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WHO and European Commission Launch AI System to Monitor Social Media and Online “Misinformation” in Real Time

By Cindy Harper | Reclaim The Net | October 19, 2025

The World Health Organization has introduced a major overhaul of its global monitoring network, unveiling an AI-powered platform that tracks online conversations and media activity in real time.

Known as Epidemic Intelligence from Open Sources 2.0 (EIOS), the system is being presented as a new step in “pandemic preparedness,” but its reach extends well beyond disease surveillance.

The upgrade is part of a growing merger between health monitoring, digital tracking, and centralized information control.

Developed with the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC), the new version of EIOS is designed to scan the internet for signals of emerging health threats.

According to the WHO, it now automatically analyzes social media posts, websites, and other public sources to detect possible outbreaks.

While this is described as a tool for early warning, it effectively allows a global health authority to observe the world’s digital conversations under the banner of safety.

The WHO’s EIOS Collaboration page indicates that partners are also exploring projects such as “News Article Credibility Detection” and “Misinformation Classification Systems.”

These initiatives suggest a growing interest in shaping how information is categorized and filtered.

The latter effort appears linked to the JRC’s “Misinfo Classifier,” released in 2020, which the JRC described as an AI program that detects “fake news” by analyzing the tone and intensity of language in articles.

The organization claimed the tool achieved an 80% success rate and stated that “this is comparable to the state of the art right now.”

At the time, the JRC said the classifier was already in use by the European Commission and European Parliament, and that it would soon be shared with professional fact-checking organizations.

The existence of that project highlights how data analysis and information control are being integrated into public health infrastructure.

The WHO reports that EIOS now operates in more than 110 countries and collaborates with over 30 organizations, including national governments and the European Commission. The platform is being offered “free of charge” to eligible users, along with training materials and support.

This approach ties national monitoring systems directly into a WHO-managed network that continuously gathers and processes global data.

The WHO’s concept of “social listening” sheds more light on this strategy. It defines social listening as “the process of listening to and analyzing conversations and narratives” to understand people’s “attitudes, knowledge, beliefs, and intentions.”

In practical terms, this means that the organization is not only collecting data about disease but also analyzing how citizens think and communicate online.

In its October 13 announcement, the WHO described EIOS 2.0 as “more open, more agile and more inclusive.”

However, under that language lies an expanding surveillance framework that uses artificial intelligence to interpret global social behavior.

A system supposedly for improving health security could easily function as a tool for monitoring public opinion and online expression.

This initiative combines artificial intelligence, government cooperation, and social media tracking under the label of global health security. It represents a change from traditional disease control toward the ongoing analysis of public communication, where algorithms determine which discussions appear “relevant” or “misleading.”

This is something that the WHO has been looking at implementing for some time.

For countries choosing to adopt EIOS, dependence on WHO data and analysis may come at the cost of digital independence.

Under the justification of protecting public health, the WHO is establishing an always-on digital network that watches, classifies, and evaluates global discourse, quietly redefining what it means to manage health and information in the same breath.

October 19, 2025 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance, Science and Pseudo-Science, Timeless or most popular | , | Leave a comment

Trump’s so-called peace plan offers no justice, no peace

By Fareed Taamallah | MEMO | October 19, 2025

I skipped the olive harvest in my village near Nablus to listen to Donald Trump’s much-anticipated speech before the Israeli Knesset and the subsequent summit in Sharm el-Sheikh. I had hoped—perhaps naively—that the US president, now once again playing a central role in Middle East diplomacy, might finally acknowledge Palestinian suffering or offer a genuine vision for peace. Instead, what I heard left me deeply disappointed, even angry.

Trump spoke for nearly an hour, full of self-congratulation and exaggerated praise for Israel’s “resilience” after 7 October. He called it one of Israel’s darkest days, repeating stories of Israeli pain, fear, and heroism. But not once did he mention the ongoing genocide in Gaza—the tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians killed, the families buried under rubble, the starving children trapped in what has become the world’s largest open-air graveyard.

He seemed proud—boastful even—of his role in arming Israel. He bragged about how his administration “stood by Israel like no other” and reminded the audience that it was he who moved the US embassy to Jerusalem and recognized the illegal Israeli settlements as “legitimate.” He said all this as though gifting our land away was an act of peace.

As a Palestinian living under occupation, I felt that his words were not just ignorant but cruel. They erased our humanity. They erased 77 years of Palestinian displacement and oppression. They erased the checkpoints that divide our lives, the walls that suffocate our villages, and the soldiers who humiliate our elders and children daily.

While Trump was speaking in Jerusalem, my close friend in Gaza was searching for food and shelter for his family after their home was destroyed by Israeli bombing. He lives with his wife and children in a small tent, far from their shattered neighbourhood. In a short voice note he sent me — with the sound of drones buzzing above — he said they had eaten only a little food in two days. As Trump boasted about “supporting Israel’s defence,” my friend was struggling to defend his family from hunger, cold, and despair — not from an army, but from a war machine that has turned his life into rubble.

