Aletho News

ΑΛΗΘΩΣ

When the coloniser calls resistance terrorism

By Sayid Marcos Tenorio | MEMO | August 8, 2026

Throughout history, almost every national liberation struggle has been labelled “terrorism” by the powers exercising colonial rule or foreign occupation. This strategy is nothing new.

The British Empire branded IRA fighters in Ireland and EOKA guerrillas in Cyprus as terrorists. France portrayed Algeria’s National Liberation Front (FLN) as a criminal organisation. The same happened to the Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO), the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), the South West Africa People’s Organisation (SWAPO) in Namibia, and even Nelson Mandela’s African National Congress (ANC).

History, however, vindicated these movements and condemned the colonial regimes that sought to perpetuate their domination.

This pattern reveals a constant: those who occupy a territory seek to strip the occupied people of any legitimacy to resist.

The dehumanisation of resistance is a colonial strategy. By labelling every resistance fighter a “terrorist”, attention is shifted away from illegal occupation, apartheid and the denial of self-determination, and redirected towards the reaction of the occupied people.

This narrative, however, encounters clear limits within international law itself.

From the United Nations Charter to Resolution 1514 (XV) on decolonisation and Resolution 2625 (XXV), which reaffirms the principle of peoples’ self-determination, the understanding has been consolidated that peoples subjected to colonial domination, foreign occupation or racist regimes have the right to struggle for their liberation.

Several subsequent resolutions of the United Nations General Assembly recognised the legitimacy of national liberation movements and acknowledged that such resistance may take the form of armed struggle, provided that it remains subject to the rules of international humanitarian law.

This is precisely why the international community has never automatically equated national liberation movements with terrorist organisations.

International humanitarian law regulates the manner in which armed conflicts must be conducted and imposes obligations on all belligerents, including resistance movements.

However, it does not eliminate the political and legal right of a people to resist occupation. Confusing these two dimensions serves only the interests of occupying powers, because it transforms a conflict of a political and legal nature into a mere policing matter.

The history of the so-called “State of Israel” itself exposes this contradiction.

Before 1948, Irgun and Lehi were regarded as terrorist organisations by the British government because of attacks such as the bombing of the King David Hotel and the assassination of UN mediator Folke Bernadotte.

Years later, their leaders reached the highest levels of government, and Menachem Begin received the Nobel Peace Prize. This demonstrates that the label “terrorist” often reflects political circumstances more than any permanent legal definition.

In the contemporary context, this debate remains highly relevant. Palestine continues to be recognised by the United Nations as a territory under occupation, while Western Sahara remains on the UN list of Non-Self-Governing Territories, awaiting the fulfilment of its people’s right to self-determination.

In this context, the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), which emerged during the First Intifada, and the Polisario Front, recognised by the United Nations as the representative of the Sahrawi people in the Western Sahara peace process, belong to the historical tradition of national liberation movements.

As with South Africa’s ANC, Algeria’s FLN, Namibia’s SWAPO, Mozambique’s FRELIMO and many other movements, both base their struggle on their peoples’ claim to the right of self-determination in the face of occupation or foreign domination.

This does not mean that every military action carried out by resistance organisations is automatically legitimate under international law.

The rules of international humanitarian law apply to all parties to a conflict and prohibit deliberate attacks against civilians, regardless of the cause being defended.

However, possible violations of these rules do not, in themselves, invalidate the legal legitimacy of the struggle for self-determination, nor do they automatically transform a national liberation movement into a terrorist organisation under international law. These are distinct questions, frequently conflated for political convenience.

There is no colonialism without resistance. There never has been.

The French Resistance against Nazi occupation, Vietnamese guerrillas, Algerian fighters, South Africans who confronted apartheid, African liberation movements, the Polisario Front and the Palestinian resistance all demonstrate that no people will indefinitely accept the loss of their land, sovereignty and dignity.

The real question, therefore, is not why resistance exists.

The question the world should be asking is why military occupations, colonial processes and regimes that deny entire peoples the right to determine their own destiny continue to exist.

As long as there is colonisation, apartheid, illegal annexation and denial of self-determination, there will be armed resistance movements.

And international law, despite political pressure and attempts to criminalise liberation movements, continues to uphold the fundamental principle that the freedom of peoples is not an act of terrorism, but a fundamental right of humanity.

August 8, 2026 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation | , | Comments Off on When the coloniser calls resistance terrorism

Israel orders uprooting of trees on 316 dunums in West Bank for settlement expansion

MEMO | August 7, 2026

The Israeli military has issued eight orders to uproot trees and remove vegetation from 316 dunums of land across the occupied West Bank for settlement-related purposes, the Colonisation and Wall Resistance Commission (CWRC) said on Thursday.

A dunum is equivalent to 1,000 square metres.

In a statement issued on Thursday evening, the Palestinian government body said the orders require the removal of wild vegetation and olive trees from land identified in attached maps.

The eight orders cover a total of 316.636 dunums. Six of them target about 311 dunums in the northern governorate of Jenin, while the remaining two apply to the Nablus governorate and occupied East Jerusalem.

The commission said the vegetation clearance does not target isolated farmland but areas alongside main roads, expanding Israeli control on both sides of the roads and causing direct damage to olive trees and neighbouring agricultural land.

