Ramaswamy accuses Google of attempting to “rig this election” after YouTube deletes channel of creator who interviewed him
By Cindy Harper | Reclaim The Net | January 11, 2024
GOP Presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has accused Big Tech of engineering electoral outcomes through censorship measures. This comes following YouTube’s banning of a popular conservative online personality who had just conducted an interview with Ramaswamy.
GOP presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy and video creator shaneyyricch have both vociferously criticized YouTube.
As per shaneyyricch, his channel had racked up a substantial 150,000 followers and had garnered over 185 million views in merely three months.
Despite this, it was terminated without any warning or given justification by YouTube. A ban slapped on him for violating community rules, he insists, had not been preceded by any strikes against his account.
Undeterred, he promised to keep generating content on X and Rumble.
In the wake of his unexpected ban, shaneyyricch shared the video he recorded with Ramaswarmy on X, soliciting opinions on why it could’ve possibly led to the termination of his YouTube channel.
As part of the content in consideration, Ramaswamy elaborates on several proposed changes for the electoral process, including one-day-only voting, making the Election Day a national holiday, mandating voter IDs, and sticking to paper ballots.
In a public denunciation of YouTube, Ramaswamy declared, “Big Tech censorship to rig an election…who would have ever imagined.”
He then threw an open challenge to Google, stating, “If Google is going to rig this election, just end the charade & say so. That seems to be the message they’re sending.”
Former Ukrainian chief prosecutor ‘fired’ for Biden could be assassinated – ex-MP
Viktor Shokin has dirt on the US president’s family and Kiev is using him as a bargaining chip, Andrey Derkach has claimed
Viktor Shokin in February 2015, after his appointment as Prosecutor General. © Vladimir Shtanko / Anadolu Agency / Getty Images
RT | January 11, 2024
The former Prosecutor General of Ukraine, Viktor Shokin, who was famously sacked by then-President Pyotr Poroshenko under pressure from US President Joe Biden, is being used by the current government in Kiev as a bargaining chip with Washington, controversial former MP Andrey Derkach has claimed in an interview.
Biden had Poroshenko sack Shokin in 2016, when he was vice president in the Obama administration, threatening to withhold a $1 billion loan unless his demands were met. The now-incumbent US president claimed that the Ukrainian prosecutor was corrupt, but also bragged about getting rid of the man. Critics of Biden have alleged that he used his office to derail an investigation into the gas firm Burisma, which infamously retained his son Hunter on a well-paid board position during his father’s tenure as Obama’s VP.
Derkach made his explosive claims in an interview recorded in Minsk, Belarus, with Italian-US journalist Simona Mangiante, published on Wednesday on X (formerly Twitter).
“Shokin is now a hostage on Ukrainian territory. As far as I know, he is not allowed to leave Ukraine. He is under the total control of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU),” he claimed.
President Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken on the US side, and President Vladimir Zelensky and his chief-of-staff Andrey Yermak on the Ukrainian side, are interested in information possessed by Shokin, according to Derkach.
He claimed that last October Shokin had contacts with two attorneys “working with the US Congress,” Jake Greenberg and Clark Abourisk. The SBU “recorded those conversations, where Shokin told the Congress about real criminal acts of Blinken and Biden, and about the corruption of the Biden family.”
The former official said he’d been tipped off about the surveillance by sources inside the SBU. Derkach is an intelligence officer by background and served in the Ukrainian agency before being elected to parliament.
He claimed that his sources had told him that “the question of liquidating Mr Shokin on the territory of Ukraine is under consideration.” He urged the US Congress to ensure the man’s safety and extraction from his home country.
Derkach spoke in Russian throughout the hour-long interview and touched on a number of sensitive aspects of US-Ukraine relations, including those he’d been personally involved in.
He was the official that published in 2020 what he claimed to be recordings of conversations that Biden and Poroshenko had in 2015-2016. In the interview this week he claimed that at the time he was acting with the blessing of Zelensky’s office, which was seeking to discredit the former president.
Washington branded Derkach a Russian agent in 2022 and indicted him for allegedly interfering in the 2020 US presidential elections. Last year, Ukraine accused him of treason, also claiming he was working for Moscow. Zelensky stripped him of his Ukrainian citizenship in January 2023.
Derkach has denied the accusations and claims in the interview that the Ukrainian charges against him were brought after Kiev failed to dispose of him by other means, on a direct request from Antony Blinken.
Moscow mocks US claims it used North Korean missiles
RT | January 11, 2024
The US is peddling false information when claiming that Russia used North Korean missiles to attack Ukrainian targets, Russian envoy to the UN Vassily Nebenzia told a Security Council meeting on Wednesday.
Washington has accused Russia of buying North Korean ballistic missiles and using them during mass strikes on Ukrainian targets on December 13, and also last week. US national security spokesperson John Kirby described it as “significant and concerning escalation” in remarks last Thursday. Washington’s allies brought up the issue at the UNSC briefing on Ukraine.
Nebenzia brushed off the allegations, citing statements by a Ukrainian official. Yury Ignat, the spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force, said on national television that no forensic evidence to confirm the US claims was available to Kiev.
