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Al Mayadeen’s camera sniped by Israeli soldier in Yaroun, S. Lebanon

Al Mayadeen | February 2, 2025

Al Mayadeen’s camera was sniped by occupation forces on Sunday at the northern entrance to the town of Yaroun. Fortunately, no injuries were reported among the crew.

Al Mayadeen’s correspondent in Yaroun, southern Lebanon, reported that the occupation forces opened fire to deter residents from gathering in the town.

The attack occurred while the Al Mayadeen team was covering the ongoing resistance of the southern people, aimed at compelling the occupation forces to withdraw from their villages.

Ali Alloush, the head of the Lebanese Photojournalists’ Syndicate, condemned the attack on Al Mayadeen, describing it as an assault by a criminal and usurping enemy.

In a deliberate attempt to suppress the voice of resistance that Al Mayadeen Network strives to present with professionalism and realism to the world, the occupation forces have intentionally targeted its correspondents in various locations.

On October 25, the Israeli occupation attacked the residence of journalists in Hasbaya, southern Lebanon, resulting in the martyrdom of Al Mayadeen’s photojournalist Ghassan Najjar and broadcast engineer Mohammad Reda.

Before this, on November 21, 2023, Al Mayadeen’s correspondent Farah Omar, photojournalist Rabih Me’mari, and collaborator Hussein Akil were martyred in an Israeli raid that targeted them in the town of Tayr Harfa, southern Lebanon.

Additionally, Al Mayadeen teams in occupied Palestine have faced multiple attacks from both the occupation forces and Israeli settlers.

In August of last year, the Israeli occupation government approved a proposal by Minister of Communications Shlomo Karhi, which called for the renewal of the ban on the Al Mayadeen Network, the confiscation of its equipment, and the blocking of its websites.

February 2, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , | Leave a comment

Hamas calls on the Red Cross to protect Palestinian prisoners’ rights

Palestinian Information Center – February-2025

GAZA – Hamas called on the International Committee of the Red Cross to protect Palestinian prisoners’ rights based on the Geneva Conventions and their additional protocols, confirming that the torture, medical neglect, starvation, and lack of medication that they endure is a full-fledged war crime.

The horrifying testimonies of the released prisoners, the confirmation that they were abused and beaten both days before and up until the final hour of their release, as well as the various forms of physical and psychological torture, medical neglect, starvation, deprivation of medication, and deprivation they endure in the occupation prisons, “constitute a full-fledged war crime and a brutal violation of international laws related to prisoners by the occupation government,” the Movement said in a letter to the Red Cross.

“The International Committee of the Red Cross must step up its efforts to monitor the conditions of Palestinian prisoners in light of the Hebrew media’s confirmation of the cruel treatment that the released inmates endure at the hands of the Zionist Prison Service and occupation soldiers.”

Hamas demanded that the international organization forward its reports to the appropriate international bodies and endeavor to guarantee that their rights are respected in compliance with international humanitarian law, the Geneva Conventions, and their supplementary protocols.

In addition, the Movement emphasized that the occupation’s continued crimes against Palestinians and their prisoners in jails “will only increase our determination to continue on the path of resistance until the occupation is removed from our land and our holy sites and the establishment of the Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.” These crimes demonstrate how the occupation deviates from human values and international law.

Earlier, the Red Cross condemned Israel’s treatment of recently released Palestinian prisoners, who reported severe beatings, death threats, and inhumane conditions before their freedom.

Red Cross expressed outrage over “the way the Israel Prison Service led the prisoners out of Ketziot on Saturday morning – handcuffed with their hands above their heads, wearing a bracelet inscribed with the phrase, ‘the eternal people never forget’.”

February 2, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Subjugation - Torture, War Crimes | , , , | Leave a comment

The United States exits the WHO

WHOlly appropriate

By Dr Lisa Hutchinson | Health Advisory & Recovery Team | January 28, 2025

No one could have escaped the news that the newly inaugurated US President, Donald J. Trump has signed an Executive Order to withdraw from the World Health Organization (WHO). The key reasons cited for this decision include the WHO’s mishandling of decisions and policy during the Covid-19 pandemic, the failure to adopt reforms and, crucially, a lack of independence from the influence of member states or concerns relating to conflicts of interest. Trump has pledged that the US will pause the transfer of funds to the WHO as well as identify alternative partners to fulfil the necessary activities that this organization assumes. Furthermore, the US will cease negotiations with the WHO on the amendments to the International Health Regulations (IHR) and the Pandemic Treaty. At HART, we have followed the journey of the ongoing negotiations of the WHO Pandemic Agreement.

