Swiss official who jailed journalist Ali Abunimah is fanatical pro-Israel activist
By Wyatt Reed · The Grayzone · January 28, 2025
The Swiss official who ordered the arrest of renowned Palestinian-American journalist Ali Abunimah justified doing so on the false and defamatory basis that Abunimah is “an Islamist Jew-hater.” Mario Fehr, the head of Zurich’s Department of Security, made the bogus accusation in a recent comment to the Swiss publication NZZ, which also falsely characterized Abunimah as an “Islamist” and an “extremist.”
Swiss authorities detained Abunimah on Jan. 25, after they initially allowed him entry into Switzerland following an hour-long interrogation. Abunimah was deported on Jan. 27 after two nights, during which Swiss officials refused to tell him whether he was being charged with a crime. According to the Swiss newspaper NZZ, officers in Zurich successfully petitioned federal police for an arrest warrant after realizing Abunimah had travelled to the country in order to deliver a speech at an event organized by the Zurich Palestine Committee. Fehr explained the arrest by stating, in reference to self-described “non-religious person” Ali Abunimah: “We do not want an Islamist Jew-hater who calls for violence in Switzerland.”
It’s unclear how Fehr came to adopt this patently false claim, but the article in NZZ gives a hint. In painting the secular Abunimah as a jihadist, the story’s authors relied on a leader of a little-known group called “Never Again Is Now,” (NAIN) which characterizes itself as “the only non-profit organization in Switzerland dedicated exclusively to combating antisemitism,” says it “demands the uncompromising enforcement of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism,” and claims: “we… defend Israel against anti-Zionist agendas.”
NZZ quoted one of the group’s board members, Thomas Patzko, as stating “Abunimah and his platform are a mouthpiece for Hamas.” The outlet cited NAIN while insisting that Abunimah “delegitimizes the victims of the terrorist attack on October 7, specifically women and children” – a reference to Abunimah’s factual statement that “there is no credible evidence of a single rape on October 7.”
It’s not yet apparent whether these false accusations by Swiss media or the Zionist group led directly to Abunimah’s deportation. But at some point prior to Abunimah’s scheduled address, “the Zurich [regional] police had become aware of Abunimah’s planned appearance,” NZZ reported. “They had submitted a request to Fedpol for an entry ban,” the outlet wrote, adding “this request was granted” by “the responsible government councilor and security director Mario Fehr.”
What is clear, however, is the Zurich security chief’s allegiance to the Zionist narrative. At a “Rally in solidarity with Israel” on Oct. 10, 2023, Fehr openly stated that “the fate of Israel and its inhabitants is close to my heart” before rattling off a comprehensive list of pro-Israel talking points, ranting about Iran and quoting notoriously racist Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, while demanding the Swiss government cease funding any development projects in Palestine.
“Hamas and its main sponsor Iran have always called for the destruction of Israel and the Jews. The fact that official Swiss foreign policy believed in the illusion that it could seriously negotiate with these terrorists is naive and shameful. – Anyone who rapes women, kills old people, kidnaps children, dehumanizes the dead, takes countless peaceful people hostage is not a negotiating partner – he is a rapist, a murderer, a terrorist. Golda Meir was right: ‘You cannot negotiate peace with somebody who has come to kill you.’ Peace will not be possible with Hamas and its accomplices!”
Minutes later, Fehr launched into a tirade about those who “somehow try to explain that Israel is actually to blame,” complaining: “These relativists should simply spend their next trip to the Middle East in Gaza.” Though he conceded that “many Palestinian civilians are also suffering and are affected,” Fehr insisted that “the responsibility for this lies solely with the Hamas terrorists,” stating flatly: “Israel is not to blame for this escalation.”
Ultimately, Fehr insisted the Swiss “Federal Council must suspend development cooperation with Palestine (like the EU) until it is clear who the money is really going to benefit” because “there is currently no negotiating partner on the Palestinian side.”
“Anyone who sees it differently is allowing money to flow to terrorists,” he claimed.
In an interview with NZZ one month after the Oct. 7, 2023 attack, Fehr claimed that “the rampant anti-Semitism” had become “unbearable” in Switzerland, a trend he said was borne out by pro-Palestinian protests, and which he attributed to the presence of Arabs:
“We see from Palestine demonstrations that anti-Semitism is more widespread in certain cultural circles. Particularly in parts of the Arab world, children learn to hate Jews and Israel from an early age. We have to be careful that we don’t give this hatred any room here.”
