Israel targets journalists, kills their families as Big Tech & Biden admin silence Palestinians
BY WYATT REED · THE GRAYZONE · OCTOBER 27, 2023
With Israeli airstrikes on Gaza killing at least twenty Palestinian journalists—and the Biden administration working to muzzle others—Big Tech is quietly coordinating with Tel Aviv to muzzle Palestinian media outfits.
Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip killed three Palestinian journalists on October 25 in one of the deadliest days for local reporters since the military’s bombing campaign began nearly three weeks before. As the hours passed, footage appeared showing the moment Ramallah-based journalist Mohammed Farra learned that his wife and children were all killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza’s Khan Younes neighborhood.
Similarly heart-rending scenes would play out more than once over the course of the day. Elsewhere in the besieged coastal enclave, an Israeli airstrike killed the wife, son, daughter and infant grandson of Al Jazeera Arabic’s Gaza bureau chief, Wael Dahdouh.
Israel’s attacks on Palestinian journalists came hours after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken assured “American Jewish community leaders” that he urged Qatar’s government “to tone down Al Jazeera’s rhetoric about the war in Gaza” during a recent trip to Doha.
Suspicions that Israeli forces deliberately targeted Dahdouh’s family were quickly bolstered by comments from News 13 journalist Zvi Yehezkeli.
“Generally we know the target,” Yehezkeli told audiences within hours of the strike, adding, “for example, today there was a target: the family of an Al Jazeera reporter.”
“In general, we know,” he concluded.
If true, it wouldn’t be the first time the Dahdouh’s outlet found itself in Israeli crosshairs. In 2021, the Israeli military leveled the Gaza tower that housed the officers of both the Associated Press and Al Jazeera. The following year, Israeli forces assassinated renowned Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu-Akleh, a veteran Jerusalem-based correspondent for Al Jazeera, in a shooting that drew international condemnation but was largely ignored by the US government, which echoes the Israeli government’s position that her killing was “unintentional.” Under Blinken, the State Department has distanced itself from its initial expressions of outrage and no longer calls for either an independent investigation or criminal charges for the perpetrators.
Big Tech censorship targets Palestinian journalists after Israel targets their homes
As the US and Israel rush to censor the voice of Palestinian journalists, Big Tech censorship has proven indispensable to Israel’s propaganda war. In the aftermath of October 7, multiple social media platforms have suspended or deactivated profiles belonging to numerous prominent journalists, human rights advocates, and Palestinian activists. The crackdown follows years of complaints alleging double standards when it comes to anti-Zionist content on social media.
Accounts operated by Eye On Palestine disappeared from Instagram, Facebook, and X on October 25, leaving more than 6 million followers unable to access one of the most popular resources providing firsthand footage of destruction in Gaza. A spokesman for Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, insisted the suspensions were not politically motivated, asserting “We did not disable these accounts because of any content they were sharing.”
Despite Meta’s denial, it is worth recalling the company’s record of complying with Israeli government censorship requests. Following the approval of a so-called “Facebook Bill” aimed at clamping down on digital “incitement” in 2016, fanatical former Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked bragged that Facebook, Twitter and Google were complying with 70 percent of their takedown orders.
Tamer Al Mishal, a Palestinian journalist who has served as a crucial Gaza-based news source for many years, put a face to that statistic. In September, Al Mishal made waves when he published an exposé on Al Jazeera illustrating how Meta coordinated with Israeli intelligence to stifle pro-Palestinian content. When he attempted to access his social media profile days later, the reporter made an alarming discovery: his Facebook page had completely ceased to exist.
He wasn’t the only one. The week before, Meta suspended the Instagram account of Palestinian influencer and photojournalist Motaz Azaiza after he shared footage of the remnants of his apartment building, where 15 of his family members were killed in an Israeli airstrikes.
“Palestinian journalists in Gaza are not just facing the Israeli occupation,” Shadi Abdelrahman, a local reporter with years of experience covering events in Gaza from the ground, explained to The Grayzone. “They also have to overcome a lot of censorship by Facebook, YouTube,” he told The Grayzone, adding: “anything on social media, they need to be very careful because they will get their accounts banned.”
“Working as a journalist in Gaza is not an easy job,” he says, not only “because you are being censored by social media, [but] also it can cause problems with Israeli authorities, especially if you’d like to leave through any crossing which is controlled by Israel.”