The US exit from the WHO also ends its financial contributions to the organization, which accounts for around 22% of the WHO’s mandatory contributions. This withdrawal means the WHO has now lost its largest financial contributor of $1.3 billion. Although the withdrawal process may take up to 1 year, during this transition period, the US will cease all negotiations of the Pandemic Treaty, the IHR amendments and any prior decisions will not be legally binding. On hearing this, millions in the US and around the world have celebrated and welcomed this exit from the WHO. Not least because it removes further financial funding and could save millions from untested, harmful vaccines while also being denied access to alternative beneficial therapies in instances of any future ‘health emergencies’. Could this milestone decision be the catalyst for other nations to withdraw from the WHO?

Several have commented that the largest loser of the US exit from the WHO is Bill Gates who has contributed 88% of the total philanthropic funding for the WHO. This move by the USA could not be in further contrast with the UK: Sir Keir Starmer wishes to extend the WHO’s control over the UK by agreeing to the IHR amendments in March 2025. Last April, over 100,000 members of the British public signed a petition to end our membership with the WHO. Unsurprisingly perhaps, the UK Government ignored the petition, despite the signature count exceeding the 100,000 threshold for debate in Parliament; instead, the UK government ploughed ahead without consideration for the valid, wider concerns raised.

Some might think that the US withdrawal from the WHO is tragic. But a closer examination of how monopolies can be created by organizations such as the WHO, together with other federal agencies and collaborators, including the CDC, NIH and FDA, reveals a far more disturbing reality. Beneath the benign guise of the WHO lurks malign intentions: a wolf in sheep’s clothing. The glaring lack of transparency, undisclosed conflicts of interests and power creep that these seemingly unaccountable centralized organizations possess, are a threat to democracy. Since all countries will have different socioeconomic challenges, and the response to any global health threat would be equally varied, surely the public health and biosecurity threats to any country is the responsibility of that country: there should be no submission to a one-size-fits-all diktat. National sovereignty should be respected and not trampled on by an unelected, unaccountable body with nonsensical policies. Yet despite these concerns, the outgoing President Biden has already approached African nations directly to strengthen ties towards a global government health and security strategy.

We emphasize that the WHO is not a democratically elected body and there are grave concerns over the power it wields over sovereign nations. Any glimmers of a democracy the UK might have will be flushed away to an autocratic dictatorship, led by unelected people in positions of power, such as the Director General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, if we do not continue to object to the IHR amendments and WHO Pandemic Treaty. As highlighted in earlier posts, the Pandemic Treaty and IRH amendments have little to do with nation states working together in circumstances where potentially harmful infectious diseases arise, but are a power grab by an authoritarian, unaccountable entity. If the Pandemic Treaty and IRH amendments succeed, the WHO would be able to declare a pandemic or international emergency even when no such emergency exists! The WHO could impose lockdowns, usher in mandatory vaccinations and other autocratic decisions, which would never be in the best interests of the public. Future furlough schemes in such ‘emergencies’ are unlikely, but the WHO would have carte blanche to decide the health decisions for every person in the UK. Incredibly, even the power to insist that every citizen carry a global health passport would be assumed by the WHO. The financial implications are grave because during the covid pandemic, WHO recommendations cost the UK £400 billion in national debt. We literally cannot afford to go down this route again! The shutting down of society and the economy for undefined, prolonged periods, as experienced in 2020 and 2021 spiralled the cost of living crisis to unprecedented levels, as well as terrorising the public and destroying the mental health of citizens, not to mention the untold devastation to our children’s education and wellbeing.

President Trump clearly concludes that the WHO is not capable or appropriately placed to make healthcare-based policy decisions that are justified for the American people. His decision to exit the WHO is a welcome sign of someone who is not intent on squandering individual and national sovereignty. In the UK, we should not sit back and allow our government to continue with the WHO IHR amendments, especially given the huge number of objections that have been willfully ignored.

