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Hamas: The Beijing Declaration is an important step towards national unity

Palestinian Information Center – July 23, 2024

BEIJING – The head of the Hamas National Relations Office and a member of its political bureau, Husam Badran, said the Beijing Declaration is an important positive step to achieve Palestinian national unity.

In a press statement on Tuesday, Badran expressed his appreciation for China’s efforts to reach this declaration, stressing the Palestinians’ need for confronting the US solo policy in the Palestinian issue file and its complete bias to and partnership with Israel.

Badran explained that during the Beijing meetings, it has been agreed on the Palestinian demands related to ending the Israeli genocide war and aggression on Gaza, a permanent ceasefire, a complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, and starting Gaza reconstruction.

He said that the most important point of the agreement is the formation of a national consensus government with specific tasks to confront regional and international interventions that seek to impose facts against the interests of the Palestinian people, and to supervise Gaza reconstruction and prepare for holding elections.

Badran reported that the Beijing meeting stressed the need for confronting the Israeli occupation’s conspiracies and its ongoing violations at Al-Aqsa Mosque and its attempts to Judaize Jerusalem as well as the necessary need for the support of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

July 23, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , , | Leave a comment

AIPAC, the leading Israeli lobby group, and its role in subversion of US democracy

By David Miller | Press TV | July 23, 2024

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is the most famous and equally notorious Israeli lobby group in the world. But how important is it really?

Some argue that its influence has been exaggerated and it can at best influence American policies at the margins, while others say it wields considerable clout in US power corridors.

Many of these arguments come from the political left like the one published in Mother Jones, the US leftist magazine, or the one from the former stalwart of the Palestinian cause, Christopher Hitchens, or even the one by Novara Media, a British “leftist” website.

In it, David Wearing presents his argument in these words:

AIPAC may best be seen as performing a disciplinary function within US politics. One can certainly argue that US support for Israel is made somewhat firmer given AIPAC’s role, and these marginal factors matter. But they are still marginal.

Certainly, the Zionist movement is keen to downplay its influence. A report in the Tablet: “How Influential Is AIPAC? Less Than Beer Sellers, Public Accountants, and Toyota” states:

The way AIPAC is talked about, you’d think they’d be a lobbying juggernaut, surely one of the largest in the nation’s capital. Wrong…:

Between 1998 and 2018, AIPAC didn’t make a dent in the Center for Responsive Politics list of the top-spending lobbying groups. In 2018, total pro-Israel lobbying spending was around $5 million, of which AIPAC accounted for $3.5 million.

In contrast, Native American casinos spent around $22 million that year. By Tablet’s count, AIPAC was the 147th highest-ranked entity in terms of lobbying spending in 2018.

This is an attempt to pretend that the influence of the Zionist movement is much less than suggested by observers.

However, based on our findings, we can present these facts:

  • Taking the figure disclosed to the lobbying regulator as if that was all AIPAC spends on lobbying is profoundly mistaken. Though it disclosed only $2.7 million lobby expenditure in 2022, its actual total expenditure was £79.1 million.
  • In addition, AIPAC controls another nonprofit, the American Israel Education Foundation. It discloses nothing to the regulator, yet had a 2022 expenditure of a further $44.6 million.
  • When we add campaign contributions the figures rise significantly. Donations by AIPAC’s Political Action Committee (PAC for short) and its new Super PAC, the United Democracy Project, in the most recent period (2024) total $17.4 million and  $31.5 million respectively.  It’s worth noting that none of this was donated by AIPAC itself. This adds to donations it has raised from others. The United Democracy Project is the third largest Superpac in the US in terms of 2024 expenditure, according to Open Secrets, the US lobby watchdog. This easily outstrips all corporate-related Superpacs.
  • Looking more widely at the Israel lobby in general declared lobbying expenditure by the lobby in 2018 was $7 million not “around $5 million” as stated by the Tablet. The figure for 2022 was $5.4 million, with the following groups making significant declarations: Anti-Defamation League ($340,000), Christians United for Israel ($240,000), Foundation for Defense of Democracies ($180,000), J Street ($640,000), Jewish Federations of North America ($893,000), Republican Jewish Coalition ($320,000), Zionist Organisation of America ($160,000).  But of course, their actual budget/expenditure is much higher than the narrow specific lobbying disclosure data.

