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Spanish minister calls on Europe to sever ties with Israel

MEMO | October 26, 2023

Spain’s acting Minister of Social Rights, Ione Belarra, called on European countries to sever diplomatic relations with Israel and impose an arms embargo and economic sanctions.

Belarra said in a post on X yesterday, that it is still possible to stop the “genocide” and also called for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and all other political leaders, who bombed civilians in the Gaza Strip, to be brought before the International Criminal Court.

In a previous statement, Belarra confirmed that “Israel has left hundreds of thousands of people without electricity, food, or water, and is bombing civilians, which constitutes collective punishment, serious violation of international humanitarian law and can be considered a war crime.”

She also accused the EU and US of encouraging Israel to practice a policy of discrimination, racism and aggression that – according to the Spanish minister – seriously violates human rights.

For the 19th consecutive day, the Israeli occupation army continues to target the Gaza Strip with intense air strikes that destroyed entire neighbourhoods and left thousands of Palestinian civilians martyred and wounded.

October 26, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

Biden makes light of soaring Gaza death toll, calls deaths of innocents ‘price to pay’

The Cradle | October 26, 2023

US President Joe Biden on 25 October said that he has “no notion” that the Health Ministry in Gaza, journalists, and humanitarian groups are telling the truth about the soaring number of civilian deaths in the Gaza Strip 18 days into Israel’s indiscriminate carpet bombing campaign.

“What they say to me is I have no notion that the Palestinians are telling the truth about how many people are killed. I’m sure innocents have been killed, and it’s the price of waging a war,” Biden said Wednesday during a joint press conference with Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

“I have no confidence in the number that the Palestinians are using,” the US president added. However, he did not explain why he believes Palestinians lie about the genocide unfolding in Gaza.

Despite Biden’s alleged apprehensions, as of 26 October, the death toll in the Gaza Strip stands at over 6,500 – including at least 2,704 children.

“Everyone uses the figures from the Gaza Health Ministry because those are generally proven to be reliable,” Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch (HRW), told the Washington Post on 24 October. “In the times in which we have done our own verification of numbers for particular strikes, I’m not aware of any time which there’s been some major discrepancy.”

“We know that a health ministry is going to base [death tolls] on assessments coming from hospitals, morgues, etc.,” he added. “They have an ability to collect that in a way that other sources not there can’t do.”

Biden’s inflammatory statement coincided with a televised address by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in which he said that the war on Gaza is a battle between the “axis of evil” and the “axis of progress.”

“We are the people of light, they are the people of darkness — and light shall triumph over darkness,” Netanyahu stressed in the latest attempt by a senior Israeli official to dehumanize the Palestinian population.

Since the start of the Gaza-Israel war on 7 October, Israel and its western allies have been working overtime to discredit, censor, and obscure the reality faced by 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza, who have been subjected to enough explosives over the past two weeks to equal the size of the nuclear bomb dropped in Hiroshima.

Moreover, Israel has completely cut off Gaza from access to humanitarian aid as well as electricity, water, fuel, food, and medicine for over two weeks, exacerbating an already dire humanitarian crisis.

October 26, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , | Leave a comment

Israeli Blockade of Gaza Strip Since 2007 Destroys Enclave’s Economy – UN Agency

Sputnik – 25.10.2023

The Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip since 2007 has caused a fall in real GDP per capita and a sharp increase in unemployment across the enclave, a fresh report by the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) showed on Wednesday.

“In the period 2006–2022, the population of Gaza grew by 61%, but GDP grew by only 1.1% and real GDP per capita shrank by 27%, from $1,994 in 2006 to $1,257 in 2022, compared with $2,923 and $4,458 in the West Bank, respectively,” the UNCTAD said in the report on its assistance to the Palestinian people.

During the same period, the Gaza Strip saw a 157% increase in the number of unemployed workers, with unemployment rising to 45.3% from 34.8%. Meanwhile, restrictions on the domestic market caused structural changes in the enclave’s economy, the report read.

