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Dozens of Palestinian women, teens freed from Israeli jails as part of Gaza ceasefire

The Cradle | January 20, 2025

After several hours of delay following the handing over of three Israeli captives by Hamas’s Qassam Brigades, 90 Palestinian prisoners – all females and minors – were released from Israeli jails early on 20 January as part of the first phase of the ceasefire and exchange deal.

The Palestinians were released from Ofer prison in the occupied West Bank and Moscovia prison in Jerusalem, as well as the Damon prison.

Those from Ofer were dropped off by Red Cross buses at Beitunia north of Ramallah, where their families received them, and those from Moscovia went straight to their neighborhoods in occupied Jerusalem.

Among the prisoners was Abla Saadat, wife of the Secretary General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) Ahmad Saadat. She was detained in September last year.

PFLP member Khalida Jarrar was also released. Jarrar had been in and out of Israeli prisons for several years and was detained for the fifth and final time in December 2023 after the start of the genocidal war in Gaza.

She was held in solitary confinement for the last six months of her detention despite suffering from serious medical issues, including deep vein thrombosis. Jarrar was in a state of exhaustion upon her release and was not able to speak to the media.

Palestinian journalist and prisoner activist Bushra al-Tawil was also among those released. She has been incarcerated seven times.

Rose Khweis, an 18-year-old who was also freed, told Reuters inmates were treated ”like animals” where she was imprisoned.

“The occupation forces were cursing us and treating us badly [during the release]. The occupation authorities contacted our families and warned them against any manifestations of joy,” Jenin Amro told Al Jazeera upon being discharged.

The next six weeks are meant to see the release of 2,000 Palestinians. Israel will discharge 30 to 50 prisoners for each captive released by Hamas. The first phase of the deal – which was announced last week – is supposed to see the release of 33 Israeli captives being held in Gaza. Negotiations for the second phase will begin 16 days into phase one.

Three Israeli captives were handed over to the Red Cross in Gaza on the afternoon of 19 January.

Huge crowds of Palestinians, along with a strong presence of Qassam Brigades fighters, gathered in Gaza City’s Al-Saraya Square as the three female Israeli captives were released and given over to the Red Cross.

The captives were retrieved by the Israeli army at the Reim Base outside Gaza.

January 20, 2025 Posted by | Full Spectrum Dominance, Subjugation - Torture | , , , | Leave a comment

UK knew about Israel’s brutal torture of Palestinian detainees 50 years ago, but refused to act, British documents reveal

The UK knew about Israel’s brutal torture of Palestinian and Arab detainees nearly 50 years ago but refused to act, British documents reveal. The papers, unearthed by MEMO in the British National Archives, also reveal that the US opted to address the issue solely through non-governmental organisations.

Israeli soldiers lead blindfolded Palestinian detainees across the Israel-Gaza border after they were detained by Israeli forces operating inside Gaza, 1 August 2007. [DAVID FURST / AFP/ Getty Images]
By Amer Sultan | MEMO |January 20, 2025

Documents from the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office show that Britain was aware that Israeli authorities were systematically torturing Palestinian and Arab detainees in mid-1977 but declined to pressure Israel to halt these practices.

In June 1977, the Sunday Times published a shocking dossier exposing the brutal torture of Palestinian and Arab detainees in Israeli prisons and detention centres. The report described the torture as “systematic” and “organised so methodically that it cannot be dismissed as a handful of ‘rogue cops’ exceeding orders”.  It found that torture “appears to be sanctioned at some level as deliberate policy” and detailed 17 different methods of abuse, including beatings, genitalia squeezing, insertion of foreign objects into body orifices, hanging upside down, cigarette burns, and torture of family members in front of prisoners.”

The Sunday Times’ dossier was based on interviews with former detainees who described other physical abuse and psychological pressure during their detention.

At the time, the FCO reports indicated there were 3,200 Palestinian and Arab detainees from the occupied territories, Egypt, Syria and Jordan held in Israeli prisons or detention centres in Israel and the territories occupied by the Israeli military in the 1967 war.

The documents show that before the report’s publication, the Sunday Times shared its findings with then-UK FOreign Secretary David Owen. British diplomats in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem conducted confidential interviews with officials from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Quaker Service (QS), a Northern Ireland charity, to explore their views on the torture allegations.