However, taking figures the lobby narrowly conceives are woefully inadequate as it does not include money spent by Israeli firms or by foreign agents registered with the US Federal government’s Foreign Agents Registration Act office.

  • $6.3 million was spent in 2022 by Israeli firms including arms firms Elbit ($770,000), Rafael ($680,000), Israel Aerospace Industries ($446,000), and phone hacking firm Cellebrite ($440,000).
  • $16 million in the same year was spent by registered foreign agents of Israel including the regime itself, the World Zionist Organisation ($4.2 million), the Jewish Agency ($9.5 million), and the phone hacking firm NSO Group ($1.5 million).

But even that pales in comparison to data compiled by the Israellobby.org website.

It collates data on Zionist groups providing subsidies to the Zionist entity (including illegal settlements and the occupation forces) and lobbying and education.

It shows a total annual budget of £3.6 billion as long ago as 2012, rising to an estimated £6.3 billion in 2020. These figures do not include the data above on Israeli firms or foreign agents.

However extensive this data is (the best available source on the extent of the economic basis of the Zionist movement), it does not include the following:

There is hardly any research on the depth and extent of the Zionist penetration of US society which is cognizant of this data.

It’s time to dig deeper and reveal the actual spending power and reach of the lobby.

Turning back to AIPAC, it has a deserved reputation as the most powerful Israeli lobby group in the US.  However, a key Zionist talking point is the claim that it is not so powerful.

AIPAC was created by Isiah Kenen a contractor for the Zionist regime in 1963.  It was initially called the American Zionist Council. Two months after the American Zionist Council was ordered to register as a foreign agent, Kenen incorporated AIPAC which did not register as a foreign agent, though it is.

One element of AIPAC activities not well understood is its role in spending millions every year ferrying Israeli settlers for eight-day junkets.

The trips are organized through a cutout called the American Israel Education Fund, a charitable organization founded by AIPAC, from which it borrows its offices, board members, and even part of its logo. Like other tax-exempt nonprofits, AIEF must file a Form 990 every year with the Internal Revenue Service, but donors are redacted from the public version.

Recently, an unredacted tax filing for 2019 was obtained by The Intercept. It revealed that the financiers are a clutch of large foundations and nonprofits, some of which are family-run, which also offer funds to other genocidal Zionist groups.

They include foundations associated with the following families, Koret, Swartz, Schusterman and Singer.

The role of AIPAC in campaign contributions is also poorly understood. In November 2023, it was reported that AIPAC was “airing attack ads and beginning to back primary opponents to challenge Congress members who are not voting for or supporting Israel’s war on Gaza.”

According to the report in the Guardian :

Although AIPAC’s roots trace back to the 1950s, the group spent decades focusing most of its attention on lobbying members of Congress – only getting directly involved in races in the past few years. In late 2021, AIPAC announced the formation of a political action committee, known as AIPAC Pac, and a Super Pac, the United Democracy Project, to get more directly involved in congressional campaigns.

The groups hit the ground running in the 2022 midterms, spending nearly $50m across the election cycle. Aipac Pac boasts that it supported 365 pro-Israel candidates from both parties in 2022, while critics condemned the group’s endorsement of dozens of Republicans who voted against certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election.

The Guardian reported that A group of Super Pacs and dark-money non-profits – most notably groups such as the United Democracy Project ($31,679,020) and the Democratic Majority for Israel ($35,000) – as well as other PACs (AIPAC PAC ($1,491,025) tied to Israeli interests contributed about significantly to US campaigns during the last cycle, according to Open Secrets, a campaign finance watchdog.

Open Secrets data show that this amounts to some $58.4 million in the past year.

In the spring of this year, it was revealed that AIPAC had a $100 million war chest for the upcoming election cycle.

AIPAC’s Super Pac is amusingly named the United Democracy Project. It spends targeted funds on lawmakers who challenge any pro-Israel policy including the mildly critical Squad of Democrat representatives and also Libertarian Republicans such as Thomas Massie who has voted against military aid to Israel.

It was Massie who revealed in an interview with Tucker Carlson that AIPAC appoints handlers for each Congress person.