“This ratio fell to 44% with the onset of the restrictions and closures in 2007 and reached an all-time low in 2021, at 27.7%. The economy of Gaza has undergone a significant structural distortion because of restrictions on movement, limited access to imported inputs, the destruction of the productive base and semi-autarkic isolation from domestic and global markets,” the report read.

In 2007, after Palestinian movement Hamas seized control over the Gaza Strip [after winning elections], Israel imposed a blockade and reduced exports to the region to a humanitarian minimum, while completely banning imports from the enclave. The situation persisted for the next 16 years, although some of the restrictions were altered.

Hamas launched a surprise large-scale rocket attack against Israel from the Gaza Strip on October 7 and breached the border. Israel launched retaliatory strikes and ordered a complete blockade of the Gaza Strip, home to more than 2 million people, cutting off supplies of water, food and fuel.

The blockade was later eased to allow trucks with humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip. The escalation of the conflict has resulted in thousands of people killed and injured on both sides.

October 26, 2023 Posted by | Economics, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Subjugation - Torture, Timeless or most popular, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

Russia, China veto US-drafted resolution backing Israeli offensive

Press TV – October 25, 2023

Russia and China have prevented the passage of a US-drafted UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution that had said Israel, which has killed more than 6,500 people as part of its underway war on Gaza, has been acting in “self-defense.”

The draft was put to vote on Wednesday. The United Arab Emirates also voted no, while 10 members voted in favor and Brazil and Mozambique abstained.

Israel launched the devastating war on October 7 after the Gaza Strip-based Palestinian resistance groups staged Operation al-Aqsa Storm, a surprise attack on the occupied territories, in response to the Israeli regime’s intensified crimes against the Palestinian people. The war has killed 6,546 Palestinians, including 2,704 children, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

The Council then voted on a Russian-drafted resolution that had called for a humanitarian ceasefire and urged Tel Aviv to immediately cancel its orders on Palestinian civilians to head into southern Gaza.

Only Russia, China, the UAE, and Gabon voted in favor of the draft, while nine members abstained and the United States and Britain voted no.

A resolution needs at least nine votes and no vetoes by the US, France, Britain, Russia or China to be adopted.

Also on Wednesday, Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the death of thousands of children in the Gaza Strip had not been enough to get the West behind a resolution demanding a ceasefire in the besieged coastal territory.

“This is the most obvious and rather simple thing to do in this situation: Simply to produce a statement, a resolution, a document with a unified call for a ceasefire, settling the situation and so on,” she said in an interview with Sputnik Radio.

“Even these numbers (the fatality count among the Palestinian minors) cannot compel certain political forces in the West to come to their senses and realize what is going on,” Zakharova regretted.

October 25, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

White House Orchestrated Cover-Up of COVID Vaccine Heart Damage

By Mike Capuzzo | The Defender | October 24, 2023

The White House and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) knew in April 2021 that the Pfizer COVID-19 mRNA vaccine was linked to heart damage on an unprecedented scale for a vaccine — but they hid that knowledge from the public while pushing vaccine mandates, according to emails obtained by DailyClout through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.

The emails show the White House communications team struggling to craft a cover-up message on email chains that included Dr. Anthony Fauci, then-director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and chief medical advisor to President Biden; CDC Director Rochelle Walensky; Dr. Janet Woodcock, then-acting commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy and Dr. Francis Collins, then-director the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

A number of high-level public health officials worked with upper-echelon leadership to craft a “Myocarditis Email” that minimized the relationship between COVID-19 mRNA vaccines and myocarditis,” said Amy Kelly, program director for the War Room/DailyClout Pfizer Documents Analysis Project.

According to Kelly, the officials included: Ian Sams, COVID-19 response and special assistant to the president and senior advisor and spokesman for the White House; Abbigail Tumpey, then-associate director for communication science for the CDC’s Public Health Infrastructure; and Dr. Dana Meaney-Delman, CDC lead on maternal immunization and CDC chief of Infant Outcomes Monitoring Research and Prevention Branch.

