Euro-Med: Israel blackmails Gaza families, forcing them to choose between cooperation or death
Palestinian Information Center – September 27, 2025
GAZA – The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor has accused the Israeli occupation regime of pursuing a dangerous policy of extortion against Gazan families, forcing them to choose between two catastrophic options, either to cooperate with Israeli forces and their militias or face killing, starvation and displacement.
In a statement on Saturday, Euro-Med described this policy as “an escalating genocidal pattern that has shifted from individual coercion to collective extortion aimed at dismantling the social fabric of Palestinians.”
This policy “involves pressuring individuals to betray their society, destroy social bonds, and subject survivors to conditions that destroy their collective identity and their ability to stay alive,” Euro-Med added.
Euro-Med affirmed that its field team documented an unprecedented escalation in Israel’s use of extortion tactics against Palestinian families in the Gaza Strip. “Entire families are facing a horrific dilemma, either to join militias formed by Israel or face persecution, mass killing, starvation and forced displacement, as part of a systematic effort to dismantle the Palestinian society and force it to yield to the will of the Israeli occupation.”
Euro-Med said that Gazan families are explicitly threatened with death if they do not comply with the Israeli occupation army’s orders.
Euro-Med called on all countries to shoulder their legal responsibilities and take urgent action to stop Israel’s genocidal crimes in Gaza, provide the Palestinian population with protection, and ensure Israel’s compliance with international law and the International Court of Justice’s rulings.
Visual evidence shatters Israeli claims over attack on Gaza hospital
Al Mayadeen | September 27, 2025
A Reuters investigation into the Israeli strike on Nasser Hospital in Gaza has dismantled the occupation’s official narrative of the massacre. Visual evidence and corroborating reports reveal that the camera targeted as a supposed Hamas asset was in fact owned and operated by Reuters, routinely used by one of its journalists.
The strike on August 25 killed 22 Palestinians, including six journalists. Israeli occupation forces reportedly planned the attack using drone footage that allegedly showed a Hamas camera. However, Reuters’ findings indicate the footage actually depicted the agency’s own camera, used consistently by its reporter.
After Reuters presented its investigation, an Israeli military official admitted that troops had acted without the required approval from the senior regional commander in Gaza. “The troops acted without the required approval of the senior regional commander in charge of operations in Gaza,” the official told Reuters, acknowledging a breach of command protocol.
The day of the harrowing massacre
The day after Israeli tanks shelled Nasser Hospital, the official said the occupation’s initial review concluded that troops had targeted a Hamas camera allegedly filming them. The device, covered by a cloth, raised suspicion. “A decision was made to destroy it,” the official said.
Drone footage shows the camera on a hospital stairwell draped with a two-toned cloth. The military official confirmed this was the intended target.
Reuters’ investigation, however, revealed that the cloth was not a Hamas disguise but a prayer rug belonging to Hussam al-Masri, a Reuters journalist killed in the brutal Israeli massacre. Since May, al-Masri had positioned his camera at that spot at least 35 times for live broadcasts, often covering it with the rug to protect it from heat and dust.
Confirmation of ownership
Comparisons of photos of al-Masri with IOF drone images confirmed ownership of the targeted device. One picture, taken on August 13, shows al-Masri beside his camera, covered with the same prayer mat seen in the drone screenshot.
This investigation provides the most detailed account yet of the attack and confirms that the camera was Reuters‘ property. The Associated Press, which also lost a journalist in the strike, had earlier noted indications that the device “Israel” alleged as Hamas-owned was, in fact, Reuters’.
Unsurprisingly, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the attack as a “tragic mishap”. The military official claimed that al-Masri and other journalists present were not the intended targets and were not suspected of Hamas ties.
Hamas rejects PA president’s alignment with Zionist narrative in UN speech
Palestinian Information Center – September 26, 2025
DOHA – The Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, responded Thursday to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s speech before the United Nations General Assembly, affirming that Palestinian resistance is a “national and moral responsibility, deriving its legitimacy from our steadfast Palestinian people and their natural right to resist occupation, as recognized by international laws and conventions.”
Hamas categorically rejected what it described as Abbas’s “alignment with the false Zionist narrative,” asserting that accusing the resistance of targeting civilians is an attempt to distort its image.