Here is his description: ”It’s like your babysitter. Your AIPAC babysitter who is always talking to you for AIPAC. They’re probably a constituent in your district, but they are, you know, firmly embedded in AIPAC.

In November 2022, AIPAC claimed that “more than 95% of AIPAC-backed candidates won their election last night! Being pro-Israel is good policy and good politics!”

In July 2024, AIPAC claimed “So far this cycle, all 90 AIPAC-endorsed Democrats have won their primary election”

When all of this data and activity is considered we can see that AIPAC is much more of a player than is admitted in those views from the right and left who minimize its importance.

AIPAC is part of a complex network of lobby groups which collectively can be described as the “Israel lobby”.  Further, the lobby is itself only a smallish part of the much larger Zionist movement.  It is this which needs to be assessed in all its complexity.

When we do that a more rounded and complex account emerges.  The role of AIPAC cannot be considered outside its role in the wonder movement because its activities including raising funds and deploying them through other groups and organizations are a core element of its strategy.

Reducing AIPAC to its lobbying disclosure expenditure or its total budget cannot capture its significance in the movement, let alone the significance of the Zionist movement in total.

Hence, AIPAC, and the rest of the Zionist movement, must be stopped.

David Miller is the producer and co-host of Press TV’s weekly Palestine Declassified show. He was sacked from Bristol University in October 2021 over his Palestine advocacy. 

July 23, 2024 Posted by | Corruption, Deception | , , , , | Leave a comment

Gaza refugee camp attacked 63 times by Israel in a week, authorities say

MEMO | July 21, 2024

The Israeli army bombarded the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip 63 times in a week, killing at least 91 people and injuring 251 others, local authorities said on Sunday.

“More than 75% of the victims were admitted to hospitals with burns due to Israel’s use of thermal and chemical weapons,” Gaza’s government media office said in a statement.

The Nuseirat refugee camp is one of the most densely populated camps in Gaza, currently housing 250,000 residents and displaced people.

The media office held Israel and the US administration “fully responsible for the continued massacres against the displaced and civilians.”

It called on the international community, the UN, and international organizations to “pressure the Israeli occupation and the US administration to stop the genocide and halt the bloodshed in the Gaza Strip.”

July 21, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

What the top UN court’s ruling means for Israel

By Tarik Cyril Amar | RT | July 21, 2024

The 15 judges of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the highest judicial organ of the United Nations, have issued what everyone agrees is a landmark finding. “Legal Consequences Arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem,” is, in essence, a devastating condemnation of Israel’s policies and crimes in the territories which it conquered more than half a century ago, as a consequence of the Six Day War of 1967, which it still holds today.

The ICJ finding also, inevitably, means (whether the judges intend it or not) that not only Israel’s policy in these specific territories, but the Zionist project as such, is based on the irreparable injustice of violently depriving the Palestinians of their inalienable right to national self-determination. Make no mistake, this is not “merely” a blow to the crimes of Israeli occupation and annexation; it calls into question the foundations of Israel as a state, as it is built around the systematic defiance of justice, law, and elementary ethics.

One feature enhancing the impact of the ICJ finding is its comprehensiveness. The 80-page document is the outcome of a long and thorough process that started in late 2022, when the General Assembly of the UN requested what is known as an “advisory opinion.” Detailed and closely argued, the findings are based, among other things, on the combined expertise of some of the best jurists in the world and hearings that involved almost 60 states. (Israel, clearly aware that its position was less than promising and generally contemptuous of international law, shunned the opportunity to state its case, which adds to the absurdity of its current rage over the result.)

However, while similarly meticulous legal assessments tend to generate complicated outcomes, that is not the case here. As has been widely acknowledged, the findings are devastating for Israel and, at least in legal terms, a clear triumph for the Palestinians and Palestine. In the words of Erika Guevara Rosas, senior director for research, advocacy, policy, and campaigns at Amnesty International, the ICJ’s “conclusion is loud and clear.”

The ICJ has recognized without qualifications that Israel’s holding of territories it seized during the Six Day War – including East Jerusalem (which Israel has officially though unlawfully annexed) and the West Bank (which it pretends to “occupy” but is, in reality, annexing) is illegal and needs to end asap.

