points out that:

    This appears to be the first step in removing council leader Muhammed Butt, motivated by Starmerite outrage over his non-compliance, especially his decision to allow Brent council to set up a ‘twinning arrangement’ with Nablus, a town in Palestine.

    And it insists that:

    This comes four days after Labour’s catastrophic defeat in the West Hampstead ward by-election in neighbouring Camden Council. A similar 23-point swing in Brent in 2026 would see councillors being lost in almost every single Labour-held ward. The recent upheaval in Brent Labour will undoubtedly increase this likelihood, leading to internal fears that Labour could lose control of Brent’s administration.

    Featured image supplied

    By Ed Sykes

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Hugh Bonneville goes guerilla with Gaza message on Downton red carpet

    ITV reported Helen Keenan got more than she asked for (literally) on the red carpet for Downton Abbey’s new film. Hugh Bonneville, who plays family patriarch Lord Grantham on the show, used the opportunity to talk about Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza.

    X (Twitter) user Lorna_TVeditor went viral with a clip:

    When asked about his upcoming film, Hugh Bonneville appeared to start his answer perfectly normally. Then, picking up the pace so that he couldn’t be cut off, the actor masterfully switched topic:

    Before I talk about the fluff and loveliness of our wonderful film, what’s about to happen in Gaza City is indefensible, the international community must do more to bring it to an end.

    Downton Abbey is a lovely film, and we’re going to celebrate 15 glorious years of it tonight. It’s a grand finale, and we had a great time making it, and it’s a great love letter to the fans.

    Some X users chose to focus on the startled look on the reporter’s face when Bonneville kicked off:

    Others admired the expertise with which Hugh Bonneville sandwiched his message between the ‘fluff’:

    Often with a round of applause thrown in for good measure:

    And finally, there were calls for other celebs to follow the actor’s example and put their platforms to good use:

    Complicity, after all, is silence:

     

    With broadcasters like ITV and the BBC growing ever more cowardly in their censorship of pro-Palestinian causes, Hugh’s guerilla messaging is a masterclass in getting the word out on these major platforms. If that happens to call attention to their complicity while we’re at it, well, we’re not going to complain.

    Who better to talk to than Hugh Bonneville indeed?

    Featured image via the Canary

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Double standards on ‘red paint vandalism’ show who politicians really serve

    If you vandalise innocent mini-roundabouts with red paint, politicians don’t care. But if you do the same with machinery that helps wanted war criminals commit genocide, politicians will call you terrorists and put you in jail.

    That’s Britain today. It’s absurd. But at least it makes it clearer for anyone in doubt that most of our politicians don’t serve ordinary people – they serve the rich and powerful.

    No interest in red-paint vandalism…

    My area is currently full of mini-roundabouts which suddenly have the cross of St George on them. Local people aren’t all ultra-nationalists, though. I’ve probably seen just two houses – out of hundreds – that have put an English flag in their window in recent weeks. But it only takes a small number to have an impact. Because there’s no sign the council has any interest in un-vandalising the road markings.

    I’ve seen a “standard response” on behalf of the local council. And while it points out that it’s “an offence to paint or make any unauthorised markings on the highway”, it says it will base any assessment on whether to act or not depending on “risk to the asset and risk to road users”. So if there’s “an immediate risk to assets or road safety they will be removed”. But in reality, of course, there’s no such risk. As a result, the response clarifies, the council will only un-vandalise the road markings “as part of our routine highways maintenance subject to funding”. In other words, it’s unlikely to happen any time soon.

    I’ll be honest. It’s not exactly high on my list of priorities either. (I’d prefer for Britain’s participation in and support for the Gaza genocide to end first, and then for the government to fund the NHS, education system, and public housing properly.) But because Keir Starmer’s Labour government has decided to prioritise cracking down on vandalism of machinery with links to genocide, it’s hard to ignore the hypocrisy.

    … unless it hurts the lucrative industry of death and destruction

    The pro-Israel lobby is not the only lobby group in Britain. But it probably is the most prominent and aggressive lobby group that acts on behalf of a foreign state. (Ask the artificial intelligence bots of the corporations complicit in Israel’s genocide, and they’ll say the same thing.) As Declassified UK reported in 2024, a quarter of all MPs had received funding from the Israel lobby. And Starmer’s top team in particular is positively rolling in money from Israel supporters. In other words, it pays to support settler-colonial crimes.

    So it’s clear that proscribing activists who dared to paint genocide-complicit machinery wasn’t about the vandalism. It was about what they were vandalising and who that annoyed. If it just annoyed local residents, there would be no real action. But because it annoyed influential lobbyists with the ear of our corrupt ruling class, politicians mobilised the full power of the state to try and harass non-violent opponents of genocide into silence.

    The UK’s elites may cosplay democracy for appearances’ sake. But when a small number of people’s voices matter more than the majority’s, that’s not democracy. And the simple story of where you can – and can’t – put red paint sums that up perfectly.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Ed Sykes

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Britain’s reckoning: Corbyn’s Gaza Tribunal is underway

    An independent tribunal into British collusion in Israel’s genocide in Gaza begins today. Convened by former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, the Gaza Tribunal will hear from esteemed legal experts, survivors and medics. You can watch live here.

    Among these will be certified legend and UN rapporteur on Gaza Francesca Albanese. On the tribunal’s website, Corbyn said:

    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.

    Expert voices at the Gaza Tribunal

    In June, Corbyn attempted to introduced a bill for an inquiry into parliament. This was rejected.

    Corbyn told the Morning Star Wednesday:

    The Bill had the support of more than 50 MPs, alongside numerous human rights organisations. So what did the government do? It blocked it.

    But the independent tribunal will go ahead.

    Questions will be asked about Britain’s legal obligations and the nature of the government’s collusion in genocide.

    Palestinian journalist Abubaker Abed is set to appear, as well as former civil servant and whistleblower Mark Smith. Independent journalist Matt Kennard with discuss UK surveillance flights over Gaza.

    You can read the full running order for the tribunal via the Peace and Justice Project website.

    Ongoing violence

    The tribunal gets underway as Israel continues to assault Gaza City.  Tanks and soldiers have pushed further into the neighbourhood of Sheikh Radwan.

    A local woman named Zakeya Sami told Reuters:

    Sheikh Radwan is being burnt upside-down. The occupation destroyed houses, burnt tents, and drones played audio messages ordering people to leave the area. If the takeover of Gaza City isn’t stopped, we might die, and we are not going to forgive anyone who stands and watches without doing anything to prevent our death.

    The Gaza Tribunal will continue into Friday with the final session on Britain’s role in Gaza opening at 14.30pm.

    You can watch it live below:

    By Joe Glenton

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Far-right minister Bezalel Smotrich just announced a plan to annex 82% of the occupied West Bank

    Illegal settler Bezalel Smotrich, who is also Israel’s far-right Finance Minister and leader of the Religious Zionism Party, is a prominent figure advocating for expanding Israeli settlements and opposing Palestinian statehood.

    On Wednesday 3 September, he held a press conference in occupied Jerusalem in which he outlined a highly controversial plan to illegally annex and occupy 82% of the occupied West Bank, which he referred to by the Jewish nationalist name of ‘Judea and Samaria’ in an attempt to historically and religiously legitimize annexation:

    This biblical terminology aligns with the settler movement’s narrative that the West Bank is the historic and rightful homeland of the Jewish people, based on text from thousands of years ago.

    Plans to annex all of the West Bank except six Palestinian towns

    Smotrich’s proposal called for applying Israeli sovereignty over the majority of the West Bank territory, effectively absorbing these lands into Israel. Under this plan, only six densely populated Palestinian urban centres-  Ramallah, Nablus, Jenin, Tulkarm, Hebron, and Jericho would remain outside Israeli control, forming isolated enclaves, with the rest of the West Bank- comprising of dozens of towns and villages, annexed by Israel:

    He emphasized that he wants to achieve ‘maximum land with minimum Palestinian population’, and ‘remove, once and for all, a Palestinian state from the agenda’, calling the proposed annexation a ‘preventative step against a diplomatic offensive’ planned by the international community.

    He urged Netanyahu, the war criminal wanted by the International Criminal Court, to ‘make a historic decision’ and apply Israeli sovereignty over these areas, saying the occupation would continue working until all Israel becomes ‘a Jewish democratic country’, and  arguing annexation would make Israel secure.

    Consequences of Smotrich and his plan for the Palestinian Authority

    According to the plan, the Palestinian Authority (PA) – which serves as the internationally recognised governing body in parts of the West Bank, under the 1993 Oslo Accords, would be gradually dismantled. Smotrich warned the PA it would only manage the 18 percent of what remains of the West Bank territories ‘until an alternative is found to replace it with another governance system’,  and threatened to ‘crush the Palestinian Authority, if it dares to raise its head, just as we did with Hamas’. 

    The plan to annex such a large portion of the West Bank has been praised by Israeli right-wing and settler communities as a much-needed reaffirmation of Israel’s territorial claims.

    The Yesha Council, an umbrella group for West Bank settlements, publicly supports Smotrich’s vision, echoing his opinions about removing ‘once and for all’ the idea of a Palestinian state and preventing the establishment of what they call a ‘terrorist state’ in the region. But it has also drawn condemnation from Palestinians, and the international community, with the United Arab Emirates, which normalised relations with Israel in 2020, warning annexation would be a ‘red line’. 

    Israel has controlled the West Bank since the 1967 Six-Day War. The territory is home to approximately three million Palestinians and over 500,000 Israeli settlers. Traditionally, the international community has supported a two-state solution, but successive Israeli governments, particularly right-wing coalitions, have increasingly challenged the feasibility of a Palestinian state.

    ‘Security concerns’ for the pariah state

    Smotrich highlighted security concerns as a primary justification for annexation, and argued for a more comprehensive Israeli presence and control over the West Bank territory. This is tied to what he described as Israel’s need for maximum land with minimum Arab population, to prevent what he sees as an existential security risk. 