“It turns out that the United States replicates deliberately false information without even bothering to give a heads-up to its direct subjects,” the Russian diplomat remarked during the briefing.
North Korea is under UN sanctions, which include an arms embargo, for developing nuclear weapons and ICBMs. Moscow and Pyongyang have stated that while the two have a good relationship, their cooperation does not violate this restriction, contrary to Western claims.
South Korean ambassador Hwang Joon-kook accused Russia of testing North Korean weapons as part of its military action against Ukraine, and providing “valuable technical and military insights” to the producer nation. He cited unspecified experts as identifying the weapons as KN-23s, which North Korea claims to be nuclear-capable.
Ignat, the military spokesman, said that positively identifying a ballistic missile as North Korean would be challenging due to their similarity to Russian equivalents, and significant fragmentation on impact. Both nations’ designs stem from Soviet technology.
Another Ukrainian official, Oleg Sinegubov, head of the administration of Kharkov Region, claimed that some of the fragments recovered from Russian missile strike sites had had their markings erased, which he suggested indicated their foreign origin.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov previously rejected allegations that Moscow was procuring North Korean arms. In an interview in October, he said he does not comment on “rumors”, adding that “the Americans are always accusing everyone of all sorts of things”.
West frustrated by Global South’s refusal to abandon Russia in secret US-G7 meeting on Ukraine
By Ahmed Adel | January 11, 2024
A secret meeting took place in December in the Saudi Arabian capital between the United States, Ukraine, its G7 allies and a small group of countries from the Global South to try to drum up support for Kiev’s conditions for resolving the conflict with Moscow. Russia was not invited to the meeting, and China decided not to send a representative, reported Bloomberg, whilst Brazil stressed any such meeting must have a Russian presence.
According to Bloomberg, the meeting’s secrecy was intended, in part, to make participating countries feel more comfortable joining, as it was believed that the smaller format would allow for a freer and more frank discussion on the so-called peace formula for Ukraine. However, according to people familiar with the meeting and interviewed by Bloomberg, there was no major progress as Ukraine and its G7 allies continued to resist calls from Global South nations to engage directly with Russia.
Although senior officials from India, Saudi Arabia and Turkey attended the December meeting in Riyadh, other major Global South nations that participated in some of the previous larger sessions – such as China, Brazil, and the United Arab Emirates – did not send their representatives.
Brazil, which presides over the G20 this year, contributed to the secret meeting with only a written statement prepared by the International Affairs advisor to the Presidency of the Republic, Celso Amorim. Brazil was invited but was unable to attend due to incompatibility in Amorim’s agenda.
According to Jamil Chade’s column on the Brazilian portal UOL, Amorim sent a letter to the authorities who mediated the December meeting in Riyadh and clarified Brazil’s disappointment in the conduct of the process since the meetings do not have the other party necessary, Russia, to reach an agreement.
“Initially, we were encouraged by the untapped potential of this group’s restricted format, which could eventually serve as a facilitator between the two conflicting sides […]. Our contribution aimed to promote direct or indirect dialogue between the two parties […],” the former minister of foreign affairs said.
“[But] as the conflict prepares to enter its third year, there is still no opening for dialogue or a credible prospect for an end to hostilities […] the willingness of the parties to engage in talks is critical for the success of our diplomatic efforts,” stated Amorim, pointing out that it was precisely this disposition that allowed the tension between Venezuela and Guyana to be prevented from becoming a hot war.
When contacted by UOL, Amorim explained that he was “considering” whether to go to Davos but was unsure.
“In our interaction with Russia and Ukraine, we constantly emphasise our belief that dialogue is essential for this process to produce results. We invite them to create diplomatic opportunities […] Brazil remains committed to renewing its engagement in the Copenhagen process, as soon as the parties are willing to start an authentic dialogue […],” added the Brazilian government in the letter.
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has already warned Zelensky that a peace process cannot be unilateral, while other emerging countries, mainly those from the Global South, have insisted that there is no way to endorse the Ukrainian plan without involving the Russians in the debates, writes the portal.
On January 14, Switzerland and Ukraine will host the fourth meeting in Davos to work on a solution to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. However, once again, the meeting’s agenda will be limited to the unrealistic peace plan of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and will not be attended by representatives from Moscow, thus ensuring its failure.
Under these conditions, Brazil is not wasting time on failed initiatives, especially when trade relations with Russia are booming. Last December, trade volume between Russia and Brazil grew 80%, reaching $1.6 billion for the first time, according to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).
Brazil acquired goods from Russia at the end of last year worth a total of $1.5 billion, which became the largest volume of purchases in modern history. The main import commodity was petroleum derivatives, at a record value of $1.1 billion. As a result, Moscow has become the South American country’s largest supplier of this commodity.
Latin America’s largest and most important country will not sacrifice trade relations with Russia or waste time with failed initiatives that will never eventuate because Zelensky has unrealistic demands on how to achieve peace, such as the full withdrawal of the Russian state from newly liberated territories and even Crimea, despite having no leverage to make such demands. In this way, there is little surprise that the secret meeting in Riyadh was destined only for failure.
Ahmed Adel is a Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher.
Henry Kissinger and his legacy as a war criminal
Press TV – January 11, 2024
Henry Kissinger was one of the most influential US statesmen of the 20th century, who shamelessly used his position to manipulate the United States into providing unequivocal support to Israel.