Trump’s so-called “peace plan,” unveiled once again with great fanfare, offers nothing resembling peace. It is not even a plan—it is a continuation of the same colonial logic that has defined every failed American initiative since 1948: to secure Israel’s dominance while pacifying Palestinians into submission.

From what we have seen, the “plan” does not even address the root cause of the conflict—the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land. It speaks vaguely about “economic opportunities” and “regional cooperation,” as if what we need are more jobs instead of freedom. It promises “security for Israel” but nothing about security for Palestinians living under constant military siege. It celebrates normalisation between Israel and Arab regimes, while ignoring the normalization of apartheid and dispossession on the ground.

This is not peace. It is a political mirage designed to buy time for Israel to continue its colonization project.

I remember the last time Trump presented a “deal of the century,” back in 2020. Back then, too, he stood beside Israeli leaders while excluding Palestinians entirely from the process. That plan, like this one, sought to legalize the illegal: annexation of settlements, denial of refugee rights, and the permanent fragmentation of Palestinian territory. The difference now is that the destruction in Gaza and the tightening of Israel’s control over the West Bank have made such plans even more grotesque.

When Trump stood before the Knesset and described Israel as “a beacon of democracy and civilization,” I thought of the olive trees uprooted near my village by settlers under army protection. I thought of the hundreds of checkpoints that prevent us from reaching our land. I thought of my friends in Gaza who haven’t had a single night of safety in two years. Is this the “civilization” he was praising?

For us Palestinians, peace has never meant simply the absence of war. Peace means justice. It means accountability for war crimes. It means the right to live freely on our land without occupation, without siege, without fear.

At the Sharm el-Sheikh summit, Trump was joined by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and several Arab officials. They all spoke in the same language of “stability,” “security,” and “ending the cycle of violence.” But what they did not say was more telling: none demanded an end to occupation; none called for lifting the siege on Gaza; none spoke of justice for Palestinian victims.

Many Arab regimes seem eager to move on from the Palestinian issue, to normalize with Israel and focus on their own interests. But ignoring injustice will not bring stability to the region. The Palestinian struggle for freedom cannot simply be erased because it is inconvenient to powerful governments. Injustice breeds resistance. And no amount of political summits or empty declarations will change that fact.

Trump’s “peace plan” is not only about politics—it is also about profit. He treats diplomacy as a business deal, where justice and human rights are bargaining chips. His approach is transactional: sell weapons, secure contracts, reward allies. By promoting this plan, Trump is trying to whitewash Israel’s crimes, to make genocide and apartheid look like stability and partnership. He aims to polish Israel’s image internationally while creating lucrative opportunities for arms deals and regional investments. It is the commercialization of oppression.

But if Israel is not held accountable for what the entire world has seen—massacres livestreamed to our screens, starvation used as a weapon, entire families erased—then the international system itself has collapsed. The institutions that were built after World War II to uphold justice and prevent genocide will have proven meaningless. If such atrocities can occur in broad daylight, with impunity, while world leaders speak of “peace,” then the moral foundation of the international order has crumbled.

When Trump left the podium to applause from Israeli lawmakers, I realized that this was not a peace process—it was a performance. It was meant to reassure Israel and its allies that nothing would fundamentally change, that Palestinian suffering would remain background noise to the “new Middle East” they dream of.

But for us, the reality is very different. Every day, we wake up to news of more killings in Gaza, more arrests in the West Bank, more land confiscations, more despair. We do not have the privilege of pretending that peace can exist without justice.

I returned to my olive trees after Trump’s speech, with the noise of his words still echoing in my head. As I picked the olives from branches planted by my grandfather, I felt the deep connection between our land and our struggle. These trees have survived droughts, wars, and occupations. They are witnesses to our history and symbols of our steadfastness.

Trump may talk about “peace” in grand halls and luxury resorts, but real peace begins here—in the soil of Palestine, in the dignity of our people, and in the pursuit of justice that no speech can silence.

Until the occupation ends, until the siege on Gaza is lifted, until those responsible for genocide and ethnic cleansing are held accountable, there will be no peace—no matter how many plans or summits are announced.

The world must understand that Palestinians do not reject peace; we reject oppression disguised as peace. We are not asking for privileges or favours. We are demanding our basic human rights: freedom, equality, and justice.

Trump’s visit has only reinforced one truth—that peace built on denial and injustice will never last. The path to real peace begins not in the Knesset or in Sharm el-Sheikh, but in the recognition of Palestinian rights and the end of Israeli occupation. Only then can we speak of peace with meaning.