There is an alternative way: we could for example support the refreshing approach of the World Council for Health (WCH), a coalition of independent health organizations and medical professionals advocating for a decentralized, holistic, and patient-centered approach to healthcare. Either way, we certainly need a more collaborative healthcare approach.

February 2, 2025 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance, Science and Pseudo-Science | , , , | Leave a comment

Trump Issues Executive Order Aimed At Deporting Anti-Israel Protesters

By blueapples | ZeroHedge | January 31, 2025

Last spring, a wave of protests across college campuses nationwide against Israel’s war in Gaza became the focal point of the growing cultural schism further dividing American society. The dichotomy between supporters and opponents of those protests immediately parlayed into the 2024 election cycle, with rightwing politicians seizing upon the opportunity to use the chaos in order to chip away at the crumbling foundation that the Biden administration’s re-election hopes rested upon. Smelling blood in the water, Biden’s opponents used the protests as evidence of the incumbent’s anti-American ideals manifesting on the nation’s soil and vowed to take swift action against the participants.

As is often the case, the right inextricably tied the interests of the US to those of Israel by categorizing the protesters critical of the genocidal war effort led by the Netanyahu regime as terrorists who were able to find safe haven in the US due to policies of the Biden administration like DEI and open borders that were rooted in Cultural Marxism. Proposed legislation aimed at purging students on visas involved in the protests due to their political leanings gained momentum but ultimately did not achieve any impact. However, an Executive Order signed by the Trump Administration realizes the goal of that reactionary response to those protests and carries the same concerns about its constitutionality and the chaos that enveloped the country across college campuses last spring being used as a catalyst to infringe upon the right to free speech.

On Wednesday, Trump signed an Executive Order titled Additional Measures To Combat Anti-Semitism into effect that fulfilled the promise he made to “get rid of the Jew haters” in the US during his presidential campaign last year. The Executive Order reaffirms another one that Trump signed during his first term that served this same interest. That previous order is Executive Order 13899, which Trump executed in 2019. The 2025 iteration of Executive Order 13899 dictates that the heads of each executive department offer reports on pending civil and criminal action taken under their respective jurisdictions in relation to the “wave of vile anti-Semitic discrimination, vandalism, and violence against our citizens, especially in our schools and on our campuses.” The Executive Order ultimately aims to provide the framework necessary to deport non-citizen college students who took place in last year’s protests against Israel from the United States.

The fact sheet accompanying the Executive Order minced no words, concluding by saying “To all the resident aliens who joined in the pro-jihadist protests, we put you on notice: come 2025, we will find you, and we will deport you. I will also quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on college campuses, which have been infested with radicalism like never before.” That language echoed the promises Trump made on the campaign trail set by the rising tide represented by the protests that he compared to the cultural landscape that preceded the Holocaust. When making that comparison between the college protests to demonstrations across the Third Reich, Trump stated “If you look, it’s the same thing.”

Since Trump has taken office, his blitzrkrieg of Executive Orders have defeated many doubts about his ability to live up to the promises he made in the hopes of being re-elected. Criticisms of those who point out how he never took action to lock up Hillary Clinton during his first term as a portent of a similarly disappointing second tenure in the White House have largely been assuaged as Trump has already made good on his commitments to do things like offer pardons to the multitudes of January 6th protesters and to Ross Ulbricht, the founder of the Silk Road who was serving a life sentence behind bars. Those Executive Orders honored the commitments Trump made to his base of supporters as well as the Libertarian voters whose support he hoped to garner to aid his re-election hopes.

With those promises fulfilled, Trump’s swift executive actions now appear to have turned to serve the interests of his largest political donor, Miriam Adelson, whose $100 million donation to Trump’s re-election campaign ensured that any return to the Oval Office would serve the interests of Israel.

While Trump’s triumphant return to the White House has largely been celebrated, one unwavering criticism he continues to face is the paradox that exists between the overarching interests of Israel being held as paramount by a supposed “America First” political platform. Appeasing Israel’s interests has continued to be the exception to every rule as each of Trump’s cabinet nominations that expressed their unconditional support for the Jewish state, echoing the president’s own long-held position. Trump’s latest Executive Order highlights the continued prevalence of that contradictory dynamic within the “America First” movement of putting Israel’s interests above that of America’s.