The Movement underlined that “all attempts to impose guardianship over our people and their will are doomed to fail,” adding that Abbas’s declaration that Hamas will have no role in governance constitutes “an infringement on the inherent right of our Palestinian people to determine their own destiny and choose their leadership, and an unacceptable submission to external agendas and projects.”
Hamas emphasized that “the weapons of resistance are untouchable as long as the occupation remains entrenched on our land.”
It condemned Abbas’s call to surrender arms, especially “in light of the genocidal war being waged against our people in Gaza, and the brutal crimes and savage assaults committed by armed settlers and the occupation army against unarmed civilians in the occupied West Bank.”
Hamas reiterated that the only path to safeguarding the national cause and confronting the occupation’s plans to “exterminate and displace our people in Gaza, annex the West Bank, and Judaize Jerusalem and al-Aqsa,” lies in “national unity and consensus around a comprehensive resistance program to confront the criminal Zionist occupation, until our people’s aspirations for liberation, return, and the establishment of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital are fulfilled.”
The statement concluded by affirming that “our steadfast people are the source of legitimacy, and the weapons of resistance are a red line that cannot be compromised.”
Since October 7, 2023, Israeli occupation forces, backed by the United States and Western countries, have been waging a devastating war in Gaza, resulting in the martyrdom and injury of approximately 233,000 Palestinians to date. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, 442 Palestinians, including 147 children, have died from starvation.
Digital ID UK: Starmer’s Expanding Surveillance State
By Christina Maas | Reclaim The Net | September 26, 2025
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer came into office promising competence and calm after years of alleged political chaos.
What has followed is a government that treats civil liberties as disposable.
Under his watch, police have leaned on broad public order powers to detain people over “offensive” tweets.
Critics argue that what counts as “offensive” now changes depending on the political mood, which means ordinary citizens find themselves guessing at what might trigger a knock on the door.
This is happening while mass facial recognition cameras are being installed in public places.
The pattern is clear: expand surveillance, narrow dissent, and then assure the public it is all in the name of safety and order.
Against that backdrop, a digital ID system looks less like modernization and more like the missing piece in an expanding control grid.
Once every adult is forced to plug into a centralized identity wallet to work, rent, or access services, the state’s ability to monitor and sanction becomes unprecedented.
Starmer’s Labour government is dusting off one of its oldest obsessions: the dream of tagging every citizen like a parcel at the post office.
The latest revival comes in the form of a proposal to create mandatory digital ID cards, already nicknamed the “Brit Card,” for every working adult in the country.
The sales pitch sounds noble enough: crack down on illegal work, cut fraud, plug loopholes. The real effect would be to make ordinary life a permanent identity check.
Officials want job applications, rental agreements, and other basic transactions to be filtered through a government database, accessed through an app.
This, the people are told, will finally stop the shadow economy of dodgy employers. If that logic sounds familiar, it is because it is the same rationale Labour used for its last ID card scheme in the 2000s, a project that ended up in the political landfill in 2010 after enough voters realized what was happening.
“Digital ID is an enormous opportunity for the UK. It will make it tougher to work illegally in this country, making our borders more secure,” Starmer said in his announcement. “And it will also offer ordinary citizens countless benefits, like being able to prove your identity to access key services swiftly – rather than hunting around for an old utility bill.”
Campaigners and data rights groups are not buying the rebrand.
For Liberty’s Gracie Bradley cut straight to the point: the new version “is likely to be even more intrusive, insecure and discriminatory” than the one the country already threw out a decade ago.
That does not bode well for a government trying to convince citizens this time will be different.
Rebecca Vincent of Big Brother Watch spelled out where this all leads: “While Downing Street is scrambling to be seen as doing something about illegal immigration, we are sleepwalking into a dystopian nightmare where the entire population will be forced through myriad digital checkpoints to go about our everyday lives.”
Her warning does not require much imagination. Britain has a spotty track record on protecting sensitive data.
A poll commissioned by Big Brother Watch found that nearly two-thirds of the public already think the government cannot be trusted to protect their data. That is before any giant centralized ID system is rolled out.
Privacy advocates see this as a recipe for disaster, arguing that hackers and snooping officials alike will treat the system as a buffet of personal information.
Former Cabinet Minister David Davis, one of the longest-serving critics of ID schemes, described the risks as existential. “The systems involved are profoundly dangerous to the privacy and fundamental freedoms of the British people,” he said, noting the government has not explained how or if it would compensate citizens after the inevitable breach.