In particular, the ICJ made it clear that all settlement must cease and that the settlers already on these territories must leave. That decision alone means that between 700,000 and 750,000 Israeli illegals should not be where they are. Not only do all of them have to leave the over 100 settlements they never had a right to establish; the Israeli state has an obligation to evacuate them. Moreover, Israel’s expropriations of land are also illegal, that is, simply put, theft. The ICJ has ordered it to return what it has stolen, that is, tens of thousands of acres.

The Israeli state is, of course, deeply implicated in the illegal acts the ICJ has ordered it to stop and even reverse. Israel’s longstanding policies of incentivizing its Jewish citizens – including de facto colonial settlers from anywhere in the world – to move into the illegally held territories and steal Palestinian land and resources is fundamentally criminal, among other reasons, because it is inconsistent with international law, particularly the humanitarian law enshrined in the Geneva Conventions.

Regarding the Gaza Strip, long a de facto concentration camp for its Palestinian inhabitants and since October 2023 the site of Israel’s ongoing genocidal massacre against them, the ICJ has clearly rejected the all-too-frequently heard Israeli argument that its forces retreated from it in 2005.

In reality, as honest legal experts have long maintained and the ICJ has now confirmed explicitly, Israel has always exerted so much stifling control over this area that it has remained an occupying power, with all the attendant obligations, whether its forces were on the ground inside the Gaza Strip or abusing its inhabitants while stationed around it.

The ICJ also clarified the issue of apartheid. As should be well known, apartheid is a recognized crime under international law (it is not merely a name for one specific criminal regime once practiced in South Africa). Under, for instance, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court – not to be confused with the ICJ – the “crime of apartheid” is defined as a “crime against humanity” akin to, for instance, murder, extermination, enslavement, or torture. Also according to the Rome statute, what makes apartheid special is that it is “an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group or groups and committed with the intention of maintaining that regime.”

Put simply, apartheid is, literally, one of the worst crimes a regime and the people supporting and working for it can possibly commit. In the case of Israel, unbiased experts and various human rights organizations have long argued that it is committing this crime as well. The ICJ has addressed this issue, noting arguments “that Israel’s policies and practices in the Occupied Palestinian Territory amount to segregation or apartheid, in breach of Article 3 of CERD,” that is, the “Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination” (also known as the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, ICERD).

Article 3 of the CERD imposes on states the duty not only to “condemn racial segregation and apartheid,” but also to “undertake to prevent, prohibit and eradicate all practices of this nature in territories under their jurisdiction.” The ICJ has concluded that Israel, by its “legislation” and “measures,” that is, really by everything it does as a state, is in breach of this key provision.

Israel is, in sum, a state practicing the crime against humanity of apartheid, de facto annexing and settling territories it has no conceivable legal claim on, and systematically denying a whole nation, the Palestinians, their right to self-determination. The court has also finished off any pretense that Israel can justify its continuing, pervasive criminality by alleged “security” needs. Those are only some of the ICJ’s key findings. Others concern Palestinian rights to restitution, return, and reparations, for instance. For anyone even vaguely familiar with how the Israeli state operates, it is obvious that these ICJ findings have declared its core principles illegal, as they are.

Many states, at least those with enough power, break international law, some quite habitually (the US, for instance), some “only” occasionally. Israel, however, is special: By virtue of its own, freely chosen policies informed by a nationalist ideology of supremacy and colonial settlement, it has made breaking international law its reason of state: without it, it is hard to even imagine how it can continue. Note, in this respect, that its minister of defense and its prime minister are on the verge of having warrants issued against them for crimes against humanity and war crimes by the International Criminal Court, while the ICJ has already found that genocide is a plausible possibility in Gaza and, since Israel has brutally disregarded all its injunctions, will most likely confirm that finding in a final judgment in the not-too-distant future.

One thing that the ICJ findings confirm is, of course, that the Palestinians have a right to armed resistance under international law. Another thing that follows is that many things that Israel and its Western backers pretend are up for negotiation are not: Palestinians have a right to get their land back; Israel has no right to use it, in any way, not even as a bargaining chip.

