Aletho News

ΑΛΗΘΩΣ

How reporting facts can now land you in jail for 14 years as a terrorist

By Jonathan Cook – December 22, 2025

Starmer’s government has set the most dangerous of precedents: it can now outlaw any political group it chooses as a terrorist organisation – and thereby make it impossible to defend it.

The moment the British government began proscribing political movements as terrorist organisations, rather than just militant groups, it was inevitable that saying factual things, making truthful statements, would become a crime.

And lo behold, here we are.

The Terrorism Act 2000 has a series of provisions that make it difficult to voice or show any kind of support for an organisation proscribed under the legislation, whether it is writing an article or wearing a T-shirt.

Recent attention has focused on Section 13, which is being used to hound thousands of mostly elderly people who have held signs saying: “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action.” They now face a terrorism conviction and up to six months in jail.

But an amendment introduced in 2019 to Section 12 of the Act has been largely overlooked, even though it is even more repressive. It makes it a terrorism offence for a person to express “an opinion or belief that is supportive of a proscribed organisation” and in doing so be “reckless” about whether anyone else might be “encouraged to support” the organisation.

It is hard to believe this clause was not inserted specifically to target the watchdog professions: journalists, human rights groups and lawyers. They now face up to 14 years in jail for contravening this provision.

When it was introduced, six years ago, Section 12 made it impossible to write or speak in ways that might encourage support for groups whose central aim was using violence against people to achieve their aims.

The law effectively required journalists and others to adopt a blanket condemnatory approach to proscribed militant groups. That had its own drawbacks. It made it difficult, and possibly a terrorist offence, to discuss or analyse these organisations and their goals in relation to international law, which, for example, allows armed resistance – violence – against an occupying army.

But these problems have grown exponentially since the Conservatives proscribed Hamas’ political wing in 2021 and the government of Keir Starmer proscribed Palestine Action in 2025, the first time in British history a direction-action group targeting property had been declared a terrorist group.

Now journalists, human rights activists and lawyers face a legal minefield every time they try to talk about the Gaza genocide, the trials of people accused of belonging to Palestine Action, or the hunger strikes of those on remand over attacks on weapons factories supplying killer drones to Israel.

Why? Because saying truthful things about any of these matters – if they could lead a reader or listener to take a more favourable view of Palestine Action or the political wing of Hamas – are now a terrorist offence. Any journalist, human rights activist or lawyer making factual observations risks 14 years behind bars.

Few seem to have understood quite what impact this is having on public coverage of these major issues.

A month and a half into the hunger strike by eight members of Palestine Action – the point at which people are likely to start dying – the BBC News at Ten finally broke its silence on the matter. That was despite the hunger strike being the largest in UK history in nearly half a century.

There are clear political reasons why the BBC had avoided this topic for so long. It prefers not to deal with matters that directly confront the legitimacy of the government, which funds it. The BBC is effectively the British state broadcaster.

But in a naturally spineless organisation like the BBC, the legal consequences have clearly weighed heavily too. In a recent short segment on the hunger strike, BBC correspondent Dominic Casciani carefully hedged his words and admitted to facing legal difficulties reporting on the strike.

In these circumstances, news organisations make one of two choices. They simply ignore factual things because it is legally too dangerous to speak truthfully about them. Or they lie about factual things because it is legally safe – and politically opportune – to speak untruthfully about them.

The so-called “liberal” parts of the media, including the BBC, tend to opt for the former; the red-tops usually opt for the latter.

The government itself is taking full advantage of this lacuna in reporting, injecting its own self-serving deceptions into the coverage, knowing that there will be – can be – no meaningful pushback.

Take just one example. The government has proscribed Palestine Action on the grounds that it is a terrorist organisation. It has justified its decision by implying, without producing a shred of evidence, that the group is funded by Iran, and that its real agenda is not just criminal damage against arms factories but against individuals.

Any effort to counter this government disinformation, by definition, violates Section 12 of the Terrorism Act and risks 14 years’ imprisonment.

Were I to conduct an investigation, for example, definitively showing that Palestine Action was not funded by Iran – proving that the government was lying – it would be a terror offence to publish that truthful information. Why? Because it would almost certainly “encourage support” for Palestine Action. There is no fact or truth exemption in the legislation.

Similarly, the government has suggested that the current “Filton Trial” – which includes discussions of events in which a police officer was injured during a struggle over the sledgehammers being used to destroy the Elbit factory’s weapons-producing machinery – demonstrates that Palestine Action was not just targeting property but individuals too.

Were I to try to make the case that the alleged actions of one individual – only one person is charged with assault – prove nothing about the aims of the organisation as a whole, I would be risking a terrorism conviction and 14 years’ imprisonment. Which is one, very strong reason not to make such an argument.

But in the absence of such arguments, the reality is that social media is awash with posts from people echoing outrageous official disinformation. This spreads unchallenged because to challenge it is now cast as a terrorism offence.

In truth, since proscription, any statements about the political aims of a deeply political organisation like Palestine Action occupy a grey area of the law.

Is it a terrorism offence to point out the fact, as I have done above, that Palestine Action targeted Elbit factories that send killer drones to Israel for use in Gaza. In doing so, may I have “recklessly” encouraged you to support Palestine Action?

