Palestinian surgeon Ghassan Abu Sittah defeats pro-Israel lawfare in landmark GMC ruling
MEMO | January 12, 2026
Prominent Palestinian reconstructive surgeon and academic Dr Ghassan Abu Sittah has won a misconduct case brought against him by pro-Israel lobbyists, in what campaigners have described as a major blow to the UK’s Israel lobby and its use of lawfare to silence critics of Israel’s assault on Gaza.
On Friday, the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) dismissed a two-year-long General Medical Council (GMC) case against Abu Sittah, concluding that there was no evidence that his writing or social media activity supported terrorism, anti-Semitism or violence.
“WE WON”, said Abu Sittah on X following his victory over UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI).
“The General Medical Council Tribunal has thrown out the complaint made by UK Lawyers for Israel, accusing me of support of violence and terrorism and antisemitism”.
The case stemmed from complaints lodged in 2023 by UKLFI, a notorious pro-Israel pressure group that has repeatedly targeted activists, academics and professionals who speak out for Palestinian rights.
The complaint centred on an article written by Abu Sittah in the Lebanese newspaper Al Akhbar and two reposts on X, which UKLFI alleged had “impaired his fitness to practise”.
The tribunal found that an “ordinary reader” would not interpret the material as providing material or moral support for terrorism, nor as endorsing violence. It also ruled that there was no intent on Abu Sittah’s part to promote violence or hatred, leaving no basis for a finding of misconduct.
Abu Sittah, a Kuwait-born British Palestinian plastic and reconstructive surgery consultant and rector of the University of Glasgow, said the case was part of a broader strategy of intimidation aimed at silencing pro-Palestinian voices.
“This complaint forms part of a broader lawfare strategy which aims to instrumentalise regulatory processes to intimidate, silence and exhaust those who speak out against injustice in Palestine,” he said. “I do not, and have never, supported violence against civilians. I know too well its consequences.”
Abu Sittah spent 43 days in Gaza during Israel’s initial assault in October 2023, working at Al-Ahli, Al-Shifa and Al-Awda hospitals. He has repeatedly spoken publicly about the mass civilian casualties he treated, including children with catastrophic injuries, and has accused the Israeli military of using white phosphorus and deliberately targeting civilians.
The case was supported by the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP), whose director, Tayab Ali, described the ruling as a “complete vindication”.
“For months, Dr Abu Sittah was shamelessly targeted by pro-Israel lobby groups through a sustained campaign of lawfare,” Ali said. “The serious allegations advanced against him have now been entirely rejected.”
The ruling comes amid growing scrutiny of UKLFI’s tactics. The European Legal Support Center (ELSC) and the Palestine Institute for Public Law and Counsel (PILC) have filed a formal complaint with the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) against UKLFI director Caroline Turner.
The complaint alleges the use of Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs), breaches of professional conduct rules and misleading claims about regulatory oversight. It also calls for an investigation into whether UKLFI is effectively operating as an unregulated law firm.
The complaint details eight threatening letters sent by UKLFI between 2022 and 2025, which ELSC says demonstrate a pattern of vexatious and legally baseless intimidation aimed at shutting down Palestine solidarity efforts. Campaigners argue that these tactics have contributed to workers being disciplined or dismissed, events being cancelled and activists being smeared.
Abu Sittah’s victory also fits into a wider pattern of setbacks for pro-Israel efforts to suppress dissent in the UK. In December, a court quashed a summons issued against comedian Reginald D Hunter. The judge in the case said Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) misled him when bringing a private prosecution against the comedian.
Kiev seeks to ban Russian music from streaming platforms
RT | January 11, 2026
Kiev is seeking to block access to Russian music on international streaming platforms inside Ukraine and prevent performers from the neighboring country from appearing in domestic popularity charts, a senior official overseeing sanctions policy has said.
Ukrainian Sanctions Policy Commissioner Vladislav Vlasiuk announced that Kiev was developing “new solutions” aimed at ensuring that those whom authorities describe as Russian “propagandists” do not feature in monthly or annual rankings on streaming services such as Spotify or YouTube music.
He added that more than 100 Russian performers had already been blacklisted by Ukrainian authorities, and that the list would be expanded. Kiev would then “try to persuade streaming platforms so that this content is not available on the territory of Ukraine,” Vlasiuk noted.
A separate push came from the country’s music industry lobby. In December, Aleksandr Sanchenko, president of the All-Ukrainian Association of Music Events (UAME), said that officials were developing mechanisms for a near-blanket ban of Russian performers inside the country.
He noted that while an option to ban all artists using the Russian language was under consideration, it was ultimately ruled out, as it would impede Ukraine’s Eurointegration push.
He said, however, that his group has launched an open Google form and appealed to music media to help compile a list of Russian artists for possible sanctions.
Sanchenko also said that discussions were underway about creating so-called “white lists” for pro-Ukraine Russian performers, but acknowledged that no such artists have been added so far.
Ukraine has steadily tightened curbs on Russian culture and language since the Western-backed coup in 2014, particularly since the escalation of the conflict with Moscow in 2022, extending restrictions affecting everything from books and films to music played in public spaces and online. Ukrainian officials have argued that Russia-linked cultural products could pose a “threat” to national security and identity.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova suggested that the crackdown has transcended “all the bounds of good and evil,” adding that “paranoia is becoming the ‘calling card’ of those who have grabbed power in Kiev.”