The FOIA emails were obtained by Edward Berkovich, one of 250 volunteer attorneys Kelly oversees on the DailyClout and War Room Project to analyze the court-ordered, FDA-released 450,000 pages of Pfizer’s records on its mRNA COVID-19 vaccine — records the drug maker tried unsuccessfully to keep private for 75 years.

The War Room-DailyClout Project was founded by bestselling author and journalist Naomi Wolf, a former advisor to the Clinton campaign, in collaboration with Steve Bannon, former advisor to President Trump and podcaster on “The War Room.”

In addition to volunteer attorneys, Kelly oversees approximately 3250 volunteer doctors, nurses, scientists and others who are reviewing the documents. They’ve issued 89 investigative reports, including the Oct. 18 report on the myocarditis cover-up evident in FOIA emails.

“Astonishingly, the emails reveal that the most senior of leaders, all the way up to the White House, knew about heart damage linked to mRNA vaccines,” Kelly said. “Yet they “colluded behind the scenes to conceal this side effect from the American people.”

Anyone can study the three FOIA releases of emails at dailyclout.io, Kelly said.

“What I think most important is to see who all is involved,” she said. “I believe 105 different people are on the emails, a whole slew of people at the White House, CDC, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, NIAID, Pfizer, some children’s hospitals and organizations and some other external people,” Kelly said.

“My takeaway from seeing this is that everyone, all over the public health agencies, knew there was an issue” with myocarditis dangers linked to the COVID-19 vaccines, Kelly said. Yet “when you read through the emails, you see they are crafting messages to downplay the significance of myocarditis and the vaccines, all the the way up to the White House.”

Emails show the Israeli Ministry of Health tried to alert the CDC in late February 2021 to the problem, Kelly said.

“They said, ‘We’re seeing a myocarditis signal and we’re happy to share information with you,’” she said. “The CDC actually didn’t even respond to the first email as far as I can tell. So the Israeli Ministry of Health emailed again March 2, ‘Hey we’re seeing this myocarditis signal, we’re concerned, let’s discuss it if you want.’”

White House created 17-page script to ‘keep everyone on message’

The FOIA email trove was a frequent topic of discussion Saturday at the “Summit for Truth,” which brought together leaders of the health freedom movement at the Bethel Christian Fellowship church and community center in downtown Rochester, New York.

Wolf was the keynote speaker in a lineup that included Dr. Robert Malone, Dr. Ryan Cole, attorney Bobbie Ann Cox, and Brownstone Institute publisher and writer Jeffrey Tucker.

Wolf spoke about her journey from feminist icon to outcast from the liberal media establishment when she questioned the safety of the COVID-19 shots.

She has written two books on her experience investigating and reporting on the pandemic. They include, “The Bodies of Others: The New Authoritarians, COVID-19 and the War Against the Human,” and the forthcoming “Facing the Beast: Courage, Faith, and Resistance in a New Dark Age.”

During a panel discussion Saturday, Wolf called the White House involvement in a cover-up of vaccine dangers “absolutely shocking.”

Berkovich’s FOIA request was aided by “a whistleblower at the CDC,” Wolf said, who was “throwing the White House under the bus.”

“In addition to the pages he had asked for, he got 46 pages he didn’t request that showed the White House communications team was “freaking out at the highest levels in April of 2021, because news of blood clots and heart damage had reached them,” Wolf said.

“Instead of coming clean with the American people and pulling this injection off the market, they looped in Dr. Fauci, Dr. Collins, Dr. Walensky and created a script,” she said.

It was “a 17-page script, their word, which is wholly redacted, to keep everyone on message and downplay the dangers. And in fact if you recall from 2021, rather than pulling this injection off the market, they mandated it. They doubled down and mandated it.”

Wolf said the emails reveal “a massive crime.”

They show a template was prepared to email to “POTUS, which stands for president of the United States,” to keep the president up to date on the email discussions among the top U.S. public-health officials on myocarditis and vaccines, Wolf said.