    His press conference not only sought to deter international recognition of Palestinian statehood and cement the occupation’s control over the West Bank, but has also threatened to provoke heightened tensions both within the region and globally. The international community’s response, regional diplomatic repercussions, and internal Israeli political dynamics will determine the plan’s ultimate viability and its impact on the future of the Palestinian people.

    In August, Smotrich announced approval for more than 3400 new homes in the controversial E1 area of the occupied West Bank. E1, located between East Jerusalem and the large Israeli settlement of Ma’ale Adumim, is significant because annexing it would create a contiguous Israeli corridor connecting Jerusalem with Ma’ale Adumim.

    This would physically separate northern West Bank Palestinian cities like Ramallah from southern cities such as Bethlehem and Hebron, effectively bisecting the West Bank and making a future Palestinian state impossible.

    Featured image and video supplied

    By Charlie Jaay

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Heartbreaking stories of increasing Islamophobia are just the tip of the iceberg

    Islamophobia in Britain is at record levels. Across the country, there has long been a growing problem with this type of hatred, which a 14-year-long Tory government and intensifying media propaganda campaign only worsened. There have been more and more heartbreaking stories of abuse since establishment forces rallied to support Israel’s genocide in Gaza from October 2023 onwards. But because many people simply avoid reporting their experiences, the stories we do hear are only the tip of the iceberg.

    The Canary spoke to Hamzah Naveed, a campaigner against Islamophobia who has been working with the People’s Alliance for Change and Equality (PACE) in Kirklees, West Yorkshire. In preparation for the new mass party on the left and the 2026 local election, PACE has been connecting campaigners, trade unionists, and politicians across Kirklees in opposition to war, cuts, and racism. It has received the support of both Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana.

    Naveed described cases of intimidation, discrimination, and violence against innocent people. He also spoke about apparent media disinterest, and the way establishment media and politicians keep contributing to the dangerous rise in Islamophobic sentiment. But he insisted that, with PACE and hopefully the new left party nationally:

    The diversity is immense, but we agree on the same thing: austerity needs to go, housing needs to be better, people need food… opposition to genocide, opposition to all wars really… If we can spend billions of pounds on war, we can spend billions of pounds on the people that live in this country

    Scapegoating makes sure “we don’t knock the doors of power and ask: where is the money being spent?”

    Naveed said the best way to solve tensions between different communities is to bring them together, but that:

    it’s easier to get people divided and hate refugees and hate religion so that we don’t knock the doors of power and ask: where is the money being spent?

    One issue that far-right forces have tried to weaponise, of course, is the issue of child sexual abuse (CSA). As the Canary has previously reported, evidence very much suggests that CSA is a systemic, society-wide crisis with roots in misogyny, toxic masculinity, and institutional failure – not ethnicity or religion. And this is a point that Naveed emphasised, saying:

    There’s no religion that supports paedophilia or grooming or whatever you wanna call it. Everybody will tell you that this is wrong… The Tory party did an investigation on grooming gangs… There was an independent investigation. It found that Pakistanis and Muslims are not the majority of the grooming gangs. And there was actual recommendations made which have not still been put in place. So there is a cover up. But it’s not got anything to do with religion and race.

    He added:

    If tomorrow there was a call across the board to reduce paedophilia or reduce grooming gangs, there would be everybody from every colour, from every religion in the streets. Because it has no religion. It has no colour.

    Nonetheless, the far right and its enablers in Britain’s media and political establishment have overseen a very real increase in anti-Muslim hate crimes in Britain in recent years.

    Islamophobia: Iintimidation, discrimination, and violence

    Naveed spoke about a brutal recent stabbing in Kirklees against a South-Asian man at a petrol station who was simply getting his lunch. Earlier in the year, meanwhile, a fatal stabbing attack in the borough killed a teenage Syrian refugee.

    There is also the case of double standards in Britain over which war crimes in which countries it is acceptable for people to oppose. Showing solidarity with Ukraine – a mostly Christian country – is fully acceptable, for example, while showing solidarity with Palestine – a mostly Muslim country – leads to intimidation or discrimination.

    One event Naveed described was the intimidation of a child at school for showing solidarity with the Palestinian people during the Gaza genocide:

    I have had a case where a mother was on the phone crying to me, saying “my child wore a Palestine flag to school and… other pupils came and said ‘your people are killing my people’”. And when the mother raised it to the school, they said “tensions are high, emotions are high”. The mother said “I’ll settle for an apology”. The apology was, “I’m sorry that your people are killing my people”.

    He has also heard from people whose companies have tried to silence their opposition to genocide, clearly discriminating against them over their solidarity with Palestine.

    Because most of the establishment media can get more attention (and therefore money) from stirring up tensions rather than calling them out, however, many people simply don’t try to get their stories out. According to Naveed, some people simply ask themselves “am I welcoming or creating a bigger problem for myself by reporting something?”

    This is not the kind of society anyone should want.

    To remedy that, the kind of solidarity and unity PACE is nurturing in Kirklees is exactly what we need.

    By Ed Sykes

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • UK Police Raids Home Of Palestine Action Supporters

    Counterterrorism police in the UK arrested five members of Defend Our Juries (DOJ) in dawn raids on 2 September, just hours before the group was due to announce details of a mass protest in London.

    The press conference, which had been set to confirm that the threshold for Saturday’s action had been met, was postponed until Wednesday after UK police raided the homes of the five DOJ spokespeople, including former government lawyer Tim Crosland and law student Paddy Friend.

    DOJ said those detained were “key spokespeople,” including former government lawyer Tim Crosland and law student Paddy Friend. Witnesses reported that Friend was arrested under section 12 of the Terrorism Act 2000 for hosting a Zoom call with campaign members.

    The post UK Police Raids Home Of Palestine Action Supporters appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Italian Dockworkers Prepared To Strike For The Global Sumud Flotilla

    On August 31, 2025, the Global Sumud Flotilla set sail. This flotilla is the most recent and largest coalition of activists from around the world who have embarked to reach Gaza, breaking the siege and delivering humanitarian aid, by sea. Israeli officials have threatened that consequences for the activists will be worse than previous ventures, including detaining participants in prisons reserved for state-designated terrorists and seizing the ships to be turned into Israeli police assets.

    Amidst this escalation, Italian dockworkers in the Port of Genoa are prepared to go on strike to defend the flotilla in an act that would majorly disrupt global shipping. This act shows the decisive role that the working class has to play in the protection of the Flotilla, the defeat of Israel’s genocidal project in Gaza and the expansion of its occupation of the West Bank.

    The post Italian Dockworkers Prepared To Strike For The Global Sumud Flotilla appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • ‘Microsoft is an active partner in the genocide!’: Inside the tech worker revolt for Palestine

    Tech workers at the heart of Microsoft are waging one of the most significant and under-covered labor battles in the US right now. For the last two weeks, members of the No Azure for Apartheid coalition, including current and former tech workers at Microsoft and community allies, have been taking bold, continuing, and escalating actions to disrupt business as usual in solidarity with Palestinians facing genocide and in protest of Microsoft’s contracts with the Israeli military to provide tech that Israel uses to surveil, kill, and retroactively justify the killing of Palestinians. Those actions have included establishing a “liberated zone” encampment and even occupying executives’ offices at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, WA. In this on-the-ground episode of Working People, recorded at Microsoft headquarters on Aug. 19-20, we take you to the front lines of the No Azure for Apartheid struggle.

    Additional links/info:

    Featured Music:

    • Jules Taylor, “Working People” Theme Song

    Credits:

    • Studio Production: Maximillian Alvarez
    • Audio Post-Production: Jules Taylor
    Transcript

    The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.

    Chants:

    Employees are horrified. Employees are horrified. Our Tech for nine. I got Work.

    Maximillian Alvarez:

    All right, welcome everyone to Working People, a podcast about the lives, jobs, dreams, and struggles of the working class today. Working People is a proud member of the Labor Radio Podcast network and is brought to you in partnership within these Times Magazine and the Real News Network. This show is produced by Jules Taylor and made possible by the support of listeners like you. My name is Maximilian Alvarez and today we’re going to take you to the heart of one of the most important labor struggles happening in the country right now, which should be getting a lot, lot more attention than it’s been getting tech workers at the heart of one of the biggest and most powerful tech companies in the world are revolting at Microsoft, taking bold, brave, continuing and escalating protest actions in solidarity with Palestinians facing genocide and in protest of Microsoft’s contracts with the Israeli military to provide tech that Israel uses to surveil, kill and retroactively justify the killing of Palestinians.

    On August 19th, current and former tech workers at Microsoft along with community supporters established an encampment at Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond, Washington. Very much inspired by the student Palestine solidarity encampments that we saw on campuses across the country and around the world. Last year, just before 12:30 PM on Tuesday, August 19th, members of the No Azure for Apartheid Coalition walked out to Microsoft’s East Campus Plaza to establish their liberated zone, renaming the plaza, the martyred Palestinian Children’s Plaza as the no Azure for Apartheid Coalition stated in a press release on the day the encampment began. This action is in response to Microsoft’s ongoing partnership with the Israeli military and the recent news of Microsoft technology being used to surveil, starve and kill Palestinians. This action marks the biggest escalation targeting Microsoft following multiple investigations that expose the company’s deep ties to the Israeli military. Recent reporting by The Guardian and 9 7 2 News revealed Microsoft Cloud storage services are being used to surveil Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank by collecting and storing recordings of millions of mobile phone calls and texts made each day by Palestinians.

    The investigations included testimonies of how the surveillance data is being used to directly target Palestinians in Gaza and even retroactively justify extra judicial killings in the West Bank. And if you guys haven’t read the reporting that they’re talking about from The Guardian in 9 7 2 news, then you really, really need to read it and we’re going to link to it in the show notes, but just to give you a taste, the authors write One afternoon in late 2021, Microsoft’s chief executive Satya Nadella met with the commander of Israel’s military surveillance agency unit 8,200 on the Spy Chief’s agenda, moving vast amounts of top secret intelligence material into the US company’s cloud meeting at Microsoft’s headquarters near Seattle. The Spymaster Yasiel won NA’s support for a plan that would grant unit 8,200 access to a customized and segregated area within Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform. Armed with Azure’s near limitless storage capacity, unit 8,200 began building a powerful new mass surveillance tool, a sweeping, an intrusive system that collects and stores recordings of millions of mobile phone calls made each day by Palestinians and Gaza and the West Bank.