As a hardcore Zionist, Kissinger was incredibly Machiavellian, but unlike his modern-day equivalents, he was not stupid and he certainly was not demented. Kissinger was also the architect of some of the 20th century’s worst human rights abuses and war crimes.
Henry Kissinger, his life and legacy
The passing of a war criminal, the death of Henry Kissinger at 100 years old marks the end of a bloody life.
Kissinger is well known for his role in engineering the coup that brought General Pinochet to power in Chile and overthrowing the democratically elected leader, Salvador Allende.
Kissinger’s fingerprints were all over the wars from Vietnam to Cambodia to East Timor to Bangladesh.
Less well known though, is Kissinger’s role in the neutralization of Egypt as an effective actor in the struggle against Zionism and the marginalization of Palestinians by regional allies.
It’s fair to say you would not have the same level of Egyptian complicity that you have today, including the genocidal blockade on Gaza at the Rafah crossing, without Kissinger’s work to subvert the powerful Arab state.
As Secretary of State under Richard Nixon, Kissinger was intimately involved in saving Israel in the 1973 war of attrition fought by Syria, Egypt, and Libya against the settler entity.
When the Zionists suffered consecutive losses, Kissinger and Nixon organized the emergency supply of weapons to the entity in a move known as Operation Nickel Grass.
The operation consisted of the US Air Force Military Airlift Command, delivering 22,325 tons of tanks, ammunition, and military equipment, over 32 days, directly to the battlefield.
Following the war, Egyptian leader Anwar Sadat sent a secret message to Zionist Prime Minister Golda Meir: “When I threatened war, I meant it; when I talk of peace now, I mean it. We have never had contact before, We now have the services of Dr. Kissinger. Let us use him and talk to each other through him”, asserted Sadat.
It was Kissinger who took Sadat under his wing and convinced him of the benefit of normalizing with the temporary entity. This work culminated with the visit of the Egyptian leader to the Israeli parliament, where he addressed the Israeli political elite, stating his desire for peace with the entity.
The infrastructure of collaboration that was set up during his time remains in place. When marking the death of Kissinger, Israeli President, Isaac Herzog, credited the former US Secretary of State with laying the cornerstone of the peace agreement between Egypt and the Zionist entity.
Israel lobbyist and former US ambassador to Israel, Martin Indyk, wrote a book about Kissinger’s political career with a special concentration on his services to Israel in 1981.
In reference to his diplomatic work in the Middle East, Kissinger asserted that his main objective was to isolate the Palestinians.
The truth is that Palestinians are not isolated, and support for them has outlived Henry Kissinger.
Six Palestinians killed as Israeli jets bomb ambulance in Gaza
Wreckage of an ambulance after an Israeli attack on Wednesday in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, on January 11, 2024 [Ashraf Amra/Anadolu Agency]
MEMO | January 11, 2024
At least six people were killed in an Israeli air strike on an ambulance in the central Gaza Strip yesterday, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said.
Four Red Crescent members were among the victims of the attack that targeted an ambulance in Deir Al-Balah, the humanitarian organisation said in a statement.
Several ambulances and healthcare facilities have repeatedly been targeted by Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
Israel has pounded the Palestinian enclave since 7 October, killing at least 23,357 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injuring 59,410 others, according to local health authorities.
About 85 per cent of Palestinians in Gaza have been displaced, while all face the risk of famine and starvation as a result of Israel’s denial of the entry of food aid.
Blocking food to Gaza will have life-long health impact on children, Save the Children warns
Gazan children among makeshift tents try to continue their lives under harsh conditions, in Rafah, Gaza on January 9, 2024 [Abed Zagout/Anadolu Agency]
MEMO | January 11, 2024
Denying children in Gaza access to food and basic supplies will have lifelong consequences for their health, Save the Children warned.
Since 7 October, an Israeli-imposed siege has left all one million children in Gaza without enough to eat, including about 335,000 children under five now at risk of severe malnutrition or starvation.
Palestinians are unable to find essential food items in markets. One Save the Children staff member in Rafah in the south of Gaza said her eight-year-old child often goes to bed hungry because they are unable to cook anything without gas.
A World Food Programme (WFP) report found that the prices of essential items like cooking gas had surged by about 435 per cent in the past three months. Food aid distributions continue to be largely limited to Rafah, with other areas rarely reached by humanitarian agencies.
“There is a severe shortage of food, particularly in northern Gaza, which has been almost completely cut off from aid,” the charity said. Organisations providing food assistance have found that families’ food supplies are depleting more quickly than can be replenished through the trickle of aid allowed into Gaza. Two-thirds of shops in Gaza have reported that essential goods have depleted in recent weeks, including flour, eggs and dairy, according to WFP.
Global Head of Policy & Advocacy, Health and Nutrition at Save the Children, Hannah Stephenson, said: “This is an entirely man-made catastrophe that is causing devastating physical and mental harm to children, with potentially deadly and life-altering consequences.”