Fehr criticized authorities in Switzerland for allowing pro-Palestinian protests to take place and said he had demanded they ban such events in areas under his jurisdiction, asserting that “anti-Israel demonstrations that are increasingly being hijacked by extremists.”
“Their goal is the annihilation of Israel and all Jews. The danger that Islamists from Germany or other countries will now move to Switzerland and spread their hatred is real. A large Palestine demonstration took place in Bern last Saturday, and the next one has been planned and approved for this weekend in the city of Zurich. I think that is negligent.”
“I have emphatically insisted to the head of municipal security to not authorize any more Palestine demonstrations in the current dangerous situation,” he stated.
Asked whether regional police under his command would “continue to support the Zurich city authorities, even though the city allows such demonstrations,” Fehr replied simply: “We will protect Jewish institutions as before – with all the means at our disposal.”
UNRWA Shutdown Risks Killing Gaza Ceasefire: Official
By Kyle Anzalone | The Libertarian Institute | January 28, 2025
The head of the UN’s Palestinian Aid Agency (UNRWA) said Tel Aviv’s decision to halt his agency’s assistance programs in Israel jeopardizes the Gaza truce and hostage deal.
On Tuesday, Israel’s Ambassador to the UN said UNRWA would have to cease its operations in Israel when Tel Aviv’s law banning the organization goes into effect on Thursday. “UNRWA must cease its operations and evacuate all premises it operates in Jerusalem,” Ambassador Danny Danon told the Security Council. “Israel will terminate all collaboration, communication and contact with UNRWA or anyone acting on its behalf.”
UNRWA Chief Philippe Lazzarini responded by saying the shuttering of UNRWA in Israel risked causing the Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal to end.
“In two days, our operations in the occupied Palestinian territory will be crippled, as legislation passed by the Israeli Knesset takes effect,” he told the UNSC. “At stake is the fate of millions of Palestinians, the ceasefire, and the prospects for a political solution that brings lasting peace and security.”
UNRWA serves as the most crucial aid agency for Palestinians who live as refugees or as second-class citizens in Israeli-occupied territory. Since the start of the Israeli onslaught in Gaza, UNRWA has provided a crucial lifeline to people living in deplorable conditions caused by the Israeli siege of the Strip.
Following the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, then-Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant declared a complete siege, including food, water, and medicine, of Gaza. UNRWA has been the key facilitator of bringing aid through the Israeli checkpoints to the people of Gaza.
Tel Aviv has attempted to portray UNRWA as another wing of Hamas, claiming its members helped to conduct the October 7 attack. However, an independent inquiry found that Israel could not provide evidence to back up that claim.
Lazzarini told the Security Council that Israel recently ramped up its global propaganda campaign against the agency. “The Government of Israel is investing significant resources to portray the Agency as a terrorist organization, and our staff as terrorists or terrorist sympathizers,” he explained. “Billboards and ads accusing UNRWA of terrorism recently appeared in major cities around the world. They were paid for by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.”
The UNRWA chief went on to say that Tel Aviv is weaponizing Google ads as a part of its narrative warfare. “Google ad campaigns re-direct those seeking information about the Agency to websites replete with disinformation,” he added.
Lazzarini argued that the anti-UNRWA propaganda has had deadly effects, as 273 of his organization’s staff have been killed during the Israeli destruction of Gaza.
Israeli quadcopters: Ongoing crimes against humanity
By Kit Klarenberg | Al Mayadeen | January 29, 2025
In November 2024, acclaimed surgeon Nizam Mamode testified to the British parliament’s International Development Committee’s ongoing inquiry into Gaza’s “humanitarian situation”. A veteran medical professional on the frontlines of the Zionist entity’s genocide of Palestinians, primarily women and children, he repeatedly burst into tears throughout. Describing scenes he and his team personally witnessed as they tended to countless mutilated and disfigured victims, he sketched a “particularly disturbing” picture of “Israel’s” inexorable, indiscriminate maiming and murder of civilians in the wake of October 7, 2023.