A third thing also follows, but from the Israeli response: The whole Israeli political spectrum, not only Prime Minister Netanyahu and the other extremists in his cabinet, has rejected the ICJ findings. Hence, the illusion that the problem with Israel is just a few radicals in power must be buried once and for all: Unfortunately, its delusions of domination and supremacy are widespread throughout its political sphere and its society. Israel is the worst rogue state in the world, and it is also a dead end. For that, it cannot, as its elites usually do, blame external enemies or “anti-Semitism.” In reality, its own arrogance and outrageous violence against the Palestinians and its neighbors are to blame.

Of course, these ICJ findings, as many cynics will remind us, will not compel Israel to change. Indeed, as UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese has pointed out, Israel’s usual response to being called out is to commit even more crimes, as if to make a point about its defiance of international law. Yet it is shortsighted to believe that the ICJ’s condemnation is irrelevant.

For one thing, the ICJ has been explicit that all other states have a duty to “co-operate with the United Nations” to bring about “an end to Israel’s illegal presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and the full realization of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination.” In addition, the judges also reiterated, in great detail, that not only other states, but also “international organizations, specialized agencies, investment corporations and all other institutions” must not “recognize, or cooperate with or assist in any manner in, any measures undertaken by Israel to exploit the resources of the occupied territories or to effect any changes in the demographic composition or geographic character or institutional structure of those territories.”

In essence, the ICJ has put all governments on this planet on notice that they are not free to do as they please about Israel and its crimes, but that they are bound by laws to help stop them and to abstain from being accomplices. That, of course, is an aspect of the findings that should concern the many hypocrites and accomplices in the EU and the US, such as German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, for instance, who cannot see anything but a “comprehensive compliance with international law” when he looks at Israel. But then, that’s the same Olaf Scholz, of course, who can’t figure out who blew up his country’s gas pipelines. Likewise, the leaders of the UK, with “Labour-friend-of-Israel” and, embarrassingly, human rights lawyer Keir Starmer in the lead, and those of the US, in the process of co-perpetrating the genocide in Gaza, should feel at least some discomfort: Standing by Israel will not be cost-free much longer.

Ultimately, the single most important result of these ICJ findings has to do with the enormous role that systematic obfuscation – in plain language: lying – plays for the Israeli regime and its society. All those who have long named Israel’s systemic crimes and called for resistance to them, whether outside or inside Palestine, now have, in effect, the highest court of the world on their side. There is no more room for debate about what Israel is doing, and once that has been settled, there is no argument left for defending it. The ICJ findings won’t suddenly change the world, but when the world does change, they will have played an important role.

Tarik Cyril Amar, a historian from Germany working at Koç University, Istanbul, on Russia, Ukraine, and Eastern Europe, the history of World War II, the cultural Cold War, and the politics of memory.

July 21, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation, Timeless or most popular | , , , | Leave a comment

How western Big Tech giants enable Israel’s occupation

By Kit Klarenberg | The Cradle | July 20, 2024

On 10 July, Hebrew newspaper Maariv reported that 46,000 Israeli businesses have been forced to shut down due to the ongoing Gaza war and its devastating effect on the economy. The outlet referred to Israel as a “country in collapse.”

Regular readers of The Cradle will be well aware of the scale of the occupation state’s economic collapse since the Gaza genocide began. Yet, its effect on the precipitous decline of Tel Aviv’s once-thriving tech sector remains underexplored.

Complicity in occupation infrastructure

In mid-June, mainstream news outlets reported that chip giant Intel was halting expansion of a major factory project in Israel, which was slated to pump an extra $15 billion into the occupation entity’s economy.

Intel is just one tech giant whose fortunes have soured since Palestinian freedom fighters breached Gaza’s concentration camp walls on 7 October 2023.

The same fate has been suffered by many tech companies profiteering from illegal Zionist settlement expansion, which also provide infrastructure and resources used to oppress Palestinians and enforce Tel Aviv’s apartheid.

Multiple consumer-facing western companies that not only profit from illegal Jewish settlement expansion but actively provide core infrastructure and resources used to oppress Palestinians and enforce Tel Aviv’s apartheid could now be subject to lawsuits.

This week, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s continued presence in occupied Palestinian territory is unlawful and should come to an end “as rapidly as possible.” Notably, the court opened the door to “reparations” for any illegal actions carried out by Israel and other entities since 1967.

The ICJ’s landmark judgment means the long-term viability of these tech firms’ operations in the occupied territories is moribund – for fear of legal repercussions, if nothing else.