“As children in Gaza experience worsening hunger, their bodies become weaker. They will become acutely malnourished. Their muscles begin to waste away, their vision blurs, their immune systems fail. Disease is inevitable, with pneumonia and diarrhea the leading killers of children in this weakened state. The children who survive the bombardment but are pushed to starvation will be stunted, experiencing irreversible impacts to their physical and cognitive abilities.”
With restrictions on commercial goods entering Gaza and local food severely damaged, humanitarian aid remains the 2.3 million population’s main lifeline. But intensified violence, recurrent communication blackouts, restrictions on items allowed in and a cumbersome, bureaucratic process to send aid into Gaza have crippled the humanitarian response.
In recent weeks, NGO-supported shelters, hospitals and even aid convoys have come under fire. Over the last several months, the Israeli authorities have denied goods from entering Gaza that include items used for cooking and drinking such as solar-powered generators,and refrigerators, as well as water purification devices, according to humanitarian agencies. All these items are essential for an effective aid response at the scale needed to save lives in Gaza.
“Israeli authorities are denying children in Gaza access to lifesaving food and services. The deprivation of sufficient food, water, and medicine is rendering child survival in Gaza nearly impossible. Families are being isolated into areas unable to sustain human life,” Elizabeth White, a Save the Children director in the occupied Palestinian territory, said.
Children who survive the bombing campaign, she explained, “will likely face lifelong physical and mental health issues, robbing a generation of any chance of a healthy life and future.”
Killing and banning journalists reveals what Israel wants to conceal
By Ramona Wadi | MEMO | January 11, 2024
On Monday, Israel’s High Court declared that the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) can continue barring foreign journalists from entering Gaza, on the pretext of security concerns. According to the court decision, foreign journalists can place “an undue onus on IDF resources in wartime,” reported the Times of Israel.
As Israel faces accusations of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the ruling sheds light on the urgency for Israel to prevent further scrutiny by the media of what’s happening in Gaza. The IDF has implemented several constraints on media, including guidelines of what should not be published and what should be approved by the Israeli military censor. In a statement issuing directives to the media, Kobi Mandeblit, Brigadier General Chief Censor, introduces them thus: “In light of the current security situation and the intensive media coverage, we wish to encourage you to submit to the Censor all materials dealing with the activities of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) and the Israeli security forces prior to their broadcast.” What we happen to see on mainstream media from journalists embedded with the IDF, therefore, is not only heavily censored, but also definitely in line with the Zionist narrative “Israel good, Palestinians bad”. Footage showing Israeli atrocities are accompanied by claims that Israel is abiding by international law and doing everything possible to prevent civilian casualties.
Moreover, on mainstream media pro-Palestine voices are talked over without giving them the chance to articulate the reality of what is happening in Gaza. Footage showing Israeli atrocities are accompanied by claims that Israel is abiding by international law and doing everything possible to prevent civilian casualties. In Gaza, Palestinian journalists are targeted deliberately in extrajudicial killings, despite their very clear “Press” vests and helmets. As of today, at least 79 journalists have been killed in Gaza, 72 of them Palestinian; 16 have been wounded; three are reported missing; and 21 have been arrested by Israel. Other sources put the number killed at 100, and this is besides other forms of violence against them, including killing the family members of Palestinian journalists.
In the most recent extrajudicial killing of journalists, Hamza Dahdouh, the son of Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Gaza Wael Dahdouh, and Mustafa Thuraya, were killed by an Israeli missile strike on their vehicle. The IDF justified the killing by saying terrorists were being targeted. Later, the story changed, with IDF spokesperson Daniel Hangari explaining: “We understand they were putting a drone, using a drone. And using a drone in a war zone, it’s a problem. It looks like the terrorists.”
But what does a terrorist look like? As Israelis’ justifications for genocide become further deranged, so do their actions. The targeting of journalists is nothing new for the apartheid state. Shireen Abu Akleh’s murder in Jenin in 2022 garnered the most media attention due to her dual Palestinian-US citizenship. Even so, justice didn’t prevail.
In Gaza today, the presence of journalists and their protection is of utmost importance. But not for Israel. Palestinian journalists are being killed by the IDF with the ludicrous suggestion that they look like terrorists, while international journalists are barred from the enclave due to purported security concerns and added logistics for the IDF. In Israel’s narrative, the only way to protect journalists is to prevent them from entering Gaza and reporting remotely, otherwise journalists suddenly “look like terrorists” and are thus subject to being murdered, just as Palestinian civilians have been murdered by the US-supplied Israeli bombs and bullets.
The truth is that journalists have brought Israel’s genocide to worldwide attention, exposing how the use of “never again” in the Zionist narrative has become the façade for Israel and the international community’s complicity in allowing the colonisation of Palestine to take place and continue unabated. However, there are moments where silence never works. For months, the world has been shown proof of Israel’s genocidal actions. Shutting out journalists by preventing access or killing them only points towards the brutality that Israel would rather not expose. In doing so, Israel has invited unwanted attention, and now there is no escaping it.
Israel staring at Paris Olympics ban for killing Palestinian athletes
By Reza Javadi | Press TV | January 11, 2024
The Palestinian football fraternity is mourning the loss of Hani Al-Mossader, a veteran player and coach of the Palestinian Olympic football team, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza last week.