    According to three unit 8,200 sources, the cloud-based storage platform has facilitated the preparation of deadly airstrikes and has shaped military operations in Gaza and the West Bank files suggests that by July this year, 11,500 terabytes of Israeli military data, the equivalent to approximately 200 million hours of audio was held in Microsoft’s Azure servers in the Netherlands while a smaller portion was stored in Ireland. Now Microsoft denied any wrongdoing of course, and has since launched a urgent external inquiry into allegations. Israel’s military surveillance agency has used the company’s technology to facilitate the mass surveillance of Palestinians as the guardian also reports. But the point is this is exactly what current and former tech workers and community members with the no Azure for Apartheid Coalition are fighting against. This is why they’ve been putting their bodies safety and their jobs on the line following their conscience and doing whatever they can do to stop the horrors of Israel’s genocidal war on Palestine and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.

    And that’s also why after police and company security dispersed the encampment on Tuesday, August 19th threatening everyone there with arrest current and former tech workers returned around noon on Wednesday, August 20th to reestablish their liberated zone. Over the course of the next hour, things got increasingly tense with Microsoft security and Redmond pd cops surrounding the encampment and Washington State Patrol. Bellevue Police and Kirkland Police were also reportedly there assisting. I definitely saw some of them. Eventually Redmond PD officers moved in to violently dismantle the encampment and arrest 20 members of the coalition. Now I was literally one of the only journalists there on the ground at Microsoft on both Tuesday and Wednesday reporting for the Real News. I filmed every second of the police dismantling the encampment and the moments leading up to it and the moments after it. Now, police did issue multiple dispersal orders to the encampment informing members that they were trespassing on private property and would be subject to arrest if they did not leave.

    That is true. Coalition members did use some tables and chairs from the Microsoft courtyard to construct makeshift barricades around the encampment and red paint was poured on the ground and around the Microsoft sign in the plaza. That is also true. However, police have claimed that protestors became aggressive and a spokesperson from Microsoft said that protestors harassed others in the plaza and even said that the company would take clear steps to address unlawful actions that damage property, disrupt business, or that threaten and harm others. Now, the implication that the no Azure for apartheid encampment was threatening or harming others during the action is categorically false. Again, I was standing like 10 feet away the entire time and I saw absolutely nothing like that, but you really don’t have to just take my word for it because I was there filming. You can see for yourself we published my entire uninterrupted 37 minute shot of everything that went down on the Real News YouTube channel and you could find the link to that in the show notes for this episode.

    And in this episode you’re also going to hear what it sounded like in the thick of the action. You’ll hear speeches from tech workers and community members on the first and second days of the encampment and in the immediate aftermath after cops busted up the encampment. You’ll also hear some exclusive interviews that I did on the ground with then current Microsoft workers and Julius Sean. However I say then current because since I got back from Washington, the coalition has continued to take escalating actions including occupying executives offices at company headquarters last week. But Microsoft has also been ramping up its punitive responses response. Julius and Reen have both been fired since I last saw them and they are not the only workers who have been fired. In the next episode, we’re going to speak with no Azure for apartheid members so that we can give y’all an update on where things currently stand, what’s been happening over the past two weeks and what you can do to show solidarity with these fired workers.

    But in this episode you’ll hear what I heard when I was on the ground when the actions kicked off. If you want to help now, please share this episode with everyone that you can lift up these brave voices and listen to what they’re saying. Don’t let their actions and don’t let the genocide that they’re trying to stop be invisibleized and forgotten. If you want to get real time updates, you can also follow the coalition’s Instagram account, which we’ve linked to in the show notes as well. Alright, with all of that context upfront, buckle up guys and let us take you to the front lines of the know Azure for apartheid struggle At Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond, Washington,

    Hossam Nasr:

    We’re bringing the movement to the heart of this campus because this prophet shall profiteering company is sitting on mounds of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian corpses. Shame. We refuse to allow business as usual in the face of this genocide. We in the face of the erasure and the extermination of the Palestinian people today we choose to disobey, to revolt, to rise up against the world accompany and the war machine who insists on killing as many Palestinians as they can. This is a reminder to us all why we are here today. We are here because over 22 months of genocide, Israel powered by Microsoft has been killing starving maming Palestinian children every single hour.

    Make no mistake, Microsoft is an active partner in the genocide. Microsoft, as we speak, is hosting storage data collected through mass surveillance of Palestinians that is used to target and kill Palestinians in HA that is used to enforce the apartheid system in the West Bank and even retroactively justify extra judicial killings of Palestinians. That is not a neutral act, that is an active political choice every single second to be complicit in the mass murder of Palestinians. Instead of listening to the conscience and the morality of its workers who have been sounding the alarm for over a year and a half. Instead of listening to the over 2000 employees who have signed the no Azure for Apartheid petition, instead of refusing to collaborate with this, Zionist is really military. Microsoft instead chose to repress its workers, to fire them, to brutalize them and to dox them and intimidate them.

    I like many others, thought that working for Microsoft was the opportunity of a lifetime. I did my internship here my junior year of college and I joined this company as the first job out of college. I worked three years on Azure not knowing that my labor was being used to actively facilitate the murder of my people. The only honor I have in any affiliation with Microsoft is the honor and the pride in being able to join workers, community members and people of caution from all around the world to establish this historic liberated zone. There will come a time when everyone will have been against this. There will come a when Microsoft brands that this action took its place on its campus today. Microsoft brags that divested from apartheid South Africa in 1986. There will come a day when Microsoft brags about how in 2025 they divested from apartheid Israel.

    When that day comes, the executives with blood soaked hands deserve no credit. They deserve shame, accountability, and the eternal hunting of the screams of the thousands of Palestinian children they massacre. The only honor will be for the workers, former workers and community members who are putting their jobs, their livelihood, their immigration status, and their lives on the line to stand on the right side of history. You do not have to be on the side of the genocide, profiteering executives, you do not have to comply. You do not have to listen to their orders. I’m talking to you. Every single one of you sitting there having lunch right now. I am talking to you, the security guards in blue vests. I’m talking to you. You do not have to comply. You do not have to listen to the orders of your masters. You do not have to shut down this encampment. You do not have to treat us like we’re the evil ones for trying to stop genocide. You have the choice to refuse. You have the choice to listen to your heart, not to your bosses. You have the choice to be on the right side of history. You have the choice to join us right here, right now, in the heart and liberated zone.

    And lastly, a message to the Palestinian people, to the mom who couldn’t starve her dying baby until they died in her arms. To the mother of Raja, to the orphan children, to Shaban, alu and his family, to the hints and the RAs and the s and the ass and the bans, we see you. We hear you. We feel you. We arrange for you and we revolt for you. We refuse to be complicit in your murder. We refuse to be party to the crimes of your genocide. We choose to revolt against the forces that exploit our labor and our tax dollars to facilitate the worst moral tragedy of our lifetime and to the Palestinian people. We stand here today not as allies, not simply in solidarity with you, but as accomplices in your righteous. Fight for liberation in your nonstop struggle for freedom. And we will not stop fighting alongside you until you have the same dignity and humanity that every single Palestinian deserves. And until every single inch of your homeland is free,

    Chants:

    Palestine three Palestine, three Palestine have some shame.

    Julius Shan:

    Hi everyone. Thanks for having me here. My name is Julius Shan and I’ve been a Microsoft engineer for almost five years. When I joined five years ago, I did not know at all what I was signing up for. I did not want to work for a weapons manufacturer. I believe deeply that all people deserve the right to be free, to live in safety, to have safety in their community, and to have justice. When I learned that Microsoft reported by AP News, the Guardian N 9 72 magazine, that Microsoft Azure and AI systems were being used by Israeli military to conduct mass surveillance on Palestinians to determine which mothers, which families, which children to bomb. I was disgusted. I was horrified that even though my work did not contribute directly to these services, I was being paid by the money that Israel pays Microsoft or these contracts. Regardless of your beliefs, regardless of whether or not your work today actually supports Israel, know that Microsoft’s money does include blood money.

    There are so many families, so many wonderful people that I’ve met here, and it breaks my heart to think that the only reason we are here is because we were lucky enough to be born on the right side of the world. One where we received just the fortune to live in safety. Palestinians have been living in a concentration camp for countless years. They have no safety. They have no ability to speak up. Microsoft systems are heavily used to determine targets. They are used to scrape data on millions of Palestinian phone calls. There are over 11,000 terabytes of recorded Microsoft, more recorded Palestinian phone calls and text messages in Microsoft storage systems. It breaks my heart to know that no matter what I was doing at Microsoft, that I would be complicit in this machine. That while I work on printing all the Israeli infrastructure involved in planning attacks and strikes on Palestine would in some way involve my work. Printing is just a small piece of that. I’m sure whatever you work on, whether it’s storage in AI system in some way or another, your work helps to support this company, which helps to support us and our ability to take contracts from entities like the Israeli military.