Mamode’s most intense grief was exhibited while elucidating Tel Aviv’s systematic, industrial-scale use of quadcopter drones to “regularly” shoot incapacitated Palestinians – in particular, children injured or trapped by rubble, following Israeli occupation force airstrikes. Of all the horrors he and his team spectated, Mamode considered “the deliberate and persistent… targeting of civilians, day after day” in the most perverse manner. Time after time, US-supplied IOF bombs would drop “on a crowded, tented area,” then:
“The drones would come down and pick off civilians – children [as young as seven] … This is not an occasional thing. This was day after day after day of operating on children, who would say, ‘I was lying on the ground after a bomb had dropped, and this quadcopter came down and hovered over me and shot me.’ That is clearly a deliberate and persistent act; there was persistent targeting of civilians, day after day. We had one or two mass casualty incidents every day.”
Mamode, who has “worked in a number of conflict zones in different parts of the world” – including Rwanda during the 1994 genocide – said he’d “never seen anything” on the scale of the barbarity in Gaza, “ever”. This perspective was shared by “all the experienced colleagues” with whom he worked. A surgeon on Mamode’s team who’d been to Ukraine on five occasions declared the situation in Gaza to be “10 times worse.”
Benjamin Netanyahu has at last seemingly accepted a ceasefire deal, identical to multiple prior proposals he repeatedly rejected while the Gaza genocide was at its monstrous peak. Yet, in the days leading up to the settlement’s January 19 commencement, “Israel” significantly intensified its attacks on Palestinians, liberally deploying quadcopters in the process. Over the prior month too, this technology was consistently employed to not only injure and slay surviving victims of IOF bombing attacks but target victims into the bargain.
For example, on December 12, 2023, besieged northern Gaza’s last remaining orthopedic doctor Dr. Said Joudah was executed via a quadcopter. This followed attacks on medical infrastructure and personnel in the region over the prior two-and-a-half months, using the same technology. Moreover, questions abound as to whether quadcopters were used to assassinate Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas, in July 2024. Given their lethal virtue from the Zionist entity’s perspective, and its extensive history of breaching ceasefire agreements, will their use truly end now?
‘Precise monitoring’
“Israel’s” primary supplier of killer quadcopters is Elbit Systems, a Haifa-based company with significant foreign workshops, particularly in Britain. Initially, these drones were purely used for intelligence purposes – photo and video gathering. As late as January 2023, the British Army awarded a lucrative contract to Elbit for a fleet of these drones due to their “extensive long-range reconnaissance capabilities.” Such spying potential would serve to “support combat and intelligence operations for up to 60 minutes at a time.”
Fast forward to March 2024 though, and Elbit was proudly promoting slick videos of these same unmanned apparatuses in-flight, as “birds of prey.” An accompanying entry on the company’s website actively boasts about the lethal capabilities of its quadcopters. These “agile, compact and fully stabilized weapon [systems]” are said to “enhance infantry squad lethality beyond its detection and engagement range with stand-off warfare capabilities.” Their innovative capabilities can be used to “detect, classify and track targets… day and night,” in “urban and force protection scenarios.”
It appears at some point that the Zionist entity realized quadcopters could be converted into killing machines. As Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor noted back in February 2024, Elbit drones have been “repurposed… for the deliberate and direct execution of unlawful targets.” The original intelligence gathering function of these drones, the organization added, means they “have very precise eavesdropping instruments and high-quality cameras, and can carry out additional military duties like shooting and carrying bombs, as well as be modified to become suicide drones.”
Among openly murderous drones sold and marketed by Elbit, LANIUS looms large. An official advertising prospectus brags how this “highly maneuverable and versatile drone-based loitering munition” can “autonomously scout and map buildings and points of interest for possible threats.” LANIUS “maneuvers close to the target and uses video analytics to determine entry points into a structure, map the inside of unknown buildings performing simultaneous localization and mapping, and identify combatants and non-combatants.” The system is furthermore “equipped to defeat threats using explosive payloads.”
Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor has documented how, among other savagery, Zionist quadcopters “opened fire on Palestinians who had gathered to receive flour brought by United Nations trucks” in January 2024, after “suddenly” arriving at the scene. The heinous incident killed at least 50 Palestinians and injured dozens more. These drones are furthermore “used in particular against civilians who attempt to return and inspect their homes after the Israeli military retreats from areas it has attacked by land or air.”