Germany Considers Broader Legal Authority for Internet Surveillance and State Hacking
By Ken Macon | Reclaim The Net | January 10, 2026
Germany’s government is preparing to give its foreign intelligence service, the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), far broader powers over online surveillance and hacking than it has ever had before.
A draft amendment to the BND Act, circulating by German media, would transform the agency’s reach by authorizing it to break into foreign digital systems, collect and store large portions of internet traffic, and analyze those communications retroactively.
At the core of this plan is Frankfurt’s DE-CIX internet exchange, one of the largest data junctions on the planet.
For thirty years, global traffic has passed through this node, and for just as long, the BND has quietly operated there under government supervision, scanning international data streams for intelligence clues.
Until now, this monitoring has been limited. The agency could capture metadata such as connection records, but not the full content of messages, and any data collected had to be reviewed and filtered quickly.
The proposed legal reform would overturn those restrictions.
The BND would be permitted to copy and retain not only metadata but also entire online conversations, including emails, chats, and other content, for up to six months.
Officials expect that roughly 30 percent of the world’s internet traffic moving through German collection points could be subject to capture.
A two-step process would follow. First, the BND would stockpile the data. Later, analysts could open and inspect specific content after the fact.
Supporters in the Chancellery say that this is not a radical expansion but a modernization that brings Germany into alignment with foreign partners. They claim that other countries’ intelligence services already hold data for longer periods, two years in the Netherlands, four years in France, and indefinitely in Britain and Italy.
The government’s view is that the BND must have comparable tools to operate independently rather than relying on allied services for insight.
Yet the amendment goes far beyond storage. It would also legalize direct hacking operations against companies and infrastructure that do not cooperate voluntarily with BND requests.
Under the term “Computer Network Exploitation,” the agency could secretly access the systems of online providers like Google, Meta, or X.
These intrusions would be permitted both abroad and, in some circumstances, within Germany itself, especially if justified as a defense against cyberattacks.
Another provision would sharply reduce existing privacy protections for journalists. At present, reporters enjoy near absolute protection from state surveillance.
The draft law, however, introduces an exception. Employees of media organizations tied to “authoritarian” governments could be monitored, with the justification that such journalists might be acting on behalf of their states rather than as independent observers.
The Chancellery has declined to comment publicly, saying only that the amendment is still under internal review.
But the direction is unmistakable. Germany appears ready to embed mass interception and hacking powers into law, effectively normalizing surveillance once viewed as excessive during the Snowden era.
While the government frames this as a strategic update, the effect would be the routine collection and long-term storage of personal communications flowing through German networks.
Such a structure risks making mass surveillance a permanent feature of the digital world, one that alters the balance of power further away from individual privacy and toward an intelligence system designed to watch nearly everything that passes through its cables.
Starmer’s Looking for an Excuse to Ban X
“All options” on the table now includes silencing a global network; an idea once unthinkable in a “democracy”
By Cam Wakefield | Reclaim The Net | January 10, 2026
Keir Starmer has signaled he is prepared to back regulatory action that could ultimately result in X being blocked in the UK.
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom has suggested, more or less, that because Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok has been generating images of women and minors in bikinis, he’ll support going as far as hitting the kill switch and blocking access to the entire platform.
“The situation is disgraceful and disgusting,” Starmer said on Greatest Hits Radio; the station best known for playing ABBA and now, apparently, for frontline authoritarian tech policy announcements.
“X has got to get a grip of this, and Ofcom has our full support to take action… I’ve asked for all options to be on the table.”
“All options,” for those who don’t speak fluent Whitehall euphemism, now apparently includes turning Britain’s digital infrastructure into a sort of beige North Korea, where a bunch of government bureaucrats, armed with nothing but Online Safety Act censorship law and the panic of a 90s tabloid, get to decide which speech the public is allowed to see.
Now, you might be wondering: Surely he’s bluffing? Oh no. According to Downing Street sources, they’re quite serious.
And they’ve even named the mechanism: the Online Safety Act; that cheery little piece of legislation that sounds like it’s going to help grandmothers avoid email scams, but actually gives Ofcom the power to block platforms, fine them into oblivion, or ban them entirely if they don’t comply with government censorship orders.
Ofcom, the country’s media regulator, is now in “urgent contact” with both X and xAI, Grok’s parent company, after reports that users were using the chatbot to generate images of real people in bikinis.
UK Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology Liz Kendall told Ofcom it should consider blocking X in the UK, that she expects action in “days not weeks,” and that Ofcom would have the “full backing of the government” if it used blocking powers.
But here’s the problem. In the government’s fury over Grok and its users, they’re now open to ban an entire global communications platform. The equivalent of bulldozing the post office because someone sent a rude postcard.
People have been using Photoshop to create fake, explicit, deeply creepy images for decades. If you had a PC, half a clue, and a little too much time in the early 2000s, you could slap a celebrity’s face onto anything you wanted; with results that ranged from ridiculous to criminal.