Known as Abu al-Abed in the football circles of Palestine, he became the latest victim of the occupying regime’s genocidal war, which has not even spared athletes.
“Abu al-Abed rose (to martyrdom – PC) due to the occupation aggression on the Gaza Strip for the third month, joining the constellation of football martyrs and martyrs of the Palestinian sports movement,” the Palestinian Football Association said in a statement.
According to Palestinian media, since October 7, at least 88 Palestinian athletes have been killed in Israeli airstrikes, with 67 football players among them.
“At least 88 athletes in team and individual sports, including 67 football players were killed. Additionally, 24 officials from managerial and technical staff also lost their lives in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza,” read a statement posted on the official PFA website.
The association said it has sent “urgent letters to the International Olympic Committee and all international, continental and regional federations (including FIFA) calling for an urgent international investigation into the crimes of the occupation against sports and the in Palestine.”
Sports infrastructure in the besieged coastal territory has also come under devastating Israeli aerial blitz in the past three months, resulting in widespread destruction.
Condemning the Israeli army’s actions, the Gaza-based Supreme Council for Sports said the Israeli army has killed hundreds of sports figures and destroyed dozens of playfields.
Playfields turn into torture chambers
The council said stadiums and sports clubs have turned into torture and execution centers, including the Yarmuk Stadium in Gaza City.
Images and videos showing young Palestinians being stripped down to their underwear and held in large numbers at gunpoint by the Israeli army in the Yarmuk Stadium, in northern Gaza, came as a shock to many football fans worldwide.
The Gaza-based council urged international authorities to take decisive action and hold the regime forces accountable for inhumane activities inflicted upon athletes.
In mid-December, a PFA report highlighted the destruction of at least nine sports facilities, four in the occupied West Bank and five in the Gaza Strip.
It also sounded alarm over the detention of athletes in the occupied West Bank towns, and injuries they sustained during Israeli military raids.
In Late December, a prominent Palestinian footballer, Ahmed Daraghmeh, 23, was killed by Israeli forces when they entered the city of Nablus to escort Jewish settlers to a site known as the biblical Joseph’s Tomb in the occupied West Bank city.
Local Palestinians say stories of many Palestinian athletes killed since October 7 remain untold amid the information blackout.
Palestine in Olympics
Despite heavy odds, Palestinian athletes have not lost hope and are confident to compete in international sporting events this year, including the AFC Asia Cup and 2024 Summer Olympics to be hosted by Paris.
So far, two Palestinian athletes, Ahmed-al-Zahhar and Wasim Naief, have expressed their intention to compete in the Archery event at the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Amid the massive anti-Israel sentiment sweeping the world, there is a likelihood of athletes refusing to compete against their Israeli opponents in international events.
Palestinian wrestler Rabbia Khalil, who trains in Germany and aspires to compete in Paris, has already declared his unwillingness to compete against Israeli athletes.
He anticipates that more Arabic or pro-Palestine athletes may boycott competitions if required to compete against Israeli athletes, as athletes may become increasingly prepared to accept the associated consequences.
In the past, many international sports stars have refused to turn up against their Israeli opponents in international sporting events, including the Olympics, as a mark of protest against the apartheid entity’s war crimes against Palestinians.
Iranian athletes, for example, have been leading this anti-Israel boycott.
Exclusion of Israel from Paris 2024 Olympics
In light of the Israeli regime’s continued aggression against Palestinians in Gaza, calls to bar Israel from the 2024 Paris Olympics have gained momentum, reflecting a growing global concern over the humanitarian crisis unfolding in the territory.
Recently, a US-based magazine delved into the prospect of Israel’s participation in the Paris Olympics next year, asking whether it should face penalties or outright exclusion.
“Israel’s attacks on Gaza raise a question that Western powers in the world of sports would like to avoid: Should Israel be penalized or even barred from competing in the Paris 2024 Olympics?” The Nation wrote in a report.
A prominent football journalist, in an interview with Press TV on Wednesday, decried the “hypocrisy” of international sports organizations for their failure to ban Israel from global sporting events over its ongoing genocidal war on the Gaza Strip.
Nima Tavallaey Roodsari, endorsing a petition run by the Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 (DiEM25), said Israel also must be barred from international sporting events if Russia was barred over the Ukraine war.
“This hypocrisy just cannot continue to stand, and if it does I fear that’s the beginning of the end of international sporting organizations as we know it,” he said.
The petition states that Western governments continue to toe the official line of Israel, ignoring the genocide unfolding in Gaza, with over 23,000 killed so far.
“The International Olympic Committee, FIFA, UEFA, FIBA, and other sports organizations are complicit as they allow continuous participation of the occupying apartheid regime in their events. Following a swift response and an instant suspension of Russia, it is now difficult for them to justify turning a blind eye to the Israeli government’s actions,” it stated.
Tragedy of Gaza
According to rights groups, a Palestinian is killed every four minutes in Gaza, mostly children and more than 80 percent of the population is on the brink of starvation.
Shockingly, the [civilian] death toll in Gaza within the first 25 days of the war surpassed the [civilian] casualties in the war in Ukraine, which has been going on for over a year and a half.
The numbers paint a grim picture—more than 23,000 Palestinians, the majority of them women and children, have lost their lives, with nearly 59,000 injured.