It warned that the Israeli authorities are using the orders to facilitate the establishment of settlements, saying the measures are intended to prepare the land for settlement infrastructure while restricting landowners’ access to and use of their property.

According to the commission, Israel has issued 59 orders since the beginning of 2026 to remove tree cover from 2,480 dunums of Palestinian-owned land. It added that around 60,000 dunums of Palestinian land have been seized during the 1,000 days of the Gaza war, which began on 8th October 2023.

Palestinians warn that such measures are paving the way for Israel to formally annex the occupied West Bank, which they say would undermine the possibility of establishing a Palestinian state as envisaged in relevant United Nations resolutions.

August 7, 2026 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation | , , , , , | Comments Off on Israel orders uprooting of trees on 316 dunums in West Bank for settlement expansion

Rome talks fail as Israeli artillery rains death on Lebanon

Press TV – August 7, 2026 

The seventh round of US-brokered negotiations between Lebanon and Israel have concluded in Rome without any breakthrough, marked by Israeli forces unleashing their most intense artillery barrage on southern Lebanon since the signing of a controversial framework agreement in June.

As diplomats met at the US Embassy in Rome, Israeli artillery and warplanes pounded Lebanese villages with increasing ferocity.

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) recorded 120 projectiles fired by Israeli forces between midnight and 4 p.m. on Thursday alone—surpassing the previous day’s total of 113 and marking the highest single-day figure observed since June 21.

UNIFIL described the escalation as the “sharpest” surge in Israeli military aggression since the announcement of the US-mediated trilateral framework in late June.

Crucially, UNIFIL reported that it did not detect any projectile launches by Hezbollah during the period, underscoring the one-sided nature of the ongoing Israeli violence.

The framework agreement signed in Washington on June 26, which the talks in Rome were ostensibly meant to implement, has been condemned by broad swathes of Lebanon’s political class as a national catastrophe that compromises Lebanese sovereignty while extracting no binding commitments from Israel.

Critics point to the agreement’s fundamental imbalance: Lebanon is required to deploy its army to “pilot zones,” dismantle resistance infrastructure, and verify disarmament—all before Israeli forces begin their gradual redeployment.

No binding timetable exists for Israel’s withdrawal from occupied Lebanese territory.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has publicly presented the agreement as an achievement for Israel, a framing that has intensified the backlash in Beirut and reinforced the view that Lebanon has made outrageous concessions without securing even an immediate ceasefire.

Lebanon’s prominent Mufti, Ahmad Qabalan, declared the agreement the “worst national catastrophe” in Lebanon’s history, asserting that it effectively grants the Israeli military a form of guardianship over the Lebanese army and implicitly recognizes Israeli sovereignty over occupied areas.

Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem has described it as “a humiliation, a disgrace and a surrender of sovereignty”.

Even the Free Patriotic Movement, one of the largest Christian parties and not traditionally aligned with Hezbollah, has warned against “surrendering to Israeli demands”.

The Rome negotiations, held over three days including two days of intensive meetings at the US Embassy, failed to produce any tangible progress.

Sources close to the negotiations said the sessions, the seventh round overall, were divided into three tracks—military, political, and legal-border—but yielded no clear results.

While negotiators talked, Israeli forces intensified their assault on southern Lebanon with devastating effect.

On Wednesday alone, Israeli forces fired 113 projectiles into southern Lebanon, with 77 of them striking the town of al-Mansuri and surrounding areas. On Thursday, the bombardment increased to 120 projectiles in just 16 hours.

The Israeli military issued urgent evacuation warnings to residents of al-Mansuri, forcing families to flee their homes.

Two Israeli soldiers were killed and several injured in an explosion in the al-Mansuri area on Wednesday, reportedly after forces entered a facility ahead of a planned demolition.

UNIFIL confirmed it did not directly observe the explosion but noted the subsequent Israeli evacuation order.

The Lebanese Ministry of Health reported that eight civilians were injured in Israeli airstrikes on the town of Burj al-Shamali near Tyre on Thursday.

Israeli warplanes also flew at low altitude over the southern suburbs of Beirut, the Bekaa Valley, and the northern region of Akkar, with drones maintaining continuous flights over the capital.

Since March 2, when Israel escalated its military aggressions in Lebanon, the attacks have killed 4,333 people, injured 12,250 others, and displaced more than 1 million Lebanese citizens, according to Lebanese Health Ministry figures.

Israel’s negotiating position, as reported by sources familiar with the humiliating talks, is to preserve its military’s freedom of action as long as Hezbollah “continues to pose a threat”—a determination Israel makes unilaterally.

Israel has refused to agree to any operational restrictions until Lebanon fully implements its commitments under the framework agreement.

This position effectively grants Israel a perpetual veto over Lebanese sovereignty, with the Israeli military retaining the right to strike Lebanese territory at will, even as Lebanese forces are expected to disarm and dismantle Hezbollah’s infrastructure.

The Lebanese government, led by Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, has defended the negotiations as an assertion of independence. But critics argue that in practice, the agreement has only deepened Lebanon’s subjugation to Washington’s agenda while providing Israel with diplomatic cover for continued aggression.

The next round of talks is tentatively scheduled for September 1.