And nobody suggested shutting down Adobe, or banning Microsoft Paint, or arresting the paperclip from Word for aiding and abetting. Because, and this used to be common sense: the tool is not the crime.
But now, with AI, all that reason goes out the window. Grok, Midjourney, DALL·E; you name it. These systems don’t wake up in the morning and decide to be pervy. They generate what they’re told to generate. That’s it.
They don’t have taste, they don’t have shame, and they certainly don’t have a moral compass. They have some restraints, but they can easily be overcome if people know how to prompt. This will always be true.
They’re glorified suggestion boxes that vomit out whatever the user types in. If someone prompts an AI to produce a woman in a bikini and you think that’s a problem, that someone is the problem; not the platform, not the algorithm, and not the wires it’s running on.
You can do the exact same thing with a pencil and paper. In fact, some of the most disturbing imagery ever created didn’t come out of a neural net. It came from human hands, in basements, bedrooms, and badly lit studios. But we’re not banning Bic pens. We’re not raiding Staples because someone bought a sketchpad and had dark thoughts.
Predictably, Elon Musk is not thrilled. He has accused the UK government of attempting to “suppress the people.”
“Anyone using Grok to make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content,” Musk added, putting the blame on the users, not the tool.
It’s not just Elon either. Sarah B Rogers, the US Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy, warned: “Erecting a ‘Great Wall’ to ban X, or lobotomizing AI, is neither tailored nor thoughtful.”
President Trump has previously referred to the UK’s online censorship law as “not a good thing,” and while Keir Starmer is playing Internet Emperor, Anna Paulina Luna, a Republican congresswoman who sits on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, is calling out the UK’s absurd overreach and threatening to bring legislation to sanction both Starmer and the country if he goes ahead with his tantrum.
Some of the images in question are inappropriate. Some are satire. But they’re not being created by X itself. They’re being created by users. People. And even with guardrails on Grok, there are always ways to prompt your way around them.
So even though there are likely millions of tools that can put a woman in a bikini, why is Starmer threatening to support the blocking of the entirety of X?
When BBC News host Huw Edwards was convicted of having actual images of child abuse and only received a suspended sentence, Starmer famously said: “As far as the sentence is concerned, I mean, that is for the court to decide.”
Without even getting into the hypocrisy of Starmer, his duplicity means what we’re looking at here is less about child protection and more about a government flailing in the age of AI, social media, and digital speech it no longer understands or controls.
The government is looking for any excuse to suppress one of the biggest thorns in its side.
It’s political theater; the kind that looks strong on morning television but crumbles under scrutiny.
What makes that clear is that plenty of other AI systems can do the exact same thing Grok’s being dragged over the coals for.
OpenAI’s image models have slipped up. Some AI image generators have whole fanbases built around photorealistic deepfakes of celebrities.
There are dodgy Discord bots out there generating worse in seconds, with less scrutiny and zero accountability. But none of those platforms are being threatened with a national ban.
And let’s not kid ourselves here: X is one of the last places online where you can still talk about [some] things Keir Starmer would really, really rather you didn’t.
Ever since Elon Musk got his hands on Twitter, the platform has become a giant headache for the political establishment, and not just because people keep replying to their speeches with clown emojis. The real reason they hate it is that it’s torched their grip on the flow of information.
X moves faster than the official narrative. Way faster. Before a newsroom has even had time to spin up a headline, the footage is already out there; raw, unedited, and usually filmed by someone on the ground with a phone and zero interest in protecting anyone’s PR strategy.
Leaks, whistleblowers, inconvenient facts: they don’t wait for permission to speak anymore, they just hit “post.”
It’s also true that the major platform Keir Starmer’s government is gearing up to punish, with the full force of Ofcom and the legal system revving like a bulldozer, is also the only major platform where he gets roasted in real time.
X is where Starmer gets community-noted, quote-tweeted, and ratio’d into orbit every time he opens his mouth. So now the platform isn’t only a tech problem. It’s a PR problem. And in modern politics, that’s the only kind anyone actually takes seriously.
European Politics in Crisis as Right-Wingers Fear for Safety – Ex-Austrian Minister
Sputnik – 10.01.2026
European politics are in a deep crisis as many people, particularly in right-wing parties, are afraid to enter the spotlight due to concerns for their personal safety, former Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl told Sputnik.
“Most right-wing parties, with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban being a special case, such as Marine Le Pen’s National Rally in France or the Freedom Party of Austria, are running short on qualified personnel. All parties struggle to recruit skilled people, but today many are unwilling to risk their personal safety. If you engage in politics, you are under constant threat,” she said.
In Europe, having ties to those considered to be on the right of the political spectrum comes with a price such as a threat of physical violence, Kneissl said.
“There are many who have already paid a high price. As soon as you have even the most minimal contact with the right, you get serious problems. Members of the AfD [Alternative for Germany] have been attacked. There are also party officials whose bank accounts have been closed and whose children have been harassed at school,” she said.
The lack of capable personnel is also linked to a decline in the quality of Europe’s elites, Kneissl said. The education system that is meant to cultivate those elites no longer serves as a competitive environment for the skilled and talented.