James Fine of QS confirmed to Mike Jenner, the British consul-general in East Jerusalem, that “all forms of torture used in Northern Ireland had been used [against the Palestinians] here [by Israel].” He gave examples such as “hooding, sleep deprivation, and bread-and-water diets.” Fine added that “in all interrogations, some beating up was used,” and in a minority of cases, “serious” beatings occurred. He further noted that more sophisticated torture such as “electric shocks, bottles up the anus and objects inserted into the penis” were used in “a few cases”. While Fine acknowledged the evidence came from Palestinian and Arab detainees and prisoners, he emphasised that “exaggeration must be discounted”.

Jenner informed his bosses in the FCO that Fine believed that the body of evidence was “so consistent that, at the very least, there was a prima facie case for a full enquiry into allegation of torture.”

The ICRC representative in Jerusalem, Alfredo Witschi, supported the Sunday Times findings, calling the report “a very fair presentation of the available evidence,” despite it containing “some mistakes”. Witschi stated that the ICRC possessed “similar evidence though in much greater quantity”, alerting the British diplomat that the weight of the ICRC’s evidence of beating, which he said was very severe in some cases, was such that he “considered it amounted to proof” of torture.

He suggested that Israeli interrogators “were unlikely to be acting without instructions” and these instructions “were possibly to give them a free hand provided that they didn’t go too far”. Witschi also highlighted that the Sunday Times report “paid too little attention” to psychological techniques of torture used by the Israelis  such as “threat of torture after exhausting the suspect by sleep deprivation and rigorous exercises.” The ICRC official was keen to alert Jenner that their conversation should be confidential.

The FCO Research Department reviewed the Sunday Times report and concluded that the allegations were “consistent with the available evidence from other sources, including the ICRC.” It acknowledged that psychological pressure was “probably condoned by higher authorities in Israel,” and more serious cases of maltreatment were probably isolated but did occur. The department drew the attention of FCO officials that the more serious allegations are “against Shin Bait [Israeli Internal Security Service] personnel in Moscobia, Hebron and Sarafand prisons.”

The Near East and North Africa Department (NENA) within the FCO noted that the sources for the allegations were primarily Arab prisoners and their legal representatives, making the accounts potentially one-sided. However it admitted the allegations of torture in the Israeli prisons “is not entirely inconsistent with that which emerges from the other material available to us and in particular with what the ICRC representative in Jerusalem told the Consulate-General there in confidence.”

William R. Tomkys, head of NENA, recommended raising the issue discreetly with Avraham Kidron, the Israeli ambassador to London, rather than involving the UK ambassador in Tel Aviv, to avoid straining relations with the Israeli government. “We may get off on the wrong foot with Mr Kidron as a result but this is less damaging than the risk that HM ambassador at Tel Aviv might lose the confidence of Mr Begin’s government,” Tomkys wrote.

He suggested advising Israel to conduct “a public inquiry”, arguing it would be “consistent with Israel’s close concern for human rights” and address widespread public concern in the UK about the allegations about the Israeli treatment of prisoners.

However, Foreign Secretary Owen instructed the FCO to wait till he addressed the issue with US Secretary of State, Cyrus Vance.

Commenting on Tomkys’ report and recommendation, Owen ordered “No action to be taken” instructing the issue “should be raised at a political level not Ambassadorial.” But he stressed that raising the issue should be “certainly not immediately”. Owen stressed to his staff that “we will also need to discuss with the Americans whom I know need time to consider” the issue.

He also disclosed that he had spoken to Sunday Times Editor Harry Evans about the report but the documents did not show whether he had shared the details of their conversation with his staff.

When the British ambassador raised the issue with the US State Department, officials confirmed they “had taken the report of the Sunday Times seriously.” However, Walter Smith, head of Israeli and Arab-Israeli Affairs, told the ambassador he was preparing a paper for Vance and the Americans “would encourage one or two members of the American Bar Association to get in touch with their Israeli opposite numbers to see whether further investigation leading to remedial action would be possible.”

The Sunday Times report sparked significant public and political concern in the UK. Thirty-three Members of Parliament signed a motion to discuss the issue in July 1977, while others wrote letters to Owen and his ministers. David Watkins, an MP and member of the Labour Middle East Council, strongly criticised the government’s “failure” to address the violations of Palestinians’ rights and to raise the issue “more vigorously and more openly” with the Israeli government given the available evidence. He warned that the UK risked being accused of “applying double standards” if it did not act as it had in the case of South Africa.