October 19, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , , , | Leave a comment

‘Formal, Unequivocal Apologies’ Needed to Restore Public Trust After COVID Vaccine Mandates

By Jill Erzen | The Defender | October 15, 2025

The public deserves “formal, unequivocal apologies from governments and medical bodies” for COVID-19 vaccine mandates and for “silencing truth seekers,” according to a paper published Oct. 9 in the journal Science, Public Health Policy and the Law.

Vaccine mandates and lack of transparency during the COVID-19 pandemic eroded public trust, which deepened the divide between health authorities and the people they serve, according to authors Dr. Aseem Malhotra and Andrea Lamont Nazarenko, Ph.D.

“The pandemic demonstrated that when scientific integrity is lacking and dissent is suppressed, unethical decision-making can become legitimized,” they wrote. “When this happens, public confidence in health authorities erodes.”

Trust in public health agencies plummeted during the pandemic. Confidence in decision-making at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) fell from 73% in 2020 to 61% in 2025, according to polling firm KFF.

Public opinion on physicians and hospitals also suffered, with trust dropping from 71.5% in April 2020 to 40.1% in January 2024, according to a study in JAMA Network Open.

Restoring faith in public health agencies requires “long overdue” apologies, as well as “full transparency of data, independent evaluation of evidence, and accountability through both policy change and public acknowledgment of harm,” the paper’s authors said.

‘Pandemic of the vaccine injured’

The “safe and effective” narrative surrounding the COVID-19 vaccine shifted over the years toward “unsafe and defective,” according to the authors.

Policymakers’ unwillingness to acknowledge the vaccine’s emerging safety signals may be “the most egregious failure” of all. “We are currently facing what some call a ‘pandemic of the vaccine injured,’” the authors said.

In 2022, a study in the journal Vaccine found that the risk of serious harms from the COVID-19 vaccine was two to four times greater than the risk of being hospitalized with COVID-19. That same year, researchers surveyed 40,000 Germans and found a high rate of severe side effects from the COVID-19 vaccine that persisted for months or longer.

Studies from 2025 suggest the risks may not decrease over time.

  • A preprint study found that genetic material contained within mRNA COVID-19 vaccines can integrate into the human genome, potentially contributing to the onset of aggressive cancer.
  • An analysis of a Japanese database of 18 million people showed that people who received COVID-19 vaccines had a significantly higher risk of death in the first year after vaccination compared to the unvaccinated, and the risk increased with each additional dose.
  • A peer-reviewed study published in EXCLI Journal was the first to uncover statistically significant evidence of increased cancer risk following COVID-19 vaccination in Italy.

In public health, policymakers must anchor their decisions in cumulative evidence that evolves with new knowledge, according to Malhotra and Nazarenko. “It is a profound failure of scientific and ethical responsibility to overlook these safety concerns,” they wrote.

Health systems must adjust to manage ‘psychological fallout’ of pandemic

The authors said the health risks revealed by the emerging COVID-19 vaccine studies illustrate one of the central lessons of the pandemic: evidence evolves. Policies must be adjusted as new evidence comes to light, but that didn’t happen, they wrote.

“If the full body of research ultimately shows a net harm from COVID-19 vaccination and pandemic-era policies, the greater barrier will be psychological, not scientific,” Malhotra and Nazarenko said. “Our social systems must therefore be prepared to manage the psychological fallout, responding with clarity and compassion.”

To rebuild legitimacy, institutions must actively uphold ethical principles that prioritize the public over political or corporate interests, they said. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is taking steps in this direction, according to the authors.

In September, U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. led two roundtable discussions on long COVID that included doctors, researchers and patients. The talks were, in part, in response to “the calls that I get almost every day from people who are suffering from long COVID across the country and don’t know where to go and feel that their voices aren’t being listened to,” Kennedy said.

In August, Kennedy canceled nearly $500 million in contracts and grants intended to develop mRNA vaccines. “We reviewed the science, listened to the experts, and acted,” Kennedy said in announcing the move.

Restoring public trust hinges on informed consent and shared decision-making, according to the authors.

“A contributing factor to the prevalence of injury has been the extent to which government officials and public health authorities overrode the doctor-patient relationship, taking precedence over the ethics of individualized medicine,” they wrote.

Earlier this month, the CDC handed supporters of informed consent a win by updating its childhood immunization schedule to emphasize individual-based decision-making for COVID-19 vaccination in children 6 months and older.

‘Suppression may quiet critics, but it suffocates science’

In 2024, the journal Cureus retracted the first peer-reviewed paper to provide an extensive analysis of COVID-19 mRNA vaccine trial data and post-injection injuries.

“Silencing contestation is not a neutral choice; it is contrary to the methods by which science corrects itself,” Malhotra and Nazarenko said.

“Voices that push the mainstream should be encouraged, not silenced. Yet, contemporary public health often substitutes condemnation for curiosity, marginalizing dissent even when data warrant debate,” they wrote.

According to the authors, Kennedy’s critics provide “the most striking example of silencing opposition.”