“Dr. Wallensky was on the emails, Dr. Fauci, Dr. Collins,” she said. “The entire White House communications team was driving the discussion.”

“They were reacting to the fact that blood clots and heart damage had been presented to them at scale and that the American Association of Pediatrics was warning them about myocarditis in teens, a serious, sometimes fatal disease that needs constant management. Instead of coming clean with the American people… they doubled down and made a strategy to cover it up.”

Public-health officials went ahead with mandates for the Pizer COVID-19 vaccine, “knowing it was killing people,” Wolf said.

Dr. Peter McCullough, one of the most highly published cardiologists in the world, said the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines should have been pulled from the market in January 2021, after “no more than 50 deaths” — the previous government standard to guarantee the safety of a biologic product.

McCullough said FDA records show the agency expected a myocarditis risk from the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines as early as Oct. 22, 2020.

Nearly two months later, Pfizer “covered up 38 additional deaths” linked to their vaccine before the Dec. 10, 2020 meeting of the FDA Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee.

“If they had reported these deaths, there would have been a three- to four-fold excess cardiovascular risk with Pfizer in the core slides at the Dec. 10, 2020 meeting and Pfizer would never have been approved,” he said.

McCullough said the myocarditis cover-up has killed untold thousands of Americans.

He pointed to his research paper with other scientists including Dr. William Makis. They performed a systematic review of “all published autopsy reports involving COVID-19 vaccination-related myocarditis” through July 3, 2023.

The paper concluded “there is a high likelihood of a causal link between COVID-19 vaccines and death from suspected myocarditis in cases where sudden, unexpected death has occurred in a vaccinated person.”

McCullough and colleagues concluded that “urgent investigation is required for the purpose of risk stratification and mitigation in order to reduce the population occurrence of fatal COVID-19 vaccine-induced myocarditis.”

Dr. Bruce Boros, a Key West, Florida cardiologist who was one of the first American physicians to use ivermectin for early COVID-19 treatment based on his resarch of the emerging literature, said recent studies show that the RNA from the COVID-19 vaccines “goes right to the heart.”

A study that applied the Moderna and Pfizer vaccine to heart muscle cells in culture “showed direct evidence that within 48 hours there was heart dysfunction, mechanical and electrical chaos,” Boros said.

Young athletes dropping dead from heart failure at unprecedented rates are “almost assuredly suffering” myocarditis symptoms brought on by the shots, he said.

“Everybody who received the shot had some damage to the heart muscle,” Boros said. “They knew it in the preclinical studies and they covered it up. All the signals were there, the FDA went ahead and approved it anyway.

“It’s all a money game, a eugenics game, and they’re  continuing to say you need to get a booster,” Boros said. “Now every child in the world should get this shot for a virus that has been falsely normalized as dangerous when the risk, especially for children, is essentially zero when it comes to death,” he said.

“It saddens me,” Boros concluded. “We need to remember this was created as a bioweapon, and hold our government accountable.”

Mike Capuzzo is the managing editor of The Defender. He is a former prize-winning reporter for The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Miami Herald, a science writer, and a regional magazine founding editor and publisher who has won more than 200 journalism awards as a writer, editor and publisher.

This article was originally published by The Defender — Children’s Health Defense’s News & Views Website under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Please consider subscribing to The Defender or donating to Children’s Health Defense.

October 25, 2023 Posted by | Deception, Timeless or most popular, War Crimes | , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Campaign against US, UK arms sale to Israel gains further steam across world

Press TV – October 25, 2023

A new campaign to shut down weapons companies in the US and UK over providing arms to the Israeli regime has gained further momentum, expanding across northern America, Europe and Australia.

The campaign, titled Palestine Action, was launched days after Israel waged a large-scale war on Gaza on October 7, which has claimed the lives of thousands of innocent Palestinians, including women and children.