 The MP pressed the ministers to inform him whether the UK has done all it should to find out the truth about “the persistent of allegations of torture” in Israeli prisons. He slammed what he described as “covering up” the Israeli ill-treatment of the Arab prisoners and detainees “both officially and on the news media”, giving an example of a US State Department document, which he confirmed he has seen, reporting on Israel observance of human rights in both Israel and the occupied territories. The MP described the document, prepared for Jimmy Carter, the then-US president, as “remarkably dishonest”. Watkins believed that the paper “was designed to assure the President that in difficult circumstance, Israel is making commendable, even if not wholly successful, effort to provide for and observe the Palestinian human rights both in Israel and in the occupied territories.”

In his response to Watkins, Frank Judd, minister of state for the Middle East, acknowledged that the allegations published by the Sunday Times were “disturbing” and stressed the need for Israel to address them.

Judd stressed that if true, these stories “would also reflect a situation which we, as a government committed to the promotion of human rights worldwide, would view most seriously.”

He suggested an “independent inquiry”, but he noted that its success would require Israel’s full cooperation. He rejected any idea to press Israel, expressing fears that if the UK raised the individual cases of human rights violation with the Israelis, such a move “would almost certainly be misinterpreted as an attempt to put political pressure on Israel over the wider issues of a Middle East settlement.”

Watkins, however, insisted that pressure on Israel was necessary, arguing that Israel would never withdraw from occupied territories or recognise Palestinian rights “except under pressure”.

January 20, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Subjugation - Torture, Timeless or most popular | , , , , , | Leave a comment

Ex-Israeli spies involved in Gaza genocide building AI systems for global tech companies

Press TV – January 17, 2025

Israel’s Unit 8200 is a secretive cyber warfare team that is said to be building the artificial intelligence (AI) systems that helped the regime commit the genocide against Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip. According to a report, Unit 8200 is building AI systems for global tech and AI companies.

Former Unit 8200 members who specialize in AI, machine learning and big data are working for Meta, Google, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Open AI and Nvidia, which is an AI company determined to be the biggest in the world, the ¡Do Not Panic! website reported on Friday.

Former Unit 8200 spies specializing in AI are based worldwide, from San Francisco to New York, Spain to Switzerland, and London to Jerusalem al-Quds.

The report also said that AI leaders from Unit 8200 are now working for AI start-ups or heralded by corporate media as the next generation of AI.

The report revealed that most of these AI people have expressed support for Israel’s genocidal war against the people in Gaza. It was also exposed that not a single person from these people ever voiced opposition to Israel’s mass murder in Gaza.

Advocacy groups have also said AI and machine learning is central to the architecture of occupation and apartheid established before the genocidal Gaza campaign, from the use of facial recognition technology, and AI-directed guns at checkpoints, to spy apps known as ‘Blue Wolf’ and ‘Red Wolf’.

According to another report published in November last year, Israel has been employing an AI firing system jointly manufactured by an Indian arms company during its genocide in Gaza.

Citing documents and news reports, the Middle East Eye (MEE) news portal reported on November 20 that the occupation forces have been using the Arbel system since the beginning of the Israeli regime’s bloody war on Gaza.

Arbel was unveiled at a defense expo in Gandhinagar in the Indian state of Gujarat in October 2022 as a co-venture between Israeli Weapons Industries (IWI) company and India’s Adani Defense & Aerospace.

At the time, several Indian media described it as “India’s first AI-based firing system.”

In April 2024, IWI introduced Aber as a new “computerized small arms system” designed to increase combat lethality.

India, which is the largest purchaser of Israeli weapons, has in recent years become a major co-producer of Israeli weapons.

Israel unleashed its bloody Gaza onslaught on October 7, 2023, after the Hamas resistance group carried out its historic operation against the usurping entity in retaliation for the regime’s intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.

The Tel Aviv regime has so far killed at least 46,788 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 110,453 others, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

January 17, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Subjugation - Torture, War Crimes | , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

In Israel, ADL Chief Jonathan Greenblatt Appears to Call for Using Terrorism to Murder Me and My Friends

 By Andrew Anglin | The Daily Stormer | January 15, 2025

The head of the Israeli lobbying group the Anti-Defamation League was in Israel last week, where he appeared to call for using Israeli terrorist tactics to maim and murder “antisemites” who criticize Jews on the internet.