August 7, 2026 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation | , , , | Comments Off on Rome talks fail as Israeli artillery rains death on Lebanon

IOF obstruct Lebanese Army entry into al-Mansouri, wound soldier

Al Mayadeen | August 7, 2026

A Lebanese Army soldier was wounded on Friday as Israeli forces escalated efforts to block the army’s entry into the town of al-Mansouri in the Tyre district, attacking personnel and equipment with artillery and drone strikes, Al Mayadeen’s correspondent reported.

The soldier was wounded when a stun grenade was dropped by an Israeli drone onto an army bulldozer as it worked to clear roads and remove rubble in the town. Israeli artillery also shelled the town on more than one occasion throughout the day.

Lebanon’s National News Agency had reported that overnight into Friday, Lebanese Army units entered al-Mansouri and began reopening roads blocked by the latest Israeli attacks, working to facilitate the return of residents displaced by the aggression.

Attacks on Tyre, Bint Jbeil districts

Elsewhere in the Tyre district, Israeli forces set fire to the Wadi al-Salouqi water station near the Shaqra junction, while IOF artillery shelled the Zibqin valley at dawn.

In the Bint Jbeil district, Israeli occupation forces carried out a controlled demolition in the town of Hadatha, continuing a pattern from the overnight hours, when occupation forces had already carried out a controlled demolition in the same town at around 3 am.

Israeli forces additionally carried out a sweep from Hadatha toward the outskirts of Aita al-Jabal, advancing military vehicles near the area before withdrawing back toward Hadatha, according to local sources.

Israeli forces separately carried out a controlled demolition in the town of Kounine, also in Bint Jbeil district.

Along the border with occupied Palestine, Israeli artillery shelled the town of Mays al-Jabal, and Israeli forces opened machine-gun fire toward the town of Beit Yahoun. Al Mayadeen’s correspondent further reported that the IOF set ablaze several houses in Houla.

“Israel” also continues to violate Lebanese airspace, whereby an Israeli drone was also seen flying over Beirut and its southern suburb.

Israeli media: Hezbollah acted independently of Iran

Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, citing a senior security source, reported that Hezbollah made its own decision to rejoin the fighting, without direction from Iran, seeing it as a chance to break the pattern of Israeli assassinations and attacks against the party.

Israeli military officials told the paper that the Lebanese Resistance had been preparing to return to war, viewing the prospect of a broader war on Iran as an opening to do so.

According to the senior security official, Iran gave Hezbollah no such order; if anything, Tehran simply understood the precarious position Hezbollah found itself in. The official revealed that Hezbollah had reached its own conclusion that it could no longer keep absorbing Israeli attacks without striking back, as it had done for the 15 months since the ceasefire took effect.

Al-Mansouri under repeated attack

Friday’s events mark the latest chapter in a mounting Israeli campaign against al-Mansouri specifically.

On Wednesday, Israeli warships had targeted the town, with the sound of explosions reaching Tyre, while Israeli warplanes separately struck it in airstrikes. That escalation followed an Israeli “evacuation” order instructing al-Mansouri’s residents to move at least 1,000 meters north of the town, the first such warning issued since the ceasefire took effect in April.

The same day, Israeli drones bombed the nearby Burj al-Shamali area three times in succession, wounding eight people, and Israeli forces carried out a controlled demolition in Hadatha as artillery shelled the vicinity of the Ali al-Taher hill, Majdal Zoun, and the outskirts of al-Mansouri and Hanniyeh.

Talks continue in Rome while ‘Israel’ offers no concessions

The attacks continue as Lebanese and Israeli officials held a seventh round of direct talks in Rome, described by Al Mayadeen’s correspondent as the “most difficult round” yet.

While the US State Department called the talks “fruitful” at the technical level, the Lebanese presidency has said no response has been received from the Israeli political level on committing to the ceasefire, and has ruled out the likelihood that “Israel” will approve a proposed new “pilot zone” in the south.

The Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc condemned the continued negotiations with the Israeli regime as a policy of “submission, surrender, and humiliating negotiations,” calling for the talks to end amid the ongoing aggression.

The bloc highlighted that Lebanese officials were meeting with Israeli representatives in Rome even as occupation forces continued to “kill, shell, bulldoze, and destroy” across the south, pointing to the threats and forced evacuation of al-Mansouri’s residents as further evidence of what it called the authorities’ “miserable choices.”

August 7, 2026 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation, War Crimes | , , | Comments Off on IOF obstruct Lebanese Army entry into al-Mansouri, wound soldier

His Majesty’s plunder: The royal machine behind the Trump Highway and Western Sahara’s phosphate wealth

The Cradle | August 3, 2026

There is a machine in the Sahara you can see from space. A conveyor belt, the longest on earth, nearly one hundred kilometers of steel from a mine called Bou Craa to the Atlantic. For half a century it has moved phosphate out of occupied Western Sahara, through wars, ceasefires, and a promised referendum that never came. The richest layer of the deposit is already gone, sold before the Sahrawis could ever vote on it. And the electricity that keeps the belt running is sold to the state by a wind farm belonging to the king.

On 26 July, US President Donald Trump announced that the highway running past this machine now carries his name. The announcement arrived as a four-minute Truth Social video, narrated by an obvious AI voice praising his “historic courage.” Rabat, six days on, has not said the name out loud. It does not need to. The name was never the payment.