Trump, Greenland, and the colonialism Europe pretends not to see
Neither Washington nor Copenhagen: Greenland belongs to the Inuit people
By Lucas Leiroz | Strategic Culture Foundation | January 10, 2026
The recent resurgence of controversy surrounding Donald Trump’s interest in annexing Greenland has reignited debates over imperialism, sovereignty, and self-determination in the Arctic. The European response – particularly from Denmark and the European Union – has been marked by a moralizing discourse against “American expansionism.” This discourse, however, deliberately ignores Denmark’s own colonial history in the region – a history that has been profoundly violent toward the Inuit people of Kalaallit Nunaat, the territory’s true name.
Recently, Russia-based Irish journalist Chay Bowes wrote an excellent piece on the history of European colonialism in Greenland. As he said, Denmark’s presence in Greenland was never the result of Indigenous consent. Beginning in 1721 under the religious pretext of “rescuing” supposed Norse descendants, colonization quickly became a systematic project of cultural domination and economic exploitation. When no Europeans were found, Danish missionaries turned their efforts against the Inuit, criminalizing their spiritual and cultural practices, dismantling traditional social structures, and imposing Lutheranism as a tool of control.
With the establishment of a trade monopoly in 1776, Denmark began treating the island as a profitable hub for natural resources, deliberately keeping the Indigenous population isolated and dependent. This colonial logic intensified throughout the twentieth century. In 1953, seeking to evade new UN decolonization guidelines, Copenhagen annexed Greenland as a “county.” Lacking adequate international scrutiny, the lives of Inuit natives increasingly became a nightmare.
Among these policies were the abduction of Inuit children to be “reeducated” in Denmark – the infamous “Little Danes” experiment – and the forced removal of entire communities from their ancestral lands into urban housing complexes, aimed at creating cheap labor for Danish-controlled industries. Even more severe was the secret imposition of contraceptive devices on thousands of Inuit women and girls between the 1960s and 1970s, without consent, in an explicit attempt at population control.
Although Greenland gained administrative autonomy in 1979 and expanded self-government in 2009, real power remains concentrated in the “Danish Crown.” Key areas such as foreign policy, defense, and much of the economy remain outside Inuit control. International bodies continue to pressure Denmark to acknowledge and repair colonial crimes, but progress has been minimal.
In this context, European indignation over potential U.S. expansionist moves sounds hypocrite. This does not mean absolving Washington of its own imperialist history – the United States has an equally disastrous record in its treatment of Indigenous peoples. However, for many Inuit, life under American rule would hardly be worse than centuries of European subjugation have already been. The difference is that the U.S., at least, does not pretend to be a “progressive benefactor” while maintaining intact colonial structures.
The true alternative, however, lies neither in Washington nor in Copenhagen. The most coherent and reasonable solution would be the construction of an independent Inuit state, grounded in self-determination, cultural restoration, and sovereign control over the territory. An Inuit ethnic state – understood as a project of Indigenous national liberation, not of ethnic or racial exclusion – would represent a historic rupture with centuries of external domination.
Obviously, in a world marked by violent disputes and the rule of force, it is naïve to think that the political will of Greenland’s native population alone would be sufficient to secure any real sovereignty. It will be necessary to engage in alliances and strategic diplomacy with countries that also oppose U.S. and European imperialism and expansionism – especially those with shared ethnic and cultural ties. Russia would be an excellent example of a potential partner for an independent Greenland, given the large presence of Arctic peoples in Russian territory – including Inuit – and Russia’s historical experience with respect for plurinationality.
Greenland is not a strategic asset to be bargained over by rival Western powers. It is the homeland of a people who have survived colonization, social engineering, and population control. Before denouncing “American imperialism,” Denmark and the European Union should confront their own colonial past—and recognize that Inuit self-determination remains the only truly right path forward for Kalaallit Nunaat.
UK Expands Online Safety Act to Mandate Preemptive Scanning of Digital Communications
By Cindy Harper | Reclaim The Net | January 8, 2026
A major expansion of the UK’s Online Safety Act (OSA) has taken effect, legally obliging digital platforms to deploy surveillance-style systems that scan, detect, and block user content before it can be seen.
The government’s new Online Safety Act 2023 (Priority Offenses) (Amendment) Regulations 2025, which came into force on January 8, 2026, designates “cyberflashing” and “encouraging or assisting serious self-harm” as priority offenses, categories that trigger the strictest compliance duties under the OSA.
This marks a decisive move toward preemptive censorship. Services that allow user interaction, including messaging apps, forums, and search engines, must now monitor communications at scale to ensure that prohibited content is automatically filtered or suppressed before users can even encounter it.
To meet the law’s demands, companies are expected to rely heavily on automated scanning systems, content detection algorithms, and artificial intelligence models trained to evaluate the legality of text, images, and videos in real time.
The UK Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) unveiled the changes through a promotional video showing a smartphone scanning AirDropped photos and warning the user that an “unwanted nude” had been detected.
This visual captures the law’s core requirement: platforms must implement continuous background surveillance to identify and block flagged content, effectively converting private communication spaces into monitored environments.
In its official press release, DSIT said the new rules compel firms to “take proactive steps to prevent this vile content before users see it,” describing the measure as part of the government’s strategy to halve violence against women and girls within a decade.