Speaking before the Israeli Knesset, Jonathan Greenblatt bemoaned the fact that people are complaining about Jewish behavior online, saying that Jews are “losing the battle” against “antisemitism.” He framed the fight to silence critics of Israel on the internet as the “eighth front” of Israel’s “seven-front war.” He then said that last year’s terrorist attack against Lebanon, which involved explosives being implanted into pagers which were detonated to mutilate and murder Lebanese people, should be the inspiration for silencing people on the internet.

It would have been bad enough if he had said this as a joke, but based on the context and the way he spoke, there is no indication he was joking.

“We need the kind of genius that manufactured Apollo Gold Pagers and infiltrated Hezbollah for over a decade to prepare for this battle,” Greenblatt said.

He went on to state that terrorism is a characteristic of Jewish people: “This is the kind of ingenuity and inventiveness that have always been a hallmark of the State of Israel, that have always been a characteristic of the Jewish people. I know we can do it.”

You can watch the video above to get the full context of the statement, and see if you think he is saying something different. The most generous interpretation would be that he is saying that it took a certain kind of cunning to do the terrorist attack against Hezbollah and that this type of cunning is needed to silence critics of the Jews. It is seemingly unfathomable that he would want to leave people with the impression he was calling for terrorism against internet critics, and furthermore, he calls on the Israeli Defense Force to form a group to shut down these online critics, which definitely implies he is talking about real violence being used.

However, even if we give him the benefit of the doubt and suppose he is calling for some kind of metaphorical terrorism, we must ask what exactly it is he is talking about doing to prevent people from holding opinions he opposes.

Believing that Jews should not slaughter children in Gaza, or that they shouldn’t push child transsexualism, mass immigration, pornography, abortion, and other socially deleterious schemes in the West is an opinion. How can you stop people from having an opinion, other than by killing them? What are the other options?

The ADL is primarily a censorship group, which lobbies governments to pass laws criminalizing the criticism of Jews, and lobbying Silicon Valley to silence critics of Jews online. This is obviously anti-American, fundamentally, but the ADL is one of many Jewish groups which engages in this activity. Internet censorship is ubiquitous, and even the supposed “free speech absolutist” Elon Musk has recently begun silencing his critics on Twitter.

Jewish groups successfully lobbied for TikTok to be banned in America due to the fact that the Chinese owners feel that Americans have a right to criticize Israel in a way that no American company allows them to.

However, none of this has to do with the government of Israel. If Greenblatt was suggesting that Israel should engage in more active lobbying for internet censorship and hate speech laws, he could have simply said that. Instead, he invoked terrorism and called for the IDF to fight people who criticize Jews online.

Being on the frontlines of criticism of Israel and the collective behavior of individual Jews, I have personally had an adversarial relationship with the ADL for more than a decade, regularly being a target of slander and hate from Jonathan Greenblatt and others in the organization, so this call for the Israeli military to use terrorism to silence people like me is particularly disturbing.

At this point, there is so much criticism directed at Israel, and to some extent also the behavior of diaspora Jews, that it would be virtually impossible to censor all of it. Twitter and Facebook would have to ban tens or hundreds of millions of people, and banning that many people would definitely result in those who weren’t banned criticizing Jews for getting all of those people banned.

However, if the Jews began assassinating critics, that may prove to be a significant deterrent.

Although I’ve said it many times, I want to put it on the record again that I am in very good health, I did not take the coronavirus vaccine so I am not at risk of dying suddenly, and I would never, under any circumstances, kill myself.

The video linked above is a week old and has fewer than 100 views. I have not seen this story reported anywhere else. I hope that others will clip the relevant portions and spread them on Twitter and elsewhere. I would like to see Tucker Carlson, Glenn Greenwald, Judge Napolitano, and others with large platforms addressing these statements by Greenblatt and demanding that he explain what exactly it is he is calling for when he says that terrorism needs to be used to silence people whose opinions he does not like.

The Jewish agenda to shut down freedom of speech was already extreme enough, but calling for violence to be used as a solution to internet posts takes this into a whole new realm. If America was a serious country, traveling to a foreign country and calling for state terrorism against American citizens would be grounds for serious criminal charges.

January 16, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Full Spectrum Dominance, Subjugation - Torture, War Crimes | , , , | 3 Comments

Budapest: 2 more Antifa activists charged in brutal 2023 attacks

By Liz Heflin | Remix News | January 13, 2025

The Budapest Chief Prosecutor’s Office has indicted two more foreign citizens – a German and, in absentia, an Italian – who, as members of the far-left criminal organization, attacked Hungarians on the streets of Budapest in February 2023, reports Magyar Nemzet.