The road is. It is 1,055 kilometers of settlement poured across Africa’s last colony, the kind of road empires have always built and named for themselves. It connects the mine, the port, an Israeli-held offshore block, and the duty-free fertilizer now sailing for New Orleans under an emergency Washington manufactured itself. Follow it far enough and the asphalt runs from phosphate to palace.

An occupation, bought in installments

Every payment has a paper trail, and this one begins five years before the name. The convention that built the road was signed in the presence of Moroccan King Mohammed VI in El-Aaiun (also known as Laayoune) in 2015, on the 40th anniversary of the Green March, at a cost of 10 billion Moroccan dirhams (MAD) – or around $1.074 billion. Morocco poured its annexation in asphalt, as empires always have, long before Washington blessed it. What arrived in December 2020 was not the road. It was the signature.

Morocco became the fourth Arab state to normalize relations with the occupation state, and in exchange the US recognized Moroccan sovereignty over the whole of Western Sahara. Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, negotiated the deal and supplied the doctrine, likening the Sahara recognition to Trump’s recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights. One occupation legitimized on the template of another. The architect said it so no analyst has to.

Tel Aviv paid its own installment in July 2023, when Netanyahu sent Mohammed VI a letter recognizing the Moroccan claim. A senior Moroccan official explained what the letter was for – Rabat expects the recognition to encourage Israeli investment in the territory. Recognition as prospectus. This is trans-Zionism as designed: the occupation state sets the template, Washington executes, the client kingdom collects.

What the road runs past

South of El-Aaiun, the machine comes back into view. The Bou Craa mine feeds its conveyor belt to the harbor at El-Aaiun, where bulk vessels have carried the territory’s wealth abroad since 1975. According to the figures of the world’s largest phosphate and fertilizer producer, Morocco’s OCP Group, Bou Craa delivers around a fifth of the company’s exports from just eight percent of its extracted volume. That is what occupations are for.

The quality tells its own story. Bou Craa’s deposit sits in two layers, and Western Sahara Resource Watch, which tracks every bulk shipment out of El-Aaiun, documented that Morocco has practically sold off the high-grade layer that should have been available to the Sahrawi people, mining the poorer second seam since 2014. What remains is the residue.

None of this is legally ambiguous. The UN’s legal counsel concluded in 2002 that further exploitation of the territory’s resources against the wishes of its people would violate international law. A South African court ruled in 2018 that ownership of a phosphate cargo from El-Aaiun was never lawfully vested in OCP at all. The company ships stolen goods. A court has said so. The road Trump wants his name on is the overland artery of that trade.

An emergency of Washington’s own making

The American market took the long way round. In 2021, Washington slapped a 19.97 percent countervailing duty on OCP after Florida’s Mosaic Company complained of subsidized competition. The rate yo-yoed for five years until a trade court cut it to 2.11 percent in December 2025 and Washington quietly dropped its appeal. Then came the war.

Washington’s strikes on Iran choked the Strait of Hormuz, the artery for roughly a third of the world’s seaborne fertilizer trade. Prices climbed, farmers rationed, and on 29 June Trump declared a national emergency under a Depression-era clause of the 1930 Tariff Act, suspending the duties entirely. The suspension is time-bound, not volume-bound: a USDA official confirmed OCP can ship unlimited tonnage for eight months. Washington set fire to the supply chain, declared an emergency over the smoke, and handed the normalization partner the keys to the American market.

Now examine what sails in. North African sedimentary phosphate is naturally high in cadmium, a carcinogen the EU capped at 60 milligrams per kilo in its fertilizers. OCP’s response was to lobby against the cap, hiring Dechert LLP and Edelman and proposing Brussels raise the limit to 80. The US has no comparable federal ceiling, leaving oversight to a patchwork of state rules. Europe’s restricted rock has found a market with no thermostat. American capital wasted no time: two weeks after the proclamation, US-based firm Koch Ag signed a joint venture stake in OCP’s fertilizer complex at Jorf Lasfar. The same conglomerate poured half a billion dollars into the occupation state’s tech sector through its investment arm Koch Disruptive Technologies (KDT), built under Eli Groner, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s former top civil servant, settled in the occupied West Bank.

From phosphate to palace

Tracing the flow of revenue shows that it extends beyond the state treasury. OCP belongs to the Moroccan state. But the throne sits atop a parallel structure: the royal family controls roughly 60 percent of the Al-Mada conglomerate through personal holdings named SIGER and ERGIS, both derived from regis, Latin for king, feeding a fund in which Mohammed VI holds 50.6 percent. SIGER’s director, Mounir Majidi, is also the king’s private secretary: one man running the head of state’s office and the family vault.

Al-Mada’s energy arm, Nareva, is where the phosphate money turns royal. The wind farm at Foum el-Oued, built by a wholly-owned Nareva subsidiary, supplies nearly all the electricity OCP needs to mine Bou Craa, run the conveyor belt, and wash the rock for export. The state plunders the phosphate. The king sells the state the power that does the plundering. Every tonne leaving El-Aaiun has burned royal electricity first. All but one wind farm in the occupied territory sits in Nareva’s portfolio, and WSRW poses the question that answers itself: why would a king who profits from occupation ever back a UN peace process?