The Zionist regime’s targeted strikes have crippled medical facilities, rendering more than 25 hospitals out of service and endangering millions of lives.
Reports indicate that the power of Israeli bombs in Gaza exceeded that of the Little Boy nuclear bomb used in Hiroshima, with an equivalent of 10 kilograms of explosives for each Palestinian residing in the Gaza Strip.
Tragically, within three weeks of the war, the number of Palestinian children martyred surpassed the global count for children killed in all parts of the world since 2019.
Experts believe banning Israel from the Paris Olympics is the least the international sports fraternity can do to hold the regime accountable for its genocide in Gaza.
Hamas denies Qatari initiative including departure of its leaders from Gaza
MEMO | January 11, 2024
The Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement has denied that a Qatari initiative will include the departure of Hamas leaders from the Gaza Strip. This was confirmed by senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan during a press conference in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, on Wednesday.
According to Israel’s Channel 13, “A new proposal has been delivered to Israel from Qatar, to release all the captured individuals [Israeli hostages in Gaza] in several stages, most of which will come near the end of the deal and after the Israeli army withdraws from the Strip.” The channel added that the proposal includes the departure of Hamas leaders from the Gaza Strip, although this has not been confirmed officially by either Israel or Qatar.
“There is no initiative of this nature,” insisted Hamdan. “The people did not leave their land, so how will the resistance that defends the people do so? Talk about the resistance leaving the land is a delusion, as is the idea of disarming the resistance, which is naive and does not reflect an understanding of the facts of the matter.”
He described the talk by the Israeli media about this initiative as “a deception and misinformation” to calm angry Israeli citizens, “especially the families of the hostages who are watching them being killed at the hands of the occupation forces without [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu caring about them.”
Hamdan reiterated his movement’s assertion that it will not accept any prisoner exchange initiative unless it is based on a complete end to Israel’s “aggression” against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
“So far, there is no talk about any initiatives,” he added. “We are committed to our position and presented a clear vision to the mediators, and this vision is the basis for any ideas or initiatives in this context.”
Channel 13 said that the Qatari proposal will be presented to the Israeli War Cabinet and the Political and Security Ministerial Council, which will meet tonight to discuss the “day after” the war ends in Gaza.
Qatar’s Foreign Minister Mohammed Bin Abdul Rahman Al-Thani said on Sunday that the ceasefire negotiations in Gaza “are ongoing and are going through challenges… and the killing of a senior leader of the Palestinian Hamas movement [Saleh Al-Arouri] could affect them.”
He pointed out that discussion “with all parties” are ongoing. “We are trying to reach an agreement as soon as possible that leads to a ceasefire in Gaza, an increase in aid and the release of hostages and [Palestinian] prisoners.”
Egypt and Qatar, along with the US, are sponsoring efforts to reach a second temporary truce in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas launched Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on 7 October against Israeli military bases and settlements in the vicinity of Gaza, during which 1,139 Israeli soldiers and civilians were killed, many of them by the Israel Defence Forces, it has since been revealed. The operation was in response to “daily Israeli attacks against the Palestinian people and their sanctities,” said Hamas, notably Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem. Around 240 Israelis were captured during the operation, 110 of whom have already been exchanged for some of the thousands of Palestinians held by Israel.
Almost 23,500 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli air and artillery strikes since 7 October, most of them children and women. Just under 60,000 have been wounded. Israeli bombs have laid much of the occupied Palestinian territory to waste. Thousands more Palestinians are buried under the rubble of their homes and other civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, schools and places of worship. Nearly all of the enclave’s 2.3 million people have been driven from their homes, many several times, and they are engulfed by a humanitarian catastrophe with acute shortages of food, water and medical supplies.
Global South rallies behind South Africa’s genocide case against Israel
The Cradle | January 11, 2024
Nations across the Global South have thrown their support behind South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), as the hearings are set to begin on 11 January.
On Wednesday, Brazil and Colombia joined other Latin American nations like Bolivia, Venezuela, and Nicaragua publicly endorsing the South African case.
“In light of the flagrant violations of international humanitarian law, the president expressed his support for the initiative of South Africa to ask the International Court of Justice to determine that Israel immediately cease all acts and measures that could constitute genocide or related crimes,” the statement from Brasilia reads.
“South Africa’s lawsuit is a brave step in the right direction,” a statement from the Colombian government stressed.
The 22-member Arab League bloc also confirmed its backing for the South African case on Wednesday in a social media post made by Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit.
“It is natural and logical for the Arab League to fully support the lawsuit filed by South Africa against Israel … We look forward to a just and bold ruling that will stop this aggressive war and put an end to the shedding of Palestinian blood,” Aboul-Gheit said.
Iran issued a similar statement on the same day, backing South Africa and saying the Islamic Republic “strongly denounces the apartheid Zionist regime’s war crimes and genocide against the Palestinian nation, and expresses its support for resistance as a liberation move and legitimate right recognized by international law for the Palestinian nation in the struggle against occupation.”
The Maldives, Namibia, and Pakistan also announced their support for the South Africa case this week.