If you’re outspoken in your coverage, Abdelrahman says, Israeli authorities “will consider you as an enemy.”
During 2021’s Great March of Return, “those journalists who were attending the weekly marches and covering it were targeted deliberately by Israel.”
“Some of them were shot in the knees, some of them were shot in the legs. Some of them got killed,” Abdelrahman recalled.
On Instagram, meanwhile, users noted an apparent ‘glitch’ temporarily translated the Arabic word for “Palestinian” into “Palestinian terrorist.”
During an October 26 raid in Jenin, the Israeli army destroyed the memorial to Shireen Abu Akleh, the renowned Al Jazeera correspondent it killed there a year before.
Prisoners under attack amid genocide in Gaza
Assassinating Hamas official in prison exposes extent of savagery of Israeli regime: Islamic Jihad warns
Deceased senior Hamas official Omar Daraghmeh
Press TV – October 24, 2023
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad resistance movement has lamented the death of senior Hamas official Omar Daraghmeh in an Israeli prison, saying the tragic event exposes the extent of the brutality of the occupying regime against Palestinian inmates.
“The Israel Prison Service (IPS ) and [Israel’s so-called internal security service] Shin Bet are waging an open war against Palestinian prisoners being kept behind bars inside the occupying regime’s detention centers,” the movement said in a statement on Monday evening, according to the al-Mayadeen news network.
The Islamic Jihad made clear that it regards what happened to the 58-year-old and his unexpected death as “premeditated murder.”
It also noted that the crime was perpetrated under the support of certain members of the international community, which have encouraged the Tel Aviv regime and its various institutions to commit more atrocities.
Earlier in the day, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society (PPS) said Israel killed Daraghmeh, who was arrested on October 9 and placed under administrative detention.
The PPS said in a statement that the Israeli narrative about the circumstances of the Hamas member’s death “remains subject to doubt,” particularly since he had appeared at a court hearing hours earlier and seemed to be in good health.
An Israeli statement claimed his death was due to a heart attack.
Hamas mourned the death of Daraghmeh, describing it as an “assassination” by the Israeli regime.
The Gaza-based resistance movement further said that the deceased senior member was tortured to death while being held in the Israeli Megiddo prison.
According to Palestinian sources, Daraghmeh was arrested alongside his son at the start of Operation Al-Aqsa Storm as part of a wide detention campaign led by Israeli forces across the West Bank.
Israeli forces have arrested more than 1,215 Palestinians across the West Bank since fighting broke out between Palestinian resistance groups and Israel on October 7.
Earlier this month, head of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, Qadura Fares, warned against the rising brutal Israeli practices against Palestinian prisoners and underscored the need for exposition of the atrocities being committed against them.
Fares said in a statement that “many prisoners had their limbs, legs, and arms broken by Israeli forces,” adding that other inmates “could not recognize them” following the vicious physical assaults.
He added that the Negev prison “has become like Abu Ghraib prison, as it is a center of brutality and brutal behavior against our heroic prisoners,” emphasizing that “Israel is taking revenge on Palestinian prisoners for its defeat [in Gaza].”
Fares finally called upon Western powers to act in support of the principles they preach to others, as failure to do so would reveal their return to the era of colonialism.
International Community Faces Acid Test on Gaza
By Stuart Littlewood | Dissident Voice | October 23, 2023
I never thought I’d live to see a British prime minister warmly embracing a war criminal and genocidal thug like Netanyahu, go swanning around a hotel (the King David) which was used as the Jerusalem headquarters of the British Mandate aúthority and blown up by Jewish terrorists in 1946, killing 91 and wounding 45, then tell Netanyahu: “We want you to win.”
Win what, exactly? And who’s “we”? Certainly not the man-in-the-street in Britain. No, it’ll be that band of brainwashed Ziofreaks in Westminster who have shamed us for over a century.
And they (the Ziofreaks, not “we”) want Israel to win its dirty 75-year campaign of terror, illegal military occupation, dispossession, annexation, ethnic cleansing and extreme cruelty against the harshly oppressed Palestinians who are trying to defend their homeland.