Vaccine lobbyists at a leading biotech industry trade group purportedly criticized Kennedy’s “anti-vaccine stance” during an April meeting, calling him a “direct threat to public health.” A spokesperson for the organization denied the statements.

Kennedy’s policies at the HHS have sparked similar claims from six former U.S. surgeons general, who said he is “endangering the health of the nation.” Several senators have made similar assertions and called for Kennedy’s resignation.

Corporations and regulatory bodies commonly use character assassination to weaken their opposition, according to the paper’s authors. Those in power silence dissent by discrediting critics with smear campaigns and labels like “anti-vaxxer,” shifting focus from evidence to identity.

“Suppression may quiet critics, but it suffocates science,” Malhotra and Nazarenko wrote. “The remedy for disagreement is better evidence and open debate — not censorship or character assassination. Robust science requires robust dissent.”

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 18, 2025 Posted by | Science and Pseudo-Science | , | Leave a comment

Houston Hospital Denies Refusing Organ Transplants to Unvaccinated Patients

By Brenda Baletti, Ph.D. | The Defender | October 15, 2025

A Houston hospital accused of denying organ transplants to patients who haven’t been vaccinated against COVID-19 today told The Defender it “does not have a policy requiring transplant patients to be vaccinated against COVID-19, or any other disease, and does not deny care based on vaccination status.”

“We abide by all state laws and, as one of the largest transplant programs in the country, the safety of our patients always comes first,” Houston Methodist Hospital said in a statement.

The allegations stem from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who stated in a letter that his office may investigate Houston Methodist Hospital for allegedly denying organ transplants to patients who refused the COVID-19 vaccine, according to a letter his office sent the hospital.

The letter to Houston Methodist Hospital’s President and CEO Marc L. Boom cited a July 24 X post by Texas doctor Mary Tally Bowden. The post included a screenshot of the hospital’s transplant policy showing that patients seeking a kidney transplant must receive the COVID-19 shot.

Monday, Bowden posted Paxton’s press release on X, claiming she had “written and oral proof (recorded conversation)” that the hospital required transplant patients to get the shots. “To my knowledge, their policy has not changed,” she added.

Bowden previously worked at Houston Methodist Hospital. The hospital suspended her privileges after she prescribed ivermectin to prevent and treat COVID-19. The hospital also accused her of spreading “misinformation.”

Bowden sued Houston Methodist after hospital officials refused to provide public information about the institution’s finances during the pandemic.

In the press release issued Monday, Paxton said, “Texans looking to receive medical care should never be turned away due to arbitrary COVID-19 vaccine mandates imposed by woke medical providers.”

He added:

“Vaccine mandates as a precondition for certain life-saving treatments may not only violate new state laws that became effective on September 1, but they also violate human dignity and run contrary to foundational principles of medical ethics. That’s why I’ve requested that Houston Methodist Hospital clarify its compliance with Texas’s new laws and position on vaccine mandates.”

The hospital has 14 days to notify the Texas Office of the Attorney General (OAG) about the steps it has taken to comply with the recently passed provision in the Texas Health and Safety Code, which prohibits denying organ transplants based on vaccination status.

The OAG said it will open a formal investigation if the hospital fails to respond.

Paxton’s office said its letter to the hospital “reaffirms Attorney General Paxton’s stance against COVID-19 vaccine mandates and reflects his commitment to protecting the rights and freedoms of Texans by challenging unlawful vaccine mandates.”

In recent years, Paxton’s office has challenged Big Pharma’s actions related to COVID-19 shots and weight-loss drugs, and has investigated toothpaste companies for deceptive marketing geared toward children.

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 18, 2025 Posted by | Full Spectrum Dominance | , | Leave a comment

Netanyahu says Rafah crossing to remain closed until further notice

Press TV – October 18, 2025

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced that the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt will remain closed “until further notice” in a clear violation of the recently brokered ceasefire agreement with the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas.

In a statement released on Saturday, Netanyahu’s office emphasized that the reopening of the Rafah crossing is contingent upon Hamas fulfilling its obligations as per the ceasefire deal, including the return of all dead captives and the implementation of the agreed-upon framework.

Conversely, the Palestinian Embassy in Egypt has indicated that the Rafah border crossing will reopen on Monday, allowing people to return to Gaza.

However, the embassy noted that the crossing will continue to be closed for individuals seeking to leave the besieged territory.

Israel had sealed all border crossings, blocking the entry of humanitarian aid and further deepening Gaza’s already dire humanitarian crisis since March 2, when the regime violated a previous ceasefire agreement with Hamas.

A US-mediated ceasefire went into effect last week. Aid deliveries were expected to begin on October 12, once the Rafah crossing with Egypt reopens under the terms of the ceasefire.

Israel seized the opportunity on Tuesday to tighten its grip on Gaza by violating the terms of the ceasefire, using delays in the return of captive bodies as justification for keeping the Rafah crossing closed and halving the flow of humanitarian aid into the besieged territory.