Moroccan outlet Barlamane reported that quantities invoiced on the expressway far exceeded the work actually built, prompting the equipment minister to bar the implicated survey bureau from public contracts for five years. On the road to Dakhla, even the overcharging is infrastructure.

The name was never the payment

Empires have always paved roads through conquered land and called it civilization. Rome did it, France did it in this same desert, and in July 2026 the tradition produced its densest month yet: duty-free phosphate sailing for New Orleans, Kosh Ag signing into Jorf Lasfar, and an American president naming a highway across a territory that was never Morocco’s to give. The belt at Bou Craa keeps turning, the royal turbines keep spinning, the receipts keep printing – and the only thing Rabat has still not done is say the name out loud.

August 3, 2026 Posted by | Economics, Illegal Occupation | , , , , | Comments Off on His Majesty’s plunder: The royal machine behind the Trump Highway and Western Sahara’s phosphate wealth

Netanyahu will reject US demands for withdrawal from Lebanon, Gaza, Syria if asked: Report

The Cradle | July 28, 2026

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told cabinet ministers that Washington wants Israeli soldiers to pull back from positions in Syria, Lebanon, and Gaza, and that he does not intend to comply with US demands, Channel 13 reported on 27 July.

The report, which cites unnamed security sources familiar with the matter, states that US officials want the Israeli army to carry out a “series of withdrawals” across the three fronts.

Channel 13 does not state whether Washington is seeking full or partial pullbacks; however, Netanyahu told the ministers that he “intends to stand on my own two feet and resist.”

“I will strongly oppose this and tell them no,” he reportedly said.

The comments come as Netanyahu has set off for Washington for a meeting set for Tuesday with US President Donald Trump, after which he is scheduled to attend the funeral services for Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, one of Washington’s most persistent warmongers and an unwavering backer of Israel, who died on 11 July.

Israeli forces are currently occupying major stretches of land in Lebanon, Syria, and Gaza.

Israel maintains positions in border and hilltop areas in southern Syria, especially near the Golan frontier, where the military has established footholds inside Syrian territory, and regularly conducts raids against locals.

What began as a pretext to aid Druze communities battling Damascus’s extremist troops and Syrian government-backed Bedouin tribes after the ousting of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad has become a so-called “buffer zone.” Israel has since used it to launch incursions into Lebanon.

In Lebanon, Israel maintains its so-called “Yellow Line” in the south that runs from the Mediterranean coast in the west to the Mount Hermon area in the east, extending around 10 kilometers inland and, in some parts, passing the Litani River.

Israel’s occupation of Lebanon has been marked by repeated ceasefire violations, including near-daily strikes, demolitions, and incursions. Beirut cited more than 2,000 violations in late 2025 alone, while hundreds of thousands of Lebanese remain displaced.

Many dozens of Lebanese villages within the Yellow Line have been completely demolished, with the intent of ethnically cleansing the area and creating a dead zone to which residents cannot return.

According to comments from February by Israeli Minister of War Israel Katz, Israeli troops will be staying in Lebanon and Syria “indefinitely.”

In Gaza, following almost three years of genocide and near-daily ceasefire violations since last October, Israel continued to slowly edge its Yellow Line in the strip further under the cover of night.

The most recent reporting says the controlled area has expanded to about 65 percent of Gaza and that the line has been shifted westward in places by hundreds of meters and, in some areas, by more than a kilometer.

Netanyahu has publicly said he wants to expand Israeli control over the strip further up to 70 percent.

Satellite imagery released on 21 July and reviewed by AP and Haaretz shows that the Israeli military has dug a 23-kilometer earthen trench along its new positions, cutting the devastated enclave in two.

In one stretch of southern Gaza, the trench sits more than a kilometer past the Yellow Line.

 

July 28, 2026 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation | , , , , , | Comments Off on Netanyahu will reject US demands for withdrawal from Lebanon, Gaza, Syria if asked: Report

The spark in Tell: How a village resistance disrupted Israel’s West Bank strategy

By Ramzy Baroud | MEMO | July 25, 2026

During a military raid on the small town of Tell, southwest of Nablus, a moment of direct defiance shattered the illusion of total Palestinian submission.

Faced with relentless military incursions, land confiscation, and settler harassment and violence, local villagers and farmers refused to retreat.

In the confrontation that followed, a single Palestinian disarmed an Israeli soldier and opened fire on the invading forces near the illegal Havat Gilad settlement outpost, killing two soldiers and wounding three others.

What followed was the predictable, unyielding fury of the occupation: Israeli forces and state-backed armed settlers immediately launched a series of raids across Tell and neighboring communities, killing four Palestinians, setting fire to homes, and converting residential buildings into field interrogation centers.

In a swift collective punishment campaign, Israeli occupation troops detained over 70 Palestinians—including more than 40 in Tell alone—while expanding military incursions into Jenin, Tubas, Tulkarm, Ramallah, Hebron (Al-Khalil), Bethlehem, and Jericho.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz promptly ordered a “wide-scale military operation,” while UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese unequivocally condemned the combined army-settler assaults as “pogroms against defenseless civilians,” reiterating calls for an immediate arms embargo and trade sanctions against Israel.

Yet to understand the spark in Tell, one must understand the explosive pressure cooker that the occupied West Bank has become.