I was even more infuriated to see queues of lorries carrying desperately needed aid held up for days at Gaza’s Rafah crossing into Egypt by the Israelis’ refusal to let them enter the mangled hell-hole they’ve created in the packed enclave. I hear they even bombed the crossing to make sure nothing could move.
Bypass Israel if necessary and deliver aid by sea
If the UN and the high and mighty powers wanted to, they could bypass Israeli and Egyptian cruelty and bring aid to Gaza by sea. They should have done so as soon as Israel slapped its illegal blockade on Gaza in 2006 following Hamas’s inconvenient election win. As it is, unarmed privateers have been left to try to break the siege.
In February 2003 British surgeon David Halpin chartered a small Danish cargo vessel, MV Barbara, filled her with important humanitarian items and sailed from Torquay to Ashdod, a port on the Israeli coast close to Gaza where the cargo was transferred by road into Gaza without too much trouble.
In 2008 two humanitarian vessels actually got through to Gaza. Their success in breaking the siege, and their safe arrival and departure, was due to the intervention of the British Foreign Office. Before the peace activists set sail, they asked the British government “to ensure the freedom boats’ safe and uninterrupted passage to Gaza considering these are international waters and Palestinian territorial waters”. Any attempt to stop the boats would surely infringe the right to freedom of movement to and from Gaza, and seriously breach the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, to which Israel is a party.
The minister in charge of Middle East affairs Kim Howells later admitted that “FCO officials spoke to Israeli officials in advance of the trip and Israel allowed the boats peacefully into Gaza.”
Nearly three years later, as Gaza Freedom Flotilla II prepared to sail, Israel was determined not to let the boats reach their destination because safe arrival would drive a coach and horses through Israel’s control-freakery. This prompted the following statement by flotilla organizers to the UN Human Rights Council:
“We are determined to sail to Gaza. Our cause is just and our means are transparent. To underline the fact that we do not present an imminent threat to Israel nor do we aim to contribute to a war effort against Israel, thus eliminating any claim by Israel to self-defense, we invite the HRC or any other UN or international agency to come on board and inspect our vessels at their point of departure, on the high seas, or on their arrival in the Gaza port. We will – and must – continue to sail until the illegal siege of Gaza is ended and Palestinians have the same human and national rights those of us sailing enjoy.” – Steering Committee of the International Coalition for Gaza Freedom Flotilla II.
In the end Flotilla II didn’t sail. In all, five shipments were reportedly allowed access prior to the 2008–09 Gaza War, but after that everything was blocked by Israel.
In May 2010 the Mavi Marmara took part in a flotilla of ships operated by activist groups from 37 countries with the intention of directly confronting the Israeli blockade. While en route and in international waters Israeli Naval Forces communicated to them that a naval blockade around the Gaza area was in force and ordered the ships to follow them to Ashdod port or be boarded. The ships declined and were boarded in international waters.
Reports from journalists on the Mavi Marmara and from the UN claimed that Israeli gunboats opened fire with live rounds before boarding the ship. Passengers tried to repell the boarding parties of Israeli commandos, and in the violent clash that followed nine were killed and a tenth died four years later of his wounds. Several dozen more were injured, some seriously. Israel claimed 10 of its troops were injured, one seriously.
The UN’s official report found Israel’s blockade of Gaza to be legal, but other UN experts, reporting to the Human Rights Council, disagreed and found it was a violation of international law.
A UN fact-finding mission, investigating the assault on the Mavi Marmara, declared that “no case can be made for the legality of the interception” and they therefore found that the interception was illegal and constituted collective punishment of the people living in the Gaza Strip and thus to be illegal and contrary to Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. It could not even be justified even under Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations [the right of self-defence].
The Centre for Constitutional Rights also concluded that the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip was illegal under international law and amounted to collective punishment. “The flotilla did not seek to travel to Israel, let alone ‘attack’ Israel. Furthermore, the flotilla did not constitute an act which required an ‘urgent’ response, such that Israel had to launch a middle-of-the-night armed boarding… Israel could also have diplomatically engaged Turkey, arranged for a third party to verify there were no weapons onboard and then peacefully guided the vessel to Gaza.”