Pakistan’s deputy permanent representative to the UN, Usman Jadadoon, on Tuesday called Israel’s war in Gaza “a brutal, veritable genocide” and said his country “looks forward to the Advisory Opinion of the ICJ on the legal consequences arising from the policies and practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem.”
Turkiye, Jordan, and Malaysia had previously supported the case. Similarly, the 54-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) – including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Morocco – was among the first to back South Africa’s case.
Furthermore, over 1,000 popular movements, political parties, unions, and other organizations worldwide issued a joint statement this week calling on all signatories to the 1948 Genocide Convention to stand by South Africa.
“We urge national governments to immediately file a Declaration of Intervention in support of the South African case against Israel at the International Court of Justice to stop the killing in the Occupied Palestinian Territories,” the statement reads.
Other nations like France and Costa Rica stopped short of supporting the case against Israel but nonetheless reiterated their trust in the ICJ, with Paris saying it would support “whatever decision the court reaches.” Mexico also called on states to refrain from using their veto power should they oppose the court’s findings.
In spite of growing global support for Palestine, the US and the UK have refused to support the case, with Washington explicitly saying they have seen “no evidence” of genocide in Gaza.
In the same vein, on Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a video statement claiming that “Israel has no intention of permanently occupying Gaza or displacing its civilian population,” in a complete U-turn from the dozens of documented statements he and other senior officials have made over the past three months.
South Africa filed the lawsuit against Israel at the end of December, accusing Tel Aviv of genocide and seeking a halt to the brutal military assault that has killed about 25,000 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them women and children.
The 84-page filing accuses Israel of violating the 1948 Genocide Convention, drawn up in the aftermath of World War II and the Holocaust.
Conduct of British TV host exposes West’s ‘bias’ towards Israel: Palestinian MP
MEMO | January 11, 2024
A Palestinian parliamentarian said the conduct of a British TV host has exposed the Western “bias” towards Israel amid its deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip, Anadolu Agency reports.
Mustafa Barghouti appeared in a 3 January interview with TalkTV host, Julia Hartley-Brewer, to discuss the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip.
A clip of the interview showed the TV host shouting over the top of her guest and accusing him of being uncomfortable listening to women speak.
“The conduct of the British host exposes the bias of some media outlets in the West towards Israel by repeating the Israeli narrative without the slightest degree of professional examination” Barghouti told Anadolu.
“I believe the interview served the Palestinian people by exposing the war crimes being committed by Israel, despite the host’s interruptions and attempts to silence me,” he said.
“The TV host sought to silence the Palestinian voice, but I succeeded in conveying our message. Her behaviour reflects racism as she behaved in a racist manner.”
The conduct of the British host has sparked outrage with more than 15,000 complaints sent to the Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom.
The Palestinian lawmaker termed the TV host’s comments as “racist, absurd and meaningless”.
“Her comments reflected ingrained racism against Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims,” he said, stressing that the British host acted unprofessionally.
Israeli failure
Barghouti, the leader of the Palestinian National Initiative, which describes itself as a democratic movement of non-violent resistance to the Israeli occupation, said Israel has failed to achieve any of its declared goals in the Gaza Strip.
“After 100 days of aggression and massacres, Israel has failed to achieve any of its goals in Gaza,” he said.
“It failed to achieve the main goal of ethnic cleansing and forcefully displacing Gaza’s population to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.”
The Palestinian MP said Israel has also failed to uproot the Palestinian Resistance in the Gaza Strip.
“It also failed to exert control over the areas its tanks invaded,” he added.
“Israel also failed to free its hostages held in Gaza,” Barghouti said. “Hostages will not be set free until Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails are released.”
Israel has launched relentless air and ground attacks on the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by Hamas which Tel Aviv says killed around 1,200 people.
However, since then, it has been revealed by Haaretz that helicopters and tanks of the Israeli army had, in fact, killed many of the 1,139 soldiers and civilians claimed by Israel to have been killed by the Palestinian Resistance.
At least 23,357 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and 59,410 others injured, according to Palestinian health authorities.
About 85 per cent of Gazans have been displaced, while all of the population is food insecure, according to the UN. Hundreds of thousands of people are living without shelter, and less than half of the aid trucks are entering the Territory before the start of the conflict.
“The world now realises that the Palestinian cause is a just issue and that Israel is committing massacres,” Barghouti said. “The only thing Israel has achieved in Gaza is killing, crimes and destruction.”
Gaza’s future
Barghouti termed the Arab reaction to the Israeli onslaught and siege on the Gaza Strip as “weak”.
“Israel maintains control over everything in Gaza and the humanitarian aid entering the enclave falls far short of its actual needs,” he said.
“Since the outbreak of the war, we have urged Arab and Islamic nations to send a humanitarian convoy comprising representatives from the 57 member countries of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation,” the MP said.
“Would Israel target a 57-track convoy? I don’t think so, but unfortunately, nothing has happened,” he lamented.
Barghouti said the Palestinian issue is now at the forefront of international attention.
“There is a change that will have an impact in the next stage on the quest of the Palestinian people to win their freedom.”
Barghouti termed talks about the post-war phase in Gaza as an Israeli attempt to draw attention away from its deadly onslaught on the enclave.
“The issue of who governs Gaza is a Palestinian matter, and does not concern the US, Israel or any other country,” he said.