On October 12, the organizers of Palestine Action US took direct action against Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer, Elbit Systems at its so-called “Innovation Center” in the US city of Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Activists blockaded Elbit’s main entrance and defaced the building with red paint and graffiti, rebuking Elbit for profiteering from Israeli war crimes against Palestinians.

“Elbit Systems will not conduct business as usual in our city, while their weapons are mass murdering the Palestinian people right now,” the activists said. “What Israel is doing to Palestine is nothing short of a genocide and Elbit has blood on their hands.”

Elbit’s Cambridge office has since then been targeted multiple times, with activists spraying the building with upper-case slogans that read, “ELBIT PROFITS FROM GENOCIDE,” and “WAR CRIMINALS WORK HERE.”

Data in media reports show Elbit supplies 85% of Israel’s military drone fleet, along with bullets, tear gas, land-based equipment, and internationally banned weapons.

“A child is being murdered every 15 minutes in Palestine,” Palestine Action US said on its website. “These bombing attacks not only serve to ethnically cleanse Gaza but will be used by Elbit to market their arms to repressive regimes around the world. By striking Elbit, we disrupt a crucial link in the military apparatus of Western imperialism.”

In a new development on Wednesday, Palestine Action US said the activists protested against Elbit Systems at Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston and disrupted the Israeli firm’s recruitment process.

“Elbit Systems, you will not find peace ANYWHERE in Boston. We will keep confronting you wherever you show up. Genocide profiteers are not welcome in our city. We will shut you down,” Palestine Action US said in a post on its X social media account.

Palestine Action US also announced in other posts the expansion of the anti-Israel campaign in other countries.

Palestine Action US has called on the international community to recognize the profound terror and grief Palestinians have been experiencing for generations, and move to put an end to the 75-year-long Israeli genocide “still unfolding before our eyes.”

“As long as we allow Elbit to operate in our communities, every one of us has blood on our hands,” it added.

Israel waged war on Gaza on October 7 after Palestinian resistance groups launched Operation Al-Aqsa Storm, a surprise attack into the occupied territories in response to the occupying regime’s intensified crimes against the Palestinian people.

The Israeli attacks on Gaza have targeted places of gathering, including hospitals, schools, mosques and churches, displacing more than one million in the densely-populated region, which is home to more than 2 million people.

According to the Palestinian health ministry, the Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip has so far killed more than 6,000 people and left over 18,000 others wounded.

October 25, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Solidarity and Activism, War Crimes | , , , | Leave a comment

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.

October 24, 2023 Posted by | Subjugation - Torture, War Crimes | , , , | Leave a comment

International Community Faces Acid Test on Gaza

acid test

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.

October 24, 2023 Posted by | Subjugation - Torture, War Crimes | , , , , , | Leave a comment

White House readies mass evacuation of US citizens from West Asia: Report

The Cradle | October 24, 2023

Washington is preparing contingencies for a “worst-case scenario” of being forced to evacuate hundreds of thousands of US citizens from West Asia, according to several US officials who spoke with the Washington Post on 23 October.

“[US citizens] living in Israel and neighboring Lebanon are of particular concern,” the officials said. According to State Department data, about 600,000 US citizens were in Israel and another 86,000 in Lebanon when Operation Al-Aqsa Flood was launched.

The contingency plan is being prepared in response to widespread anger over Washington’s blind support for Israel’s genocide campaign of Palestinians in Gaza.

As of 24 October, over 5,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli jets in the coastal enclave – nearly half of them children.

Since the start of the genocide in Gaza, US and Israeli embassies have been targeted by furious protesters across the region demanding an end to the bloodshed. In response, the State Department issued a worldwide travel advisory for US citizens last week, citing “increased tensions in various locations around the world, the potential for terrorist attacks, [and] demonstrations or violent actions against US citizens and interests.”

Furthermore, over the past several days, US military bases in Iraq and Syria have been targeted near-daily by resistance factions, forcing the Pentagon to deploy more air defense systems to protect their troops.