Supporters of Trump’s effort to deport anti-Israel protesters on student visas have attempted to dispel concerns over the infringement of the First Amendment it poses by highlighting how those being targeted by it are not US citizens. That criticism isn’t just myopic, it illustrates an absence of civic engagement that would belong to any dutiful American who believes in the supreme importance of upholding the constitution. That hollow argument is entirely ignorant of even a rudimentary understanding of constitutional law that has extended civil rights protections to non-citizens for nearly a sesquicentennial.

In 1886, The United States Supreme Court set that precedent when  it issued its decision in the case of Yick Wo v. Hopkins. The case was brought to the SCOTUS by Lee Yick, a Chinese immigrant who moved to San Francisco in 1861 and ran a laundromat named Yick Wo for over 22 years. When Yick sought to renew the license they needed to operate the laundromat, they were denied on the basis of safety concerns. Before Yick sought to renew their license, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed an ordinance making it illegal to operate a laundromat in a wooden building without a permit from the Board, a permit that the business owner was not granted. Despite not being granted the permit, Yick continued to operate the laundromat and was eventually imprisoned for not paying the fine they received for violating the ordinance.

After being imprisoned, Yick petitioned the California Supreme Court for a writ of habeas corpus. Yick’s legal counsel argued that of the 320 laundromats that applied for the permit to operate in a wooden building, only 1 of the 200 Chinese applicants was approved. Comparatively, all 120 of the non-Chinese applicants had their permit applications approved. Yick’s counsel argued that this constituted de facto discrimination against the Chinese, an argument that the SCOTUS upheld. When examining the issue of Yick not being a citizen, the court held that the plain meaning of the text of the 14th Amendment extends the right to protection under the law to “all persons” who have action taken against them in the United States, regardless of citizenship.

The longstanding precedent set by the SCOTUS through Yick Wo v. Hopkins serves as the bedrock for criticism of Trump’s Executive Order aimed at deporting non-citizens on student visas for participating in protests against Israel. “The First Amendment protects everyone in the United States, including foreign citizens studying at American universities,” said Carrie DeCell, senior staff attorney at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, which became the epicenter of anti-Israel protests last spring. DeCell concluded that “Deporting non-citizens on the basis of their political speech would be unconstitutional.”

The culture war that continues to be waged across the US creates a landscape in which its opponents have lost sight of the forest through the trees. Championing unconstitutional efforts to defeat opposition runs the risk of winning the battle only to lose the war, as the implications of empowering the state to infringe upon free speech would ultimately befall upon the fate of its citizens. This concern was prominent in the wake of the spring 2024 anti-Israel college protests when the Antisemitism Awareness Act was proposed. That proposed legislation highlighted how opportunistic Congress was in exploiting the chaos of those protests to make sweeping attacks against the right to free speech under the guise of combating antisemitism. President Trump’s latest Executive Order highlights how that threat to free speech has emerged yet again, illustrating the dire need for the continued resolve necessary to uphold the most sacrosanct of American virtues.

February 1, 2025 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Full Spectrum Dominance | , , , , | Leave a comment

Trump’s call for Palestinians’ relocation will threaten regional peace, Arab nations warn

Press TV – February 1, 2025

Major Arab nations have expressed their opposition to US President Donald Trump’s proposal to relocate Palestinians from Gaza and the occupied West Bank to neighboring Egypt and Jordan under any circumstances.

In a joint statement following a meeting in Cairo, the foreign ministers and officials from Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, the Palestinian Authority and the Arab League presented a unified stance against the US president.

They warned that such a move would threaten regional stability, risk spreading the conflict, and undermine prospects for peace and coexistence among its peoples.

“We affirm our rejection of [any attempts] to compromise Palestinians’ unalienable rights, whether through settlement activities, or evictions or annex of land or through vacating the land from its owners… in any form or under any circumstances or justifications,” the statement read.

The top diplomats emphasized that they were looking forward to working with Trump’s administration to achieve a just and comprehensive peace in the region, it noted.

Trump said last week that he had spoken with the king of Jordan about potentially building housing and moving more than 1 million Palestinians from Gaza to neighboring countries.

The US president added that he would like both Jordan and Egypt — which borders the battered enclave — to house the Palestinians displaced by 15 months of the Israeli regime’s genocidal war.

However, critics said that Trump’s suggestion would be tantamount to ethnic cleansing.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Wednesday opposed the idea that his country would facilitate the displacement of Gazans and said Egyptians would take to the streets to express their disapproval.