Such targeting of civilians, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor contends, can only be conducted “intentionally”. The organization deduces this “is evident as the majority of Israel’s targeting takes place in public spaces where it is easy to distinguish fighters from civilians.” Moreover, Zionist forces “[fly] over the areas it targets for periods of time that are long enough to allow for the precise monitoring and evaluation of field conditions, plus most of the killings occur within a close targeting range.”
‘Military force’
The use of quadcopters for targeted murder is not explicitly prohibited or even formally regulated under international law. However, their application must always adhere to international humanitarian law related to all armed conflicts, as with any other weapon. Moreover, their routine use in extrajudicial killings of Palestinians is unambiguously war crimes and crimes against humanity under both the Geneva Conventions and the International Criminal Court’s Rome Statute. There can be little doubt that quadcopters are a fundamental component of Tel Aviv’s undeniable genocide in Gaza.
Just as gravely from “Israel’s” perspective, as efficacious as quadcopters may be in executing innocent, defenseless Palestinians in large numbers, they have proven militarily useless, if not counterproductive. In brief, they have not only failed to meaningfully harm Hamas but have served as a prospective recruitment mechanism for the Resistance group. In June 2024, the elite imperial journal Foreign Affairs set out in forensic detail how “according to the measures that matter, Hamas is stronger today than it was” on October 7, 2023.
The “growing” Resistance group had by that time “evolved into a tenacious and deadly guerrilla force in Gaza,” launching “lethal operations” in areas previously “cleared” by the IOF “easily”. Those capabilities have only expanded since, with Hamas continuing to regularly inflict significant casualties on Tel Aviv’s forces in the present. Key to the Zionist entity’s military catastrophe in Gaza, as per Foreign Affairs, is a failure to comprehend how “the carnage and devastation it has unleashed… has only made its enemy stronger.”
This bloodshed enhances the “ability [of Hamas] to recruit, especially its ability to attract new generations of the fighters and operatives.” Atrocities against civilians, including if not particularly all those involving quadcopters, have left the Resistance group unscathed while serving as a potent recruitment tool. Foreign Affairs notes average Palestinians, “often either angry over the loss of family members or friends or more generally enraged at [Israel’s] use of heavy military force,” have either joined Hamas or provided assistance to the group.
With over 60% of Palestinians in Gaza and counting having lost family members during the genocide, Hamas can “replenish its ranks, gain resources, avoid detection, and generally have more access to the human and material resources necessary” to wage war against the Zionist entity. Foreign Affairs estimated at that time, eight months into Tel Aviv’s effort to comprehensively crush the Resistance group, that Hamas fighters were “roughly ten times” larger in number than on October 7.
Meanwhile, “more than 80% of the group’s underground tunnel network remains usable for planning, storing weapons, and evading Israeli surveillance, capture, and attacks,” and “most” of its “top leadership in Gaza remains intact.” Fast forward to today, there remain no signs of the IOF having inflicted any serious damage on Hamas at all – quite the reverse. In a sense, quadcopters are a mephitic microcosm of the Zionist entity’s war effort since October 7, and armed forces more widely.
Tel Aviv has over many years constructed a military at every level that is exclusively suited to blunt-force, indiscriminate attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure. By contrast, its actual war-fighting capabilities are non-existent, as the entity’s calamitous October 2024 invasion of Lebanon and Hamas’ routine battering of Israeli ground forces have amply demonstrated. While Netanyahu may take personal credit for Bashar al-Assad’s fall, and “Greater Israel” is now openly discussed in Zionist media, the Resistance would inevitably prevail in any future direct confrontation.
Two prisoners from Gaza announced dead in Israeli detention
Palestinian Information Center – January 29, 2025
GAZA – Palestinian rights groups said on Wednesday that two prisoners from the Gaza Strip were martyred in Israeli jails.
This came in a joint statement released by the Commission of Detainees’ and Ex-Detainees’ Affair, the Palestinian Prisoner Society, and Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association.
The martyred prisoners have been identified as Mohamed al-Asali and Ibrahim Ashour.
Mohamed al-Asali was kidnaped by the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) from Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City in March 2024. Later, his family received information that he was in Ashkelon prison before receiving another response to a request about his fate saying he died and then a response claiming that he was still in Ashkelon. The last response from the IOF affirmed that he died on May 17, 2024.