Between Feb. 9 and 11, 2023, five attacks were carried out by the so-called “Hammer Gang,” a sort of Antifa subsidiary with German roots known for using hammers to attack their victims, in the Hungarian capital, injuring nine, six of them seriously.

The attacks were organized and planned in advance. A lookout was set up to keep outsiders away while the other members of the group were responsible for carrying out the violence, armed with hammers.

According to the indictment, the German citizen participated in the attacks on Fővám Square, Gazdagréti Square and Bank Street, partly in the role of observer and follower, partly as an attacker and the Italian participated in the aggression on Gazdagréti and Mikó Street as an attacker.

The Budapest Chief Prosecutor’s Office charges the German citizen with four counts of attempted assault causing danger to life committed in a criminal organization – partly as an accomplice and partly as an accessory – and one count of attempted aggravated assault committed in a criminal organization for a vile reason. The Italian citizen is charged with three counts of attempted assault causing danger to life committed in a criminal organization and as an accomplice.

They are proposing a prison sentence and a fixed-term expulsion from Hungary.

Antifa also faces ongoing criminal proceedings in Germany for the attacks committed there between October 2018 and February 2020, and in the case of one defendant, for the attacks in Hungary.

Just this past November, authorities finally arrested the 31-year-old leader of the Hammer Gang in Germany, where he will be facing charges for crimes dating back to 2018, while another member was sentenced to three years in prison in Hungary earlier for his involvement in the Budapest attacks.

One member arrested in Budapest at the time of the attacks, Ilaria Salis was released from prison in Hungary after an Italian far-left party put her at the top of its European Parliament list in last summer’s elections and entered the European Parliament, thus gaining immunity.

January 13, 2025 Posted by | Full Spectrum Dominance, Subjugation - Torture | , , , | Leave a comment

Israel blocks UN probe into alleged sexual violence during 7 October attack

MEMO | January 8, 2025

Israel has denied the United Nations permission to investigate sexual violence allegedly committed by Hamas during the 7 October cross-border infiltration, due to concerns that it could also involve investigating sexual violence against Palestinians in Israeli detention facilities.

Pramila Patten, the UN’s Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, sought authorisation to investigate the allegations against Hamas. However, she insisted that access to Israeli detention centres to probe allegations against Israeli soldiers was a necessary condition.

According to Haaertz, Israel rejected this request. Patten has called on Israel to sign a framework agreement with the UN, committing to measures to combat sexual violence in conflicts.

Patten’s office has confirmed plans to explore a future mission to the region, following invitations from both the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli government. “The Office is exploring a future mission to the region after receiving an invitation from the Palestinian Authority regarding reports of conflict-related sexual violence against Palestinians as well as outreach by the Government of Israel for a follow-up visit on the 7 October attacks and their aftermath.”

However, Patten’s office has warned that Israel’s refusal to allow UN investigations into alleged crimes attributed to it could have negative repercussions. Representatives from Israel’s Women’s Network, who met with Patten’s team in New York last month, reported being warned that this stance could lead to Israel being added to the UN’s blacklist of entities responsible for sexual violence in conflicts, while Hamas might remain off the list.

This comes after Israeli authorities admitted that no allegations of rape or sexual assault have been filed from the 7 October cross-border infiltration by Palestinian resistance factions, despite extensive investigations.

Moran Gaz, a former lead prosecutor in Israel’s Southern District Prosecutor’s Office and member of Team 7.10, disclosed the findings in an interview with Ynet.

In March 2023, United Nations experts had already debunked similar allegations, concluding they were either unverified or proven false. Similarly, other gruesome claims, such as babies being beheaded or burned in ovens, were widely discredited but continued to circulate in political rhetoric.

January 8, 2025 Posted by | Deception, Subjugation - Torture, War Crimes | , , | 1 Comment

Raping Palestinians: Israel’s weapon of war

MEMO | December 29, 2024

During the summer of 2024, horrifying details began to emerge of Israeli occupation forces raping Palestinians they had detained. While revelations from Sde Teiman prison stirred debates both in Israel and abroad, the use of rape and sexual violence against Palestinians can be traced back to 1948. Tel Aviv has used sexual violence to torture, coerce, intimidate and break Palestinians for generations. MEMO looks into the systematic use of rape by Israel against Palestinians.