Silkie Carlo, the director of Big Brother Watch, issued a blunt forecast of where the “Brit Card” could lead.
She warned it could extend across public services, “creating a domestic mass surveillance infrastructure that will likely sprawl from citizenship to benefits, tax, health, possibly even internet data and more.”
In other words, once the pipes are laid, the water does not stop at employment checks.
Labour, of course, has been here before. The last time it rolled out ID cards, in 2009, the experiment barely survived a year before being junked by the incoming Conservative-led coalition as an “erosion of civil liberties.”
Labour is leaning heavily on polling that allegedly suggests up to 80 percent of the public backs digital right-to-work credentials.
Starmer himself recently adopted that framing. Earlier this month, he claimed digital IDs could “play an important part” in tackling black market employment.
He is pushing the case again at the Global Progress Action Summit in London, noting that “we all carry a lot more digital ID now than we did 20 years ago.”
What complicates the sales pitch is Labour’s own history of skepticism. Both Keir Starmer and Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper previously raised concerns about ID systems and their potential for government overreach.
That past caution has not stopped the new Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, from becoming one of the loudest champions of the plan. She recently declared the system “essential” for enforcing migration and employment laws.
Labour-aligned think tanks are also providing cover. Labour Together released a report describing digital ID as a “new piece of civic infrastructure,” with the potential to become a routine part of life.
***
Tony Blair has reemerged as a central architect of Britain’s dystopian digital future.
Through his think tank, the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, the former Prime Minister is pushing the nationwide digital ID system, pitching it as the backbone of a tech-enabled state.
With Keir Starmer now in office, Blair’s vision is no longer an abstract policy paper. It is edging into reality with a new host.
For Blair, digital ID is not about convenience. It is about rewriting how government functions and can be what he calls a “weapon against populism.”
He has argued that a leaner, cheaper, more automated state is possible if citizens are willing to give up parts of their privacy. “My view is that people are actually prepared to trade quite a lot,” he once said, suggesting that resistance will dissolve once faster services are dangled in front of the public.
This project is not limited to streamlining bureaucracy. His version of efficiency is a frictionless state that also monitors, verifies, and restricts in ways that would have been inconceivable before the digital era.
With Starmer’s government now developing a digital ID wallet and considering a national rollout, Blair’s agenda is closer to official policy than ever. Marketed as modernization, the plan points toward a permanent restructuring of the relationship between citizen and state, locking personal identity into a centralized system that future governments will be able to expand at will.
‘Digital Chokehold’: Tool Developed by Tech Giants to Stop Terrorists Enables Mass Surveillance, Censorship
The Defender | September 24, 2025
Most people have no idea how far-reaching modern digital surveillance has become. In the wake of the Epstein scandal and the rise of the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Program, the public has largely accepted new monitoring tools as necessary to fight crimes against society’s most vulnerable.
That acceptance has allowed governments and Big Tech to quietly deploy one of the largest surveillance infrastructures in human history — an invisible, always-on monitoring system that watches nearly everything we send, store and share online.
PhotoDNA: Trojan horse for scanning everything
At the heart of this infrastructure is PhotoDNA. Developed by Microsoft in 2009, PhotoDNA generates a digital fingerprint, or hash, for every image or video uploaded to participating platforms, which include Google, Meta, Apple, Dropbox, Twitter, Discord and many more.
These hashes are compared against a shared global database of known child sexual abuse material. If a match is found, the platform automatically flags, quarantines or reports the file.
The database is continuously updated and instantly synchronized across all partners, allowing near real-time takedowns.
This was sold to the public as a tool exclusively for catching predators. But the technology itself can’t discern the difference between illegal images and political speech. And over time, the scope of its use has quietly expanded.
From predators to ‘extremists’: enter GIFCT
In 2017, tech giants — Meta, Microsoft, YouTube and Twitter (now X) — founded the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT). Publicly, its mission was noble: stop terrorists from using digital platforms to recruit, organize or spread propaganda.
Privately, however, GIFCT built something far more powerful — a centralized global database of “objectionable content” — modeled after PhotoDNA but repurposed for ideological policing.