    Unnamed No Azure for Apartheid Coalition Member 1:

    That’s why we must remain grounded. We must remain grounded. We’re understanding of what’s happening in Za because ZA free us, hundreds of thousands of have been killed as a result of the current iterations of Israel’s ongoing. N with the destruction of nearly all of S housing, hospitals, schools, infrastructures, thousands more remain under the over 90% of S entire population has been displaced forest between refugee camps, eight centers and supposedly save zones, all of which end up asus of Israel’s corbit bombing campaign. Shame. We have seen families enable to more their loved ones entire families murdered harmlessly and call Palestinians. They’re afraid of how many more they will lose

    Chants:

    From the sea, the river from the sea, the river, the river, river. We want justice say how we want justice to say how we want justice to say we want justice. Say stop harm Israel. Now

    Unnamed No Azure for Apartheid Coalition Member 2:

    The liberated zone here is born out of desperation, extreme urgency and incredible grief. For 683 days, we have all witnessed the holocaust of our lifetime live stream to our phones. We’ve seen corporations who benefit from the economy of occupation and apartheid morph into an economy of genocide as our tech billionaire executives that run them continue to profit more and more off of the surveillance of targeting, of bombing, of and now forced starvation of Palestinian children, mothers and fathers alike sha. The Miller drives and violent response to our peaceful protesting that we’ve witnessed both today and yesterday is a reflection of the fact that Microsoft is an extension of the US imperial machine, driven by colonialism, powered by surveillance, suppression and state violence. Yesterday Microsoft responded to our peaceful protests with police force showing up with weapons threatening arrests and barricading us Let it be known that this response from Microsoft is not new. Microsoft workers who have spoken out in solidarity with Palestine or engaged leadership to get answers on Microsoft’s complicity have constantly and consistently been met with suppression, retaliation and violence. Almost one year ago, Microsoft fired two workers for organizing a peaceful, beautiful vigil honoring the martyrs who were murdered by Israel in a genocide. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Just four months ago, two more workers were terminated for confronting Microsoft executives and the founder for their war… and just three months ago, Microsoft deployed chemical weapons on current workers, former workers and community members rallying outside of their conference. In the past two months, Microsoft suspended two workers for simply sending out emails. Countless others have been suppressed by Microsoft leadership and executives being targeted in layoffs and pushed out by management. Lemme go talk to ’em, see if they can advance. What is this? Advancements in surveillance and suppression and silencing is Microsoft’s real contribution to the tech world. Though there are attempts to make you believe that they empower every person and every organization around the world to achieve more. Although those attempts are plenty, it turns out there’s a footnote that every person and every organization doesn’t include Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims, or anyone calling for the liberation of Palestine.

    As you see the barricades they set up around us, see how this is a strategy to suppress and silence, to isolate us from you despite the fact that we are all current workers, former workers and community members as you see the police surrounding us. Thank you so much. Know that Microsoft brought them here. Know that Microsoft is not only okay with deploying violence against its current and former workers, but that Microsoft called on them and relies on the police force to carry out the physical suppression for them. To all my fellow Microsoft workers here right now, our labor is directly enabling apartheid, powering genocide through tech weapons in the form of cloud and ai and effecting the starvation campaign in Gaza. It is our ultimate responsibility to put people over profits.

    However, in order for that, reclaim the power of our labor by speaking up and rejecting this inal and illegal complicity. Right now, you do not have to accept being party to the crime of genocide. You do not have to be part of this system. You do not have to comply. Join us in answering Gaza’s call to action. Join us in honoring the countless lives of Palestinians who are victims of a Microsoft powered genocide. Join us in refusing to have our labor, labor enable and accelerate the massing of millions of Palestinians through bombardment, torture and starvation. Join us in confronting the same executives who continue to destabilize our livelihoods with mass layoffs while generating massive profits. Before you ask yourself the cost of speaking up, ask about the cost of not speaking up. Ask yourself about the cost of our silence. Every moment that passes. The Israeli genocidal machine is using Microsoft technology to continue starving and bombing Palestinians and Gaza every second. We do not act, Israel is using our labor to displace Palestinians in the West Bank in an ongoing campaign of ethnic cleansing and apartheid. We must meet the urgency of this moment. Let us force an end to this Microsoft powered genocide right now.

    Julius Shan:

    Okay, my name is Julius Shan and I would like to be identified as a software engineer at Microsoft and activist. Right now we’re on Microsoft’s of former East Campus Plaza, which is now the Liberated Zone or the martyred Palestinian Children’s Plaza. Today we set up an encampment after yesterday’s encampment and we wanted this as an escalatory action in pressuring Microsoft to end all contracts with Israel current and former Microsoft workers and the community members came together today to Encamp here and protest together. The reason I’m participating in this is because it truly breaks my heart to know that there are very real people on the other side of our products who are being surveilled and profiled and being picked as targets to kill next, whether or not they’ve done anything wrong. We’ve seen endless images come out of Palestine of mothers wailing of children ripped to shreds of the starvation.

    And I’ve seen on the news from AP News from 9 7 2 Mag and the Guardian, just so many reports from the Israeli military and these investigative journalists talking about how Microsoft technology is being heavily utilized by the Israeli military. They’ve described it as the critical military infrastructure, as the technological backbone of the world’s first AI power genocide. And because Microsoft takes money from these entities in some way, all Microsoft employees are paid in blood money. These contracts are funded by a military organization whose profits come from exploiting and stealing land. And it just pains me to know that I have the privilege today to be here having a six figure tech job simply because of where I was born and children on the other side of the world just had no choice to be born, but to be born in Palestine and that’s condemned them to a life where they could be shot simply for picking up flour.

    A drone could drop on a 12-year-old just walking home with water and flour. And that sickens me deeply. It disgusts me. My heart is broken to know that so many Microsoft workers are becoming aware of what is happening within the company and they’re doing nothing about it. I am proud of those of us who have stood together and banded together to pressure Microsoft and begin this discussion with them and to tell people what is really going on with what our technology is powering cloud and AI are the bombs and bullets of the 21st century. And it just really, really disgusted me to know that I was being paid by mass murderers to know that my work truly is in some part condemning children to death and I could no longer live with that. After I spoke out for the first time in July, I heard from many, many coworkers who had family in Palestine or were Palestinian themselves.

    Someone told me that they were very thankful that I spoke up and it pained them to know that they couldn’t because their entire family living in an apartment building in Palestine was bombed. And after the ambulances came for their family, the ambulances were bombed and all that was left was a child who lost their eye. And it just sickens me to know that Microsoft Azure and Microsoft Storage, Microsoft AI are all part of this technology system today that is being used to condemn Palestinians to a life of torture and death in their concentration camp. So the IDF Top Intelligence Agency you called Unit 8,200 has actually I think quoted in AP News how Microsoft is so embedded that they consider that Microsoft employees are almost like a part of the unit to this degree. This makes it seem like Microsoft is indeed part an extension of the Israeli military.

    And regardless of which Microsoft product you’re consuming, you are providing the bottom line and giving Microsoft the power and ability to take these contracts and continue supporting the Israeli army. The Israeli military has stored over 11,500 terabytes of storage of mass surveillance conducted on Palestinian phone calls and text messages. And they use this data to just pick out targets and feed them into an AI and choose who to kill based on that. And it just sickens me to know that at this very same time in technology, we know that AI is capable of lying, it’s capable of hallucinations. And why are we trusting this untested system to decide who to kill when it’s killing children and children who have done nothing wrong? Children who are simply starving and wishing that their parents came back. And there are so many parents here, I just want them to know that it could have been them too if they just hadn’t been lucky enough to be born where they were to have had the opportunities they have.

    Palestinians have no freedom. They have no justice, they have no one speaking up. They have few people speaking up for them and watching out for their safety. And it just pains me to know that right now inside of the tech industry, we have so much power. As workers, we outnumber our executives by an enormous factor. And by banding together we can use our collective power to pressure Microsoft and other tech companies to stop being so complicit in genocide. So for other tech workers out there, I asked you to just please try and look up some news about what your company may be doing in terms of supporting military and supporting ICE and supporting Palantir. A lot of the tech community is made up of immigrants to the United States and right now we are all becoming in danger as the current administration begins to target immigrants more and more simply for who we are.

    And this should remind you of how Palestinians are treated because they’re treated the way they are simply because of their identity. Just like how ICE is targeting people based on their identity, and it would mean a lot to learn about it, to hold these conversations with other coworkers. You don’t have to be the one to speak out and risk at all. I understand that many are not in a position to do so. You might be here on a visa, you might have a family to take care of, but it’s important to feel like you’re able to have these conversations with people and help them just realize the truth of what we are doing and banning together for fellow workers and other organizations. I also encourage you just try and find out what you’re doing. Try and find out who your customers are, see what you can do to hold conversations and pressure your organizations to stop being a part of the technology military arm of the United States and Israel to consumers.

    We have power together because money is just simply more powerful than our political power. These days, studies have shown that money speaks more than our vote and your wallet is now your vote. Choose wisely. Choose to boycott Microsoft. We stand with BDS and we ask you to boycott Xbox if you can and make these decisions wisely. The sacrifices that you make are nothing compared to the sacrifices that Palestinians make every day to simply try and get food while they line up. To get moldy bags of flour and risk being shot, risk being hit by artillery. We can afford to choose to stop playing games. We can choose to use different office software. We can choose use different cloud providers and divesting our money will speak. It speaks to the bottom line of these businesses and they will not choose to change how they act until we affect their bottom line ultimately. And that is the most power that you have. And I ask you to please use it.

    Chants:

    Microsoft have some shame. Microsoft has some shame. Every martyr has a name, every murder has a name. Microsoft have some shape. Microsoft has some shape. Every murder has a name. Every Marty has a name.

    Unnamed No Azure for Apartheid Coalition Member 3:

    I’m an American. I was born here. I went to American schools. I won American National Championships competing in American sports. I went overseas to represent America. Why is my country murdering children in Palestine? I studied my ass off. I was an honor student. I got my decree and I went to work in tech where I made good money and paid good tax to be used to slaughter people in Palestine. Sha, when my neighbor breaks his leg, my taxes do not have to alleviate his financial burden. But when Israel needs to drop a ball on the Palestinian family, uncle Sam always has a diamond hand to give.

    How many Americans can Israel kill and get away with it? How many Americans can Israel kill and get away with it? Rachel Corie stood in Gaza. She was from Olympia, Washington. She stood in Rafa, the southern bus city and Gaza standing between a bulldozer and a Palestinian ho. She was smashed to death by the Israeli bulldozer operator as he committed ethnic clean, destroying a Palestinian ho. You are law men and law women. Why don’t you enforce the law? Why don’t you get justice for Rachel Corey’s parents who to this day have had no one answer for the crime of murdering their daughter as an American. She was 26 years old when she was trapped in the ER at the West Bank last September. She had just graduated from the University of Washington. A Seattle was murdered by distance, by Israeli Steiner and he’s living free while you come here to take the freedom away from people protesting genocide.