Trump on Thursday insisted that Egypt and Jordan would accept displaced Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, despite the two nations having dismissed his plan to relocate Gazans there.

Jordan is already home to several million Palestinians, while tens of thousands live in Egypt. The foreign ministries of Egypt and Jordan have both rejected Trump’s suggestion in recent days.

February 1, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Desertion Epidemic? Ukrainian Soldiers Flee as Army Collapses on the Battlefield

By Ekaterina Blinova – Sputnik – 31.01.2025

As Ukraine’s army suffers mounting defeats, thousands of soldiers are abandoning their units, unable or unwilling to continue the fight.

  • The 157th Brigade, formed in 2024, ceased to exist by 2025 with one-third of its soldiers deserting before becoming operational.
  • The elite 155th ‘Anna of Kiev’ Brigade saw at least 1,700 of its 2,300 soldiers desert before reaching the front lines.
  • Over 10% of the 13,000 Ukrainian soldiers sent to Poland for training fled the country.
  • Desertion is occurring in both large and small groups, with 22 soldiers from the 71st Separate Jaeger Brigade deserting in just one week in December 2024.
  • Some deserters are even charging to assist others escape, with one man arrested for smuggling soldiers out for €7,000 each.

The Scale of Desertion is Staggering:

  • For every 100 mobilized soldiers, only 10 reach the front, according to General Serhiy Kryvonos.
  • Ukrainian activist Gennadiy Druzenko estimates 150,000 deserters, with 114,000 criminal cases opened.
  • Ukrainian officials have admitted the crisis, with Deputy Anna Skorokhod estimating over 100,000 desertions by October 2024. Commissioner Olga Reshetylova stated bluntly: “The problem is big. People are exhausted.”

February 1, 2025 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Militarism | , | Leave a comment

WhatsApp accuses Israeli spyware firm of targeting journalists, civil society members

RT | January 31, 2025

Meta’s popular messaging platform WhatsApp has alerted nearly 100 journalists and civil society members to potential device breaches involving spyware from Israeli firm Paragon Solutions, a company official told Reuters on Friday.

These individuals have likely been compromised through a zero-click attack, possibly initiated via a malicious PDF sent in group chats, according to WhatsApp.

The identity of the attackers remains unknown, though Paragon’s software is typically used by government clients. After detecting and disrupting the hacking effort, WhatsApp issued a cease-and-desist letter to Paragon. The incident has been reported to law enforcement and Citizen Lab, a Canadian internet watchdog.

Paragon declined to comment on the accusations, according to Reuters.

Citizen Lab researcher John Scott-Railton told the outlet that the incident “is a reminder that mercenary spyware continues to proliferate and as it does, so we continue to see familiar patterns of problematic use.”

Paragon’s website advertises “ethically based tools, teams, and insights to disrupt intractable threats,” and claims to only sell to governments in stable democratic countries. The company’s products include Graphite, spyware that allows total phone access.

Despite Paragon’s claims of ethical practices, WhatsApp’s findings suggest otherwise, Natalia Krapiva, senior tech-legal counsel at Access Now, told Reuters. She emphasized that such abuses are not isolated incidents, saying, “This is not just a question of some bad apples – these types of abuses (are) a feature of the commercial spyware industry.”

This incident follows a series of legal challenges against Israeli spyware firms. In December 2024, a US judge ruled that NSO Group, the maker of Pegasus spyware, was liable for hacking the phones of 1,400 individuals through WhatsApp in May 2019, violating US state and federal hacking laws, and WhatsApp’s terms of service. A separate trial in March will determine what damages NSO Group owes WhatsApp.

Legal documents from ongoing US litigation between NSO Group and WhatsApp have revealed that it is the Israeli cyberweapons maker NSO Group, not its government clients, that installs and extracts information using its spyware. This disclosure contradicts NSO’s prior claim that only clients operate the system without NSO’s direct involvement.

January 31, 2025 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Deception, Full Spectrum Dominance | , , | Leave a comment

Rebuffing US resettlement bid, Russia affirms Palestinians’ right to Gaza

MEMO | January 31, 2025

The Palestinian people, including those in Gaza, have an indisputable right to live on their land, the Kremlin said on Friday in response to US President Donald Trump suggesting the resettlement of Palestinians from Gaza to Egypt and Jordan, Anadolu Agency reports.