Craig Murray, an internationally recognized authority on these matters, was Head of the Maritime Section of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and responsible for giving political and legal clearance to Royal Navy boarding operations in the Persian Gulf following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. He said that Israel had tried to justify previous fatal attacks on neutral civilian vessels on the High Seas in terms of enforcing an embargo under the legal cover given by the San Remo Manual of International Law Applicable to Armed Conflicts at Sea. “San Remo only applies to blockade in times of armed conflict. Israel is not currently engaged in an armed conflict, and presumably does not wish to be. San Remo does not confer any right to impose a permanent blockade outwith times of armed conflict, and in fact specifically excludes as illegal a general blockade on an entire population.”
At the same time UN Security Council resolution 1860 (2009) emphasised “the need to ensure sustained and regular flow of goods and people through the Gaza crossings” and called for “the unimpeded provision and distribution throughout Gaza of humanitarian assistance, including of food, fuel and medical treatment”.
But when MEP Kyriacos Triantaphyllides put a question to the EU Commission this was their reply:
After the organisation of a flotilla heading to Gaza in May 2010, the Quartet, of which the EU is a member, stated that all those wishing to deliver goods to Gaza should do so through established channels, so that their cargo can be inspected and transferred via land crossings into Gaza. It also stated that there was no need for unnecessary confrontations and that all parties should act responsibly in meeting the needs of the people of Gaza….
The Commission stands by this line. A flotilla is not the appropriate response to the humanitarian situation in Gaza. At the same time, Israel must abide by international law when dealing with a possible flotilla. The EU continues to request the lifting of the blockade on Gaza, including the naval blockade.
It might have been scripted in Tel Aviv and not by anyone with Christian principles. The “established channel” for delivering goods to Gaza is of course the time-honoured route by sea, which is protected by maritime and international law and therefore entirely appropriate.
There’s nothing “provocative” about unarmed vessels with humanitarian cargoes using it. The organizers had offered their cargoes for inspection and verification by a trusted third party to allay Israel’s fears about weapon supplies. They should not have to deal with a belligerent regime that was (and still is) cruelly waging a starvation war on women and children. Anyone suggesting they must do so seeks to legitimize the blockade, which we all know to be illegal and a crime against humanity.
And where are the UN when a rogue nation – also a UN member – shows contempt for their maritime Convention?
By 2018 Her Majesty’s Government had abandoned all pretence of upholding the Law of the Seas or even pursuing its 2008 policy of intervening to obtain advance clearance from the Israeli authorities. The Foreign Office appeared to have joined the Zionist conspiracy to legitimise the Gaza blockade and support Israel’s control-freakery.
Lord Ahmad for the Government, answering a written question in the House of Lords, said: “Embassy officials discussed the travelling flotilla with the Israeli authorities on 6 June… the Foreign and Commonwealth Office advises against all travel to Gaza including the waters off Gaza.”
The waters off Gaza are international waters where neutral civilian vessels are entitled to free passage under the UN Conventional on the Law of the Seas. Why shouldn’t unarmed aid boats be able sail there unmolested? Is the Law of the Seas now dead? Is Britain no longer committed to keeping the sea lanes open to innocent shipping? And why is the UN not upholdings its own Convention?
In particular, what happened to the diplomacy of 2008? Why didn’t our Government arrange advance clearance as before? Or were they, by any chance, colluding to thwart this mercy mission?
In reply to a question from myself, Alister Burt, minister for the Middle East at that time, said: “Delivery of aid should be co-ordinated with the UN and Israeli and Egyptian Governments. We expect Israel to show restraint and fully respect international law. If wrongdoing has taken place we expect those responsible to be held to account…. We remain deeply concerned about restrictions on movement and access in Gaza, and the impact that this is having on the humanitarian situation. We have frequent discussions with the Israeli Government about the need to ease restrictions on Gaza. We call on Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Egypt to work together to ensure a durable solution for Gaza.”
As if Israel ever respected international law or had ever been held to account.
So here we have a horrific humanitarian crisis where the population of Gaza (nearly half of whom are children) are badly injured, starving and bombed out of their homes, with few if any public services still functioning and with aid waiting outside and prevented from entering by Israel.
This is an acid test for the United Nations and the international community who need to show their real worth and recover the respect they have carelessly lost over the years.
They are drinking in the Last Chance saloon and this is possibly their final opportunity to prove that the world has, after all, developed moral sensibilities and emerged from the caveman era. All it takes is a mercy flotilla of ships belonging to few UN member states, not privateers, to bring the Middle East issue to a head so the root causes can finally be dealt with in accordance with international law.