    How many Americans are going to be killed by Israel before? Do as an American have an alps of shame to question where you are standing and who are you are supporting? How many will it take? Jacob Inger was a Canadian American special forces veteran. He went on a World Central Kitchen door in Gaza to feed Gaza because in December, 2023, the famine was declared level five catastrophic for 25% of the population. The World Central Kitchen coordinated with the idea, these are our trucks, this is where we will be. Do not harm us. The IDF conducted, not one, not two, but three airstrikes on their vehicles killing seven, including Jacob Flickinger. Those of you in law enforcement, most of you support veterans. Where is your support for the family of Jacob Flickinger? Where is your support for his widow and his children who had their father murdered and stolen from them by Israel? Like so many Palestinian families have had their fathers murdered and stolen by Israel, you walk away and shame you. Turn your back in shade. We’ll breathe.

    Nisreen Jaradat:

    My name is Nisreen Jaradat and I’m a current Microsoft worker. I have just exited the liberated zone of the martyred Palestinian Children’s Plaza, formerly known as the Microsoft East Campus Plaza. Microsoft security collaborated with the police department to arrest my comrades because they are afraid of their workers’. Understanding that they are betting genocide, that they are criminally complicit in the genocide of my people and to the Microsoft executives and to the entire public. We are telling you that we will continue. We will not be stopped. The more you try to silence us, the louder we will be. We continue to confront you unannounced, unapologetically, and loudly until you divest from genocide and to all people of conscience and to Microsoft workers. I encourage you to join the worker in ADA and do everything within your power to end the corporate abatement of genocide, apartheid and occupation of the Palestinian people.

    Microsoft has done all at its can to brand itself as an ethical tech company with human rights statements claiming to follow the UN guiding principles on business and human rights with philanthropy. But all of this is just fate and all of this is a farce. Microsoft is the most complicit digital arms manufacturer in Israel’s genocide of Palestine. Microsoft has embedded itself into every facet and every unit of the Israeli military and has even worked with the Israeli military to develop a weapon that enables the mass surveillance and in turn the mass murder, blackmailing and kidnap of my people in a deal that Satya Nadela only took 10 minutes to approve as an incredibly powerful brand moment. In his own words, the public needs to know Microsoft is complicit. Boycott Microsoft. Do everything you can to end your corporation’s relationship with Microsoft and Israel and its entire economy of occupation and genocide.

    Speaker 6:

    Microsoft, you can’t hide Microsoft. You, you from Gen. Hey, how many kids did whatcha see? I on? Yes. On wherever we go.

    This post was originally published on The Real News Network.

  • From school queues to food queues… what has become of Gaza’s children?

    Just two years ago, at the beginning of September, the streets of Gaza were bustling with the familiar sight of children lining up for school, carrying new backpacks and colorful notebooks, innocently singing the national anthem, and racing to their classrooms in search of a school day full of hope.

    Today, the scene has changed completely; the school line has turned into a long line in front of relief centers and soup kitchens, where children stand barefoot, in dirty clothes and with empty bowls, waiting for a meal that may save their lives and satisfy their hunger.

    A stolen childhood in Gaza

    The Israeli war, which has been ongoing since 7 October 2023, has torn apart life in Gaza and robbed children of their right to education, play, and even food. There are no longer safe schools, playgrounds, or classrooms, only tents that lack the most basic necessities of life.

    More than 18,000 children have been killed, and tens of thousands have been wounded or left with permanent disabilities, while the survivors live under the burden of hunger and siege. For them, childhood is no longer the beginning of a journey, but a daily battle for survival.

    From schoolbags to bowls

    In the queues that stretch for hours in front of relief kitchens, children carry plastic bowls instead of schoolbags. They do not ask about lessons or exams, but talk about the type of meal they might get:

    Will there be lentils today? Or a little rice?

    In those lines, children’s laughter disappears, replaced by pale faces and sunken eyes. Some children put their hands on their empty stomachs in an attempt to soothe the pain of hunger, while others drag their tired feet, unable to stand for long. Many collapse on the ground from exhaustion before their turn comes, and their parents carry them away, fearing that this may be the last time they see them alive.

    Hunger shapes their features

    According to the Ministry of Health, 43,000 children under the age of five suffer from acute malnutrition, and more than 55,000 pregnant and lactating women face the same risk. In August alone, 185 deaths due to starvation were recorded, most of them among children.

    However, UNRWA asserts that the actual toll is much higher, as many die silently in tents and are buried without official registration.

    Emaciated bodies and a generation in Gaza silently wiped out

    The bodies of Gazan children are no longer able to resist disease. Their immunity, weakened by hunger, has made the spread of epidemics faster and more deadly: meningitis, hepatitis, and other diseases that had disappeared before the war have returned to ravage young bodies. In addition, hundreds of thousands suffer from severe psychological disorders, including nightmares, isolation, and bedwetting.

    Between the school queue and the food queue lies a cruel distance known only to the children of Gaza, an entire generation torn from their schoolbooks and thrown into the queues of hunger, where dreams are stolen before a morsel of food. There, the world stands silent, while the tears of these children write the most horrific chapters of genocide in the 21st century.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Alaa Shamali

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Israel’s Attacks on Seed Banks Destroy Millenia of Palestinian Cultural Heritage

    This summer, Israeli bulldozers rolled through the West Bank city of Hebron with ruthless efficiency, targeting not soldiers or weapons caches, but something deeply vulnerable: Palestine’s only surviving national seed bank. Within hours of the bulldozers’ arrival on July 31, 2025, the Union of Agricultural Work Committees’ seed multiplication facility lay in ruins — its propagation materials…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Israel has now destroyed 95% of most educational infrastructure in Gaza

    The Government Media Office in Gaza announced on Wednesday 3 September that the Israeli occupation continues to commit systematic crimes against education in the Gaza Strip, depriving more than 785,000 students and 25,000 teachers from starting the school year, in what can be described as educational and cultural genocide.

    Gaza: the education system destroyed

    The statement said that nearly 95% of schools in the Strip have suffered severe damage, with more than 90% of school buildings in need of major reconstruction or rehabilitation, after 662 buildings were directly hit, in addition to 116 other schools being classified as damaged.

    A total of 163 educational institutions were completely destroyed, while 388 others were partially damaged. 70% of schools used as shelters for civilians were also damaged, with the governorates of North Gaza and Rafah being the most affected, with damage exceeding 95%.

    The crimes were not limited to infrastructure, but also targeted the lives of students, teachers, and academic staff, with the attacks resulting in the deaths of 13,500 students, 830 teachers, and 193 scientists, academics, and researchers. The statement emphasized that this systematic targeting violates the Palestinian generations’ right to education and constitutes a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law, the Geneva Conventions, and children’s rights.

    The statement added that “depriving children of their schools is not limited to the loss of lessons, but robs them of security, hope, and the future,” noting that the ongoing destruction exacerbates the psychological and social conditions of students living amid rubble, hunger, and fear.

    Urgent action needed

    The media office called on the international community and humanitarian and human rights organizations to take immediate and urgent action to stop these crimes, hold the perpetrators accountable, and guarantee Palestinian children’s right to education, which is the cornerstone of building the future.

    It emphasized that targeting education is targeting the future, and that the occupation’s continued deprivation of students from their schools:

    will not erase the reality of the suffering of Palestinian generations, nor will it stop their will to learn and rise from the rubble.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Alaa Shamali

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • MSM coming for Mothin Ali over Gaza is desperate propaganda

    Mothin Ali just became the Green Party’s co-deputy leader. And the establishment media is already trying to smear him. But its attack is just desperate propaganda.

    Ali has long been a firm opponent of Israel’s settler-colonial crimes against Palestinians, most recently its genocide in Gaza. And the media is now going after him for his immediate contextual response to the events of 7 October 2023. But while the bile is strong, the argument is weak.

    Where’s the lie?

    History didn’t start with the Hamas-led breakout on 7 October from what human-rights experts had long called an ‘open-air prison‘. Israel had for many years sought to isolate Gaza’s highly concentrated population of refugees with a brutal blockade. And in the context of Israel’s illegal occupation, as experts have pointed out, Palestinian people have the right to resist occupation, but Israel does not have the right to decimate the territory it occupies.

    On 8 October 2023, Ali basically stated these facts on Facebook, saying:

    This didn’t start yesterday, it started nearly 80 years ago by European settler colonialists.

    Never forget that the Western media will always portray indigenous people defending themselves as barbarians, however they dress it up it’s just another manifestation of white supremacy.

    The West’s response to brown Palestinians fighting back does indeed seem very much like white-supremacist thinking, especially when we compare it to the praise that white Ukrainians have received for their resistance to Russian occupation. Any honest commentator would at the very least have to accept the logic of Ali’s argument.

    This is not to say Hamas is a progressive champion, because it’s not. But nor has it committed even a fraction of the crimes that Israeli occupation forces have committed. As UNICEF recently wrote, “In Gaza, a classroom of children have been killed every day for 22 months“. To clarify, that’s at least one Palestinian child every hour, reaching a total so far of 18,430 children (including about 825 babies, 895 one-year-olds, 3,266 preschoolers, and 4,032 six-to-10-year-olds).

    Break the Islamophobic propaganda machine against Mothin Ali

    The Telegraph is very fond of trying to smear people it disagrees with. But its headline – New Green Party leader under pressure to sack deputy for defending Oct 7 terrorists – seemed to have come straight from Israeli propagandists.

    Firstly, there’s a difference between explaining why an attack has happened and “defending” the attackers. Because Ali didn’t praise them – he simply explained why they’d attacked and emphasised their right to resist occupation. The ‘terrorist’ designation, of course, is Britain’s official position. But when the British state protects and supports a genocidal colonial power that has (on average) been killing a classroom worth of kids on a daily basis for almost two years, its fair to question the state’s judgement.