Here’s how GIFCT works:
- When one partner flags content as “extremist” or “terrorist,” GIFCT generates a hash, a string of characters used to create a unique digital fingerprint for data (a file, photo or data) that can’t be decoded. A hash is obtained by running a mathematical formula over the data.
- That hash is instantly shared across all member platforms.
- Any matching content is blocked, throttled or erased in real time — often without informing the user.
- The flagged account may also be shadow-banned (hidden without the user’s knowledge), suspended or referred to law enforcement.
The system’s integration across multiple companies and platforms effectively bypasses borders, legal jurisdictions and constitutional protections. Once content enters the GIFCT database, it can vanish from the internet everywhere at once.
The silent redefining of ‘extremism’
GIFCT’s power becomes more troubling when we examine how “extremism” is defined.
In 2021, internal GIFCT documents revealed discussions about expanding its hash database beyond terrorism to include:
“Fringe groups [whose] non-violent ideologies … are on the periphery of social movements or larger organizations, with more extreme views than those of the majority.” (“Broadening the GIFCT Hash-Sharing Database Taxonomy,” p.53)
This is a turning point. It moves GIFCT from targeting violent threats to monitoring dissenting ideas.
Civil rights groups, health freedom advocates, independent journalists, whistleblowers and reformers — anyone operating outside mainstream consensus — could now be flagged, throttled or silenced under GIFCT’s framework.
And because private companies make these decisions in closed-door sessions, there is:
- No public oversight.
- No appeal process.
- No democratic accountability.
The mechanisms of invisible control
GIFCT’s technology operates quietly in the background, shaping information flows without most users realizing it:
- Shadow banning: content gets published but algorithmically suppressed, so almost no one sees it.
- Real-Time erasure: posts or videos vanish instantly across multiple platforms if hashed.
- Behavioral profiling: data about what you read, share and discuss can be tied to “risk profiles.”
- Proactive takedowns: artificial intelligence, or AI, now predicts “likely extremist content” before it’s even posted. What began as a fight against terrorism has evolved into an unprecedented capability for narrative control — one where Big Tech and government-backed nongovernmental organizations quietly manage what the world can see, share and believe.
The threat to civil rights and social reform
Surveillance networks like GIFCT don’t just monitor — they shape activism itself. By algorithmically suppressing controversial, dissenting or reformist voices, these systems can:
- Preemptively neutralize protest movements before they organize.
- Silence journalists who challenge entrenched power.
- Marginalize minority political perspectives.
- Narrow public debate until only approved narratives remain visible.
This has profound consequences for democracy and civil liberties. History shows us that nearly every major social reform — civil rights, women’s suffrage, LGBTQ rights, antiwar movements — began as fringe positions.
If today’s automated surveillance systems had existed decades ago, many transformative reforms might never have gained visibility.
Without transparency and democratic oversight, GIFCT risks creating a digital chokehold on cultural evolution itself.
What must be done
To preserve free speech, open debate and the possibility of reform:
- Congress must act to place limits on GIFCT’s scope and require full public transparency.
- Privacy and civil rights organizations must be empowered to audit GIFCT’s hash lists and review what’s being censored.
- Users must have due process rights — the ability to appeal labels, removals and bans.
- Citizens deserve public reporting on who decides what gets suppressed and why.
A choice between freedom and control
The question is no longer whether you have “something to hide” but “who gets to decide what is hidden?”
What began as a narrowly focused child protection tool has grown into a globally integrated surveillance apparatus capable of monitoring nearly all speech, thought and dissent online.
If we fail to act, GIFCT and its partners will continue to quietly rewrite the boundaries of acceptable discourse — undermining civil rights movements, weakening reform efforts, and placing democratic freedoms in the hands of unelected private boards.
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.
Greece is aiding Netanyahu regime’s genocidal project: Former Greek Finance Minister Varoufakis
MEMO | September 25, 2025
Former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis has accused Athens of “violating International Law to aid and abet the Netanyahu government’s genocidal project” after a Gaza-bound humanitarian aid flotilla was attacked by drones off southern Crete, Anadolu reports.
Varoufakis, a prominent author, opposition politician, and commentator, said on X that he had spoken to the crew of the Family, the main vessel of the Global Sumud Flotilla, which was struck on the night of Sept. 23 by “a swarm of drones with explosives and CS (tear) gas.”
The flotilla, he said, had requested urgent help from the Greek Coast Guard to repair damage and provide protection while sailing through Greece’s Search and Rescue area.