Technology Secretary Liz Kendall stated, “We’ve cracked down on perpetrators of this vile crime – now we’re turning up the heat on tech firms. Platforms are now required by law to detect and prevent this material. The internet must be a space where women and girls feel safe, respected, and able to thrive.”
Platforms that fail to comply face severe penalties, including fines of up to 10% of global turnover or £18 million, whichever is greater, and potential service blocking in the UK.
“Safeguarding” Minister Jess Phillips said, “For too long, cyberflashing has been just another degrading abuse women and girls are expected to endure. We are changing this.”
She added, “By placing the responsibility on tech companies to block this vile content before users see it, we are preventing women and girls from being harmed in the first place.”
Behind this framing, however, lies a bigger structural change: routine surveillance of user-generated content.
Compliance will require platforms to perform mass scanning of messages, images, and uploads across their networks, even in spaces traditionally regarded as private.
Such measures risk capturing lawful communications and chilling legitimate expression, as automated filters often misjudge intent or context.
By requiring companies to predict and prevent “illegal content” before it appears, the UK is embedding a model of proactive censorship at the infrastructure level of online communication.
This positions large sections of the internet under continuous monitoring, with user privacy treated as a secondary concern rather than a fundamental right.
Palestine advocates praise NYC Mayor Mamdani for revoking pro-Israel decrees
Press TV – January 3, 2026
New York City’s Mayor Zohran Mamdani has been praised by Palestine advocates for revoking pro-Israeli decrees banning the activities of pro-Palestinian advocacy groups.
Within hours of his inauguration ceremony on Wednesday, just before midnight, on his first day in office on Thursday, Mamdani wiped out all the executive orders his predecessor, Eric Adams, implemented after September 26, 2024, the day Adams was charged with bribery and taking illegal campaign contributions from foreign sources.
Adams signed the pro-Israeli decrees less than a month ago and was seen as an attempt to create trouble for the incoming 34-year-old Mamdani.
Adams was also charged with crimes such as conspiracy, wire fraud, and bribery. The 64-year-old Democratic policeman-turned-mayor was accused of doing favors for foreign businessmen in exchange for luxury travel and airline benefits.
Head of the New York chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), Afaf Nasher, praised Mayor Mamdani for revoking a decree restricting the ability of New Yorkers to criticize, boycott, and stage protest rallies and criticize the Israeli regime for the ongoing racism and human rights abuses against Palestinians, as well as the genocidal war on the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian-American writer YL Al-Sheikh also applauded Mayor Mamdani for the revocation of Adam’s pro-Israeli decrees.
“I think it’s wonderful that Mayor Mamdani took measures on day one to reinforce our rights to free speech, which included our right to criticize and oppose Israeli apartheid and genocide,” Al-Sheikh said.
He said the decrees passed by Adams were “not about combating anti-Semitism, but about stifling dissent, and this should be something all Americans oppose.”
Nasreen Issa, a member of the Palestine Youth Movement – NYC, said, “Mamdani’s rejection of this is a positive step towards protecting the rights of New Yorkers and the dignity of Palestinians.”
Mayor Mamdani is the city’s first Muslim, first South Asian, first African-born mayor, and the first to take the oath of office using Islam’s holy book, the Quran.
The inauguration ceremony was held on Wednesday shortly before the start of New Year’s Day 2026 in the decommissioned City Hall subway station beneath Lower Manhattan.
Sanctioned by EU. Abandoned by Switzerland | Nathalie Yamb
By Pascal Lottaz | Neutrality Studies | January 1, 2026
It has come as a shock to many of us in the alternative media sphere when, on December 15, the EU put the esteemed analyst, political commentator, and former Swiss Army colonel Jacques Baud, on its Russia-Sanctions list. He was one of several newly sanctioned individuals (alongside, for instance, the popular French journalist, Xavier Moreau). Baud is already the second Swiss to be sanctioned. In June 2025, the EU announced that Nathalie Yamb, a Swiss-Cameroonian activist against neocolonialism, would be sanctioned.
Being on the EU sanctions list is a devastating event for the people concerned, especially if they reside in an EU country or a closely associated state like Switzerland, Norway, or the UK. It means banks will freeze their accounts, credit companies will cancel their cards, they are not allowed to enter into contracts with EU-affiliated companies or private persons, and no business in the EU is allowed to have dealings with them, which, in theory, even precludes them from buying bread and other necessities of life. Furthermore, many international businesses will cancel all their services to them, including mail providers, social media platforms, etc. Even Swiss banks freeze or cancel accounts, out of fear they might get in trouble if they don’t comply with EU regulations. I recently interviewed two sanctioned people, Nathalie Yamb and Hüsseyin Dogru, and their testimonies are heartbreaking. … Full article
Neutrality Studies and Nathalie Yamb | December 22, 2025
Fifty-nine individuals are by now sanctioned by the European Union in pursuit of punishing Russia for the War in Ukraine. Many of them are Russian citizens but more and more the EU is putting its own citizens and those of third states on this list, for reasons that have often little to do with Russia. One of them is my compatriot, Nathalie Yamb, who was in fact the first Swiss Citizen to be included on the list, back already in June 2025.