Can I express any kind of positive view about the hunger strikers or their actions without violating the law?

The truth is that the law’s greyness is its very point. It maximises the chilling effect on those who are supposed to serve as the public’s watchdogs on power: journalists, human rights groups, lawyers.

It allows the government – through compliant police forces – to selectively pick off those dissenting individuals it doesn’t like, those without institutional backing, to make examples of them. This is not conjecture. It is already happening.

The abuse of the Terrorism Act discourages research, analysis and critical thinking. It forces all journalists, human rights activists and lawyers to become lapdogs of the government. It creates a void into which the government can spin events to its own advantage, in which it can avoid accountability and in which it can punish those who dissent. It is the very antithesis of democratic behaviour.

This ought to appall anyone who cares about the truth, about public debate, about scrutiny. Because they have all been thrown out of the window.

And in proscribing Palestine Action, the government has set the most dangerous of precedents: it can outlaw any political group it chooses as a terrorist organisation and thereby make it impossible to defend that group.

That is what authoritarian governments do. That is exactly where Britain is now.

December 24, 2025 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Full Spectrum Dominance, Solidarity and Activism | , , , , | 1 Comment

Global movement to Gaza to stage pro-Palestine protests in 13 cities

Al Mayadeen | November 28, 2025

The Global Movement to Gaza announced coordinated protests across 13 major cities on November 29 to mark the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. The rallies aim to denounce Western support for “Israel’s” ongoing genocide in Gaza, now entering its third year.

Protests will take place in Berlin, Rome, Paris, Barcelona, Madrid, Oslo, Vienna, Warsaw, Luxembourg, Cape Town, Washington, DC, Mexico City, and São Paulo.

Organizers say the coordinated actions are designed to expose the complicity of European and North American governments in “Israel’s” war on Gaza. The movement accuses these states of enabling the genocide through arms exports, political backing, and economic ties.

In a statement, the movement issued a list of demands for European Union and national leaders:

  • Immediate suspension of the EU-“Israel” Association Agreement;
  • An arms embargo and an end to military cooperation with “Israel”;
  • Targeted sanctions on “Israeli” officials responsible for war crimes and genocide;
  • A halt to all academic, cultural, and sporting institutional ties;
  • Alignment of EU foreign policy with international human rights and humanitarian law.

November 28, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Solidarity and Activism | , , , , | Leave a comment

Europe’s financial sector ‘directly funding’ firms complicit in Gaza genocide: Report

Press TV – November 26, 2025

A new report published by a coalition of 24 European and Palestinian organizations and trade unions has exposed financial relationships between top European institutions and 104 companies complicit in Israel’s genocidal war on the besieged Gaza Strip.

Under the title of “The Private Actors behind the Economy of Occupation and Genocide,” the report by the Don’t Buy Into Occupation Coalition (DBIO) lists 104 global companies that are active in one or more of the identified complicity categories in the Gaza war.

The list includes companies involved in the military-security sector, technology, resource extraction, construction and demolition, financial services, and other enterprises that sustain Israel’s unlawful presence in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East al-Quds.

Among them, the report includes priority BDS divestment targets such as major weapons manufacturers and tech companies that played a crucial role in providing Israel with key military components and technology to carry out its ongoing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

Among these 104 companies are numerous BDS campaign targets, including but not limited to Airbnb, Amazon, AXA, Booking.com, CAF, Carrefour, Chevron, Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems, Caterpillar, CISCO, Coca-Cola, DELL, Expedia, Google, HPE, Intel, Microsoft, and RE/MAX.

The report showed that 1,115 European financial institutions (including banks, asset managers, insurance companies, pension funds, and the European Investment Bank) have massive financial relationships with such complicit businesses.

Among the top creditor banks financing the Israeli genocide are BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank and Barclays.

According to the report, European financial institutions provided over $310 billion in the form of loans and underwritings to these companies between January 2023 and August 2025. European investors also held over $1.5 trillion in shares and bonds in these businesses as of August 31, 2025.

“This report leaves no doubt, European financial institutions and investors have been funding dozens of corporations that are directly enabling Israel’s illegal occupation, apartheid and genocide against Indigenous Palestinians,” DBIO said.

“Without this, Israel wouldn’t be able to sustain its regime of oppression. These European institutions are in breach of both their international human rights responsibilities and their legal obligation to respect international law.”

Palestinian resistance movement Hamas and Israel agreed last month to a US-brokered Gaza ceasefire, aimed at ending the latter’s two-year-long genocidal war against Palestinians in the besieged territory.

The truce took effect on October 10, but Israel has continued to violate it by carrying out airstrikes, incursions, shootings, and arrests.

The deal marks the first phase of US President Donald Trump’s 20-point Gaza ceasefire plan, with further stages to be negotiated at a later date.

Israel has killed at least 69,000 Palestinians since it waged the US-backed genocide in Gaza on October 7, 2023.

Palestinian children have borne the brunt of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza. UNICEF estimated last month that at least 64,000 children have been killed or injured in Israeli attacks since October 2023.