“Remarkably, nauseatingly to be precise, the Greek Coastguard turned both requests down!” he said.
“Such is the determination of the Greek government to aid and abet Israel’s genocide in Gaza and, more generally, its ethnic cleansing of Palestine, that the Greek authorities took the step of refusing assistance that the Law of the Sea obliges them to provide.”
According to Varoufakis, the refusal highlights how “readily, in a bid to satisfy (Israeli Prime Minister) Netanyahu, the Greek government has forfeited not only its responsibilities but also its sovereignty.”
Under Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, he added, “a long process by which Greece has become a satellite of the last Apartheid State is now complete,” referring to Israel’s policies of discriminating against and oppressing Palestinians.
He also pointed to wider evidence of complicity. On the night of the flotilla attack, Varoufakis claimed, a Beechcraft King Air 350 spy plane took off from the US Air Force base at Souda in northwestern Crete and flew south.
The aircraft, he said, belongs to the US leasing company Metrea Special Aerospace ISR and had previously been used to monitor Gaza from a British base in the Greek Cypriot Administration.
“One thing is clear from all of the above,” Varoufakis added.
“Through a mixture of omission and commission, the Greek government is violating International Law to aid and abet the Netanyahu government. Our party, MeRA25, will fight this government on the streets, in the workplaces, across a country – Greece – which refuses to be counted as complicit with Israel’s genocide.”
Since October 2023, the Israeli army has killed more than 65,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, in Gaza. The relentless bombardment has rendered the enclave all but uninhabitable and led to starvation and the spread of diseases.
Italy redirects navy ship to assist Global Sumud Flotilla after drone attacks

The Cradle | September 24, 2025
Italy’s Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said in a statement on 24 September that an Italian navy ship has been redirected towards the Global Sumud Flotilla to provide it with “possible assistance,” after it came under a series of Israeli attacks overnight.
The Italian defense minister strongly condemned the overnight drone attacks.
Activists on board several of the flotilla’s boats reported at least 10 explosions after witnessing drones launch several attacks early on Wednesday. The boats were situated off the coast of Greece.
“Multiple drones, unidentified objects dropped, communications jammed, and explosions heard from a number of boats. We are witnessing these psychological operations firsthand, right now, but we will not be intimidated,” Global Sumud Flotilla said.
US activist Greg Stoker said a quadcopter “dropped a little popper on deck,” adding that “other boats experienced that as well.”
“Our VHF [very high frequency] radio was hijacked by adversarial comms, and they started playing ABBA,” he added. One boat was reportedly sprayed with chemicals as well.
Israel has not commented on the attacks targeting the Gaza-bound flotilla.
In a statement on Tuesday, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said the flotilla was “pursuing a violent course of action” that “highlights the insincerity of the flotilla members and their mission to serve Hamas, rather than the people in Gaza.”
The International Committee to Break the Siege on Gaza (ICBSG) had warned on Sunday that unidentified drones were flying close to the vessels.
Workers across Italy launched a nationwide strike on 22 September to oppose Israel’s genocide in Gaza, halting public transport, rail services, schools, public offices, and ports in more than 60 cities. Italian grassroots trade union, Unione Sindacale di Base (USB), called the strike to force Rome to “immediately break off relations with the terrorist state of Israel, which is the concrete way in which Italy can, and must, react to the genocide that is taking place.”
Rail freight was suspended on Sunday night, with ports including Ravenna, Livorno, Trieste, and Genoa joining the actions. In Genoa, dockworkers blocked a vessel scheduled for Israel, while in Livorno, access to the port was restricted by protesters.
The flotilla bombarded early on 24 September is the third to attempt to break the siege of Gaza in the last four months.
The Global Sumud Flotilla also came under two attacks earlier in September.
The vessels are carrying hundreds of tons of humanitarian aid for civilians in Gaza, who are being starved and bombarded by the Israeli army. It has been described as the largest civilian flotilla in history.
In late July, the Gaza Freedom Flotilla’s Handala vessel was intercepted and seized by Israeli forces as it was trying to break the siege and deliver aid to the strip. Crewmembers were detained.
The month before, Israeli forces intercepted the Gaza Freedom Flotilla’s Madleen vessel in international waters as it was approaching Gaza to break the siege, seizing the boat and detaining the 12 activists on board.