These systems will come on top of already-deployed warships carrying thousands of troops and dozens of warplanes to the Eastern Mediterranean, as Washington is warning that a “broader escalation” is possible “in the days ahead.”

October 24, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation, Timeless or most popular, War Crimes, Wars for Israel | , , , , | Leave a comment

‘Mask Off’ for US as it Opposes Chinese Peace Mission in the Middle East

People inspect the ruins of a building destroyed in Israeli strikes in Gaza City on October 8, 2023
By James Tweedie – Sputnik – 24.10.2023

China has dispatched its special envoy to the Middle East in a bid to bring the latest escalation between Israel and Hamas to an end. Peace activist, writer and teacher KJ Noh said the US response exposed its warmongering nature.

The US has unmasked its true nature by blocking efforts by China and other nations to bring peace to the Middle East, says a peace activist.

Chinese special envoy to the Middle East Zhai Jun said on Monday he had already visited Qatar and Egypt and would now travel to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and other countries in the region “to further strengthen coordination with relevant parties to promote ceasefire, end violence and mitigate the situation.”

More than 5,000 civilians have been killed and 13,000 injured in the besieged Gaza Strip by Israeli Defence Forces bombing since the armed wing of the Hamas movement launched a surprise attack into southern Israel on October 7. The victims include more than 2,000 children and 1,000 women.

Last week the US blocked UN Security Council motions moved by Russia and Brazil calling for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian territories and for civilians to be protected. Washington has also sent two US Navy aircraft carrier strike groups and a seaborne assault flotilla to the region to back up Israel.

Peace campaigner KJ Noh told Sputnik that Washington was directly opposed to Beijing’s attempts to broker a peace deal between Israel, Hamas and other states and movements in the region.

“China is using its good offices, scrambling to do shuttle diplomacy to try and de-escalate and find a peaceful resolution,” Noh said. “And the United States is saying: ‘Don’t even dare talk about de-escalation. Nobody mention a ceasefire’.”

“It only wants to make sure that whatever Israel does, it does it with a minimum of PR blowback,” he added. “And so it’s trying to mitigate the PR damage rather than prevent the horrific war crimes and atrocities that are sure to happen and that are already happening.”

The writer said this was a “mask-off moment” when the West’s true nature was exposed to the nations of the global south.

“The US could plausibly mystify many countries by pretending to be something that it was not,” Noh argued. “But when it came out all in favor of Israel’s violence and was ignoring the ground realities as well as international law, then at that point you can’t keep up the pretence any more.”

“Even the quisling leaders of US allies have had to make a conscientious statement because the outrage on the street, the outrage globally is so extraordinary that they cannot but speak up against what the US and Israel are doing,” he stressed.

Western media has tried to dismiss China’s peace initiatives as an attempt to position itself as a geopolitical rival to the US — a narrative which Noh called “extraordinary”.

“The notion that somehow peace is nefarious, that China is being unprincipled in that it’s trying to work for peace — China is on the side of peace. That much is clear because that it stands to gain from peace,” he said.

“Everybody benefits from peace. It just is because China’s model is win-win cooperation,” Noh said. “On the other hand, the empire benefits from war. The US is built on more genocide, primitive accumulation and geopolitical oppression and bullying.”

October 24, 2023 Posted by | War Crimes | , , , , , | Leave a comment

US scampers to deploy arms to Israel amid ‘textbook case of genocide’ in Gaza

MEMO | October 24, 2023

The US has rapidly expanded military deployments across the region to back Israel’s assault on Gaza, as historians warn that the occupation state is carrying out a “textbook case of genocide” in the besieged enclave.

Open-source information gathered by Haaretz newspaper reveals that close to 80 US military planes and dozens of leased civilian aircraft are hauling equipment, with massive arms airlifted to Israel and Cyprus and fighter squadrons and Special Forces in Jordan.

At least 62 US and Israeli transport aircraft had landed in Israel by Sunday night, delivering arms and spare parts. Civilian planes leased by the US and Israeli defence establishments are being used for the airlifts.