November 26, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Solidarity and Activism, War Crimes | , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A historic decline in sympathy for Israel in Britain, and an unprecedented rise in solidarity with Palestine in 2025

By Adnan Hmidan | MEMO | November 24, 2025

Public sentiment in Britain today is markedly different from what it was two years ago. A society that once observed developments in the Middle East from a comfortable distance is now expressing a clearer and more confident moral position on the genocide in Gaza. The scale of this shift can be considered one of the most significant transformations in British public attitudes towards Palestine in recent decades.

Figures published in the autumn of 2025 indicate that sympathy for Israel has fallen to approximately 12 percent, the lowest level recorded, while sympathy for Palestinians has risen to around 38 percent in some national polling. A majority of respondents also state that Israel’s actions in Gaza cannot be justified on either moral or legal grounds. However, these figures represent only the surface of a deeper transition taking place within British society.

The primary catalyst for this shift has not been political realignment, diplomatic pressure or changes within party leaderships, but rather the scale and visibility of the atrocities committed in Gaza. As the genocide expanded to include the targeting of hospitals, schools and refugee camps, alongside collective punishment and reports of widespread abuse in detention, traditional claims about self-defence lost credibility.

Unfiltered images circulated widely across British media and social platforms. Families killed in their homes, children pulled from the rubble and patients evacuated after power cuts became daily realities rather than distant headlines. For many, Palestine was no longer viewed as a remote political issue but as a profound human tragedy unfolding in real time. The collapse of official narratives in the face of visible evidence contributed further to this reassessment, reinforcing the understanding that what is taking place is not a symmetrical conflict but the systematic destruction of a besieged population.

Over the past two years, Britain has also witnessed an unprecedented wave of public mobilisation. London and other major cities saw some of the largest demonstrations in Western Europe, continuing week after week without subsiding. Solidarity evolved from street marches to university encampments, from civic spaces to trade unions and professional bodies, and eventually to parliamentary scrutiny concerning arms exports and the UK’s legal responsibilities.

Notably, this movement was not driven solely by Palestinians, Arabs or Muslims. Large numbers of students, academics, health workers, legal professionals, artists and members of the clergy took part. British Jewish groups opposing the genocide played an important role in challenging attempts to delegitimise or isolate the solidarity movement. Two years on, public mobilisation remains active despite increasingly restrictive protest regulations, indicating that this is not a temporary emotional response but a deeper shift in public conscience.

This evolving landscape has also reshaped how many Britons, particularly younger generations, understand the question of resistance. Public debate is no longer confined to simplistic binaries. There is growing recognition that resistance emerges from dispossession, blockade and the absence of any viable path to justice, rather than from ideological motivations alone.

Policy-makers in Britain are aware of these developments, even if official positions have not shifted dramatically. Pressure is visible in calls to suspend arms exports to Israel, demands for independent investigations into potential complicity and a noticeable shift in political language, especially within the Labour Party. The driving force behind this pressure has not been a change of government but the continuing reality of the genocide itself, which has made unconditional support for Israeli policies increasingly difficult to justify publicly.

The genocide in Gaza has reshaped how many people understand their place in the world. In Britain, solidarity with Palestine has become a reflection of moral responsibility rather than a peripheral political stance. Although the path ahead remains complex, the transformation witnessed over the past two years demonstrates that sustained exposure to reality can alter public attitudes in ways that once seemed unlikely.

The decline in sympathy for Israel marks not the conclusion of this shift, but its beginning. Palestine is no longer perceived as a distant or marginal issue, but as a central concern within British public consciousness — one that is unlikely to fade in the foreseeable future.

November 24, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Solidarity and Activism, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

Red ribbons in London: A silent uprising bringing Palestinian hostages back into view

By Adnan Hmidan | MEMO | November 16, 2025 

Walking through Westminster, in the quiet rush of central London, flashes of red caught my attention — ribbons tied to lampposts, railings, and street fixtures. They were not adverts or campaign posters, but dense, symbolic gestures: spontaneous in form, unmistakable in meaning. They returned to public sight faces that have long been hidden behind prison walls — Palestinian hostages abducted by the occupation from homes and hospitals, held without trial under a system that resembles nothing but the law of the jungle.

These ribbons seemed like individual efforts, small and uncoordinated, yet unified in what they were trying to say: that the Palestinian hostage file remains locked in darkness, despite being one of the most devastating human crises. Thousands have been torn from their lives with no charges, no legal process, no daylight.

Of the nearly 9,100 Palestinians currently detained, it is estimated that almost a third are effectively treated as hostages; abducted and denied even the bare minimum of legal rights or guarantees.

A language that must reclaim its meaning

For years, the word “prisoner” has been used broadly. But what the occupation practises is not detention — it is abduction. People are taken from their beds or hospital rooms and disappear for indefinite periods, without charges, court hearings, or the most basic procedural rights.

The figures alone reveal the scale of the crisis:

3,544 held under administrative detention without trial

400 children

53 women

16 doctors

117 Palestinian hostages killed in the past two years alone during the genocide in Gaza

These individuals cannot honestly be called “prisoners.” They are hostages in every legal and moral sense — seized outside any legitimate framework by a state whose own foundations rest on dispossession and violation.