Hamas has already fulfilled its part by releasing all 20 remaining living Israeli captives and 11 dead Israeli captives.

The resistance group said it needs heavy machinery and excavating equipment to search for the remaining bodies under the rubble.

Hamas confirmed Saturday evening that it will hand over the remains of two more Israeli captives tonight under the ceasefire agreement.

October 18, 2025 Posted by | Deception, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

Ukrainian soldiers busted over torture spree – police

RT | October 16, 2025

Ukrainian police have announced having dismantled a criminal gang of soldiers accused of abducting, torturing, and extorting civilians in western Ukraine. Media reports alleged the suspects were helping enforce mobilization and linked them to the Third Assault Brigade, a frontline unit notorious for its neo-Nazi roots.

In a statement on Wednesday, the National Police said it had arrested seven suspects who are allegedly implicated in a multitude of violent crimes. They were operating in Ternopol Region in Western Ukraine.

“The perpetrators took the victims out of the city, beat them and demanded money or valuable property,” police noted, adding that “the greatest cynicism was that the attackers mocked people who were seriously wounded in the war and were undergoing rehabilitation.”

In one case, the suspects allegedly stole a KIA car from a 27-year-old Ternopol resident and used it for their own purposes. Another victim was shot, abducted in broad daylight, and beaten while being held captive. The attackers demanded 50,000 hryvnia ($1,200) for his release, police said.

A third man was sprayed with tear gas, stripped naked, doused with gasoline, and forced to run in front of a car before being detained for three days “in inhumane conditions.”

Local activist Roman Dovbenko claimed the group had ties to the Third Assault Brigade, which he said had been assisting the local authorities with mobilization efforts. Ukrainian officials earlier confirmed they were bringing in “combat veterans” to help enforce the draft, a policy being touted as a way to “boost public trust” and ensure “lawfulness.”

Ukraine’s mobilization drive has long been marred by violent confrontations between recruitment officers and reluctant conscripts.

The Third Assault Brigade neither confirmed nor denied that its members were involved but said it was “aware” of the situation and “open to cooperation” with investigators, while condemning violence against civilians.

Formed in 2023, the brigade is a successor to the Azov Regiment, a far-right formation created in 2014 by nationalist figure Andrey Biletsky. The Azov movement has been accused by UN investigators and human rights groups of torture, war crimes and adopting symbols associated with the Waffen-SS.

October 16, 2025 Posted by | Militarism, Subjugation - Torture | , | Leave a comment

Israel delivers Palestinian bodies shackled, showing signs of execution

The Cradle | October 15, 2025

The bodies of dozens of Palestinians were handed over to health authorities in Gaza on 15 October, arriving in shackles and bearing signs of execution.

The handover came as part of a swap which saw several deceased Israeli captives released earlier on Wednesday, and coincided with continued Israeli ceasefire violations.

“Some are blindfolded, and there are signs of gunshot wounds in some cases, while others have been run over by tanks,” officials at Khan Yunis’s Nasser Hospital told CNN, adding that the bodies arrived “with their hands and legs cuffed.”

Three out of the four deceased Israeli captives handed over earlier in the day were identified. Tel Aviv said forensic testing showed one of them is not an Israeli captive.

Israel is accusing Hamas of violating the deal by delaying the release of around 20 bodies of captives that remain in Gaza. However, the Red Cross has confirmed that the amount of rubble caused by strikes has made it extremely difficult to find them, and has warned that some may never be recovered.

Tel Aviv is reportedly planning to reduce the amount of aid it will allow into Gaza as part of the deal until all the bodies are released.

The agreement states that six hundred aid trucks are meant to enter the strip. Despite this, not enough trucks have been given entry.

Dozens of Israeli ceasefire violations have been recorded since the truce took effect.

The Gaza Center for Human Rights reported that the Israeli military committed 36 violations of the ceasefire since it took effect on 10 October, resulting in the killing of at least seven Palestinian civilians and the injury of others. Other reports say nine have been killed.

The violations included aerial and artillery bombardments as well as live fire, concentrated in the eastern and northern areas of the Gaza Strip.

Israeli drones targeted residents inspecting their homes in the Shujaiya neighborhood, killing five people, while additional strikes in Khan Yunis, Jabalia, and Rafah caused further casualties.

The center stressed that these attacks were carried out without any military justification, aiming to maintain an atmosphere of fear and terror in the strip.

It also noted Israel’s continued control over aid entry, allowing only 173 aid trucks in out of 1,800 expected in recent days.

The organization warned that restricting essential supplies constitutes an extension of genocidal policies through starvation, in violation of international humanitarian law, and called on the international community to pressure Israel to fully implement the ceasefire and investigate war crimes and acts of genocide.