In short, the lives of 2.3 million innocent, incarcerated Gazan cannot be left in the hands of a psychopath like Netanyahu. Nor can the Israelis be allowed to dictate the wider future of the Holy Land they have defiled.
Israel’s Negev prison new ‘Abu Ghraib’: Official
The Cradle | October 19, 2023
Broken limbs and severe beatings are among the extreme tactics being used by Israeli officials inside the Negev prison on Palestinian detainees since the start of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on 7 October.
“Many prisoners have had their limbs, legs, and hands broken, and after the beatings, their comrades could no longer recognize them.
The Negev prison has become like Abu Ghraib, a center of brutality and savage treatment towards the heroic prisoners,” reads a statement issued on 19 October by the head of the Palestinian Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners Affairs Commission.
“‘Israel’ is making the Palestinian prisoners pay the price for its failures, acting solely with a spirit of revenge,” Fares adds.
Last week, the Negev prison administration also cut off all water and electricity to all sections of the prison as part of the collective punishment approach by Tel Aviv.
The Israeli prison system is considered excessively brutal for incarcerated Palestinians, especially those convicted for resisting the occupation. Methods used by Israel against prisoners include physical torture, mental abuse, sleep deprivation, and sexual assault.
Additionally, prisoners with severe illnesses are intentionally neglected and left to die, as in the recent case of cancer-stricken resistance fighter Nasser Abu Hamid.
Over 850 Palestinians have been detained in less than two weeks, as Tel Aviv has launched daily arrest campaigns in the occupied West Bank while laying siege on the Gaza Strip’s civilian population.
Since Wednesday night, at least 120 Palestinians have been detained by Israeli troops in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
According to local sources, in the city of Tulkarem, Israeli raids have been ongoing for over 12 hours. Tel Aviv also deployed bulldozers to destroy the streets and infrastructure of the Nour Shams refugee camp.
Resistance against the Israeli incursions has also been constant, with Palestinian fighters fighting back and destroying Israeli vehicles across the West Bank.
Israeli soldiers and armed settler militias have killed at least 69 Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem since the start of the campaign of genocide unfolding in the Gaza Strip.
Biden whitewashes Israel’s slaughter of Gazans during Netanyahu meeting
(Photo Credit: REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein)
The Cradle | October 18, 2023
US President Joe Biden landed in Israel on the morning of 18 October and held talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu just hours after the Israeli army massacred hundreds of civilians in Gaza during an airstrike on the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital.
“I was deeply saddened and outraged by the explosion at the hospital in Gaza yesterday. Based on what I’ve seen, it appears it was done by the other team, and not you,” Biden told Netanyahu, promoting the Israeli narrative that the hospital was demolished by an “errant rocket strike” from a resistance faction.
Biden did not provide any evidence to support his assessment and followed up his comment: “There are a lot of people out there who are not sure.”
“Israel has a value set like the United States does and other democracies, and they’re looking to see what we’re going to do. I am looking forward to having a thorough discussion about where everyone goes from here,” the US president added.
For his part, Netanyahu said the “civilized world must unite to defeat Hamas.” The forces of civilization will prevail for our sake, for your sake…and for the sake of peace and security,” he added.
The two western leaders did not answer any questions from the press. Biden is set to meet with the Israeli war cabinet to “seek a sense of Israel’s plans and objectives in the days and weeks ahead,” a White House official highlighted on Tuesday.
The US president also expected to meet with the Jordanian, Egyptian, and Palestinian heads of state in Amman, but Jordan canceled the summit at the last minute following the massacre committed at Al-Ahli Arab Hospital.
“There is no point in doing anything at this time other than stopping this war. There is no benefit to anyone in holding a summit at this time,” Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said.
“This was the most advertised crime in history. It was a massacre by appointment. The Israeli government has been openly saying it was going to target hospitals for the last week, and the world just stood by and did nothing,” Palestinian surgeon Ghassan Abu Sitta, who was working in Al-Ahli Arab Hospital when Israel attacked it, told Al Jazeera.
Palestinian media reported that the hospital housed over a thousand people. The Palestine Red Crescent Society said women, children, medical staff, and “internally displaced people seeking safe shelter” were all killed during the attack.