Red… a colour that bears witness, not beauty

The choice of red is self-explanatory. It is the colour of spilled blood, of injustice endured, of wounds that never fully heal.

These ribbons may hang quietly across London, but the question they raise is anything but quiet:

How can thousands of people be abducted in this way, while the world remains unable — or unwilling — to see them?

No one is asked to lead a campaign or become an activist. What is needed is recognition, a wider awakening to a file packed with human lives, daily suffering, families searching, and children growing up in absence.

Stories hanging from lampposts… so memory does not fade

Seeing the ribbons brought back the painful stories that fill this file:

The child pulled from his bed because soldiers deemed him a “threat,”

The woman taken from her home in front of her children,

The doctor who vanished from an operating room and never returned,

Those subjected to torture and enforced disappearance,

And the testimonies of rape and sexual abuse recently documented by international organisations.

These stories need no embellishment; their truth is weight enough. They also echo Steve Biko’s famous line:

“The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.”

These red ribbons feel like a modest attempt to unsettle that weapon.

Catherine Connolly’s victory: Europe’s moral rebellion against the Israeli occupation

When execution becomes a celebration

It is difficult to grasp that the occupation’s National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, celebrated inside the Knesset after passing a law permitting the execution of Palestinian detainees.

More troubling still is how easily such a moment can pass as a routine political step — as though it were merely another debate rather than a descent into deeper, institutionalised brutality.

When a state legalises killing those it has abducted without trial, imprisonment ceases to resemble detention. It becomes just one point on a chain that runs from abduction to torture to death.

The rising number of Palestinians dying inside Israeli prisons is not an exaggeration — it is an expanding reality.

Preserving memory before preserving the body

Red ribbons do not claim to liberate anyone, nor do they replace political or legal work. But they accomplish something essential: they return faces to public view and stop stories from being buried in darkness.

The Palestinian hostage file needs wider adoption and genuine engagement. It is a file overflowing with pain and heavy with violations, yet among the least addressed internationally.

Ribbons cannot break iron bars.

But they can remind the world that behind every statistic is a human being waiting to be rescued from disappearance.

Justice begins when we choose to see.

And sometimes, the first step toward that justice is nothing more than a small red thread tied to a lamppost in a distant city.

November 16, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Solidarity and Activism, Subjugation - Torture | , , , , | Leave a comment

Airbnb sued in France for rentals in occupied West Bank

MEMO | November 4, 2025

The Association of Jurists for the Respect of International Law (JURDI) has sued Airbnb in France for listing properties in Palestinian territories occupied by Israel in the West Bank, the BFMTV broadcaster said Tuesday, Anadolu reports.

JURDI, a non-profit group in France that advocates for international law regarding the Israeli-Palestine conflict, accuses Airbnb of supporting war crimes by listing the properties in occupied territories in the West Bank. It is asking the court to order the company to remove listings in Israeli settlements.

“By offering these accommodations, Airbnb contributes to the normalization and perpetuation of the colonial regime, by providing financial resources to settlers and legitimizing their presence,” JURDI said in its lawsuit, excerpts of which were seen by BFMTV.

Attorney Helene Massin-Trachez, who is leading the case, said French law prohibits offering contracts that violate public order, arguing that Airbnb was doing exactly that by promoting unlawful rental agreements to clients based in France.

A preliminary hearing has been scheduled for Jan. 13, and if the court rules in JURDI’s favor, Airbnb will have eight days to comply before facing a €5,000 ($5,740) fine for each day of delay.

The company defended its actions when contacted by BFMTV, denying it profits from the international situation and vowed to remain committed to addressing each of the situations “with the greatest care.”

The French Human Rights League (LDH) filed a complaint against Airbnb and Booking.com last month for listing properties in Israeli settlements in Palestinian territories.

The complaint accuses those companies of complicity and aggravated concealment of war crimes, underlining that the platforms promote “occupation tourism” by offering listings in Israeli settlements.

November 4, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation, Solidarity and Activism | , , , , , | Leave a comment

Report: UK smears Iran to justify ban on Palestine Action

Press TV – November 4, 2025

A leading British “PR consultancy” working for the Israeli regime’s top arms producer has been found culpable of fabricating and planting a false media narrative linking Palestine Action to Iran, in what appears to be a coordinated effort to justify the group’s eventual proscription.

According to British news magazine Private Eye, a “trusted witness” said Georgia Pickering, head of the London-based PR firm CMS Strategic, which represents Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems, boasted about planting a story in The Times alleging that the Islamic Republic was bankrolling the direct-action network.

The story appeared just days before the UK government moved to outlaw Palestine Action under its “terrorism” legislation in July.

The fabricated report, which claimed that the Home Office was probing Tehran’s alleged financial ties to the group, was later recycled by The Daily Mail and the GB News channel, amplifying suspicions and pressure against the movement.

However, when Private Eye reached out to the Home Office, officials said they did not recognize the claims, effectively disowning the narrative that had dominated headlines.