“The Gaza Strip is an integral part of the territory of the future Palestinian State, along with East Jerusalem and the West Bank of the Jordan River. The right of the people of Palestine includes the right of the people of Gaza to live on their land, it is indisputable, it should not be questioned,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, told a press briefing in Saransk, Russia, taking a question from Anadolu.

She reaffirmed that Russia’s position on Gaza and its inhabitants remains firm and unchanged.

“We support a comprehensive political resolution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict based on internationally recognised legal frameworks, including UN General Assembly decisions, UN Security Council resolutions and the Arab Peace Initiative. The outcome should be the establishment of an independent Palestinian State within the “1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital, coexisting peacefully and securely alongside Israel,” she said.

This approach, rooted in international law and historical justice, is supported by the vast majority of countries, including Arab nations, she said.

“We firmly believe that only implementation of a two-state solution can ensure lasting peace in the Middle East,” she added.

Trump had earlier suggested that Jordan and Egypt, both of which border Gaza, should house displaced Palestinians. “You’re talking about a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing,” he said.

The suggestion drew widespread condemnation.

January 31, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Prisoner thanks Gazans after release, says Israel tortures Palestinians

Press TV – January 31, 2025

One of the high-profile Palestinians released as part of the third batch of an agreement between Hamas and Israel on the exchange of Palestinian prisoners with Israeli captives under a Gaza ceasefire agreement was Zakaria Zubeidi.

Zubeidi, a senior leader of the Fatah movement and commander of its armed wing the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades in the West Bank, was freed on Thursday alongside 109 other Palestinian prisoners in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Their release came after Hamas and its ally Palestinian Islamic Jihad released three Israeli captives along with the five Thai nationals. They were handed over to the Red Cross.

“Today I say thank you to Gaza, which liberated me and brought me back to my family. I was isolated, tortured and beaten, and repeatedly humiliated, and the situation of all prisoners is the same,” Zubeidi said in his first remarks after the release.

He went on to describe Israeli prisons as centers of killing and daily torture.

“Gaza now needs reconstruction, and all levels of the Palestinian people must come together to accomplish this, and return our people to their homes safely,” the former Palestinian prisoner pointed out.

Zubeidi was born in 1976 at Jenin refugee camp in the northern part of the occupied West Bank. He became a military commander for the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades during the Second Intifada (2000–2005), leading armed resistance.

He lost his mother Samira and his brother Taha in 2002, as Israeli occupation forces stormed the camp.

Zubeidi was constantly pursued by the occupying Tel Aviv regime.

On July 15, 2007, Israel granted amnesty to several al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade members, including him, in exchange for their surrender to the Palestinian Authority.

Following the amnesty, Zubeidi got married and had two children – a son and a daughter. He shifted his focus to theater arts, and became a prominent advocate for Palestinian arts with the Freedom Theater in Jenin.

He met with many international activists and supporters of Palestinian rights.

But four years later, on December 29, 2011, Israel revoked his amnesty, despite Zubeidi’s insistence that he had not violated its terms.

He was detained without charge by the Palestinian Authority (PA) for six months, and then later held in a PA jail in “protective custody.”

In 2018, he pursued a master’s degree at Birzeit University.

He and his lawyer, Tariq Barghout, were arrested in January 2019 and charged with engaging in “new incitement activities” and armed resistance against the Israeli regime.

Zubeidi finally obtained his master’s degree behind prison bars.

On September 6, 2021, he escaped from the Gilboa maximum security prison in the northern sector of the Israeli-occupied territories alongside 5 other Palestinian inmates by digging a tunnel from their cell.

Israeli forces recaptured all six Palestinian inmates days later, but the daring escape, known as Operation Freedom Tunnel, was widely praised as legendary among Palestinians and Muslim nations.

Last May, Zubeidi’s son Dawoud succumbed to injuries sustained in an armed confrontation with Israeli forces in Jenin.

Last September, his other son Mohammad was killed in an Israeli airstrike on the West Bank city of Tubas along with several other Palestinians.