January 5, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Subjugation - Torture, Timeless or most popular, Video, War Crimes | , , , | 1 Comment

The PA wants its repression hidden in plain sight

By Ramona Wadi | MEMO | January 2, 2025

The Palestinian Authority cannot help making a fool of itself. Its recent decision to suspend Al Jazeera’s broadcasts, ostensibly because the news outlet was “broadcasting inciteful content, spreading misinformation, and interfering in internal Palestinian affairs,” is an example of the scale of the repression of his own people which PA leader Mahmoud Abbas wishes to conceal from the rest of the world. While Palestinians in Gaza have been facing genocide, Palestinians in the occupied West Bank – Jenin being just one major example – have been subjected to ongoing raids by Israel occupation forces and their collaborators, the Palestinian Authority security services.

A weakened authoritarian and illegitimate rule cannot extend its stranglehold except by force. In recent years, however, the PA’s collaboration and complicity with Israel has been recognised openly as yet another part of the framework against which anti-colonial resistance is necessary. The PA only had two platforms to stand on when it came to the Palestinian people: subjugation through force and exploitation of the Palestinian anti-colonial resistance to score occasional points when necessary. Both are crumbling fast.

Abbas only made Gaza relevant in terms of the PA’s hypothetical return to the enclave. Other than that, over a year of genocide only elicited very weak occasional statements. Hunting down the Palestinians involved in resistance in the occupied West Bank, on the other hand, was imparted as security and stability, even though the PA knowns it can offer neither, not for the Palestinians nor for itself. Palestinians have been tortured by the PA’s security services in the name of restoring law and order. The PA tramples on the law in order to preserve it.

The minute that Israel decides that it doesn’t need the PA any longer, Abbas and his inner circle will have nothing to stand on.

Whatever illusion of power the PA thinks may materialise, it is far more likely that the opposite will happen. And the PA will have contributed to any impending violence by fragmenting the Palestinian anti-colonial struggle in several ways: maintaining the purported ideological divide between Gaza and the occupied West Bank; clinging to the international imposition of the two-state compromise even as genocide rages on; and accepting the parameters of illusory state-building even as Israel continues to colonise what remains of Palestinian territory and Ramallah looks on impotently, wasting both time and Palestinian lives.

Banning Al Jazeera, therefore, will not solve the PA’s dilemma of wanting to engage in violence while retaining a diplomatic veneer.

The PA has, after all, been stepping up its oppression of the Palestinians ever since the murder of Basel Al-Araj by PA security agents in March 2017 and, a few months later, the issue of the cybercrime law that targeted journalists.

The PA’s raids, separate from those conducted by Israel, reported Al Jazeera, have killed Palestinians in Jenin. If the PA is so certain of its role in maintaining security in the occupied West Bank, why not let a news outlet report the details? If the PA treats legitimate anti-colonial resistance as “terrorism” and “lawlessness”, surely it can only be a feather in its cap that it complies with the mainstream narrative when it comes to the Palestinian struggle?

And what does the PA think it will achieve by suspending Al Jazeera when so many Palestinians are eyewitnesses to Ramallah’s brutality? It wants its repression to be hidden in plain sight.

All the masks have fallen; the PA’s attempt to cling to power by withholding the right to information only exposes its fragility. There is no bigger incitement against Palestinians than the one that comes from within, and Ramallah’s incitement is no exception.

January 2, 2025 Posted by | Full Spectrum Dominance, Subjugation - Torture | , | Leave a comment

Syrian authorities continue campaign against ex-government ‘war criminals’ in Homs

The Cradle | January 2, 2025

Security forces led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) launched search operations throughout Syria’s central governorate of Homs on 2 January, targeting “war criminals” affiliated with the former government’s armed forces, Syrian state media reported.

“The Ministry of Interior, in cooperation with the Military Operations Department, begins a wide-scale combing operation in the neighborhoods of Homs city,” state media outlet SANA reported, citing a security official.

The official added that the security forces are targeting “war criminals and those involved in crimes who refused to hand over their weapons and go to the settlement centers,” as well as “fugitives from justice, in addition to hidden ammunition and weapons.”

“We ask our civilian people to cooperate with our forces to find these criminals who keep weapons and ammunition among you, and refuse to settle and hand over these weapons,” the security official went on to say.

A curfew has been imposed on several neighborhoods in Homs city. As security forces entered and searched homes in Homs, residents told Sputnik that “fear and panic” have overtaken the streets and that “heavy gunfire” is being heard.