    The Telegraph‘s sub-heading was Mothin Ali suggested condemnation of Hamas attack on Israel was ‘white supremacy’. Again, that’s some real backbending to make an argument. But what Ali actually suggested, of course, was that the media would be hypocritical and ignore context because Palestinians are brown… which is what happened.

    Islamophobia is already at record levels in Britain. And Ali himself has already faced significant racist abuse both online and offline. The Telegraph is only likely to stoke even more hatred from white supremacists by dogwhistling about ‘terrorists’ and Hamas in a piece about a high-profile Muslim man with a beard.

    It’s dangerous. It’s wrong. And we’ve got to call it out.

    By Ed Sykes

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • ‘We found them torn to pieces’: Israel bombs one of Gaza’s last sanctuaries

    The famous Al Baqa Cafe had long served as a beachfront refuge for people in Gaza. And, until recently, it was one of the last places in Gaza with power, where people came to charge their phones, use the internet, and briefly remember normal life before the war. Then, on June 30, 2025, Israel dropped a 500-pound bomb directly on the cafe, killing at least 39 people, including children, journalists, artists, and students. TRNN reports on the ground from Gaza and speaks with survivors and family of survivors in the bloody, bombed-out ruins of the Al Baqa Cafe.

    Additional links/info:

    Credits:

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

    Narrator: 

    The Al Baqa Cafe. A name known to everyone in Gaza. Before the war, a place where artists, journalists, friends and families spent their free time. After, one of the last places with power – where people came to charge phones, use the internet, remember normal life. 

    On June 30, 2025, Israel dropped a 500-pound bomb directly on the cafe. At least 39 people were killed and the two-storey building destroyed. 

    MARWAN SALIM AL BAQA, AL BAQA CAFE OWNER: 

    This was an earthquake—not a strike. A two-ton bomb; there’s nowhere to hide that can protect you. No fence, no wall, no roof. Everyone was ripped apart, smashed limbs—they all died on the spot. People without guts, without legs, without heads, without arms—they all died on the spot. 

    SAMIH ABU NOOR, CLIENT OF AL BAQA CAFE: 

    I was going down the stairs, down that ramp when the explosion happened. I moved to one side because I was afraid that debris would fall. There was dust and smoke from the explosion covering the whole place, I couldn’t even see the stairs. I saw the workers who were martyred; there were five here. And Abu Al-Amir was the sixth. I went around and saw girls here and women here. Here, here and here. There was an injured man here with his wife; she was dead, and he was on his knees. There was a journalist over here who was martyred. There was another journalist here injured. Another journalist was martyred here. There was also an artist: she was martyred. 

    Narrator: 

    Among the killed was photojournalist and filmmaker Ismail Abu Hatab, whose photography documented life in Gaza in a profound way. 

    Sitting beside him was his close friend Amna Al-Salmi – known as Fransi – who also died in the blast. Fransi’s work similarly reflected Gaza’s lived experience. This was her final Instagram post: a drawing captioned, ‘The blood of the martyr has the scent of cardamom.’” 

    MARWAN SALIM AL BAQA, AL BAQA CAFE OWNER: 

    Of the 100 people who were here not 10 survived. What was their crime? What did they do? They had no rockets, no RPGs. They were celebrating a birthday; people were eating, people were sitting, people were happy. That’s all. The rocket hit—and the shrapnel—I’ll show you the debris. The rocket was made a month ago. The debris is almost all there, and the entire head is there. The place was flattened: 10 millimetre steel was shattered. Human beings flew into the air. The entire place was completely destroyed. 

    SAMIH ABU NOOR, CLIENT OF AL BAQA CAFE:

    Some disappeared into the water; they weren’t found. Until now, we don’t know how many disappeared. The entire upper floor was blown into the sea. We found bodies at the port; we found them under the building. 

    MARWAN SALIM AL BAQA, AL BAQA CAFE OWNER: 

    We found a body here, and a head here, and the flesh of people, and remains at our neighbours’ place. People’s remains, one head is still there. I can show you on my camera. 

    AKRAM MOHAMED MANSOUR, FAMILY OF VICTIMS OF BAQA CAFE BOMBING: 

    I got a call, they told me the Baqa was hit and my brother Hossam was martyred. We went to the hospital, we found them torn to pieces, there were no bodies. Ripped to shreds. We couldn’t find his son Karim. We were looking for him for an hour and a half. When we found him we were shocked, he was cut apart. I mean, he was a small child, 12 years old. He did nothing wrong. Hossam was a simple man, he just wanted to live. He opened a stall by the sea, selling biscuits, drinks and water. After work, he’d go to the cafe to escape the heat because he’s living in a tent. We came here to escape death, but death came to us here in the west of Gaza, in the place they said was safe. 

    SAMIH ABU NOOR, CLIENT OF AL BAQA CAFE: 

    People would come here to get away from the camp, to try and forget the lives we are living. The hunger, the lack of food, everything that we don’t have. 

    MARWAN SALIM AL BAQA, AL BAQA CAFE OWNER: 

    I provided internet, electricity. The students who were martyred were doing exams. They had exams. They were sitting at their laptops taking exams. There was electricity; people used to contact their families, use the internet, things like this. This was their life. Just small entertainments, people would sit here while their kids would swim below. The people we lost, innocent as flowers. Boys, women, children and an old lady. I can show you the medication and the teddy bear and the birthday that was being celebrated. What did they do? They had no guns, they weren’t in the resistance or anything. 

    SAMIH ABU NOOR, CLIENT OF AL BAQA CAFE: 

    There was a birthday here. The lady here was celebrating a birthday for her daughter. We call it a mock-birthday. They make a fake birthday to please the little girl. There’s no candle, no cake, everything’s gone, so her mother laughs and says today is your birthday… So the mother and her child were martyred. 

    Narrator: 

    While Gaza’s last safe places are wiped away, a mere 50 miles along the coast, Tel Aviv’s beachfront carries on unchanged. Cafés fill with customers. Beach clubs play music until dawn.

    AKRAM MOHAMED MANSOUR, FAMILY OF VICTIMS OF BAQA CAFE BOMBING: 

    We used to come down to the Corniche every weekend. We’d get out, have fun with our friends and families. We’d spend late nights on the Corniche, life was good, I mean, really good. I mean, Gaza was beautiful. 

    SAMIH ABU NOOR, CLIENT OF AL BAQA CAFE: 

    Before the war, you’d come here and completely relax. At the New Year, everyone would be happy and people would celebrate. 

    MARWAN SALIM AL BAQA, AL BAQA CAFE OWNER: 

    Before the war, you couldn’t set foot in this place because it was so crowded, a very beautiful cafe. Google the Al Baqa Cafe page and look at how it used to be. We’ve been ruined. 

    SAMIH ABU NOOR, CLIENT OF AL BAQA CAFE: 

    Today even laughter has disappeared. We don’t smile anymore. Terror. We live in terror. So how is it for our children? The child says, “Tomorrow it will be me.” The child is waiting her turn, even the child. Today, what do you see? Destruction, destruction, destruction. I imagine when I’m walking, “God knows what’s under this building. God knows who is under it.” 

    AKRAM MOHAMED MANSOUR, FAMILY OF VICTIMS OF BAQA CAFE BOMBING: 

    If you followed up the names of the people who were killed in the cafe, you would find they are mostly women and children. There aren’t more than 5 men among them. I personally saw 5 or 6 dead women who were as yet unidentified. Their families still don’t know. 

    MARWAN SALIM AL BAQA, AL BAQA CAFE OWNER: 

    Today people have absolutely nothing. They are killed as if it’s totally normal. The Israelis bomb 50 people: no one looks, no one asks, no one says anything. Where are the human rights for the massacres that are happening like this? These are civilians. Where are their human rights? Who will hold Israel to account? And America, who is providing these 

    weapons for them to practice on us? These weapons are horrific, they’re not normal. A bomb that leaves 81 dead bodies scattered in pieces across the whole area. 

    AKRAM MOHAMED MANSOUR, FAMILY OF VICTIMS OF BAQA CAFE BOMBING: 

    The bombs cause severe anxiety, because the explosions are huge and extremely loud. They are hitting us with every type of lethal weapon. 

    SAMIH ABU NOOR, CLIENT OF AL BAQA CAFE:

    We didn’t just lose the place, we lost our souls in this war. We lost our children, our learning. Our children’s future is gone. The place can be rebuilt, but what’s inside us will never go back to how it was. Our lost children will never come back.

    This post was originally published on The Real News Network.

  • Senate Subcommittee Hearing

    “Sir, are you or have you ever been member of the underground terrorist organization known as PAAP?”

    “Yes, senator,  but PAAP is neither terrorist nor underground. We are a multi-ethnic multi-faith charity group, and most of our activities involve…”

    “Yes or no, please. Is that true that PAAP stands for the inflammatory statement – let me read it, these are not my words – Palestinians Are Also People?”

    “Yes, senator, but I don’t understand why that…”

    “Yes or no, please. Let the record show, your answer was yes, you still insist that Palestinians are also people.”

    “Yes, senator, I do.”

    “Do you or have you ever supported Black Lives Matter, better known as BLM?”

    “Yes, senator, initially I did. Then I lost interest when the news surfaced their leaders had used large parts of the contributions to buy themselves houses in highly affluent neighborhoods. Of course, I still firmly believe black lives matter, all lives matter, including Palestinian.”

    “Well, that was a lengthy yes-and-no answer. Anyway, no more questions, thank you for your cooperation. It’s clear that you refuse to disavow PAAP, and you remain ambivalent or ambiguous, whatever is the right word, on BLM. I believe we have established enough evidence that we can refer you to the Citizenship Removal Committee. I know currently they’re busy with millions of Hispanic cases, but they should be done with those by tomorrow this time.”

    “Senator, may I point out I was born in the United States? My grandparents immigrated to this country from Sweden.”

    “Ever read the news, my good man? Birthright citizenship ended months ago.”