Asali, a father of four kids, did not suffer from any chronic health issues. During the war, all his brothers were martyred and only his father survived. His mother was buried in Ramallah after she passed away as she was having medical treatment in Occupied Jerusalem.
As for Ibrahim Ashour, he was kidnaped on February 14, 2024 from Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, south of Gaza. He also had no health problems before his detention.
The three organizations accused the Israeli occupation of deliberately killing Palestinian detainees and manipulating information about their fate.
The martyrdom of Asali and Ashour has brought to 58 the number of the Palestinian prisoners killed by Israel since its genocidal war on Gaza started in October 2023. 37 of those detainees are from the Gaza Strip.
Unarmed southern Lebanese defy Israeli occupation; injuries reported
Al Mayadeen | January 29, 2025
“Israel” continues to violate the ceasefire with Lebanon, persistently attacking residents of southern villages and demolishing homes and lands in the region.
In this context, the Lebanese Ministry of Health reported that five Lebanese civilians were injured, including two in critical condition, following an Israeli drone strike on the outskirts of Majdal Selem, near Wadi al-Slouqi.
Meanwhile, an Israeli military bulldozer conducted excavation operations at the western entrance to Mays al-Jabal, advancing beyond the UNIFIL headquarters in a provocative maneuver.
Invading Israeli units carried out extensive bulldozing operations on the outskirts of Marwahin, shielded by a Merkava tank while demolishing an artesian well in Houla and erecting new earthen fortifications.
Concurrently, an Israeli drone dropped three explosive bombs on the town of Tallousah, injuring one person and damaging a bulldozer and a truck. Additionally, Israeli forces set fire to homes between the towns of al-Qantara and Taybeh.
Residents defy the IOF, determined to reclaim their land
Despite the brutal Israeli assaults, residents of Maroun al-Ras continue attempting to enter their town from the northeastern side to retrieve the bodies of martyrs still under the rubble.
Al Mayadeen’s correspondent reported that residents of Maroun al-Ras bypassed Israeli forces controlling the northern entrance by using alternative routes to enter the town. During the incident, one civilian was shot and wounded by Israeli forces, while the invading Israeli units abducted four civilians in Maroun al-Ras, including a woman. While three have been released, one remains in captivity.
It is worth noting that gunfire from Israeli forces echoed as residents entered for the first time.
A resident of Maroun al-Ras stated, “Our return is our decision. We will liberate our land with stones and boiling oil, just as we did in the 1980s.”
Similarly, residents of Yaroun are preparing to enter their town from the northern entrance, reaffirming their resilience and commitment to their land, supported by the Lebanese Army.
The National News Agency reported that residents of Kfar Kila set up a tent on the Khardali road at the Deir Mimas-Qlayaa junction, declaring their intent to remain there until invading Israeli units withdraw.
The Lebanese Ministry of Health reported a total of 36 injuries from Israeli attacks the previous day, with six in Yaroun as residents attempted to re-enter, 20 in an airstrike on Nabatieh al-Fawqa, and 10 in an assault on Zawtar.
It is worth noting that the Israeli occupation forces launched on Tuesday evening two airstrikes on Nabatieh al-Fawqa in Southern Lebanon within the span of an hour.
The first strike injured 14 people, according to the initial figures reported by Lebanon’s Ministry of Health.
Thousands of southern Lebanese residents gathered at the entrances of their villages, preparing to return after the expiration of the 60-day deadline. This marks the fourth consecutive day of their return following the conclusion of the deadline for Israeli forces’ withdrawal, which ended on Sunday.
“Israel”—under US backing—confirmed through Prime Minister Netanyahu’s office that its forces would not fully withdraw from southern Lebanon after the expiration of the deadline.
Hezbollah responded late Thursday, declaring that “any violation of the 60-day deadline is a blatant breach of the agreement and an escalation of the assault on Lebanese sovereignty.” The Resistance movement emphasized that the Israeli occupation had entered a new phase that should be confronted by the Lebanese state using all available methods guaranteed by international law to reclaim and liberate the land.
Live from Bethlehem – Jason Jones on the Trump Effect on Gaza
If Americans Knew | January 27, 2025
Eric Metaxas interviews Jason Jones about his thoughts on the Trump effect on the Gaza agreement.