A spokesperson for Palestine Action dismissed the entire affair as “baseless” and “ridiculous”, while CMS Strategic publicly denied involvement in the article, despite Pickering’s private admission.

Further revelations highlighted that the smear campaign did not emerge in isolation.

Just two days before the story broke, the pro-Israeli lobby group We Believe in Israel claimed on social media that Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) was the “darker puppeteer” behind Palestine Action, despite offering no proof beyond vague references to “similar slogans.”

In the months leading up to the group’s ban, the same lobby orchestrated a “multi-front” campaign pushing for Palestine Action’s proscription, issuing two reports whose language was later echoed almost verbatim by Yvette Cooper, the then–home secretary, in her official statement outlawing the movement.

For years, Palestine Action has led a relentless grassroots campaign against Elbit Systems, targeting its factories and offices for producing weapons used by the Israeli regime in its assaults on Palestinians, including its war of genocide on the Gaza Strip that began in October 2023.

November 4, 2025 Posted by | Deception, Fake News, Mainstream Media, Warmongering, Solidarity and Activism | , , , | Leave a comment

West weaponizing laws to silence pro-Palestine activism: Study

Al Mayadeen | October 14, 2025

The right to protest is facing increasing restrictions across the West, The Guardian reported on Monday, citing a new study by the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), which accuses governments of criminalizing pro-Palestine activism and using counter-terrorism and antisemitism laws to stifle dissent.

The report focuses on the UK, US, France, and Germany, accusing authorities in these countries of “weaponizing” national security and anti-hate legislation to silence criticism of “Israel” and suppress demonstrations supporting Palestinian rights in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

“This trend reflects a worrying shift towards the normalization of exceptional measures in dealing with dissenting voices,” Yosra Frawes, head of FIDH’s Maghreb and Middle East desk, told The Guardian.

Compiled from open-source data, witness accounts, and institutional reports gathered between October 2023 and September 2025, the study was released just one day after a US-brokered Gaza ceasefire that secured the release of all living Israeli captives and around 2,000 Palestinian detainees.

According to FIDH, restrictions on speech and assembly have extended beyond protests, impacting journalists, academics, and public officials who express solidarity with Palestinians.

In the United Kingdom, the organization found that protest rights have eroded under both Conservative and Labour administrations. The report points to the 2024 anti-protest law introduced by the Conservatives, later deemed unlawful, and to what it calls the Labour government’s continuation of “official narratives” justifying support for “Israel”.

It highlights former Home Secretary Suella Braverman‘s branding of pro-Palestine rallies as “hate marches”, arguing that this rhetoric “stigmatized support for Palestine and Palestinian resistance movements” and “worked to discriminate against Muslims and other racialized groups in the UK.”

FIDH says the change in government in July 2024 “did little to change official government narratives,” claiming Labour has linked criticism of “Israel” with “violent antisemitism” while continuing to target Muslim and racialized communities.

The tensions have been further inflamed by the Labour government’s ban on the activist network Palestine Action and its proposal to expand police powers at protests.

FIDH draws parallels across the Atlantic, where US authorities have detained demonstrators and pursued legal actions against individuals expressing solidarity with Palestine. In France, the government has faced criticism for banning pro-Palestine demonstrations in several cities and for dissolving the rights group Urgence Palestine.

Meanwhile, in Germany, protests have drawn thousands, but police tactics and restrictions on slogans deemed antisemitic, for the mere criticism of “Israel”, have been widely condemned as excessive. The report argues that Germany’s actions reflect a “collective discomfort” in balancing free expression with its postwar responsibility to combat what it classifies as “antisemitism”.

Freedom crisis

The federation recommends that the UK establish an independent oversight body for policing demonstrations and amend key legislation, Section 12 of the Terrorism Act 2000 and Section 11 of the Public Order Act 2023, to protect political speech and prevent arbitrary searches.

“Ultimately, the crackdown on solidarity with Palestinians reveals a profound crisis, not only of human rights in the occupied territories but of freedom itself, in societies that claim to be democratic,” the report concludes.

FIDH says that while legal frameworks vary among the UK, US, France, and Germany, the trend toward restricting Palestinian solidarity movements represents a global pattern of shrinking civic space, one that calls into question the credibility of Western nations as defenders of democratic freedoms.

October 14, 2025 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance, Solidarity and Activism | , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

World cities rise in solidarity with Gaza: Marches and calls to hold Israel accountable

Palestinian Information Center – October 12, 2025

Demonstrations and solidarity rallies with the Palestinian people continued across various capitals and cities around the world, in a scene that reflects the growing global awareness of the scale of the humanitarian catastrophe caused by the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, along with mounting calls to hold Israel accountable and end the ongoing genocide that has lasted for two years.

In Australia, the group Palestine Action said that demonstrations took place on Sunday in 27 cities and towns in support of the Palestinians, most notably in Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane. Protesters demanded that the government impose sanctions on Israel and halt all arms exports to it, stressing that continued cooperation with a state committing war crimes constitutes political and moral complicity.

In Indonesia, thousands gathered at Independence Square in central Jakarta to celebrate the ceasefire in Gaza, chanting slogans rejecting all forms of normalization with Israel, political, commercial, and sporting alike. They also expressed solidarity with Palestinians in the West Bank, who continue to face escalating assaults and raids by Israeli forces.