The search operations coincide with fierce clashes between Syria’s new authorities and remnants of the Syrian Arab Army (SAA).

Ambushes and attacks have recently targeted HTS patrols and positions in the western Latakia and Tartous governorates and other areas across the country. SANA reported over the weekend that former members of the SAA were refusing to hand over their weapons, and that this was the reason operations were continuing.

The HTS-led Military Operations Command in Syria has set up “reconciliation centers” for former government personnel to surrender weapons and receive temporary IDs, but reports indicate that numerous individuals have been abducted and found dead, even after having given up their weapons.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) has documented at least 85 murder crimes across Syria that have led to 144 fatalities in recent weeks.

While the new government has vowed to protect minorities, there have been numerous instances of attacks on Christian and Alawite holy sites and symbols. Executions of Alawite civilians and former government soldiers have been widely reported.

A large number of Christians are fleeing the ancient Christian town of Maaloula in southwestern Syria, where Aramaic, the ancient language of Jesus, is still spoken.

A new group called the Syrian Resistance in Al-Sahel announced late last month that massacres committed by the HTS-led “terrorist administration” will be met with attacks on “elements and leaders” of the new government.

“We are still waiting for the bloodshed to stop so that it is not said that we are the instigators of sedition. We only want Syria to be Arab and independent, as it was for all components of our people,” the group added.

January 2, 2025 Posted by | Subjugation - Torture | | Leave a comment

Abductions, extra-judicial killings surge in Syria under HTS rule: Report

Press TV – January 1, 2025

A new report says violence has surged in Syria under the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) rule, with approximately 400 kidnappings and extra-judicial killings since the fall of President Bashar al-Assad’s government in early December.

Sputnik news agency, citing medical sources, reported on Tuesday that most of the victims who were abducted or killed across Syria were members of the Alawite minority religious group, as acts of revenge continue in the Arab country.

The news agency, citing local sources, also noted that six civilians were kidnapped by unknown gunmen in the Abbasiya neighborhood of the city of Homs on Monday.

“Their bodies were found after they were executed by firing squad” on the outskirts of the city, it said, adding that “five of them were from the same family.”

The sources further stated that the bodies of three people who were abducted by an armed group two weeks ago were found in the coastal city of Jableh.

The fate of four young men who were also kidnapped by masked gunmen riding two four-wheel drive vehicles in Homs is also unknown, the sources added.

According to Sputnik, a further 15 people have also been kidnapped in the western port city of Latakia in the past 48 hours.

The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) also reported that the HTS militant group has carried out a raid in the town of Ras al-Ma’arra in the Damascus countryside, killing its mayor, and arresting 30 people.

On December 8, militants, led by the HTS, took control of Damascus and declared an end to President Bashar al-Assad’s rule in a surprise offensive that was launched from their stronghold in northwestern Syria, reaching the capital in less than two weeks.

The HTS has repeatedly claimed it would respect the rights of all sects and religions in Syria.

The situation, however, remains very fragile, with a potential risk of further clashes as sectarian sentiments continue to boil over, amid the ongoing political instability and pressure on minority groups.

Over 750 people killed in Syria throughout 2024: Report

Separately on Monday, the UK-based SOHR reported that Daesh terrorists had killed around 753 people during 491 recorded operations in Syria throughout 2024.

The report stated that Daesh continues “executing almost-daily military operations and counter-attacks” in areas controlled by the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), while the terrorist group’s cells “are still able to exploit opportunities to create a security vacuum and carry out assassinations.”

This clearly indicates that the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group “is still alive and kicking,” it added.

According to the report, these operations included ambushes, armed attacks, and bombing which were concentrated in the northern cities of Aleppo, Hama, Raqqa, the central city of Homs and the eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr, where a total of 646 people were killed.

It further noted that at least 78 of those killed were civilians, including women and children, while 568 were members of defected Syrian Arab Army (SAA).

Furthermore, another 107 people were killed in areas controlled by the Kurdish-led SDF in Dayr al-Zawr, Hasakah, Aleppo, and Raqqah, the report said.

This comes as concerns are growing over the fate of 10,000 Daesh terrorists imprisoned by the SDF in northeast Syria as the terrorist group continues to revitalize its forces.

The HTS leader, Abu Mohammad al-Julani, has not commented on the crisis since seizing power in December.