January 31, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Subjugation - Torture | , , , , | Leave a comment

RFK Jr. Pushes Back on Chronic Disease, Autism and Agency Corruption

By Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D. | The Defender | January 30, 2025

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. hit back at Congress members who attacked his stance on vaccines and the chronic disease epidemic, suggesting today during his second U.S. Senate hearing to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that several members have accepted donations from Big Pharma.

One day after his first confirmation hearing in the Senate Finance Committee, which included an exchange with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) about onesies sold on the Children’s Health Defense (CHD) website, Kennedy testified before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, for which Sanders is a ranking member.

During an exchange with Sanders, Kennedy said, “Corruption is not just in the federal agencies, it is in Congress too. Almost all the members of this panel … including yourself, are accepting millions of dollars from the pharmaceutical industry.”

This was one of several contentious moments during today’s meeting, which also focused on vaccine safety, the chronic disease epidemic and conflicts of interest in scientific research.

Kennedy frequently questioned the effectiveness of U.S. public health agencies in addressing the chronic health epidemic, which he said has come at a great cost both in terms of fatalities and the epidemic’s economic burden.

“The focus is on infectious disease, and we almost altogether ignore chronic disease, which causes 92% of the deaths in this country,” Kennedy said. Noting that the U.S. had a disproportionate percentage of COVID-19-related deaths during the pandemic, Kennedy said it is because “we are the sickest people on earth.”

Kennedy pledged to reverse this trend, if confirmed as HHS secretary, by emphasizing transparency and “good science.”

‘I’m pro-good science’

Unlike yesterday’s hearing, today’s hearing focused extensively on Kennedy’s views on vaccines and vaccine safety. Kennedy responded to claims he is “anti-vaccine” and “anti-industry.”

“I’m neither. I’m pro-safety. I’m pro-good science,” Kennedy said. “We should always follow the evidence no matter what it says.” Kennedy said he wouldn’t “impose” his opinions on HHS scientists. Instead, he would support examining “all the data” by empowering HHS scientists to do their job.

“We will have the best vaccine standards, with safety studies,” Kennedy said.

Much of the discussion about vaccines centered on rising autism rates, with Kennedy noting that they have increased from 1 in 10,000 to as high as 1 in 34, calling this an “explosion” that public health agencies have long overlooked.

Kennedy referred to a recent peer-reviewed study of 47,000 9-year-olds to respond to claims by members of the committee that the link between autism and vaccines has been definitively debunked. The study found that autism rates were higher among vaccinated children and increased as the number of vaccinations grew.

“Why don’t we know what’s causing this epidemic?” Kennedy asked. “Why hasn’t CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] been looking at other hypotheses to determine the etiology of why we’ve had this dramatic 1,000% increase in this disease that is destroying our kids?”

Several members of the committee openly agreed with Kennedy’s stance on autism.

“1-in-36. If that’s not a pandemic, then what is?” asked Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.). “Can any of you guys with a straight face say that we shouldn’t look at every aspect to what we’re putting in our kids, be it from the food to the vaccines?”

“I just want to follow the science where it leads, without presupposition,” said Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.)

‘We need a trustworthy government’

Kennedy also addressed the COVID-19 vaccines, stating that mandates and a lack of public trust in their safety have contributed to waning vaccination rates.

“If we want uptake of vaccines, we need a trustworthy government,” Kennedy said. “That’s what I want to restore to the American people and the vaccine program. I want people to know if the government says something, it’s true. It’s not manipulative.”

Kennedy responded to claims by some committee members that the COVID-19 vaccines saved millions of lives, pointing out that this statement can’t be made definitively because public health agencies “don’t have a good surveillance system.”

Kennedy cited a 2021 lawsuit he filed against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) over its approval of the COVID-19 vaccines, as an example of deficiencies in the safety testing by public health agencies.

“I filed that lawsuit after CDC recommended the vaccine for 6-year-old children without any evidence that it would benefit them and without testing,” Kennedy said.

Kennedy said he would “support the vaccine program” — but by ensuring “that we have gold-standard, evidence-based science.”

‘A generation of kids’ has been ‘written off’

Kennedy suggested that agency capture and the entanglement of Big Pharma with drug regulation and safety, have adversely affected Americans’ health outcomes.

“Prescription drugs are now the third-largest cause of death in our country … Americans are getting less and less healthy. Seventy percent of pharmaceutical profits globally come from our country, which has 4.2% of the world’s population. We’re the only country that allows full-scale pharmaceutical ads on TV,” Kennedy said.