In May this year, an Israeli drone bombed a Freedom Flotilla aid vessel that was en route to Gaza, blowing a hole through the ship, causing a fire, and putting it at risk of sinking.
Google admits Biden regime pressured content removal, promises to restore banned YouTube accounts
By Dan Frieth | Reclaim The Net | September 23, 2025
After years of denying bias, Google now concedes that it gave in to pressure from the Biden White House to remove content that did not breach its own rules.
The admission comes alongside a promise to restore access to YouTube accounts permanently removed for political speech related to COVID-19 and elections, topics where government officials had applied behind-the-scenes pressure to control the narrative.
This move follows sustained scrutiny from the House Judiciary Committee, which Reclaim The Net covered extensively, led by Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH), who issued a subpoena and spearheaded an investigation that revealed the extent of government influence on content moderation decisions at Google.
In a letter from its legal representative, Google confirmed that it faced pressure from the federal government to suppress lawful speech.
We obtained a copy of the letter for you here.
Google revealed that it had been contacted multiple times by top federal officials regarding content on its platforms, even when that content did not break any rules.
The company stated that “Senior Biden Administration officials, including White House officials, conducted repeated and sustained outreach to Alphabet and pressed the Company regarding certain user-generated content related to the COVID-19 pandemic that did not violate its policies.”
According to the company, this outreach took place in a broader political climate that made it difficult to operate independently.
Google noted that “The political environment during the pandemic created significant pressure on platforms, including YouTube, to address content that some deemed harmful.”
While describing the situation, Google made clear its disapproval of such efforts, stating bluntly that “This pressure was – and remains – unacceptable and wrong.”
In response to this period of politicized enforcement, the company said it is now taking steps to reverse prior censorship decisions.
As part of that process, Google confirmed that “Reflecting the Company’s commitment to free expression, YouTube will provide an opportunity for all creators to rejoin the platform if the company terminated their channels for repeated violations of COVID-19 and elections integrity policies that are no longer in effect.”
The letter also clarified YouTube’s approach to content moderation, explicitly rejecting the use of outside arbiters. “YouTube does not use third-party fact checkers to determine whether content should be removed or labeled,” the company said.
Acknowledging the role of political diversity on its platform, Google stated that “YouTube values conservative voices on its platform. These creators have extensive reach and play an important role in civic discourse.”
The company concluded with a broader statement rejecting government interference in lawful online speech, saying that “The federal government should not play a role in pressuring private companies to take action on lawful speech.”
The revelations echo findings in the Murthy v. Missouri case, where lower courts found that federal agencies had taken on a role similar to an “Orwellian ‘Ministry of Truth.’” While the Supreme Court dismissed the case on procedural grounds, the core issues around government pressure on speech remain unresolved.
The investigation into Google is part of a broader probe into how tech firms handled information related to the 2020 election, COVID-19, and high-profile political topics such as Hunter Biden’s laptop. The committee’s findings show a pattern of censorship aligned with political objectives.
Settler arson attack on vital West Bank agricultural hub is blow to Palestinian food security
International Solidarity Movement – Palestine | September 23, 2025
The Mishtil Al-Junaidy Al-Hadith plant nursery in Deir Sharaf, a major West Bank seed distributor and the heart of the region’s agriculture, was set on fire by illegal Israeli settlers on 8 September 2025, costing the owners over three million shekels and seriously damaging the already fragile Palestinian food system.
The footage captured by security cameras shows seven masked settlers descending on the nursery at 8pm to destroy the agricultural hub. Using diesel fuel, the settlers set fire to several buildings, stole supplies, and broke the windows of the main office, destroying seeds, computers, and most importantly, invaluable data centers holding information on agricultural practices in the region, which cannot be retrieved.
The fire department was informed immediately, but the Israeli authorities didn’t permit the firemen to reach the site for 45 minutes, which uninterrupted would only be a ten minute drive from the station in nearby Nablus. The attack was caught on camera, and the Israeli military, Shin Bet and Civil administration all arrived, but – just like past attacks – no updates on the investigation have been provided and no arrests have been made.

Sameer Al Junaidy, one of the four Al Junaidy brothers who owns and runs the nursery, says he doesn’t hire security because he would rather take damage to the property than put a Palestinian’s life at risk. Unarmed guards would be powerless against armed settlers, who regularly assault and murder local Palestinians.