Syria has been gripped by foreign-sponsored militancy since March 2011.

The former Damascus government blamed Western states and their regional allies for aiding terrorist groups to wreak havoc in the Arab country.

January 1, 2025 Posted by | Subjugation - Torture | , , | Leave a comment

Ukraine Violates Draft Rights, Restricts Religious Freedom, and Tortures PoWs – UN Report

Sputnik – 01.01.2025

Ukraine has been violating its own constitution by unduly restricting the right to conscientious objection to military service during mobilization, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said in a report published on Tuesday.

“The right to conscientious objection to military service has continued to be subjected to undue restrictions in law and practice … Domestic law in Ukraine unduly restricts this Constitutional right only to some forms of religion or belief, excluding others, contrary to applicable obligations of equality before the law and non-discrimination under the ICCPR,” the report said.

For example, five men faced arbitrary detention and torture in Ukraine for attempting to exercise their right to conscientious objection to military service, the UN rights watchdog said.

“During the reporting period, OHCHR documented the cases of five men who were assigned to military duty and transferred to a military training facility after attempting to exercise their right of conscientious objection to military service. In all cases, the men were arbitrarily detained between two to four days by military personnel responsible for conscription and subjected to ill-treatment or torture.” the report said.

Religious Freedom Under Attack

The UN report also found that Ukraine’s new legal provisions restricted religious freedoms by prohibiting the Russian Orthodox Church.

“In territory controlled by the Government of Ukraine, new legal provisions regarding religious organizations entered into force; these prohibit the activities of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine, as well as Ukrainian religious organizations found to be affiliated with counterparts in the Russian Federation. The law introducing these provisions established disproportionate restrictions on the freedom to manifest one’s religion or belief,” the report read.

Torture of PoWs

Furthermore, almost all Russian PoWs in Ukraine interviewed by the UN from September to November 2024 were subjected to torture, the report said. Fourteen soldiers were subjected to sexual violence.

“During the reporting period, OHCHR interviewed 25 Russian POWs in Ukrainian internment facilities, including in the newly opened camp ‘Zakhid-4’ in Lviv [Lvov] city. All but one reported experiencing torture or ill-treatment in 2024 at one or several stages of captivity,” the OHCHR said.

The UN agency said it verified the killing by first-person-view drones of three Russian and one Ukrainian servicepersons who were “hors de combat” and severely wounded on the battlefield. It cited drone video footage that showed a heavily wounded, unarmed Russian serviceman being killed by a drone while lying on the ground.

January 1, 2025 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance, Militarism, Subjugation - Torture | , | Leave a comment

Female Palestinian journalist shot dead as PA forces raid Jenin refugee camp

Deceased Palestinian journalist Shaza al-Sabbagh
Press TV – December 29, 2024

A female Palestinian journalist has been killed after she was shot in the head during a raid by the Palestinian Authority (PA) forces at the Jenin refugee camp in the northern occupied West Bank.

The family of Shaza al-Sabbagh said their daughter was on the way to a grocery store when she was directly shot from a PA forces military point located near their house.

A spokesman for the PA’s so-called security forces, Colonel Anwar Rajab, claimed in a statement that the troops were not present in the area at the time of the shooting.

The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate says the death of Shaza al-Sabbagh, who was reportedly studying journalism at al-Quds Open University, has to be investigated.

The group called for an independent committee to be formed “to uncover the truth, hold the killers accountable, and ensure they do not escape punishment.”

Sabbagh is the eleventh person to be killed since PA forces started an offensive in the Jenin refugee camp three weeks ago to root out what it calls “lawless elements.”

Earlier this month, the Hamas resistance movement condemned PA forces for killing a commander of the fellow Islamic Jihad group during a raid in the occupied West Bank, warning that such actions will aggravate the years-long rift among Palestinian factions.

The Gaza-based movement, in a statement released on December 14, expressed its condolences over the shooting death of Yazid Jaya’isa, a leader of the Jenin Brigade, in the Jenin refugee camp.

It said that PA forces’ targeting of resistance figures falls within the framework of the crimes of the occupying Israeli regime.

Hamas called the attack “a disgraceful act” that will deepen internal divisions at a critical moment in the Palestinian struggle.

Hamas also warned that the ongoing pursuit of resistance fighters would only fuel internal conflict at a time when unity is most needed.

December 29, 2024 Posted by | Subjugation - Torture | , , | Leave a comment

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