    • This article was first published in AntipodeanSF on August 1, 2025.
    The post Senate Subcommittee Hearing first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • How the UN Can Act Decisively to End Genocide in Gaza

    One year ago, the UN General Assembly demanded that Israel must end its occupation of the Palestinian Territories within twelve months.

    The General Assembly voted, by 124 votes to 14, with 43 abstentions, for a strong resolution that not only “demanded” an end to the occupation within a year, but called on all countries to refrain from trade involving Israeli settlements and from transfers of weapons “where there are reasonable grounds to suspect that they may be used in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”

    The General Assembly was meeting on September 18, 2024, in an Emergency Special Session, invoking the “Uniting For Peace” principle to act where the UN Security Council has failed to do so. The General Assembly had asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to rule on the legality of the Israeli occupation and the legal consequences arising from it, and the new resolution was triggered by the court’s ruling, on July 19, 2024 that the Israeli occupation is unlawful and must end “as rapidly as possible.”

    A year later, Israel has failed to comply with any of the demands of the 124 states. On the contrary. It has escalated its genocide in Gaza by cutting off nearly all food, medicine and humanitarian assistance, launching relentless bombardments, expanding ground incursions, and displacing virtually the entire population. All over the world, people are calling on leaders and politicians to do whatever it takes to put a stop to this holocaust before it goes any further.

    As world leaders gather again in New York for another UN General Assembly beginning on September 9th, how will they respond to Israel’s ever-escalating genocide and continued occupation and expansion of settlements in the West Bank and Jerusalem? Grassroots political pressure is building on all of them to turn the strong words in ICJ rulings and UN resolutions into meaningful action to end what the vast majority of the world recognizes as the most flagrant genocide of our time.

    Countries have taken individual actions to cut off trade with Israel and cancel weapons contracts. Turkey announced a total trade boycott on August 29, and closed its airspace to Israeli planes and its ports to Israeli ships. Twelve members of the Hague Group, formed to challenge Israeli impunity, have formally committed to banning arms transfers and blocking military-related shipments at their ports. Sweden and the Netherlands have urged the EU to adopt sanctions on Israel, including suspending the EU-Israel trade deal.

    But most of the 124 countries that voted to demand an end to the occupation have done very little to enforce those demands. If they fail to enforce them now, they will only confirm Israel’s presumption that its corrupt influence on U.S. politics still ensures blanket impunity for systematic war crimes.

    In response to this unconscionable state of affairs, Palestine’s UN Representative has formally asked the UN to authorize an international military protection force for Gaza to help with the delivery of humanitarian aid and protect civilians. So has the largest coalition of Palestinian NGOs, PNGO, as well as pro-Palestine groups and leaders such as Ireland’s President Michael D. Higgins. There’s a growing global movement calling for the UN General Assembly to take up this request in another Emergency Special Session when it meets this month. That would be well within the authority of the General Assembly in a case like this, where the Security Council has been hijacked by the U.S. abuse of its veto power.

    Whether or not this initiative for a protective force succeeds, the truth is that the governments of the world already have countless ways to support Palestine—they simply need to muster the political will to act. Israel is a small country that depends on imports from countries all over the world. It has diversified sources for many essential products, and, although the United States supplies 70% of its weapons imports, many other countries also supply weapons and critical parts of its infernal war machine. Israel’s dependence on complicated international supply chains is the weakest link in its presumption that it can thumb its nose at the world and kill with impunity.

    If the large majority of countries that have already voted for an end to the occupation are ready to back their words and their votes with coordinated action, a UN-led trade boycott, divestment campaign and arms embargo can put enormous pressure on Israel to end its genocide and starvation of Gaza, and its occupation of Palestine. With full participation by enough countries, Israel’s position could quickly become unsustainable.

    Two years into a genocide, it is shameful that the world’s governments haven’t already done this, and that their people have to plead, protest and push them into action through a dense fog of spin and propaganda, while leaders mouth the right words yet keep doing the wrong things.

    Many people compare the problem the world faces in Israel to the crisis over apartheid South Africa. The similarity lies not only in their racism, but also in the western countries’ shameful complicity in their human rights abuses and lack of concern for the lives of their victims. It is surely no coincidence that the United States, with its own history of genocide, slavery and apartheid, acted as the main diplomatic supporter and military supplier of apartheid South Africa, and now of Israel.

    But it took over 30 years, from the first UN arms embargo and oil sanctions in 1963 to the final lifting of UN sanctions in 1994, before UN action helped bring down the apartheid regime in South Africa. It was not until 1977 that the UN even made its arms embargo binding on all members. In the case of Israel and Palestine, the world cannot wait 30 years for its actions to have an impact. What will be left to salvage of Palestine if the UN can only counter Israel’s genocide and America’s bombs with endless court rulings, resolutions and declarations, but no decisive action?

    One initiative that will be debated and voted on in the General Assembly is the one advanced by France and Saudi Arabia. In July they hosted a high-level UN conference on the “Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the implementation of the Two State Solution.” But its agenda is weak and it avoids any strong action to pressure Israel to end the genocide or the occupation.

    The first steps the declaration calls for are a ceasefire in Gaza, the restoration of the Palestinian Authority’s control of Gaza, and then the deployment of an international military “stabilization” force. But Israel has already rejected the first two steps, and critics warn that a stabilization force would mean foreign troops deployed in Gaza, not to protect Palestinians from Israeli bombs and bulldozers, but to police them, contain resistance, and reinforce Israeli demands.

    Moreover, the declaration contains no enforcement mechanism. Instead, it offers only carrots—promises of recognition, trade, and arms deals—while Israel pays no price for continuing its crimes.

    And while the declaration could pave the way for more Western countries to join the 147 countries that already recognize Palestine as an independent state, without concrete pressure on Israel to agree to a ceasefire in Gaza and end the occupation, such recognition risks being symbolic at best—and, at worst, may embolden Israel to accelerate its campaign of mass killing, settlement expansion, and annexation before the world can act.

    What is urgently needed is for the General Assembly to hold an Emergency Special Session to vote on a UN protection force, as well as a UN-led arms embargo, trade boycott and divestment from Israel, conditioned on ending the genocide in Gaza and the post-1967 occupation of the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

    The arms embargo and economic measures against Israel should be binding on all UN members, with the full support of the UN secretariat, which can provide staff to organize and supervise them, in coordination with UN members. China, the largest supplier of Israeli imports, and Turkey, which was the third largest before it cut off trade with Israel, should both be ready to take leadership roles in a UN boycott and arms embargo. The European Union collectively does even more trade with Israel than China, and has failed to unite against the genocide, but strong UN leadership could help Europe to overcome its divisions and join the campaign.

    As for the United States, its role in this crisis, under Biden and now under Trump, is to encourage Israel’s crimes, provide unlimited weapons, veto every Security Council resolution, and oppose every international attempt to end the slaughter. Even as majorities of ordinary Americans now side with the Palestinians and oppose U.S. military support for Israel, the oligarchy that rules America is as guilty of genocide as Israel itself. As the world comes together to confront Israel’s crimes, it will also have to confront the reality that Israel is not acting alone, but in partnership with the United States of America.

    Aggressors and bullies get their way by dividing their enemies and picking them off one at a time, as the world has seen the European colonial powers and now the United States do for centuries. What every aggressor or bully fears most is united opposition and resistance.

    Israel and the U.S. currently apply huge political pressure against countries and institutions that take action to boycott, sanction or divest from Israel, as Norway has by its decision to divest its sovereign wealth fund from Caterpillar for supplying bulldozers to demolish homes in Palestine. In a world that is truly united to end Israel’s genocide, threats of U.S. and Israeli retaliation would isolate the United States and Israel more than those they target.

    Recent UN General Assemblies have heard many speeches lamenting the UN’s failure to fulfill its most vital purpose, to ensure peace and security for all, and how the veto power of the five permanent members (P5) of the Security Council prevents the UN from tackling the world’s most serious problems. If, at this year’s UN General Assembly, the world can come together to confront the holocaust of our time in Gaza, this could mark the birth of a reenergized and newly united UN—one finally capable of  fulfilling its intended role in building a peaceful, sustainable, multipolar world.

    The post How the UN Can Act Decisively to End Genocide in Gaza first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • Plausible Parody: A ‘Property Development’ Theory of Geopolitics

    Since resuming residence in the White House a few months ago, it has not been difficult to detect in President Trump’s behaviour traces of his background as a real estate deal maker. Indeed, it could be said that his statements and actions since becoming president demonstrate a clear predisposition to perceive geopolitics predominantly as an arena of opportunity for ‘property development’. ‘Property’ defined in a broad sense to include any high value natural resource, land, or other asset that can be turned into profit.

    We argue that the acquisition of such assets by fair means or foul (mainly the latter) and/or the control of access (for example, waterways) to them are important features of the president’s megalomaniacal self-image as the world’s new colossus and that they have a determining influence on his view of geopolitics and hence on US foreign policy.

    In some well-known cases, such as Palestine, President Trump has already expressed his interest explicitly in these terms.

    Conveniently, and perhaps not coincidentally, the president’s predilections in these respects dovetail beautifully with the insatiable appetites of late-stage capitalism, which depends for its survival on the acquisition and consumption of ever-increasing quantities of ‘property’. You might say that it is a union made in oligarchic heaven.

    Below, as plausible parody, we outline a Property Development Theory of Geopolitics (PDTG) as follows: first, we set out the criteria employed to identify target countries for property acquisition; and second, on the basis of those criteria, we draw up a property development country hit list, which reflects our best estimates of countries at risk of invasion or attack.

    This list can be used to assess the predictive validity of our theory as measured by the vigour with which countries on the list are attacked militarily and in other ways by the US and/or its allies and proxies.

    Country Assessment Criteria and Hit List

    Countries that might be regarded as prime targets are identified in terms of the following criteria:

    First, the richness of their natural resources (a sine qua non). Does the country have enough ‘property development’ potential to warrant and maintain the president’s attention?