Netanyahu’s primitive calculus

Netanyahu’s immediate response to the incident in Tell was not a departure from policy, but the activation of an old, entrenched doctrine: every act of Palestinian resistance—no matter how localized—must be weaponized to accelerate the state-sponsored theft of Palestinian land.

For decades, Israel’s security apparatus has used local resistance as cover to achieve long-standing demographic and territorial ambitions. Under the current far-right coalition, this strategy has reached unprecedented levels of speed and brutality.

The scale of destruction

Since October 2023, while global media attention focused primarily on the horrors in Gaza, Israel systematically expanded its offensive across the occupied West Bank:

  • Over 1,090 Palestinians—including at least 239 children—have been killed by Israeli forces and state-backed armed settlers.
  • Over 6,800 Palestinians have been injured by live ammunition, shrapnel, and physical assaults, with settler attacks alone accounting for a surging majority of recent civilian injuries.
  • More than 10,000 Palestinians have been forcibly displaced due to home demolitions, violent settler rampages, and severe access restrictions. Entire Bedouin and rural communities across the South Hebron Hills and the Jordan Valley have been systematically depopulated and cleansed.
  • Over 11,000 Palestinians have been swept into detention through military night raids, held under arbitrary administrative detention without charge or trial.
  • Under Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich—who was granted official authority over civilian affairs in the West Bank—the Israeli government declared tens of thousands of dunams of Palestinian territory as “state land,” marking the largest continuous land grabs since the Oslo Accords. Concurrently, dozens of illegal settler outposts were retroactively legalized, and thousands of new settlement housing units were advanced.

Strategic purpose behind the escalation

Israel’s systematic campaign in the West Bank serves three distinct political and military objectives for Netanyahu and his cabinet:

One, preempting a second front

Israel recognized that if the West Bank rose up in full-scale, organized rebellion while its military was locked in a grueling, unending genocidal campaign in Gaza, containing both entities would prove virtually impossible. Having failed to crush the Palestinian resistance in Gaza despite its overwhelming military force, Israel applied heavy-handed, preemptive violence in the West Bank to terrorize the population into total submission.

Two, shielding Netanyahu through far-right leverage

To survive the internal political fallout of October 7 and his military’s failure to achieve its stated war aims, Netanyahu needed to keep his coalition intact. He granted far-right ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir absolute freedom to execute their ideological agenda: expanding illegal settlements, annexing Area C, arming settler militias, and repeatedly invading and altering the status quo at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem.

Three, masking failure with offensive posturing

Desperate to avoid appearing as a helpless leader trapped in a multi-front war of attrition, Netanyahu used military raids, aerial drone strikes, and armored incursions into West Bank refugee camps (from Jenin and Tulkarm to Nablus) to project an image of strength and control to his right-wing domestic constituency.

Settler terror and the bankruptcy of the PA

This campaign of state-sponsored expansion was smoothed by two major factors on the ground:

Unchecked settler paramilitarism

Armed by Itamar Ben-Gvir’s National Security Ministry, violent settler gangs have been fully integrated into state-sanctioned paramilitaries. Settlers launch routine, organized pogroms against Palestinian villages—burning homes, destroying olive groves, stealing livestock, and firing live ammunition at civilians—with the direct protection and active participation of the Israeli military.

The subjugation and inaction of the PA

The Palestinian Authority (PA) has completely abandoned its fundamental duty to protect its people. Rather than formulating a national defense strategy or providing at least symbolic leadership to resist land theft, the PA security forces continued security coordination with the occupation.

The PA actively cracked down on local resistance fighters, confiscated weapons, and suppressed public demonstrations, acting as a sub-contracted administrative force managing Palestinian subjugation on Israel’s behalf.

Why mainstream analysis fails

Most media and political analysts will inevitably frame the current escalation around narrow parliamentary metrics. They will point to upcoming Israeli elections, arguing that Netanyahu is provoking violence purely to consolidate the far-right vote, satisfy Ben-Gvir and Smotrich, and outflank his political rivals.

International human rights bodies will issue familiar warnings, humanitarian organizations like MSF will voice alarm over raids on medical facilities like Nablus Specialized Hospital, and political blocs like the European Union will issue toothless calls for “all parties to de-escalate.”

Meanwhile, the United States government continues to funnel billions of dollars in heavy weaponry to Israel, reinforcing an episode of historical complicity.

What these analyses consistently fail to grasp is the reality of Palestinian agency.

They treat Palestinians as passive victims waiting for international intervention or political shifts in Tel Aviv and Washington. But the explosion in Tell proved that the status quo of total encirclement, daily humiliation, and existential dispossession is inherently unsustainable.

The rebellion did not start where standard military analysts expected it to—it ignited in a small farming town among people who decided that fighting back was the only response left to quiet, gradual annihilation.

The West Bank will not remain silent forever; it will rise at the time and place of its people’s choosing, rendering conventional political forecasts useless.

July 26, 2026 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation | , , , , | Comments Off on The spark in Tell: How a village resistance disrupted Israel’s West Bank strategy

Israel’s Lawlessness Will Be Its Undoing

By Kevin Barrett | American Free Press | July 20, 2026

Israel has been the world’s worst international outlaw since 1948. That year, the Zionists used terrorism—mass rape and the slaughter of thousands of men, women, and children—to murder or expel 750,000 Palestinians from their homeland. When Palestine’s outraged neighbors tried to protect the Palestinian genocide victims, the Zionists attacked them and blamed them for the violence!