October 15, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Subjugation - Torture, War Crimes | , , | Leave a comment

Tied and beaten: Freed Gaza detainees say abuse ended as it began

Al Mayadeen | October 15, 2025

Gaza resident Naseem al-Radee was released from Israeli prisons, partially blind and physically broken, only to learn that his wife and children had been killed during “Israel’s” genocide in Gaza.

Before his release, Israeli prison guards decided to send Naseem al-Radee off with what they called a “farewell”. They tied his hands, forced him to the ground, and beat him brutally, ending his 22-month imprisonment the same way it began: with brutality.

When al-Radee finally caught sight of Gaza again after nearly two years, his vision was blurred from a boot to the eye, leaving him partially blind for days. The 33-year-old government worker from Beit Lahia said his eyesight problems were just one of many injuries he sustained during his detention.

Israeli occupation forces had arrested al-Radee on December 9, 2023, from a school-turned-shelter in Gaza. Over the next 22 months, he was shuffled between several Israeli detention centers, spending 100 days in an underground cell, before being released with 1,700 other Palestinian detainees on Monday.

‘Beating us mercilessly’

Like the others released, al-Radee had never been charged with a crime. His account, marked by physical torture, starvation, and medical neglect, mirrors the testimonies of many others released under similar conditions.

Al-Radee’s ordeal, he said, reflected what the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem has described as a systemic policy of abuse targeting Palestinian detainees.

“The conditions in the prison were extremely harsh, from having our hands and feet bound to being subjected to the cruelest forms of torture,” al-Radee told The Guardian, describing his time in Nafha prison in al-Naqab desert, his final place of detention.

He explained that the beatings were not random but a daily routine enforced with military precision. “They used teargas and rubber bullets to intimidate us, in addition to constant verbal abuse and insults,” he said.

“They had a strict system of repression; the electronic gate of the section would open when the soldiers entered, and they would come in with their dogs, shouting ‘on your stomach, on your stomach,’ and start beating us mercilessly.”

Tortured, starved, and caged in conditions unfit for human life

According to al-Radee, up to 14 Palestinian detainees were packed into cells meant for five. The unhygienic conditions caused widespread skin and fungal infections, which went untreated. Another recently released detainee, 22-year-old university student Mohammed al-Asaliya, said he contracted scabies while imprisoned in Nafha.

“There was no medical care. We tried to treat ourselves by using floor disinfectant on our wounds, but it only made them worse,” Asaliya said. “The mattresses were filthy, the environment unhealthy, our immunity weak, and the food contaminated.”

He described a notorious section of the prison known as “the disco”, where guards blasted loud music for two days straight as a form of psychological torture. “They also hung us on walls, sprayed us with cold air and water, and sometimes threw chili powder on detainees,” Asaliya added.

Weight loss; a common result

Both men lost significant weight during their detention. Radee said his weight dropped from 93 kilograms to 60, while Asaliya fell from 75 to 42 kilograms at one point.

Palestinian health officials confirmed that many detainees released on Monday arrived in critical condition.

“The signs of beating and torture were clearly visible on the prisoners’ bodies, such as bruises, fractures, wounds, marks from being dragged on the ground, and the marks of restraints that had bound their hands tightly,” said Eyad Qaddih, the public relations director at Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza, which received several of the released detainees.

He added that many had to be rushed to the emergency room and appeared to have been deprived of food for extended periods.

‘Israel’ transformed abuse into official policy 

According to the Public Committee Against Torture in “Israel” (PCATI), around 2,800 Palestinians from Gaza remain in Israeli detention without charge. The practice of mass incarceration, rights groups say, has been enabled by legislative changes introduced after 7 October 2023.

An amendment passed in December 2023 to “Israel’s” Unlawful Combatants Law allows for indefinite administrative detention based solely on “reasonable grounds” that a detainee is an “unlawful combatant.”

Israeli human rights advocates argue that the surge in arrests has coincided with a steep deterioration in detention conditions, transforming abuse into an official policy.

“Generally, the amount and scale of torture and abuse in Israeli prisons and military camps has skyrocketed since 7 October. We see that as part of the policy led by Israeli decision-makers such as Itamar Ben-Gvir and others,” said Tal Steiner, executive director of PCATI.

Ben-Gvir, “Israel’s” far-right police minister, has openly boasted of providing detainees with “the minimum amount of food.” In July, he wrote on social media, “I am here to ensure that the ‘terrorists’ receive the minimum of the minimum.”

‘My joy went with her’

For many of the released detainees, however, the greatest pain awaited them at home. Upon returning to Gaza, al-Radee tried to call his wife, only to discover that her phone was disconnected. He later learned that his wife and all but one of his children had been killed during his imprisonment.

“I was very happy to be released because the date coincided with my youngest daughter Saba’s third birthday on 13 October,” he said. “I had planned to make her the best gift to make up for her first birthday, which we could not celebrate because the war had started.”