The nursery is situated next to the illegal Shavei Shomron settlement, one of the West Bank’s first illegal settlements built in 1977 on land seized from Deir Sharaf and An-Naqura. Just before October 7, 2023, illegal settlers established an outpost on the other side of the nursery and have been intent on building a road that goes through it to connect them.
Since then, settlers have attacked the nursery at least five times. Recently, they set fire to bulldozers, a truck, and a forklift owned by the nursery. Settlers have also burned down olive trees, destroyed water pipes, and attacked Palestinians in neighboring communities. Footage from previous attacks that contains the assailants’ faces captured by Al Junaidy has been handed over to police, but no arrests were ever made.
Al Junaidy says that the Israeli Civil Administration told him that they understand how important the center is to West Bank agriculture and communities but they said: “There are two policies on the ground”, and some in the Israeli government want to see the assailants go unpunished. The nursery is also adjacent to Kedumin, the settlement where Israeli far-right Finance Minister Benzamar Smotrich lives, which is in the same council of settlements as Shavei Shomron.
The attack is a devasting blow to an already precarious food system in the besieged territory, bound to raise costs for local farmers who buy their seeds through the company. The nursery produces 80% of the West Bank’s olive tree saplings and all of its almond tree saplings, two crops central to Palestinian food security.
The destruction of over forty years of data could have far reaching impacts on agriculture across the West Bank. The data which has been lost included detailed information on how to best cultivate their thousands of seeds, meaning without this data, farmers may not know the ideal way to cultivate the crops. It is also used by agricultural engineering students at universities across Palestine.
Assaults on the West Bank’s economy and food systems through attacks like this one on the Al Junaidy Nursery are just one tactic in the occupiers’ overall project to ethnically cleanse the territory of all of its Palestinian inhabitants by disconnecting them from their land, their traditions, and the resources they need to survive.
Israeli army raids Birzeit University in occupied West Bank
Palestinian Information Center – September 22, 2025
RAMALLAH – In a pre-dawn raid on Monday, Israeli occupation forces (IOF) stormed Birzeit University in Ramallah, deploying dozens of soldiers, military vehicles, and a surveillance drone.
Local sources said troops broke through the university gates from multiple directions after detaining campus security guards. Soldiers ransacked university facilities, destroyed student movement displays, tore down banners supporting Gaza and honoring martyrs, and defaced national slogans.
The IOF also posted leaflets inside the campus, directly threatening the Islamic Bloc, the student arm of Hamas, and warning against its activities. Resistance-themed posters and flags were confiscated.
Ghassan Barghouthi, the Dean of Student Affairs at Birzeit University, reported that 11 IOF vehicles entered the campus. Soldiers assaulted five members of the university’s security staff, leaving them with bruises and injuries.
He said several faculties and facilities were raided, including the arts and literature buildings, as well as Naseeb Shaheen Theater.
Barghouthi added that murals inside the theater were vandalized, along with exhibits prepared for welcoming new students. The murals, he noted, depicted the destruction of academic institutions in Gaza.
Meanwhile, the IOF detained Birzeit student Youssef al-Haj Mohammed after raiding his home in the village of al-Mughayir, northeast of Ramallah.
URGENT: A family standing against Israeli army and settler violence, and imminent displacement in the Jordan Valley
International Solidarity Movement – Palestine | September 21, 2025
In the hills of the northern Jordan Valley, one Palestinian family is facing the threat of being displaced from their land. On September 20, the Israeli army issued them a final eviction order — threatening to destroy their tents, farming shelters, animals, and everything they depend on for survival.
This family is the last to remain in their community. Others have already been forced to leave in recent years by Israeli colonisers, who confiscated or destroyed their homes and belongings. Their struggle shows how army actions and settler violence combine to push Palestinians from their land.
Palestinian families’ daily life under threat
The family makes a living from shepherding. With more than 200 sheep and goats, their livelihood depends on access to open grazing. Today, this way of life is nearly impossible. Settlers attack shepherds, block grazing land, and steal animals. To keep their herds alive, the family must now buy fodder, which is costly and reduces the quality of the products they sell.
Two weeks ago, settlers poisoned the family’s water supply. Like all Palestinians in the Jordan Valley, they are not connected to the water network and depend on cisterns. Without safe water, their health and their animals’ survival are in danger. They also live without electricity, relying only on solar panels for minimal power.