“A generation of kids” has been “written off” as a result of factors such as “misplaced institutional loyalty” and “entanglements with the drug companies,” Kennedy said.

“Our country will sink beneath a sea of desperation and debt if we don’t change course and ask the fundamental question, ‘Why are healthcare costs so high in the first place?’ The obvious answer to that question is chronic disease,” Kennedy said.

According to Kennedy, “a very little, low percentage” of the budget of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is devoted to studying chronic disease — and the toxins that cause them. He vowed to change this if confirmed.

“We are allowing these companies — because of their influence over this body, over our regulatory agencies, to mass-poison American children. And that’s wrong. It needs to end,” Kennedy said. “The president’s pledge is not to make some Americans healthy again, but to make all Americans healthy again.”

Kennedy’s message drew the support of some of the committee’s members including Paul, who in a post on X said, “RFK Jr. has my vote.” Despite his contentious series of exchanges with Kennedy, Sanders also expressed support for Kennedy’s agenda to “Make America Healthy Again.”

According to Kim Mack Rosenberg, general counsel for CHD, today’s hearing was “a courtesy hearing.” Yesterday’s hearing before the Senate Finance Committee “is the decisive vote that will take the final vote to the Senate floor.”

Kennedy will then require a simple majority vote in the Senate to be confirmed as HHS secretary. If confirmed, Kennedy will lead a department that oversees 13 public health agencies, including the CDC, FDA and NIH.

Related articles in The Defender

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.

January 30, 2025 Posted by | Science and Pseudo-Science | , | Leave a comment

New York’s Speech Crackdown Shields ISRAEL From Public Criticism

21st Century Wire | January 29, 2025

Recently, under intense pressure from the Israel Lobby, Harvard University capitulated to Zionist billionaires and media pressure by dramatically expanding its “guidance” for applying so-called Non-Discrimination and Anti-Bullying Policies and Procedures – specifying protections for Zionists and alleged victims of so-called “antisemitic” speech. This has already caused chilling effect on political speech and political protests on university campuses across the United States. These are some of the most draconian and arbitrary bylaws ever seen, and will almost certainly fall foul of the U.S. First Amendment once a challenge makes it to the high court.

In addition, the New York State legislature has also succumb to pressure from the Israel Lobby and pushed through a new law designed to shield Israel and Zionism exclusively – from public criticism or acts of protest.

American journalist and media critic Glenn Greenwald breaks down this fundamental problem now facing America and Europe. Watch: 

January 30, 2025 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Full Spectrum Dominance, Video | , , , , | Leave a comment

Trump signs executive order to ‘find and deport’ pro-Palestine student activists

The Cradle | January 30, 2025

US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on 29 January directing federal agencies to identify and deport “non-citizen participants” in pro-Palestine protests that swept college campuses last year.

“I will issue clear orders to my Attorney General to aggressively prosecute terroristic threats, arson, vandalism, and violence against American Jews,” the White House quoted Trump as saying earlier on Wednesday.

“To all the resident aliens who joined in the pro-jihadist protests, we put you on notice: come 2025, we will find you, and we will deport you. I will also quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on college campuses, which have been infested with radicalism like never before,” the order’s fact sheet reads.

He added that the Department of Justice will “quell pro-Hamas vandalism and intimidation” and “investigate and punish anti-Jewish racism in leftist, anti-American colleges and universities.”

The executive order requires federal agency and department leaders to “provide the White House with recommendations within 60 days on all criminal and civil authorities that could be used to fight antisemitism,” according to the fact sheet.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations released a statement on Wednesday calling the executive order “a dishonest, overbroad and unenforceable attack on both free speech and the humanity of Palestinians.”

“It’s time for President Trump to pursue an America First agenda, not an Israel First agenda,” the statement adds.

Despite rampant claims of “antisemitism” during campus protests that demanded an end to the Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, a study published last May by Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED) found that 97 percent of the protests were peaceful.

“My promise to Jewish Americans is this: With your vote, I will be your defender, your protector, and I will be the best friend Jewish Americans have ever had in the White House,” the White House quotes Trump as saying.

January 30, 2025 Posted by | Full Spectrum Dominance, Solidarity and Activism | , , , , | Leave a comment

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