Links: Nathalie’s YouTube channel: @nathyamb
Neutrality Studies substack: https://pascallottaz.substack.com
Goods Store: https://neutralitystudies-shop.fourth…
Villains of Judea: Liora Rez’s Holy War Against Critics of Israel
Inside StopAntisemitism.org’s quest to make life miserable for those who dare criticize Israel
José Niño Unfiltered | January 2, 2026
Liora Rez, a professional Jewish agitator funded by shadowy donors, has built a lucrative career by branding critics of Israel as hate-filled bigots.
She emigrated to the United States as a Jewish refugee from what she describes as a thoroughly antisemitic environment in the Soviet Union. That early experience would become the foundation of her later activism against antisemitism.
But before Rez became one of the most controversial figures in pro-Israel activism, she had a very different public persona. Around 2012, she founded Jewish Chick Media Inc., a lifestyle brand focused on fashion and Jewish identity. As researcher Karl Radl documented, Rez pivoted from being a Jewish fashion and lifestyle influencer to a full-time pro-Israel activist following a 2016 trip to Israel with the Jewish Women’s Renaissance Project, now known as Momentum. At the time, she was navigating a contentious divorce in Connecticut, and the combination of circumstances prompted her decision to reinvent herself entirely.
In October 2018, Rez launched StopAntisemitism.org, an organization that would gain her great notoriety The group focuses on publicly calling out individuals it regards as antisemitic, using digital networks including the Internet, direct mail, and social media to reach millions. The organization’s stated mission is to publicly expose antisemitic behavior and ensure repercussions for those who, in their view, advocate hatred and violence against Jewish people.
Rez’s philosophy is blunt. She firmly believes that “antisemitism thrives when there are no consequences,” so her organization aims to create those consequences, which include job loss, suspensions, and public shaming for individuals they target. In testimony before Congress and numerous op-eds, Rez claims her group is “nonpartisan” and “grassroots,” mobilizing networks of activists to identify alleged antisemites and pressure institutions to discipline them.
The results, by Rez’s own account, have been dramatic. In an interview with the Jewish News Syndicate, she claimed that since the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023, StopAntisemitism has “profiled more than 1,000 antisemites” and “over 400 of them have been fired” thanks to their pressure campaigns.
Harassing Israel critics is no cheap endeavor. Rez’s organization enjoys substantial financial backing from the Jewish community. The Milstein Family Foundation, led by real estate investor Adam Milstein and his wife Gila, is a key funder of StopAntisemitism.org. Tax records from 2022 reveal that the Merona Leadership Foundation—with Gila Milstein serving as president—compensated Rez with a $125,633 salary while allocating approximately $270,000 toward the organization’s operational costs.
At the core of Rez’s activism lies the premise that anti-Zionism and antisemitism are essentially identical. In a Jerusalem Post profile, she stated unequivocally: “Anti-Zionism is a contemporary form of antisemitism. We must fight this hate’s influence, especially on younger generations, to secure the future of the Jewish people in the US, in Israel and around the world.”
In her writing, Rez frequently emphasizes that Jews comprise just over 2% of the US population but are victims of “almost 60% of all US religious hate crimes,” using this statistic to justify an expansive definition of antisemitism. StopAntisemitism employs the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition of antisemitism as its guide, which explicitly includes several anti-Israel positions—such as describing Israel as a racist endeavor—as examples of antisemitism. For Rez, hostility toward Israel functions as the primary vehicle for contemporary anti-Jewish hatred.
She views the “global wave of Jew hatred” that surfaced after Hamas’ October 7 attacks as justification for intensive monitoring of campuses, corporations, unions, hospitals, and government agencies. Rez identified college campuses as one of the most troubling environments, citing cases of Jewish students being singled out in libraries, professors openly celebrating Hamas and Hezbollah militants, demonstrators blocking building access, and university leadership remaining passive. “We stepped in,” she stated, adding a stern message: “If you target Jewish students, your actions won’t remain unseen.”
Her approach advocates aggressive public exposure of students and faculty, often tagging employers and prospective employers on social media to maximize professional consequences.
Perhaps nothing illustrates StopAntisemitism’s controversial approach better than its annual “Antisemite of the Year” competition, where the organization nominates a slate of figures and invites the public to vote. The contest has featured a mix of figures from the right, Holocaust deniers, and high-profile pro-Palestinian or anti-Zionist public figures, reinforcing critics’ claims that Rez collapses political opposition to Israel into the category of antisemitism.
Conservative commentator Tucker Carlson was named the 2025 “Antisemite of the Year” on December 21, 2025, marking the second consecutive year that StopAntisemitism selected a right-wing figure–Candace Owens was the recipient of this distinction in 2024–for this designation after years of predominantly awarding the title to left-wing personalities. Carlson competed against a diverse slate of nominees including UFC fighter Bryce Mitchell, social media personality Stew Peters, beloved children’s YouTuber Rachel Anne Accurso (“Ms. Rachel”), and “Sex and the City” star Cynthia Nixon.
Although Ms. Rachel did not receive StopAntisemitism’s designation, in 2025, StopAntisemitism launched what became one of its most controversial campaigns against her. The Jewish advocacy organizations went on the offensive after she posted about children in the Gaza Strip, called for an end to the blockade, and hosted Palestinian journalist Motaz Azaiza.