Full video at: 
• Live from Bethlehem – Jason Jones on …
– See Jones’ articles and bio at https://israelpalestinenews.org/trump…
IRIB head confirms journalist held by Israeli forces in occupied territories
Press TV – January 28, 2025
The head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, Peyman Jebelli says an IRIB journalist has been detained by Israeli forces in the occupied territories.
Jebelli on Tuesday revealed that following extensive inquiries, it has been confirmed that the journalist is currently imprisoned and held captive by the Israeli regime.
Highlighting the sensitivity of the matter, the IRIB chief noted that the family of the detained journalist had preferred not to publicize the matter, which has complicated efforts to secure the release.
He emphasized that the journalist remains in captivity in the occupied territories and is not in Gaza.
Jebelli said, “We are hopeful that he will be freed from captivity soon.”
Journalists working within the Palestinian territory encounter heightened risks while covering the genocidal war, particularly in light of Israeli ground assaults and airstrikes, as well as challenges such as disrupted communications, shortages of supplies, and power outages.
Despite these dangers, Palestinian journalists continue to document the atrocities of the war, serving as the eyes and ears of the global community during one of the deadliest wars of the 21st century.
Last month, the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas condemned the deliberate targeting and killing of journalists and media professionals by Israeli forces in Gaza, labeling such actions as a “war crime.”
The statement emphasized that such attacks are meant to “terrorize Palestinian journalists and prevent them from performing their role in exposing the crimes and atrocities being committed by the occupation army against our people and land.”
Since the start of the Israeli war, an unprecedented number of journalists and media workers have been arrested — often without charge — in what they and their attorneys say is retaliation for their journalism and commentary.
More than 200 journalists have also been killed since Israel unleashed its strikes in October last year.
Nonetheless, media workers remain committed to reporting developments in Gaza, even in the aftermath of the recent ceasefire between Hamas and Israel.
Switzerland releases, deports pro-Palestine American journalist
Press TV – January 28, 2025
Swiss officials have freed and deported prominent Palestinian American journalist Ali Abunimah, whom they arrested in the city of Zurich and held in police custody for three days, raising concerns about freedom of speech in the European country.
Abunimah, executive director of the online Electronic Intifada publication covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, confirmed his release in a post published on the X social media platform on Monday.
He said Swiss authorities detained him because of his advocacy for Palestinian rights.
“My ‘crime’? Being a journalist who speaks up for Palestine and against Israel’s genocide and settler-colonial savagery and those who aid and abet it,” the Palestinian American journalist wrote.
He was arrested in Zurich on Saturday before he was set to deliver a speech in the city. UN human rights experts and activists condemned the arrest.
The Reuters news agency, citing the Swiss police, said on Sunday that an entry ban and other measures under the country’s immigration law were the reason for Abunimah’s arrest.
The 53-year-old journalist said that when he was questioned by police officers, they accused him of “offending against Swiss law,” without providing specific charges.
He said he was “cut off from communication with the outside world, in a cell 24 hours a day”, adding that he was unable to contact his family. He added that he was only given back his phone at the gate of the plane that flew him to Istanbul.
Abunimah noted that during the period when he was taken to prison like a “dangerous criminal”, Switzerland welcomed Israeli President Isaac Herzog to the World Economic Forum in Davos.
“This ordeal lasted three days but that taste of prison was more than enough to leave me in even greater awe of the Palestinian heroes who endure months and years in the prisons of the genocidal oppressor,” Abunimah said.
“More than ever, I know that the debt we owe them is one we can never repay and all of them must be free and they must remain our focus.”
UN experts denounced Abunimah’s detention as an assault on free speech.
The UN special rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, Irene Khan, called the arrest “shocking news” and urged Switzerland to investigate and release him.
Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, also called for an investigation into the incident.
“The climate surrounding freedom of speech in Europe is becoming increasingly toxic, and we should all be concerned,” Albanese wrote in a social media post.
The detention of Abunimah took place against the backdrop of intensified restrictions on pro-Palestinian advocates in Europe, amidst the catastrophic war on Gaza.
In April, Germany canceled a conference intended for advocates of Palestinian rights and barred British physician Ghassan Abu Sittah, who had provided medical assistance in Gaza, from entering the country.