Featured Video
History lesson for Piers Morgan
or go to
Aletho News Archives – Video-Images
From the Archives
Can the WHO and the United Nations impose sanctions on your sovereign country for non-compliance?
The UN is a far bigger threat than the WHO, which, although deserving of attention, cannot consume our entire focus.
BY SHABNAM PALESA MOHAMED | JUNE 18, 2024
This updated analysis was written in 2023 (read in full here at CHD Africa)
Sanctions are a powerful instrument of political control and economic profit. One of the rare but critical topics relevant to the international campaign to #ExitTheWHO is whether the World Health Organisation and the United Nations can impose, influence or recommend specific sanctions. The sanctions could be implemented against countries that choose to not comply or cannot comply with International Health Regulations, the proposed new pandemic treaty, or other legislative attempts that curtail rights, freedom and sovereignty.
The accelerating and profitable globalist march towards unprecedented levels of ‘1984’ style totalitarianism – using censorship, vaccine passports, 15 minute cities, and CBDC’s continues. It is plausible that the WHO and the UN will move to impose, influence or recommend sanctions against countries that do not want to or cannot comply with its centralised health agenda and undemocratic legislative attempts. … continue
Blog Roll
Recent Comments
Aletho News- BIRD FLU PANIC RISES
- Hamas plans a legal response to ICC arrest warrants
- Nothing to worry about? South Korea sounds the alarm
- Hunter Biden’s Charge of Lying Under Oath
- Canada’s terrorist designation of IRGC ‘utter servility’ to Israel: Iran
- Trump names cause of Ukraine conflict
- Israeli pressure on Labour party, British politics ‘huge’, Corbyn says
- EU’s Mass Surveillance Faces Fierce Resistance
- Czech populists pull out of liberal Renew group in EU Parliament over disastrous Green Deal and migration
- Polls show east German state elections will be historic turning point, but the establishment has a plan to block the AfD
- If Americans Knew
- HRW: In Gaza, “the dead are the lucky ones” – Day 258
- UN finds at least 14 Israelis likely intentionally killed by own army on October 7
- ADL faces Wikipedia ban over reliability concerns on Israel, antisemitism
- Fear, hunger and displacement follows Israel’s worsening abuse of Palestinians in Hebron
- Israel’s “Flour Massacres” are back; another damning UN report – Day 257
- Rafah Attack: Netanyahu’s Lies Expose The Truth About Israel
- Israel perpetrates atrocity upon atrocity against the people of Gaza – Day 256
- Veterans For Peace: U.S. Army Major Quits Over Israel [video]
- While Gaza suffers physical genocide, the West Bank faces economic genocide
- The Palestinians’ Ironclad, Inalienable Right To Resist
- International Solidarity Movement
- Palestinians Harassed during Eid Celebrations in Masafer Yatta
- Steadfastness and Colonisation in Palestine
- Three martyred and five wounded in Tulkarem
- Dispatches from Palestine
- The Right to Resist Genocide by Land and By Sea
- Women Support Center in Nablus empowers women and girls, resists gendered violence and the Occupation
- Palestinian Family at Um Darit Harassed and Isolated
- Occupation Forces Targeted Series of Strikes Kills 7 Aid Workers in Gaza
- Israeli army and police escalate repression of human rights volunteers following Knesset hearing.
- Illegal Israeli Settlers Continue Attacks on Shepherds in Masafer Yatta
- Richie Allen
- Today’s Show Is Cancelled – Back Tomorrow Thursday May 30th
- Call Richie Today Monday March 11th From 4.30pm
- Connect To The Richie Allen Show WhatsApp Today
- NHS Asks Patients To Choose From 12 Genders, 10 sexual Preferences & 159 Religions
- The Richie Allen Show Moves To A New Time Slot From Monday Nov 20th
- Starmer Will Sack Shadow Ministers Who Vote For Gaza Ceasefire
- AI Tool Can Predict Heart Attacks Years In Advance
- Nepal Bans TikTok To Preserve Social Harmony
- Bloke Appointed Boss Of Womb Health Charity
- WHO – “Gaza’s Biggest Hospital Becoming A Cemetery”
- No Tricks Zone
- Claims Of Revolutionary Batteries Turn Out To Be Unfounded Hype By “Uncritical Media”
- Reminder: Historical Natural Warming Rates Dwarf Modern Climate Change
- Climate Alarmists Fretting Over European Cup 2024, Summer Festival Emissions
- Central Italy Was 3-4°C Warmer Than Today About 10,000 to 12,000 Years Ago
- Germany May Sales Of Electric Cars Plummet 30.6% Compared To Year Earlier
- Fossil Fuels Remain The Future. VW To Invest 60 Billion Euros In Combustion Engines!
- New Study: Large Atmospheric Pressure Swings May Explain Past Hothouse-Icehouse Climates, CO2 Levels
- Summer Refuses To Appear Over Much Of Europe…Snow Disrupts Tour De Suisse
- New Study: East Antarctica’s Ice Sheet Thickening, Gaining Mass – Especially Since The 1980s
- Deputy Leader Of Germany’s Centre-Right Party: Country In A “Green Fairy Tale World”
Aletho News 