“I tried to find some joy in being released on this day,” al-Radee added softly, “but sadly, Saba went with my family, and my joy went with her.”

October 15, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Subjugation - Torture, War Crimes | , , , | Leave a comment

Hamas, democracy, and the right to resist: A case for Palestinian self-determination

By Ranjan Solomon | MEMO | October 15, 2025

In debates about Palestine, one recurrent Western refrain is that “terrorism” and “militant violence” automatically disqualify any actor from legitimacy. Such a position is intellectually dishonest and legally unsound. It erases the foundational principles of international law, sovereignty, and democracy that apply equally to all peoples. The case of Hamas, in this light, is not an aberration but a reflection of the Palestinian right to resist occupation and assert self-determination. No foreign power has the moral or legal right to veto the will of Palestinians—least of all those whose governments have sustained and armed the very occupation that necessitates resistance.

At the heart of the Palestinian claim lies the principle of self-determination. Article 1 of both the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights affirms that “all peoples have the right of self-determination,” entitling them to freely determine their political status and pursue their development. This is not a privilege conferred by the West, but a right recognised by the United Nations as a cornerstone of international order. UN General Assembly Resolution 3236 of 1974 formally recognized the Palestinian people’s entitlement to self-determination, national independence, and sovereignty. Later resolutions, such as A/RES/79/163, reiterated the same truth: that the Palestinian people have an inalienable right to determine their destiny, including the establishment of their independent state. Resolution 58/292 of 2004 went further, reaffirming that the occupied Palestinian territories remain under belligerent occupation and that sovereignty belongs to the Palestinian people alone. These are not moral pleas; they are binding declarations that impose obligations on the occupier and responsibilities on the international community to refrain from interference.

If the right of self-determination is to mean anything, it necessarily entails a right of resistance when that right is denied. The Declaration on Friendly Relations adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1970 affirms that peoples are entitled to resist “alien subjugation, domination and exploitation.” During the decolonisation era, a series of UN resolutions explicitly recognised the legitimacy of liberation movements “by all available means, including armed struggle.” Resolution 37/43 of 1982 was unambiguous in its affirmation of this principle. Legal scholars have since argued that the right to resist is a remedial one, invoked when peaceful means have been exhausted and when a people face systemic subjugation.

Resistance, however, is bound by legal and moral limits. International humanitarian law requires that any use of force observe the principles of distinction, proportionality, and necessity. Civilians can never be legitimate targets. Yet the existence of these limits does not invalidate the right itself. Just as international law holds states accountable for unlawful acts without erasing their right to self-defence, so too can a people’s right to resist coexist with obligations to uphold humanitarian norms. The Palestinian struggle is therefore not illegitimate because it has been armed; rather, the legitimacy of its methods must be judged according to the same standards that govern all conflicts. It is here that Western governments reveal their duplicity—condemning Palestinian violence in isolation while sanitising or excusing the vastly greater violence of occupation.

In democratic terms, Hamas’s legitimacy rests on the 2006 elections, which were universally acknowledged as free and fair. The West welcomed those elections—until it disliked the result. The outcome was not a distortion of democracy but its realisation: a popular mandate granted by Palestinians through ballots, not bullets. When Western powers refused to recognise that verdict and instead imposed sanctions, they exposed the hypocrisy of their professed belief in democratic choice. For Palestinians, democracy is not conditional upon Western approval. It is an expression of sovereignty, and to deny that sovereignty is to deny democracy itself.

Hamas’s identity as both a social and political movement further complicates the caricature of it as merely a “terrorist” entity. It runs schools, hospitals, welfare networks, and charities that fill the void left by an economy strangled by siege and occupation. These are the social arteries through which Palestinian civil life continues to breathe. To call for the annihilation of Hamas is not to target a few militants—it is to assault the fabric of Palestinian society and to insist that only a subservient, pacified population deserves international legitimacy. That notion violates every principle of self-determination enshrined in international law.

Critics contend that non-state actors cannot claim a right of self-defence under Article 51 of the UN Charter, which is reserved for states. Yet this misses the point. The Palestinian right of resistance does not stem from statehood but from the broader doctrine of self-determination and anti-colonial struggle. The UN’s repeated recognition of liberation movements in Africa and Asia as legitimate representatives of colonised peoples demonstrates that this right extends beyond the Westphalian definition of the state. Under occupation, Palestinians are entitled to resist domination in pursuit of freedom, just as Algerians, Namibians, and South Africans once did.

Western governments, however, continue to infantilise the Palestinian body politic, deciding which parties are acceptable and which are not. They fund and arm Israel while criminalising Palestinian solidarity. They speak of peace but sustain the conditions that make peace impossible. Their interference in Palestinian democracy is itself a violation of international law, as the right to self-determination includes the freedom from external coercion. By refusing to recognise Hamas’s electoral mandate or to engage with it politically, they undermine the very democratic norms they claim to defend.