Even larger numbers of US transports are deploying forces and armaments to bases in Jordan and Cyprus. This includes two fighter squadrons and Special Forces now stationed in Jordan, while 20 planes offloaded cargo from NATO depots at British bases in Cyprus.

Advocacy groups accuse the US of rushing to re-supply weapons used by Israel on Gaza civilians. They argue Washington is seeking to ensure Israel’s long-term military dominance over Palestinians. Activists warn the influx risks further regional conflagration.

Since Israel began its bombardment of the besieged enclave, over 30 US heavy transports have landed in Israel, many delivering advanced weaponry. Others brought officials like Secretary Blinken, while some transported armoured vehicles.

US and Israeli Air Force planes have also flown repeatedly into Europe, likely procuring more arms. Meanwhile, an aircraft carrier group armed with cruise missiles operates near Cyprus alongside missile defence systems deployed by the US.

A second carrier group is soon expected in the Mediterranean, though its destination remains uncertain.

Analysts caution the expansive US military activity enables further repression of Palestinians. Continued unconditional aid, irrespective of Israel’s actions, removes incentives for restraint, they argue.

Some warn active US replenishment of bombs dropped on Gaza may fuel cycles of violence, hindering de-escalation. With two carrier groups nearby, the fear is that planning for the next war has already begun.

The massive arms influx has made the power imbalance enabling Israeli impunity even starker, analysts say. While Gaza lies in ruins, Israel enjoys limitless supply from its superpower patron.

They urge greater scrutiny over whether US actions serve regional security or purely Israeli interests. Platitudes about restraint and “self-defence” ring hollow to Palestinians, they note, when American planes rush in vast stockpiles of bombs.

Israeli historian, Raz Segal, has condemned the latest bombing of Gaza saying that it is a “textbook case of genocide.”

October 24, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Militarism, Timeless or most popular, War Crimes | , , , , , | Leave a comment

Israel tells UN to ask Hamas for fuel

RT | October 24, 2023

If the UN agency responsible for Palestinian refugees needs fuel, it can ask Hamas for some, the Israel Defense Force (IDF) said on Tuesday, in response to UNRWA’s appeals for humanitarian aid to Gaza.

“These fuel tanks are inside Gaza. They contain more than 500,000 liters of fuel. Ask Hamas if you can have some,” the IDF said on X, formerly Twitter, accompanied by a satellite photo of a dozen objects near Rafah.

It was a direct reply to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which had posted earlier, “If we do not get fuel urgently, we will be forced to halt our operations in the Gaza Strip as of tomorrow night,” meaning Wednesday.

Israel imposed a total blockade on Gaza after the October 7 incursion by Hamas, which claimed the lives of an estimated 1,400 Israelis, with another 200 or so taken hostage. The IDF has also bombed Gaza with artillery and airplanes, vowing to “dismantle” Hamas.

Asked about the progress of humanitarian aid to Gaza on Tuesday, US President Joe Biden told reporters it was “not fast enough.” A convoy of 20 trucks supposed to deliver aid to the Palestinian territory from Egypt is expected by Wednesday.

Dr. Ghassan Abu Sittah, a north London surgeon who volunteers at the Al Shifa hospital in Gaza City, told BBC that the aid convoy was a “gimmick.”

“When you send 15-20 trucks to a place with two and a quarter million people, you do it so that it appears that there’s aid coming in. Not that you have any intention of altering the outcome for the 15,000 wounded,” Abu Sittah said.

He added that the hospital had received 600 dead Palestinians over the past 24 hours and “three times as many wounded.” Supplies are running out, and another 1,800 or so civilians have sought shelter inside from Israeli airstrikes.

“They’re everywhere. They’re in the corridor and floors, they’re in the wards on the floor. Mattresses everywhere,” Abu Sittah said.

According to the Gaza Health Ministry, as of Tuesday evening, a total of 5,791 Palestinians have been killed and another 16,300 wounded since October 7.

October 24, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Timeless or most popular, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

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