In Seoul, the South Korean capital, a solidarity protest was held calling for the rapid entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza and the lifting of the siege imposed for more than two years. Participants raised Palestinian flags and chanted for an end to the suffering of civilians.

Massive marches were held in London, where organizers said around half a million people took part in a demonstration that filled the streets of the British capital and headed toward the government headquarters on Downing Street. Protesters demanded an end to arms sales to Israel and accountability for those responsible for war crimes.

Participants stressed the need to achieve justice based on international law and to end occupation and apartheid.

In Berlin, thousands of demonstrators marched from the Brandenburg Gate to the city center, calling for a halt to Israeli arms shipments and an end to official support for the war on Gaza. Protesters denounced restrictions on pro-Palestine activism in Germany and chanted slogans such as “Freedom for Palestine” and “No peace on stolen land.” Limited clashes later broke out with police, who used force and arrested several demonstrators.

In Paris, a large protest took place that included activists and healthcare workers, some of whom had served in Gaza’s hospitals during the war. They called for the release of imprisoned doctors, foremost among them Dr. Hossam Abu Safiya, and for guarantees to uphold the ceasefire and deliver urgent medical aid.

In Milan, hundreds of Italians joined a solidarity march where demonstrators demanded the reconstruction of Gaza and an end to the blockade imposed on it.

In Oslo, protests were held outside the parliament building, where participants called for the closure of the Israeli embassy and the severing of diplomatic ties with Tel Aviv.

In the Netherlands, the Plant an Olive Tree foundation organized a memorial event in Maastricht to honor the victims of the aggression, dedicated especially to Palestinian children and journalists killed in Israeli bombardments. Participants lined up in front of the historic St. Servatius Church, where photos and names of the martyrs were displayed, and thousands of children’s shoes were placed in the square in tribute to the young victims.

In Stockholm, hundreds joined a demonstration condemning the Israeli army’s attack on the Global Solidarity Flotilla, calling for a comprehensive embargo on Israel due to its repeated crimes against civilians. Protesters carried banners reading “Total blockade on Israel for a free Palestine,” before marching toward the Swedish parliament.

This global wave of protests, spanning more than thirty cities in just two days, reaffirmed that the Palestinian cause is no longer a local or regional issue, but rather a matter of global conscience calling for justice and an end to decades of occupation and collective punishment against civilians in Gaza and the West Bank.

October 12, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Solidarity and Activism | , , , | Leave a comment

The End of Impunity: The UN Slaps the Israeli Regime in the Face

The Silent Judgment of Nations: How the World Demonstratively Turned Its Back on Netanyahu

Netanyahu and the empty UN hall
By Viktor Mikhin – New Eastern Outlook – October 12, 2025

He stood at the podium, accustomed to the speeches of statesmen, but that day it was destined to become an instrument for justifying genocide. Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of the Israeli regime, a man whose name will now stand alongside the darkest figures in history, was preparing to speak. But something happened that will forever remain in the annals of international diplomacy as a symbol of the moral collapse not only of one man, but of the entire system that has indulged him for far too long.

The UN General Assembly hall, usually filled with diplomatic indifference, exploded with a silence louder than any applause. Before Netanyahu could utter a single word, delegates from one country after another rose from their seats and demonstratively, silently, left the hall. This was not a spontaneous impulse, but a choreographed act of collective disgust. The spectacle was so humiliating for the leader of the so-called “only democracy in the Middle East” that the chairperson had to plead: “Order in the hall, I call for order in the hall!” But the appeal hung in the air. There was no order. There was a rebellion. A rebellion of conscience. A rebellion against injustice, genocide, and the annihilation of an entire Palestinian people.

Netanyahu’s face, usually a mask of unshakable self-confidence, contorted. He was shocked. He, the architect of carpet bombing, the destroyer of hospitals and schools, the executioner of children, women, and the elderly, was faced with something he did not expect: the silent, yet deafening, judgment of nations. In that moment, the mask of civility finally fell from the Israeli state. The world saw not a national leader, but an accused genocidaire left speaking to a nearly empty hall, save for a handful of his most loyal accomplices.

The “Father of Genocide’s” Speech: A New Language of Hate

And then the speech itself began. What was supposed to be a justification turned into a manifesto of misanthropy. Netanyahu, whose rhetoric had long since crossed all red lines, this time addressed the residents of Gaza directly. And in this vile address, there was a chilling cynicism worthy of the Nazi propagandists he so loves to compare his critics to.

He told them “not to listen to Hamas’s calls to remain in combat zones.” But is this not the height of hypocrisy? It is the Israeli army that has turned the entire Gaza Strip into one continuous “combat zone.” It is Israeli planes that are wiping entire neighborhoods off the map, following “evacuation maps” that are nothing more than a roadmap to a mass grave. Where are they to flee? To the sea, which Israeli ships have turned into a trap? To Rafah, which was then bombed? To the desert, where there is no water, no food, no shelter?