The path forward cannot lie in excluding Hamas or dictating who represents Palestine. True peace will emerge only when the entire spectrum of Palestinian voices—Fatah, Hamas, and civil society alike—participate freely in shaping their future. The West’s role, if any, must be to support the principles of sovereignty and equality, not to manipulate them. To continue defining Palestinian resistance through the prism of Western moral superiority is to perpetuate the colonial logic that birthed the crisis.

Hamas’s right to remain both a social movement and a resistance organisation derives from the Palestinian people’s right to resist occupation and gain self-determination. It is not for “white nations,” as Frantz Fanon said, to decide the legitimacy of the colonised. Until that reality is acknowledged, the language of democracy and peace will remain empty. The moral imperative today is not to demand Palestinian surrender but end the occupation that gives rise to resistance. Law, history, and justice stand with those who struggle for freedom.

October 15, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Timeless or most popular | , , , , | Leave a comment

Jailed Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti suffers rib fractures after assault in Israeli prisons

MEMO | October 15, 2025

Jailed Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti sustained rib fractures after being beaten in Israeli prisons, the Prisoners’ Media Office said Wednesday, Anadolu reports.

The Hamas-run office said on Telegram that Barghouti was beaten by Israeli prison guards while being transferred from Ramon Prison in southern Israel to Megiddo Prison in the north in mid-September.

The imprisoned leader lost consciousness and suffered a fracture in four ribs, it added.

Barghouti, 66, a senior leader of President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah group, is one of the most prominent and popular figures in Palestinian politics.

He has been serving five life sentences in Israeli prisons since 2002 on charges related to the Second Intifada, which began in 2000.

Last week, US President Donald Trump announced that Israel and Hamas had agreed to the first phase of a plan he laid out on Sept. 29 to bring a ceasefire to Gaza, release all Israeli captives in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, and a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from the entire Gaza Strip. The first phase of the deal came into force on Friday.

Phase two of the plan calls for the establishment of a new governing mechanism in Gaza, without Hamas’ participation, the formation of a multinational force, and the disarmament of Hamas.

Since October 2023, Israeli attacks have killed nearly 68,000 Palestinians in the enclave, most of them women and children, and rendered it largely uninhabitable.

October 15, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Subjugation - Torture | , , , | Leave a comment

Iranian strike hit secret Israeli-US military bunker beneath Tel Aviv tower: Report

Press TV | October 14, 2025

An investigation by The Grayzone has revealed that Iran’s June 13 missile strike on Tel Aviv directly hit a secret underground military command center jointly operated by Israel and the United States, buried beneath a luxury apartment complex in the heart of the city.

According to geolocation analysis, leaked emails, and public records, the bunker, known as “Site 81”, is located underneath the Da Vinci Towers, a high-end residential and office complex built over what was once a ministry compound.

The facility reportedly serves as a command and control node for Israeli military intelligence, with US Army engineers having overseen its construction over a decade ago.

When Iranian missiles struck multiple locations across north Tel Aviv in June, Israeli authorities immediately sealed off the impact zone and prevented journalists from filming.

Fox News correspondent Trey Yingst was among those forced away by police near the HaKirya compound and the Azrieli Center.

Hours later, Iranian state media announced that military and intelligence targets had been precisely hit in retaliation for earlier Israeli strikes on Iranian soil.

The Grayzone report links the Da Vinci complex to a 2013 US Army Corps of Engineers project that expanded “Site 81” into a 6,000-square-meter electromagnetically shielded intelligence facility.

A photo from the US Army study was geolocated to the site using surrounding landmarks such as the Kannarit (Canarit) Air Force towers, located just meters away.

The site is less than 100 meters from a children’s playground and a community center, raising concerns that Israel embedded a sensitive military installation within a densely populated area, effectively using civilians as human shields, a practice Israel has long accused Palestinians of engaging in.

Satellite imagery of the area remains blurred on Google and Yandex Maps, with no street-view access, suggesting ongoing censorship of strategic sites inside Tel Aviv.

Leaked correspondence obtained by The Grayzone between former NATO Commander James Stavridis and former Israeli military chief Gabi Ashkenazi confirms that the bunker served as a command and control hub for Israel’s military network.

In the 2015 exchange, Stavridis mentioned a US company, ThinkLogical, which had “won a big contract out at Site 81 with the IDF.”

The Da Vinci complex and its surrounding towers were financed by a web of Israeli-American investors and firms with close ties to the Israeli security establishment, including Check Point Technologies and AI21 Labs, the latter founded by veterans of Israel’s Unit 8200, the military’s elite signals intelligence corps.

France 24’s analysis of post-strike coverage highlighted Israeli censorship, with Haaretz delaying reports on the Da Vinci hit by two weeks despite circulating images.

October 14, 2025 Posted by | Progressive Hypocrite | , , | Leave a comment

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