At least 500 bodies have been identified so far, all of them civilians.
As Biden throws his full support behind Israel, the death toll in Gaza has surpassed 3,300. The besieged enclave has also lost all access to drinking water, food, fuel, and electricity as Israel is blocking humanitarian aid deliveries.
His first trip to Israel this year comes as the Pentagon has deployed multiple warships and thousands of troops to Israeli waters in anticipation of a regional war. Resistance factions in the region called for a “day of rage” against the US and Israel on Wednesday.
500 people killed, 600 wounded in Israeli airstrike on Gaza hospital
Palestine Information Center – October 17, 2023
GAZA – More than 500 people were killed and 600 others injured in an Israeli direct attack on the Al-Ahli Arab National Hospital in Gaza, Palestinian health ministry said on Tuesday evening.
According to the PIC reporter, the airstrike targeted thousands of displaced people who took refuge in the hospital’s courtyards after their houses were destroyed in the ongoing Israeli aggression.
The Hamas Movement considered the Israeli massacre at Al-Ahli Hospital a crime of genocide.
“The horrifying massacre carried out by the Zionist occupation in the Arab National Hospital in the Gaza Strip, during which hundreds of people and patients were killed, the majority of whom were displaced families, children, and women, is a crime of genocide that once again exposes the true face of this enemy and its fascist government and its terrorism, as well as the American and Western support for this criminal entity.”
The Movement called on the international community and the Arab and Islamic countries to assume their responsibility and intervene immediately to stop the ongoing Israeli aggression for 11 days.
West ‘stomps’ on Russian-drafted resolution for Gaza ceasefire
The Cradle | October 17, 2023
A Russian-drafted resolution for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza failed to pass at the UN Security Council (UNSC) on 16 October.
China, Russia, Gabon, Mozambique, and the UAE voted in favor of the resolution, while the US, UK, France, and Japan voted against it. Albania, Brazil, Ecuador, Ghana, Malta, and Switzerland all abstained from voting.
The text of the resolution called for an immediate humanitarian truce, the release of prisoners, access to aid, and the safe evacuation of civilians.
Vassily Nebenzia, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the UN, condemned the UNSC failure to pass the resolution and slammed the “selfish intention of the western bloc,” which he said “basically stomped” on international calls for de-escalation and an end to violence.
He added that the resolution was needed to respond to the “unprecedented exacerbation” of the calamity inside the Gaza Strip, where Israel has continued to bomb 2.2 million Palestinians trapped inside and prevent the entry of humanitarian aid.
Washington’s representative, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, denounced the resolution for failing to condemn “Hamas terrorism.”
“By failing to condemn Hamas, Russia is giving cover to a terrorist group that brutalizes innocent civilians. It is outrageous, hypocritical, and indefensible. We cannot allow this Council to unfairly shift the blame to Israel and excuse Hamas for its decades of cruelty,” she said.
The failed resolution came the same day Russian President Vladimir Putin held phone calls with the presidents of Iran, Syria, Egypt, and the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“The Israeli side was in particular informed of the essential points of telephone correspondences that took place today with the leaders of Palestine, Egypt, Iran, and Syria,” the Kremlin said in a statement.
Close to 3,000 Palestinians have been killed and about 10,000 wounded due to Israel’s indiscriminate bombing of civilian infrastructure in the Gaza Strip.
The Rafah crossing with Egypt, the only entry for humanitarian aid to Gaza, has remained shut despite multiple reports of an agreement between Egypt and Israel, which Tel Aviv has denied.
“The process of opening the crossing is a joint Palestinian-Egyptian process, subject to clear working mechanisms, and requires prior coordination, which has not happened until now [due to] lack of coordination, in addition to the intense bombing to which the crossing was subjected by the Israeli occupation forces,” Salama Marouf, director of the media office of the Hamas-led government in Gaza, said on Tuesday.
Israel has bombed the aid route several times over the past few days, including on 16 August.
Any talk of truce “comes in the context of the psychological warfare waged by the Israeli occupation,” Marouf added.
He was killed while holding the flag of Palestine
By Diana Khwaelid | International Solidarity Movement | October 14, 2023
The martyr Qassim Hakam Qassim, 24, was one of the young people who answered the call to participate in a mass demonstration in solidarity with Gaza in the city of Tulkarm, in the West Bank.