This appeal is not concern for civilians. It is the rhetorical trick of a murderer who, holding a knife over his victim, whispers, “It’s your own fault for not dodging.” It is an attempt to shift responsibility for one’s own crimes onto those who are doomed to die. This is the language of genocide. The very language that dehumanizes an entire people, turning them into a “human shield,” into “collateral damage,” into “animals,” as Israeli ministers and soldiers have openly and repeatedly called them.

The Anatomy of a Genocide: From Word to Deed

Let’s call things by their proper names. What is happening in Gaza is not a “conflict.” A conflict implies at least a semblance of symmetry. This is not a “war on terror.” This is the deliberate, systematic destruction of the Palestinian people as a national, ethnic, and cultural entity. And it fully corresponds to the legal definition of genocide as formulated in the 1948 UN Convention.

Article II of the Convention defines genocide as any of the acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.

Silent Accomplices and Cynical Allies

The scene at the UN was a bright moment of truth, but it also highlighted the monstrous hypocrisy of Western powers. While delegates from most of the world voted with their feet, the representatives of the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, and some other subordinate countries remained in their seats. Their silent presence was more eloquent than any words. It was silent approval. Complicity.

Washington, which supplies the weapons and provides diplomatic cover for the ongoing slaughter, is the chief sponsor of this genocide. Every bomb that falls on a house in Gaza has “Made in the USA” written on it. Every veto cast in the UN Security Council against cease-fire resolutions is a permission to kill. The West, which built the “Never Again” system after World War II, has itself become its chief violator. “Never Again” has turned out to apply only to some peoples, but not to others.

A Voice from Under the Rubble: Why the World Must Listen to This Enemy

When Netanyahu tried to speak to the Palestinians, it was the monologue of an executioner. But the Palestinian people have their own voice. It is the voice of mothers mourning their children under the rubble. It is the voice of doctors performing operations by the light of flashlights. It is the voice of poets writing poems on the debris of their homes. It is the voice of unyielding dignity.

History will judge not only Netanyahu and his henchmen. History will judge everyone who turned away at this decisive moment. Every politician who traded humanity for geopolitical interests. Every journalist who called a massacre a “clash.” Every ordinary person who grew tired of “this complex issue.”

That day at the UN showed that the world’s patience has run out. The collective walkout of delegates is not just a gesture. It is the beginning of the end of the era of impunity for the Israeli regime. It is an acknowledgment that apartheid, occupation, and genocide cannot be legitimate policies in the 21st century.

The court in The Hague has already begun its work. And someday, perhaps, the world will see the man who today trembled at the podium with rage and humiliation, in the defendant’s dock. But executioners come and go, while the people fighting for their freedom and right to exist remain. Palestine will be free. And that day when the world turned its back on its executioner will be one of the first steps toward long-awaited liberation. The truth, like conscience, does not remain silent forever. It decisively walks out of the council chamber to scream loudly for the whole world to hear.

Viktor Mikhin, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences (RAEN), Expert on Middle Eastern Countries

October 12, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Solidarity and Activism, War Crimes | , , , | Leave a comment

Irish contender blasts Irish gov. over delay of sanctions on ‘Israel’

Al Mayadeen | October 9, 2025

Ireland’s leading presidential contender has accused the government of bowing to US corporate pressure by stalling legislation that would sanction Israeli settlements, as anger grows over “Israel’s” genocide in Gaza.

Catherine Connolly, an independent left-wing lawmaker backed by Sinn Féin, urged Dublin to resist diluting the long-delayed Occupied Territories Bill, which aims to ban trade with goods and services linked to illegal Israeli settlements.

“We cannot allow the government to fail the Palestinian people on this,” Connolly told Reuters, accusing coalition partners Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael of “dragging their feet.” She warned that limiting the bill to goods only would amount to “an appalling capitulation to corporate interests” and an “unforgivable betrayal”.

Her remarks came just hours before US President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire and captive release deal between “Israel” and Hamas as part of his plan to end the two-year genocide in Gaza.

‘Ireland must match its moral stance with real action’

Government insiders told Reuters the proposed law may be watered down following lobbying by major US businesses operating in Ireland. While Ireland’s government has been vocal in condemning the Israeli war, the bill’s progress has stalled amid diplomatic and economic pressures.

Connolly, who currently leads in opinion polls ahead of the October 24 presidential election, said she would continue pushing for a comprehensive sanctions framework that includes services, insisting that Ireland “must match its moral stance with real action.”

Her stance was echoed by Frances Black, an independent senator who first introduced the legislation seven years ago. “The government needs to be strong on this. They need to be courageous,” Black said. “It’s absolutely vital that we have goods and services on the bill. We need to match our words with action.”

The proposed sanctions, in preparation for over a year, have drawn criticism from “Israel”, international business groups, and US lawmakers. Earlier this week, a group of American legislators warned Prime Minister Micheál Martin that passing the bill could damage US-Irish relations and harm American companies based in Ireland.

US takes action to protect ‘Israel’, again

Last August, a group of US Congress members sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent urging him to evaluate whether Ireland should be added to a list of countries boycotting “Israel” should the Occupied Territories Bill (OTB) become law.