On December 11, 1948, the United Nations passed Resolution 194 ordering Israel to allow surviving genocide victims to return and reclaim their homes and be compensated for their suffering. Israel thumbed its nose at the law, murdering Palestinians who tried to return. Since then it has continued violating Resolution 194 along with dozens of other UN resolutions.

Every year, more and more Palestinian property is stolen by greedy Jewish squatters. Murder and terrorism are their instruments. And woe to anyone who tries to interfere! Rachel Corrie, the brave young American who lay down in front of a Zionist bulldozer in Rafah in 2003, was blithely crushed to death by Israelis who know that in today’s Holocaust-narrative-brainwashed world, Zionist criminals enjoy near-complete impunity. The bulldozer driver was never punished. To this day, Israelis continue to celebrate the murder of Rachel Corrie in myriad ways, including feasting on pancakes bearing her name.

Israel is a fundamentally lawless state. It refuses to even declare official borders, because it is stealing more land and property every single day.

As a world leader in organ trafficking, child trafficking, cybercrimes, false flag terrorism, assassination, blackmail, and other illicit pursuits—and a haven for wanted pedophiles from other nations—Israel is so lawless that many see it as an organized crime hub masquerading as a state. But that kind of extreme lawlessness does not bode well for Israel’s future.

In early July, Netanyahu’s ultra-extremist cabinet announced that it would no longer obey the Israeli Supreme Court. A group of high-tech entrepreneurs critical of Netanyahu had been trying to buy out a media outlet, Channel 13, and the cabinet had blocked the sale. The Supreme Court ordered them to let the sale go through. The Netanyahu regime refused, announcing that it would henceforth flout Supreme Court rulings it disagreed with. The Israeli media is calling it a full-blown “Constitutional crisis.” Is civil war looming?

The Zionist regime’s flagrant disregard for the rule of law was also on full display in its ongoing violations of “ceasefires” in Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran. Every day, Israel exterminates more Palestinian civilians, despite the Trump-brokered “ceasefire” that went into effect last October. And it continues to occupy Lebanon, slaughter Lebanese people, and genocidally destroy entire Lebanese towns and neighborhoods, in blatant violation of the ceasefire imposed by the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Trump and Iran.

The MOU’s very first provision states:

“1. The Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States of America, and their allies in the current war, by signing this MoU, declare the immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon, and undertake from now on not to initiate any war or any military operation against each other, and to refrain from the threat or use of force against each other, and ensuring the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Lebanon. The final Deal will confirm the permanent termination of the war on all fronts, including in Lebanon, and other provisions of this paragraph.”

Lebanon is explicitly mentioned three times in that opening paragraph. Ordering “the US and its allies” (beginning with Israel, the “ally” that dragged the US into the war) to “ensure the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Lebanon” clearly requires Israel to withdraw from all Lebanese territory it has been occupying. But Israel has been flouting the MOU, insisting it won’t withdraw while continuing to murder Lebanese people as it genocidally demolishes their towns and neighborhoods.

Israel’s lawlessness has torpedoed the MOU and reignited the war on Iran. The whole world is being dragged into a catastrophic depression because Israel refuses to play by the rules.

This won’t end well for Israel or the Jews it claims to represent. Over countless millennia, humanity has evolved ways of removing disruptive psychopaths from its midst. The psychopathic Bushman would be poisoned. The psychopathic Eskimo would be pushed off the ice. In modern times, a more expensive alternative—a life sentence in a high security prison—is preferred.

Countless high-profile figures, including Iran’s martyred leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have called Israel a cancer that desperately needs to be excised from West Asia and the world. And just as cancer cells that violate the “cellular law of the greater good” must be removed before they kill the whole organism, Israel’s outrageous flouting of the rule of law will likely force humanity to terminate the bloody Zionist experiment.

Subscribe to American Free Press, America’s last real newspaper, to get early access to articles like this (and much more).

July 20, 2026 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation, War Crimes | , , , | Comments Off on Israel’s Lawlessness Will Be Its Undoing

US Reinstates Naval Blockade of Iran – Trump

Sputnik – 13.07.2026

WASHINGTON – The United States is reinstating the blockade of Iranian ports, US President Donald Trump said on Monday.

“The Hormuz Strait is OPEN, and will remain OPEN, with or without Iran. We are reinstating the THE IRANIAN BLOCKADE, so named because it is only stopping Iran’s ships or customers from entering or leaving. All other countries will have fair and open use of the Strait,” Trump said on Truth Social.

Trump also said that the United States will become a “guardian” of the Strait of Hormuz and receive a reimbursement equal to 20% of cargo shipped through the waterway.

“All other countries will have fair and open use of the Strait. The U.S.A. will be, from this point forward, known as ‘THE GUARDIAN OF THE HORMUZ STRAIT,’ but as such, and as a matter of FAIRNESS, will be reimbursed, at the rate of 20% on all cargo shipped, for any and all costs necessary to do the job of providing safety and security to this very volatile section of the World. The process and formation will begin immediately,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

July 13, 2026 Posted by | Economics, Illegal Occupation, Militarism | , , | Comments Off on US Reinstates Naval Blockade of Iran – Trump

Iran Rejects Trump’s Bid to Police the Strait of Hormuz

Sputnik – 13.07.2026

TEHRAN – Iran will not allow Washington to interfere in the governance of the Strait of Hormuz, the Khatam Al-Anbiya central headquarters of the Iranian military command said on Monday.