The martyr Qassim, who grew up in the Tulkarm refugee camp and who has 6 siblings, did not neglect the blood of the martyrs who were killed for Palestine and came out to express solidarity with the people of Gaza, holding the flag of Palestine.
Since the beginning of the demonstration, which took place on Friday 13th of October 2023, Qassim tried to place the flag of Palestine close to the Sanaoz Israeli checkpoint, near the apartheid wall, to affirm the existence of the Palestinian people and their right to reclaim the lands occupied and controlled by the Israeli occupation.
Qassim did not survive the bullet of an Israeli sniper who was watching him from the very beginning. He was hit directly in the head area and died instantly.
An atmosphere of anger and sadness prevailed in the Tulkarm refugee camp, for the funeral of the body of the young man. His family and friends took one last look at him.
He was prayed for at the Al-Salam mosque in the camp, as Palestinians chanted angrily, condemning the continuing murders committed by the Israeli occupation forces in the West Bank and Gaza.
Qassim’s message is not gone: other young Palestinians will follow his path. The message and the voice of liberation do not die when the body dies.
Total War – The Economic Backbone of the Occupation
Gazans being held by Israeli police. Photo from one of the workers.
International Solidarity Movement | October 15, 2023
EXPLOITATION AND OCCUPATION
Hundreds of Gazan workers are being given refuge in Palestine, after having been dumped in the West Bank by Israel.
45 of them are in al-Khalil and the ISM spoke to many of them this evening.
These labourers were working in Israeli settlements. When Hamas broke out of Gaza they were rounded up, detained, and at least one of them was beaten and hospitalised. They spent four hours in prison, their phones confiscated and without contact with the outside world. One man says 6500NIS was stolen from him by the police.
Apartments have been provided by charitable individuals and groups are giving them food and bringing them brand-new clothing to replace the belongings they were not allowed to bring from Israel. No help comes from the P.A.
SO WHAT WERE THESE GUYS DOING IN ISRAEL?
After 16 years of blockade, Gaza’s economy has collapsed. Gazans buy Israeli work permits so as to get jobs as labourers in construction or hospitality. These permits, valid for one month, are purchased from specialised companies and cost 3,000 NIS. Gazan workers earn 6000 NIS monthly for 45 hour weeks. Israelis would be paid around 20,000 shekels for doing an equivalent job. These migrant workers have no health insurance or job security. They have to be married, too.
Women migrant workers find jobs in factories or in agriculture. Manual labour is the only option available to people from Gaza. One of the workers we spoke to has a degree in engineering, one qualified as a social worker and another was a teacher.
Visits to their wives and families are possible at weekends, and they try to return at least twice a month. Travel through the Eretz crossing involves a long wait of up to 12 hours, the crossing opens at 4am on a Sunday morning to let them through. Everything is checked, and they can’t take clothes through, so clothing has to be bought (at high expense) in Israel.
The guards at the border can deny entry at will to anyone, whether or not they have a permit. Israeli intelligence often interrogates and threatens the workers, hoping to add them to the network of informers in Gaza.
THE LUCKY ONES
We were told that around 1,500 migrant workers are still detained or missing in Israel. Their families in Gaza were asking for information about them.
We heard that, when Israel declared war, one of the employers of Gazan workers informed the police that the people working for him were terrorists. We saw a video of corpses after the police intervention. The people shot were colleagues of one of the men we spoke to. Here are their names:
Hashim Barawi (killed)
Suliman Al Atar (killed)
Hary Al Masry (location unknown)
Sahel AL Masry
Nabil Al Barrawi (injured)
Talal Warshasha (injured)
The workers intend to use every legal means possible to obtain justice.
NOT WAR BUT EXTERMINATION
The situation these men are in is difficult, but they are distraught about the situation in Gaza and worried about their families. “My son works with the emergency services, Israel bombed his ambulance, the driver was killed and my son is injured.” “My building was bombed, and my wife and kids are now living in a tent.” “I keep phoning my wife, but there is no answer.”
They denounce the lies and hypocrisy of the international community in its support for Israel. Western countries talk about law and democracy, but they respect neither. How can they support this massacre, this lack of humanity?
One of the men sums it up: This is not war, it is extermination.