“Since 10/7, Ms. Rachel has pushed Hamas propaganda to millions – sharing debunked images, inflated casualty claims, and almost entirely ignoring Israeli child victims,” StopAntisemitism published on X. “She also hosted Motaz Azaiza, a terrorist sympathizer who celebrated the 10/7 massacre & openly idolizes Yahya Sinwar.”
Accurso publicly rejected the label, emphasizing her commitment to children’s well-being. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) condemned the nomination, saying, “Ms. Rachel is a preschool teacher who speaks up for starving children in Gaza. That is not antisemitism. I hope thousands will join me in standing up for her.”
More recently, Rez has joined a right-wing Zionist campaign against newly-sworn New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani. She has warned that his election as NYC mayor would be “catastrophic” and portrayed him as part of a rabid anti-Israel left that would “take over every inch of NYC.”
Through her fanatic advocacy for Israel, Rez has gained substantial recognition within certain segments of the Jewish community. She testified before the U.S. House Small Business Committee in January 2024, where her official bio stressed her status as a Soviet Jewish refugee and described StopAntisemitism’s efforts to hold antisemites “accountable for their hateful actions.”
The Jewish newspaper Algemeiner has repeatedly listed her among the “Top 100 People Positively Influencing Jewish Life,” highlighting StopAntisemitism’s social media reach and their ability to deliver severe economic and social consequences against those who criticize the Jewish state.
The ultimate lesson of StopAntisemitism.org is that the movement’s true goal is not mutual respect, but total domination, enforcing a code of silence where gentile criticism is treated as a thought crime worthy of punishment.
Israel arrested 42 Palestinian journalists in 2025
MEMO | January 2, 2026
The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate said on Thursday that the Israeli army arrested 42 Palestinian journalists during 2025, including eight women, in the occupied West Bank, Jerusalem and inside what it called “the 1948 territories”.
In a report, the union said Israeli authorities continued a policy of systematic targeting through arbitrary and administrative detention, physical assault, deportation, seizure of equipment and forced interrogation. It said these actions aim to “silence coverage and break the national media structure”.
The syndicate’s freedoms committee warned of what it described as a “dangerous shift” in arrest practices. It said this includes focusing on the most influential journalists, repeatedly arresting the same journalist, expanding the use of administrative detention without charge, and using physical and psychological violence as a means of deterrence.
The report documented dozens of cases in which journalists were arrested while working in the field and covering military raids. It said this is used as a way to “empty the field of witnesses”.
The union also reported a rise in raids on journalists’ homes and their arrest from among their families, which it said is intended to “break them psychologically and socially”.
Polish Deputy Minister Urges EU Investigation Into TikTok Over Videos Promoting “Polexit”
By Cindy Harper | Reclaim The Net | January 1, 2026
A senior Polish official is pressing the European Commission to take action against TikTok, claiming the platform is hosting a growing number of artificial intelligence-generated videos that urge Poland to withdraw from the European Union.
His appeal, directed to Brussels’ top digital regulator, calls for what amounts to a censorship regime over AI-generated speech.
Deputy Minister of Digital Affairs Dariusz Standerski wrote to Executive Vice-President Henna Virkkunen, who oversees the EU’s Tech Sovereignty, Security, and Democracy portfolio, insisting that the European Commission open a Digital Services Act (DSA) investigation into TikTok.
He accused the company of failing to build “appropriate mechanisms” to detect and moderate AI-created content and of neglecting to provide “effective” transparency tools that could trace how such material is produced.
The letter went further, urging the Commission to introduce “interim measures aimed at limiting the further dissemination of artificial intelligence-generated content that encourages Poland to withdraw from the European Union.”
If interpreted literally, this would empower EU authorities to require large-scale filtering of political messages generated or enhanced by AI whenever they express skepticism toward EU membership.
Standerski also called for TikTok to produce a detailed internal report covering the supposed “disinformation,” including its scale, reach, and the steps taken to remove or suppress it.
Soon after his letter was publicized, Reuters reported that a TikTok account featuring “videos of young women dressed in Polish national colors and calling for Poland to leave the EU” had abruptly vanished from the platform.
TikTok, according to the report, had been “in contact with Polish authorities and removed content that violated its rules.”
That account, known online as Prawilne_Polki, had blended seemingly genuine clips with AI-generated ones, accumulating around 200,000 views and 20,000 likes within two weeks.
Polish-language outlets later confirmed that TikTok deleted Prawilne_Polki for breaching its terms of service.
Records suggest that Prawilne_Polki was originally created in May 2023 under a different name and was used for general entertainment videos until mid-December, when it was rebranded and began posting material about leaving the EU.
Reports describe it as part of a broader influence operation, though its removal appears to have been voluntary on TikTok’s part rather than the result of a formal EU order.
The significance of Standerski’s request lies less in the single account and more in the precedent it seeks.
His call for the EC to impose “measures limiting dissemination” would not distinguish between state-backed propaganda and ordinary user content.
Any AI-assisted meme, parody, or political joke about EU membership could be targeted under such a rule.
The DSA, already in effect, gives the European Commission extensive power to demand “systemic risk” assessments and impose moderation obligations on large online platforms.