“We will not allow the United States to interfere in the governance of the Strait of Hormuz under any circumstances,” the command said in a statement, as quoted by Iran’s state broadcaster.

US interference in shipping in the Strait of Hormuz will threaten the security of global gas and oil supplies, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) spokesman Hossein Mohebbi said.

“With its interference in the Strait of Hormuz, the US is seriously threatening the security of global oil and gas supplies. They must be held accountable for their actions,” Mohebbi said, as quoted by the Fars news agency.

Trump’s Statements:

The United States is planning to guard the Strait of Hormuz and get paid for it, Trump said earlier.

“We guarded it for nothing, and now we’re going to guard it. We’re going to get paid for guarding it. A lot of money, but we just want to be reimbursed for doing all of this, for putting our people in danger,” Trump told Fox News.

The US president also threatened to launch powerful strikes against Iran.

“We’ve had 10 deals with these people, and so we’re just going to hit them very hard. And we’re going to keep the Strait, and we’ll probably run it. We’ll become the guardian of the Strait,” Trump said.

Trump accused Tehran of violating an agreement with Washington which he said had been “a done deal.”

“What nobody knows, we had a deal. It was a done deal, and then they broke it. They always break it. We’ve had 10 deals with these people​,” Trump told Fox News.

July 13, 2026 Posted by | Illegal Occupation | , | Comments Off on Iran Rejects Trump’s Bid to Police the Strait of Hormuz

British charities promoting Israeli army training programs, visits to illegal settlement

The Cradle | July 10, 2026

UK-registered charities are promoting programs that allow participants to visit illegal Jewish settlements in occupied Palestine, train with the Israeli army, stay in settlements, and take part in Zionist education initiatives linked to migration to Israel, according to an investigation by Middle East Eye (MEE) published on 10 July.

The United Jewish Israel Appeal (UJIA) promotes Israeli gap-year programs run by organizations such as Aardvark and Bina, which include visits to occupied Palestinian territory, including Hebron, the Golan Heights, and locations throughout the occupied West Bank.

UJIA-promoted programs also connect participants with the Israeli army through the Marva course, an army-run program that allows participants to live on a military base for six to eight weeks, undergoing basic training and meeting soldiers.

The investigation examined Bnei Akiva, a religious Zionist youth movement supported by UK charities. It runs activities and gap-year programs in Israel to foster commitment to the Jewish people, Land of Israel, and Torah.

Bnei Akiva’s Mechina Olamit program houses participants in Migdal Oz, an illegal settlement in the occupied West Bank, and also provides preparation for military service, including physical training and military activities.

Bnei Akiva promotes migration to Israel through “Zionist education” and Aliyah initiatives, with Aliyah referring to Jewish migration to Israel.

The International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) told MEE that the activities raise legal concerns, adding that sending participants to settlements or treating them as part of Israel’s  territory violates international law, while describing the Marva program as resembling “pre-enlistment military training rather than cultural exchange.”

In a separate investigation, a UK charity named Friends of Yeshivat Shavei Hevron was revealed to have directly funded the expansion of a religious school in an illegal settlement within the Palestinian city of Hebron, with the charity sending over $260,000 to the school between 2029 and 2024.

These cases reflect broader concerns raised by UK government officials and MPs, who have identified dozens of British-registered charities funneling millions of pounds into illegal settlements.

July 10, 2026 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation | , , , | Comments Off on British charities promoting Israeli army training programs, visits to illegal settlement

Red Sea tensions rise as French report claims military base is being built in Somaliland

MEMO | July 7, 2026

A report published by the French newspaper Le Monde says satellite image analysis indicates the gradual construction of a military base in the city of Berbera in the self-declared region of Somaliland.

According to the report, the project is being supported by the United Arab Emirates and is intended to serve the interests of the United States and Israel.

Le Monde said satellite images reviewed by the newspaper showed continued expansion of Berbera Airport since October 2025, including infrastructure development. The newspaper said the work suggests a new military facility is being built at a strategically important location near the southern entrance to the Red Sea.

The report said Berbera has attracted growing interest from regional and international powers because of its location on the Gulf of Aden, close to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, one of the world’s most important maritime routes.

It linked the reported developments to increasing competition for influence in the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea, amid regional security tensions and efforts to protect international shipping lanes.

According to the newspaper, the report included no official comment from the UAE, the United States or Israel. There has also been no official response from the authorities in Somaliland or the Somali federal government to the claims.

Berbera occupies a strategic position on the Gulf of Aden near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, through which a significant share of global trade and energy supplies passes between Asia and Europe. Its location has made the area a focus of military and economic competition among regional and international powers.

The UAE has invested in Berbera Port for several years through DP World, which is responsible for developing and operating the port. The UAE previously used facilities in Berbera for logistical and military purposes during its operations in Yemen before announcing a reduction in its military presence there.

July 7, 2026 Posted by | Illegal Occupation, Wars for Israel | , , , , | Comments Off on Red Sea tensions rise as French report claims military base is being built in Somaliland

« Previous Entries