Despite the atrocious, immoral position of the countries whose passports we hold, only one man didn’t greet us warmly. Hearing we were from European countries, he said he didn’t want to be in the same room as us.
I was totally sincere when I replied that I understood his feelings, that we are in Palestine because of our countries’ responsibility in the destruction of Palestine, because we don’t agree with Europe’s policies and that we would like to do what we can to tell people about what is happening here. If you’ve read this far, please help us in getting the word out and stopping this genocide.
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Book Review
How the CIA hid their MKULTRA mind-control program
By Jon Rappoport | No More Fake News | September 17, 2021
Back in the early 1990s, I spoke with John Marks, author of Search for the Manchurian Candidate. This was the book (1979) that helped expose the existence and range of the infamous CIA MKULTRA program.
Marks related the following facts to me. He had originally filed many Freedom of Information (FOIA) requests for documents connected to the CIA’s mind-control program. He got nothing back.
Finally, as if to play a joke on him, someone at the CIA sent Marks 10 boxes of financial and accounting records. The attitude was, “Here, see what you can do with this.”
I’ve seen some of those records. They’re very boring reading.
But Marks went through them, and lo and behold, he found he could piece together MKULTRA projects, based on the funding data.
Eventually, he assembled enough information to begin naming names. He conducted interviews. The shape of MKULTRA swam into view. And so he wrote his book, Search for the Manchurian Candidate.
He told me that three important books had been written about MKULTRA, and they all stemmed from those 10 boxes of CIA financial records. There was his own book; Operation Mind Control by Walter Bowart; and The Mind Manipulators by Alan Scheflin and Edward Opton. … continue
Blog Roll
Aletho News- Russia could end gas supplies to EU immediately – Putin
- Veteran War Correspondent Reveals How to Tell When Analysts Talking About Iranian Losses Are Lying
- Did Kuwait really shoot down three US F-15s?
- Trump’s Iran war will put him in the history books, but…
- The murder of Iranian schoolchildren cannot be whitewashed
- Ukraine blocks EU mission to inspect Russian oil pipeline – FT
- Ukrainian drone attacked Russian LNG tanker in Mediterranean Sea
- Brazilian mercenaries say they learned ‘guerrilla warfare’ in Ukraine
- Security Researchers Warn Age Verification Laws Are Building a Global Surveillance System
- EPSTEIN FILES REVEAL POWER BROKERS IN SCIENTIFIC PUBLISHING
- If Americans Knew
- Experts Worldwide Agree: US-Israel Attack on Iran a Clear Violation of International Law
- Is the International Norm Against Assassination Dead?
- 1,000+ reported dead in Iran, in the war that Israel wanted – Not a ceasefire Day 145
- Rubio Suggests Trump Joined Israel’s Planned Attack on Iran Instead of Stopping It
- CNN: Timing of attack on Iran bears symbolic meaning in Judaism
- How the New York Times paved the way for apocalyptic war
- Tucker Carlson says Saudi Arabia and Qatar arrested Mossad agents planning bombings
- How Maduro overthrow was key node in US-Israeli war on Iran
- The U.S. media goes to war on Iran
- Trump admin promises Iran war will be short…or not – Not a ceasefire Day 144
- No Tricks Zone
- New Study: ‘Internal Noise’ And Volcanic Forcing Can Trigger 10-15°C Warming Within Decades
- Glaciers Worldwide Are Suddendly Surging, Experts Blame Warming!
- Surprising Discovery: Sahara Is Greening…Billions Of Trees Where Once Thought To Be Barren
- New Research Reaffirms Clouds, Aerosols, And Surface Solar Radiation Are ‘Driving The Climate System’
- Germany: Electric Car Catches Fire At Charging Station, Sets Off Local “Inferno”, Widespread Damage
- New Study: Canada’s New Brunswick Was 1°C Warmer Than Today During The Medieval Warm Period
- Coal Power Back In Trend As Globe Tries To Keep Pace With Growing Demand For Power
- New Study: A 4°C Warmer Beaufort Sea Had ‘No Sea Ice’ 11,700 – 8200 Years Ago
- Unfudging The Data: Dutch Meteorological Institute Reinstates Early 20th Centruy Heat Waves It Had Erased Earlier
- German Gas Crisis…Chancellor Merz Allegedly Bans Gas Debate Ahead of Elections!
Aletho News 