Egypt’s Parliament rejects plans for Palestinian resettlement after Trump’s call
MEMO | January 27, 2025
Tens of thousands of Palestinians return to north Gaza after one year of displacement
(Photo credit: MEE/Ahmed Aziz)
The Cradle | January 27, 2025
Tens of thousands of Palestinians began returning to the northern Gaza Strip via the Netzarim corridor on 27 January after over a year of displacement and a genocidal Israeli war.
Video footage documented the first moments that the displaced civilians flooded through the Netzarim corridor to return to their homes in the north.
“Vehicles continue to enter via the Netzarim corridor through Salah al-Din Street after undergoing electronic inspection [in accordance with the ceasefire agreement],” Al Jazeera’s correspondent reported on 27 January.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are expected to return for the first time since being displaced at the start of the war in October 2023 and in the months that followed.
“The scenes of the return of the masses of our people to the areas from which they were forced to flee, despite their destroyed homes, confirm the greatness of our people and their steadfastness in their land, despite the depth of the pain and tragedy,” Hamas said in a statement.
Member of the Hamas political bureau Ezzat al-Rishq said the return of Palestinians to their homes “shatters all the dreams and illusions of the occupation in displacing [the Palestinian] people.”
Israel had been blocking the return of the displaced after the second round of prisoner exchanges took place on Saturday – demanding the return of a female Israeli soldier Arbel Yehud as part of the swap and accusing the resistance movement of obstructing the deal. Yehud is being held by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) movement.
It was agreed over the weekend that she would be released on Thursday in exchange for Israel allowing the return of the displaced to northern Gaza, which, along with other areas in the enclave, was destroyed and ethnically cleansed throughout the war.
Israeli authorities released 200 Palestinians from Israeli prisons on 25 January as part of the ceasefire agreement with Hamas. The resistance movement released four female Israeli soldiers as part of the deal earlier that day.
One hundred fourteen Palestinian prisoners were transferred from Ofer Prison in the occupied West Bank for release in Ramallah, 16 were returned to Gaza, and 70 were exiled outside Palestine, WAFA news agency reported. Egypt will host them for 48 hours before they are sent to Tunisia, Algeria, and Turkiye – which all agreed to receive them.
Donald Trump Is Protecting Free Speech
By Norman Singleton | The Libertarian Institute | January 27, 2025
Donald Trump wasted no time implementing his agenda by issuing a series of executive orders just hours after being sworn in as the 47th president. The orders covered subjects ranging from immigration, to energy production, to a freeze on both new federal regulations and hiring federal employees. One order that has not gotten nearly as much attention as it deserves is the one Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship. This order states that it is federal policy to “ensure that no Federal Government officer, employee, or agent engages in or facilitates any conduct that would unconstitutionally abridge the free speech of any American citizen.” It also requires the government to “ensure that no taxpayer resources” are used to “violate the First Amendment rights of American citizens.”
In order to carry out these pro-free speech policies, the order states that “no federal department, agency, entity, officer, employee, or agent may act or use any Federal resources” to violate the First Amendment rights of any American citizen. It also directs the Attorney General to work with “the heads of other executive agencies and departments” to investigate “the activities of the Federal Government over the last 4 years that are inconsistent” with the First Amendment. The Attorney General must then prepare a report for President Trump and his Chief of Policy that contains recommendations for “remedial actions for any violations of the First Amendment taken by the prior Administration.”
The explicit prohibition on federal officials violating the First Amendment may seem redundant since federal employees already take an oath to uphold the Constitution; thus they swore not to violate American citizens’ constitutionally protected rights. However, Biden administration officials, including the big guy, routinely violated the free speech rights of American citizens. As federal Judge Terry A. Doughty wrote in a July 4, 2023 preliminary injunction forbidding government officials from having any contact with social media companies, “the present case arguably involves the most massive attack against free speech in United States history.”
Leaked emails between officials and employees of social media companies back up Judge Doughty’s statement. The communications went beyond mere suggestions, constitutng threats of retribution if the social media companies did not comply with the administration’s “requests” that they censor their customers. For example, then-Surgeon General Vivek Murthy suggested that the administration may have to take “appropriate legal and regulatory” measures to stop the spread of COVID “misinformation.” Facebook creator and CEO of Meta (parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and Whats App) Mark Zuckerberg, while appearing on the popular Joe Rogan Show described how Biden officials “would call up our team and, like, scream at them and curse.” Zuckerberg also told Joe Rogan that Biden administration officials brought up the possibility that the White House would support imposing new regulations on social media platforms, including modifying Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act.