Enforcement depends on algorithmic filters and opaque reporting systems that encourage platforms to err on the side of deletion rather than debate.
Treating AI-generated material as inherently suspect risks criminalizing or suppressing legitimate political commentary.
Once moderation directives are issued under the DSA, platforms often act preemptively to avoid fines, creating a censorship mechanism that needs no explicit ban.
TikTok has not clarified whether its removal of Prawilne_Polki was related to Standerski’s letter. Still, the sequence of events illustrates how political pressure can shape corporate moderation choices even before any formal legal process begins.
The Polish government’s push now places the European Commission in a position to decide whether “disinformation” about EU membership should be treated as a threat to democracy or as part of the democratic conversation itself.
The outcome could determine how much room remains for dissenting narratives in Europe.
Featured Video
Prof. Ted Postol: Iran Already Achieved Nuclear Deterrence Against Israel
or go to
Aletho News Archives – Video-Images
From the Archives
How the occupied mentality syndrome works
Saudi Arabia on the American chessboard – Part 3
By B. J. Sabri | American Herald Tribune | June 27, 2016
Read part 2: “The occupied mentality Syndrome“
Previously I argued whether Saudi Arabia’s repeated involvements in U.S. interventions and wars stem from free national will or in response to a specific condition. For starters, in Saudi Arabia there is no national will. In Saudi Arabia, the national will is the will of the Al Saud clan. Still, when a major Arab state allies itself with a superpower that committed unspeakable crimes against humanity in almost every Arab country, then something is wrong. This fact alone should compel us to examine the U.S.-Saudi relation for one exceptional reason. As a result of the U.S.-Saudi wars, hundreds of thousands of people in Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, and Somalia have lost their lives. Millions became displaced in their own homelands. And millions more rendered refugees.
Attributing the Saudi policies to the bonds of “partnership” with the U.S. is frivolous. There are no bonds between these two thugs except those of business, military deals, secret plots, and wars. Proving this point, bonds such as these have no space for the American and Saudi peoples to share significant cultural or societal exchanges. If partnership is not the reason for the Saudi contribution to the U.S. strategy of empire and imperialism, then another reason must exist.
This leads to three possibilities. … continue
Blog Roll
Aletho News- NIAID/NIH and USDA Fund Bioengineered Chimeric Influenza Viruses Built Using Pandemic H1N1 Components: Journal ‘Science Advances’
- Hezbollah hits Israeli warship off Lebanon’s coast, sets it aflame
- Iran slams US strikes on B1 bridge, Mahshahr petrochemical plants as ‘blatant acts of state terrorism’
- In letter to UN chief, Araghchi warns of dire consequences of US-Israeli attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities
- Why the CIA conspiracy to invade Iran with Kurdish militias failed
- Why Are Upbeat US Claims About Mission to Rescue Pilot ‘Highly Questionable’?
- Aircraft destroyed during US ‘rescue’ of downed F-15 pilot cost more than $100 million each
- Washington University removes professor who condemned US-Israeli war on Iran
- Russia Warns of Retaliation as UK Authorizes Seizure of Vessels
- Serbia thwarts plot to bomb Russia-Hungary gas pipeline – Vucic
- If Americans Knew
- In Iran, Israel-US take aim at “reason, research, and freedom of thought” – Daily Update
- US loses planes over Iran, Israel downgrades Lebanon war goals – Daily Update
- Israel Is Blocking Palestinians from Easter at Church Where Jesus Resurrected
- Plot to assassinate Palestinian activist follows harassment campaign promoted by Zionist groups and elected officials
- Prominent New York synagogue hosts presentation on why U.S. Jews should support the ethnic cleansing of Gaza
- Tapper vs. Piker: Is the CNN Anchor Auditioning for David Ellison?
- Shouldn’t Democrats Be Able to Condemn Genocide?
- Israel-US kill negotiators, destroy civilian structures, but Iran’s military capabilities still largely intact – Daily Update
- ‘War crime’: Global condemnation as Israeli ministers celebrate death penalty law targeting Palestinian prisoners
- 7 Ways Israel Is Turning Lebanon Into Gaza
- No Tricks Zone
- An Inconvenient Tree: Uncovered In Alps… Europe Much Warmer Than Today 6000 Years Ago
- New Study Reports A 60% Slowdown In Greenland’s Ice Loss Rate In The Last Decade
- Low Intensity Tornado Wrecks Major Solar Farm, Creating A Potential Toxic Dump
- New Study Finds Warming Saves Lives…Cold Temperatures 12 Times More Deadly Than Excess Heat
- German Science Blog Accuses PIK Climate Institute Of Hallucinating Climate Tipping Points
- Devastating Assessment Of Comirnaty Vaccine By Former Senior Pfizer Europe Toxicologist
- New Study: CO2 Is ‘Effectively Negligible’ As An Explanatory Climate Change Factor Since 2000
- Former Pfizer Toxicologist Dr. Helmut Sterz Tells Bundestag Hearing Pfizer Vaccine Should Have Never Been Approved
- Energy Expert: Germany’s Nuclear Phaseout Was A “500 Billion Euro Mistake”
- New Research: South Australia’s Mid-Holocene Sea Surface Temperatures Were 4°C Warmer Than Today
Aletho News 