In recent weeks, the army has raided the land and their home several times. Soldiers ordered demolitions of shelters, claiming the area is a “military zone.” Family members have been injured multiple times during these raids.
Meanwhile, settlers are expanding, with new outposts being built nearby and existing settlements growing closer. This increases the pressure on the family to leave.
Background on Jordan Valley
The northern Jordan Valley lies in Area C, which makes up over 60% of the occupied West Bank and remains under full Israeli military control. Israel imposes severe restrictions on Palestinians living there on building, farming, and access to basic services. The army often declares Palestinian areas as “firing zones” or “closed military zones,” using these designations to demolish homes, stop grazing, and force families to move. In practice, this clears space for settlements while displacing Palestinians.
For decades, Israel has uprooted entire communities across the Jordan Valley under these policies. Where once there were villages with families, schools, and farmland, only scattered households remain.
What can you do?
Contact your governments and demand they put pressure on Israel to stop its ethnic cleansing campaign in the Jordan Valley and elsewhere. They must:
1 Cancel the eviction order against the families immediately.
2 Stop settler violence such as poisoning, theft, intimidation, and ensure protection of Palestinian civilians as required under international law.
3 End the use of “military zones” as a pretext for displacement
4 Provide access to basic rights: water, electricity, education, and security.
International communities, media, and civil society — it’s time to raise awareness and take action.
This is not only about one family. It is part of a larger effort to remove Palestinians from the Jordan Valley and Area C of the West Bank. This family now stands almost alone, holding on to their land and way of life. If they are displaced, another piece of Palestinian presence in the Jordan Valley will be erased.
Their story must be told and shared. The world needs to see what is happening and act before yet another community disappears.
Israeli trade relations collapse amid war on Gaza, global boycotts
Al Mayadeen | September 21, 2025
“Israel’s” trade relations are suffering a serious deterioration in recent weeks, with deals and meetings being canceled even with historically “friendly” nations, amid an atmosphere of secrecy and embarrassment.
Israeli exporters have revealed that companies in Europe and the United States have refused to renew export contracts, while marketing networks have announced a halt to the import of Israeli products “until further notice.”
In this context, Ynet reported that a delegation of experts from the Moody’s rating agency visited Tel Aviv and left with very worrying impressions of the possibility of a rating reduction soon. One official said, “It will be a miracle if a reduction is not made within two weeks.”
A senior economic official who met with Moody’s representatives pointed to extreme concern over the massive rise in defense spending during the war on Gaza, confirming it represents a critical turning point.
The official warned that the Israeli government could lose all control over budget management, threatening a huge rise in the deficit and an accumulation of debt.
Israeli trademarks take heavy blows
The president of the Israeli Manufacturers Association, Ron Tomer, confirmed that the Israeli brand has been severely damaged, warning that the economy could be set back by years. Tomer also pointed to a shocking request from a supposedly “friendly country” to erase any images of meetings with Israeli companies to avoid political embarrassment.
An exporter explained that the situation has deteriorated significantly since the announcement of the intent to occupy Gaza and with the increasing spread of videos documenting the bombing of buildings and mosques and the deaths of civilians.
The exporter added that the footage from Gaza can no longer be overlooked and that they are now destined to complete isolation and feel shunned all over the world.
71% of scrapped deals connected to war on Gaza
According to a survey prepared by the Israeli Manufacturers Association, which included 132 industrialists, nearly half of all exporters have lost deals or not had their contracts renewed, while 71% of them indicated the cancellations were for political reasons related to the war on Gaza.
The European Union was the most proactive in cancellations, as 84 percent of industrialists reported losing contracts there, while 31 percent were surprised by similar decisions from clients in the United States, according to the survey.
The survey also indicated that 76 percent of exporters have seen their exports directly harmed, with the impact exceeding 40 percent of total exports for some of them.
The survey further revealed that more than half of all new clients now refuse to deal with Israeli companies, while 49 percent of exporters are facing unprecedented logistical difficulties with shipping, customs, and ports.
Economic analyses link this crisis to the repercussions of the war on the Gaza Strip and statements by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about turning “Israel” into a closed system, which has alarmed investors over rising security expenditures and a worsening deficit.