This is the section of federal law that protects those who run online platforms like Facebook and Twitter/X from being held liable for the posts their users make. Section 230 has been instrumental in the growth of social media. Repealing or weakening Section 230 would hurt the big companies but the main victims would be small and start up companies who would find it more difficult to attract investors if there were the possibility the company could be held liable for posts by the site’s users. Government employees threatening private companies and treating them like subordinates should be unacceptable in a free society—and should be criminalized if done to coerce the companies to violate their customers’ constitutionally protected rights.
Fortunately, at least one cabinet member, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, has pledged to cooperate in an investigation into the Biden administration’s assault on free speech. When government officials pressure private social media companies to take down or suspend posts they violate the First Amendment just as much as if they had directly blocked the posts. Therefore, all who value free speech should be grateful to President Trump for his executive order stopping government officials from violating the First Amendment and trying to discover the full truth about the Biden administration’s efforts to silence those using social media to post “unapproved” news and opinions. Hopefully, Congress will ensure no future administration can reverse President Trump’s executive order by passing legislation forbidding federal employees from “suggesting” that social media companies censor American citizens.
Israeli forces fatally shoot 2-year-old Palestinian girl in the head near Jenin
Laila Mohammad Ayman Khatib, two, was shot and killed by Israeli forces while she ate dinner with her family near Jenin on January 25. (Photo: Courtesy of the Khatib family)
Defense for Children Palestine | January 26, 2025
Ramallah — Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian toddler near Jenin last night.
Laila Mohammad Ayman Khatib, two, was shot and killed by Israeli forces around 8:30 p.m. on January 25 while she was in the living room in her family’s home in the Palestinian town of Muthallath Al-Shuhada, south of Jenin in the northern occupied West Bank, according to documentation collected by Defense for Children International – Palestine. Laila was having dinner with her mother, grandparents, and aunts when sudden Israeli gunfire erupted without warning. Israeli forces fired four bullets through the living room window, one of which struck Laila in the back of the head. Laila’s grandfather carried her out of the house and brought her to Al-Razi Hospital in Jenin, where she received emergency surgery. Laila was pronounced dead around 10 p.m.
“Israeli forces regularly and routinely carry out military operations with complete contempt for Palestinian life,” said Ayed Abu Eqtaish, accountability program director at DCIP. “Little Laila was having dinner with her family when Israeli forces, unprompted, fired live ammunition into their living room, killing her. It is outrageous that the Israeli military has been permitted by world leaders to kill Palestinian children with impunity in flagrant violations of international law.”
Laila’s mother and aunt sustained injuries from shrapnel during the attack, according to information collected by DCIP.
When Laila’s grandfather exited the house carrying her, he saw Israeli snipers stationed in a Palestinian home across the street from their house. No residents of Muthallath Al-Shuhada were aware of an Israeli military presence at the time of the attack, and later learned that Israeli special forces had infiltrated the Palestinian home. Israeli forces remained in the town until about 11 p.m.
Jenin, its refugee camp, and the surrounding villages have been under an ongoing Israeli military attack dubbed “Operation Iron Wall” since January 21, 2025.
Since the beginning of Operation Iron Wall, 16 Palestinians have been killed, including Laila and 16-year-old Motaz Abu Tabeekh. This operation has also been accompanied by Israeli drone strikes, widespread destruction of infrastructure and homes in the Jenin refugee camp, and the bulldozing of roads. Additionally, hundreds of Palestinians families have been forcibly displaced from their homes due to the continued military assault.
Israeli forces have killed eight Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank in 2025, according to documentation collected by DCIP. Five children were killed by Israeli drone strikes and three children were shot and killed with live ammunition.
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Book Review
The Greatest Threat to World Peace? A Review of Daniele Ganser’s ‘USA: The Ruthless Empire’
Review by Marilyn Langlois | November 10, 2023
If you regard the United States as perhaps flawed but overall a force for good in the world . . .
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