The letter, which was signed by New York Republican Congresswoman Claudia Tenney and backed by 16 other congressional members, expresses what it describes as serious concerns about the Irish government’s proposed ban on imports from Israeli-occupied territories.

The letter cites Section 999 of the 1986 Internal Revenue Code, which condemns foreign boycotts targeting allied countries, with specific opposition to measures directed at “Israel”.

The letter warned that if Ireland were added to the list of countries boycotting “Israel”, it would trigger mandatory tax reporting obligations and possible financial penalties for American citizens and companies conducting specific operations in those nations.

The group characterized the Irish government’s efforts on the OTB as “part of [a] broader effort aligned with the global Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement which seeks to economically isolate Israel.”

October 12, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Solidarity and Activism | , , , , | Leave a comment

The pirates of Israeli supremacy: The West’s favorite rogue state has done it again

By Tarik Cyril Amar | RT | October 2, 2025

The long-expected if perfectly criminal has happened again: Israel’s navy has intercepted the Gaza-bound Sumud Flotilla by force, stopping almost 50 boats and, in effect, kidnapping hundreds of their crews and passengers.

In terms of law – which, of course, are never really applied in practice to Israel – everything is exceedingly clear: The Sumud Flotilla was a volunteer operation to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza which has been subjected to Israeli genocide for now almost two years. Israel had a clear obligation to let that aid pass.

But then what to expect from the world’s most aggressive rogue state that is not “only” committing genocide, but also waging regional wars of aggression and running terrorist assassination campaigns in the face of the global public? And Israel has a well-established track-record of this kind of piracy, of course, having stopped several attempts to bring aid by sea since 2010, sometimes with casualties among the humanitarian activists.

Stopping the Sumud Flotilla wasn’t merely criminal but criminal in every regard lawyers can imagine, a typical Israeli super-whopper of legal nihilism: Israel attacked the flotilla ships in international waters where it has no jurisdiction. Even if the ships had gotten closer to the Gaza coast, they would, by the way, still not have been inside any Israeli territorial waters because there are no such waters off Gaza, over which Israel has no sovereignty as clearly confirmed by the International Court of Justice last year. What you find off the coast of Gaza, as a matter of fact, are Palestinian territorial waters.

The blockade of Gaza, which has lasted not “merely” for the duration of the current high-intensity genocide-ethnic cleansing campaign but for close to two decades now, is illegal. Because the blockade has been in place for so long, Israel is simply lying – surprise, surprise – when arguing it is a short-term measure covered by the San Remo rules, which summarize “International Law Applicable to Armed Conflicts at Sea.” And even if those rules applied, under them as well Israel would have to let humanitarian aid through.

Finally, as Israel has attacked ships and citizens belonging to over 40 countries, Israel has committed aggression under international law against all of them and, less obvious but a fact, also crimes under each of these countries’ domestic laws, because they apply on those ships.

So far for the law, but then again, Israel is de facto outside and above the law. That much we have known for a long time. Indeed, Israel could not exist without constantly breaking international law and getting away with it. For Israel, lawlessness and impunity are not luxuries but vital necessities.

The reason why it has been able to exist in this manner is well-known, too: It is protected by the West and, in particular, the US. The latter is Israel’s single worst co-perpetrator, facilitating its crimes like no other state on Earth. Soon, for instance, the recent war of aggression waged by America and Israel together against Iran will probably be followed by a second, even worse assault.

In this regard, what has happened to the Sumud Flotilla has been a test: Clearly, recent moves by various Western governments, including the UK, France, and Australia to “recognize” – in an extremely dishonest manner – a Palestinian state and add some cautious rhetorical criticism of Israel make no difference to their absolute deference in practice to both Israel and its backers in the US.

What seemed like a glimmer of hope for a moment, the appearance of warships from various nations to apparently escort the humanitarian flotilla, has turned into just another humiliation: the escort abandoned their charges well in time to allow Israel a free hand.

The same Western leaders responsible for this cowardly retreat cannot stop waffling about the need not to “reward the aggressor,” when dialing up the war hysteria against Russia, as they have been doing mightily again recently, from mystery drones to declaring unconstitutional states of “not-peace” to chatter of states of emergency.

What about, for once, not rewarding the genocider for a change? But that’s hard, isn’t it? Once all Western governments are accomplices of Israel.

The Sumud Flotilla will not have been the last attempt to break both Israel’s genocidal blockade and its aura of impunity. There is hope, because even in NATO-EU Europe and the US ever more people understand what Israel really is and what it really does: a settler-colonial apartheid state that won’t stop committing genocide and ethnic cleansing. Israel’s systematic campaigns of propaganda and information war are escalating in response, as the case of TikTok has just demonstrated. But even Israel and its American friends cannot reverse history and an experience that the whole world has made. The Gaza Genocide is a fact already. It will not be forgotten. The resistance to Israel will never end.

Tarik Cyril Amar is a historian from Germany working at Koç University, Istanbul, on Russia, Ukraine, and Eastern Europe, the history of World War II, the cultural Cold War, and the politics of memory.

October 5, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation, Progressive Hypocrite, Solidarity and Activism, War Crimes | , , , | Leave a comment

« Previous Entries