    Second, the ease with which the country can be demonised as a mortal threat to the ‘democratic way of life’ or as a terrorist haven, a source of refugees and/or drugs (etc.) and can therefore be made a ‘legitimate’ target for invasion or some other form of attack such as economic sanctions, targeted assassinations, and so on. This would enable the US to employ the tried and tested method of attacking the country concerned in order to save both its own people as well as the rest of the world, as was the case in Afghanistan and Iraq.

    Third, the military strength of the country and whether proxy states or other agents such as mercenaries can be used to do the dirty work for the US.

    Fourth, the degree to which the US government is subject to determining influences such as those exerted by Israel in relation to Palestine and Iran and/or strong pressure from major corporations and/or the target country has significant regional strategic significance.

    We have excluded Russia and China from our list because they are military superpowers that would not be susceptible to conventional US imperial smash and grab methods involving direct military attack.

    Neither have we included Ukraine. While undoubtedly asset rich, Ukraine’s notional status as a US ally and as the US/Nato proxy in the war with Russia largely exempts it from imperial smash and grab. It is conceivable also that the US will do an asset sharing deal with Russia and compel Ukraine and Nato to accept it.

    The absence from our list of erstwhile US target favourites like North Korea and Cuba is explained by the paucity of their assets and their relatively high military strength and the absence of suitable proxies. Their political misbehaviour in the eyes of the US is punished by extensive economic sanctions.

    We have included Palestine because we believe that the US will allow Israel to complete its occupation and ethnic cleansing of Gaza, the destruction of its infrastructure, and the expulsion of its inhabitants. Its asset richness stems from the high value and significance to Israel (and therefore the US) of the land it occupies and its reserves of natural gas.

    As we have suggested elsewhere, Iran’s heretofore underestimated military strength makes it a high-risk target for the US and Israel, but this is heavily outweighed by its maximum scores on the other criteria, making further military attacks against it a certainty in the short term.

    The first three countries in the high susceptibility category are all high value in terms of assets or ‘property’ and relatively low risk military targets.

    In particular, the DRC and the CAR have long been subjected to various forms of foreign state-supported corporate predation (using mercenaries etc.), are weak militarily, and the governance circumstances of the two countries have been reduced to ‘failed state’ status.

    By some calculations, the DRC is the world’s richest country in terms of natural resources.

    Regarding Venezuela, whose oil reserves are the largest in the world, President Trump’s ambitions were made clear in late August 2025 when he despatched three US warships armed with cruise missiles to the Venezuelan coast. Venezuela’s high demonisation score is accounted for by its socialist government.

    Panama and Greenland are less attractive for the reasons given in Table 1, but this does not preclude them from attack. Greenland’s inclusion as a semi-autonomous region within the Kingdom of Denmark and Denmark’s authority over its foreign and defence policies explain its score on military strength.

    Conclusion

    The serious purpose of this plausible parody is to identify in rank order a hit list of countries that according to our PDTG will become the next victims of US imperialism under President Trump or, where they are already subject to attack, US or US-supported aggression against them will be intensified.

    The other purpose is to demonstrate the depths to which international relations has sunk under the current US administration, which, given their normal abysmal state, required a deep dive.

    The implications for those countries that we deem to be either ‘certainties’ or ‘high risk’ are particularly sinister. Clearly, their interest in the predictive validity of our theory will be neither light-hearted nor academic.

    The post Plausible Parody: A ‘Property Development’ Theory of Geopolitics first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • UK has delivered over £500m in arms parts to Israel’s genocide efforts

    The Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) have released a blistering new report that shows the scale of UK complicity in Israel’s genocide against Palestine. In spite of the government’s ostensible ban on arms exports to Israel, CAAT explain how the UK is still funding Israel’s genocide.

    CAAT state that the UK is using a loophole to provide:

    crucial components for Israel’s 45 F-35 combat aircraft, so long as they are supplied indirectly via the US or other countries, rather than directly to Israel. These are used to bomb Gaza at an extraordinary level of intensity, requiring a constant supply of spare parts.

    Not only that, the report outlines how, aside from trade in arms, there are numerous ways that the UK is supporting Israel:

    • training Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) in the UK
    • surveillance flights carried out by the RAF and sharing intelligence with Israel
    • use of a UK military base in Cyprus for arms deliveries and surveillance flights

    Remarkably, CAAT also found that in the three months after the arms export ban, the value of arms exported to Israel actually increased.

    Genocide assistance from the UK

    Lockheed Martin are the primary producer of the F-35 fighter jet. However, the UK is one of a number of countries that produce parts for the F-35. Currently, Israel has 45 of these fighter jets, with a further 30 incoming. As is typical for mainstream media, CAAT have also found that such outlets have been underreporting the actual value of the parts which the UK produces. In order to continue their staggering continuation of carpet bombing Gaza, Israel is very much in need of a regular supply of parts for their fleet of F:35 jets.

    Instead, when considering both production and replacement parts that are sold to the US and make their way to Israel, CAAT found that:

    While only a small proportion of F-35s go to Israel, overall the F-35 programme is worth billions a year to the UK arms industry. UK arms companies have $7.8 billion worth of contracts for production for the F-35, of which BAE Systems alone accounts for $6.6 billion.

    And, since 2016:

    the estimated value of UK F-35 component supplies to Israel of £572 million represents almost half the total value of UK arms sales to Israel.

    It couldn’t be clearer. The UK is playing an active role in Israel’s genocide. Not only that, it’s propping up its economy with the blood of Palestinians.

    So, how have the UK been able to play such a big role in the genocide whilst adhering to the arms exports ban?

    Single Individual Export Licences

    CAAT accessed government export licence data to discover that the use of “Single Individual Export Licences” (SIELs):

    for UK arms sales to Israel between 2015-24 was £633 million. SIELs allow a company to export a fixed quantity and value of specified equipment to a specified destination country. They are the only type of export licence to which a financial value is attached.

    The UK have been exporting arms to the US, who have in turn been moving the arms to Israel for their use in Palestine.

    As CAAT outline, it’s no accident that the number of SIELs increased after the government’s ban on arms exports to Israel. Information as to the specific equipment is not public. However, through the use of a freedom of information (FOI) request, CAAT found that SIELs issued for export to the US (and then to Israel) from October 2021 to the end of 2023 were worth £165.4 million. This included:

    • £97.8 million for components for combat aircraft

    • £42.1 million for components (and software) for military aero-engines

    • £25.5 million for components for launching/handling/control equipment

    for missiles.

    And, these figures are the ones that are not reported in mainstream media when it comes to assessing the value of UK arms exports to Israel. SIELs are only one type of open export licence – where arms can be exported to a specific destination – that the UK has been using. CAAT found that the use of Open Individual Export Licences (OIELs) and Open General Export Licences (OGELs) have also been used. Therefore:

    CAAT estimates that open licenses cover roughly half of all UK arms exports. This, combined with the fact it is impossible to know how much equipment is actually exported using these licenses, means there is a severe lack of transparency in the UK arms export system. CAAT has long argued for radical changes in this area to enable a proper, informed public debate about UK arms exports.

    Embedded in genocide

    The UK is firmly embedded in the genocide of Palestine. CAAT detail on their website on interactive map that shows the 75 companies involved in production of the F-35. But, in their report, they make it clear how crucial UK locations are for the continued use of Israel’s fighter jet of choice:

    Key components and subsystems made in the UK include:

    • The rear fuselage is produced by BAE Systems in Samlesbury, Lancashire

    • The active interceptor system is produced by BAE Systems in Rochester, Kent

    • The targeting lasers for the F-35’s electro-optic targeting system, produced by

    Leonardo in Edinburgh

    • The bomb release cables for the F-35, made by L3Harris in Brighton.

    CAAT conclude that:

    The F-35 is almost certainly the single largest and most important part of the UK arms trade with Israel, and it makes the UK directly complicit in Israel’s genocidal acts.

    And it’s a complicity that the government is all too aware of. After all, the original partial ban of arms exports to Israel was implemented over concerns that Israel was not complying with international humanitarian law. The International Association of Genocide Scholars have determined that Israel is committing genocide. A United Nations commission has found that Israel is committing war crimes and crimes against humanity. Human Rights Watch have found that Israel is not in compliance with international law. The list of experts and institutions seeing Israel’s genocide for what it is goes on.

    But, as we said, the UK government is well aware of all this. And they’ve still chosen, abhorrently, to use loopholes to maintain their support for Israel’s genocide.

    Featured image via Unsplash/Nino Steffen

    By Maryam Jameela

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Gaza just recorded its highest daily death toll from famine

    The Ministry of Health in Gaza announced that the famine imposed by the Israeli occupation has claimed the lives of 13 Palestinians, including three children, in the past 24 hours, the highest daily toll since the hunger crisis in the Gaza Strip worsened.

    Gaza: starved to death by Israel

    The ministry said in a statement that the total number of malnutrition victims has risen to 361, including 130 children, since October 2023. The previous highest toll was recorded on 25 August, with 11 deaths.

    It added that “since the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) announced famine in Gaza, 83 deaths have been recorded, including 15 children.” In a report released on August 22, the UN initiative warned that the famine that has struck the city of Gaza (north) is likely to spread to Deir al-Balah and Khan Yunis by the end of September.

    Since March 2, the occupation has continued to completely close the crossings into the Strip, allowing only a very limited number of trucks loaded with aid to enter, pushing Gaza to the brink of an unprecedented humanitarian disaster.

    On Monday 1 September, the government media office said that only 534 aid trucks had managed to enter the Strip in five days, out of an expected 3,000, and that some of them had been looted and stolen.

    In the past, relevant international and civil society organizations have warned of the worsening famine and malnutrition that has been plaguing Gaza for months, without the world moving to save the children who are dying of hunger every day.

    This comes at a time when the US-backed Israeli war on Gaza has been ongoing since 7 October 2023, leaving more than 63,000 dead and 160,000 wounded, most of them women and children, in addition to thousands missing and hundreds of thousands displaced.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Alaa Shamali

    This post was originally published on Canary.