Fittingly, given Germany is currently in the dock at the ICJ for its support and facilitation of the genocide in Gaza, Munich-headquartered tech conglomerate Siemens is among the culprits.

The firm is “focused on automation and digitalization in the manufacturing industries, intelligent infrastructure for buildings and distributed energy systems, smart mobility solutions for rail transport, and medical technology and digital healthcare services.” Its products are profuse throughout the occupation state and its illegal settlements.

Traffic control systems and traffic lights produced by Siemens can be found in areas of the West Bank where Palestinian residents are forbidden from traveling. In 2014, the company’s Israeli subdivision RS Industries won a tender to provide traffic control systems across the Jerusalem Municipality too – East Jerusalem, designated as the capital of the Palestinian state, was occupied in 1967, and falls within the ICJ’s mandate.

Elsewhere, Siemens provides its DDEMU model cars for the Tel Aviv Jerusalem Fast Train and, in 2018, was awarded a $1 billion contract by the entity-owned Israel Railways to supply 330 electric cars as part of Israel’s electrification project, which includes the Tel Aviv – Jerusalem Fast Train (A1).

A highly controversial project that passes through two areas of the West Bank, including privately owned, occupied Palestinian land, it is intended for exclusive use by Israeli Jews.

Don’t Buy Into Occupation (DBIO) states: “Siemens’ activities are of concern, as they are linked to the provision of services and utilities supporting the maintenance and existence of settlements.”

However, the company’s activities extend far further. Through its Israeli representative, Orad Group, the company provides equipment and technology to the notorious Israel Prison Service (IPS).

In 2004, the Orad Group provided a Siemens technology-based perimeter security system to Gilboa prison — a detention center specifically designated for Palestinian political prisoners. Siemens also supplies the IPS with a sophisticated fire detection and extinguishing system.

Connecting settlements

US brand Motorola is widely recognized for its innovative smartphone devices. However, DBIO has meticulously documented the involvement of Motorola’s Tel Aviv division in settlement expansion over the past decade.

The tech giant has collaborated closely with Israeli occupation forces, the Ministry of Defense, and Zionist settlement councils across the illegally occupied territories. A prime example of this collaboration is the surveillance system “MotoEagle,” designed to monitor settlers on appropriated land, operate within occupation military bases, and oversee the Gaza concentration camp’s separation wall.

Notably, Motorola-produced radar stations have been installed on illegally appropriated private Palestinian land, restricting Palestinian movement in these areas. Furthermore, Motorola supplies the Ministry of Defense’s Zramim System, a smart card operation utilized at Israeli checkpoints to monitor goods transportation.

Palestinian drivers, merchants, and transport companies are compelled to register their personal information in this system, enabling Tel Aviv to monitor all entry and exit points meticulously.

The company is also a preferred contractor for internal security systems in numerous occupation settlements. The Jordan Valley regional council, encompassing more than 20 settlements in the occupied West Bank, employs multiple Motorola products, including command and control systems and surveillance cameras. Additionally, the Population and Immigration Authority in the settlement of Beitar Illit uses Motorola for its security needs.

In 2022, Motorola Solutions secured a contract to provide security cameras and entrance control resources for the Jerusalem Light Rail’s (JLR) entire Green Line. This route links the Gilo settlement in occupied East Jerusalem with the city center and the Ramat Eshkol, Ma’alot Dafna, and French Hill settlements, facilitating connectivity between settler enclaves and supporting settler movement. Consequently, Motorola has been listed in the UN’s database of firms profiting from illegal settlement expansion.

Powering apartheid

Hewlett Packard Enterprises (HPE), which split from personal computer and printer provider Hewlett Packard in 2015, is one of the most profitable US corporations. However, it is less well-known that HPE supplies and manages much of the technological infrastructure underpinning the occupation state’s apartheid and settler colonialism.

For example, HPE provides “Itanium” servers and maintenance services to Tel Aviv’s Population and Immigration Authority. This computerized Israel’s checkpoint system while storing vast amounts of information on all Palestinians with Israeli citizenship and non-citizen Palestinian residents of occupied East Jerusalem.

HPE directly contracts with the illegal settler municipalities of Modi’in Ilit and Ariel, two of the largest Jewish-only settlements in the West Bank, providing them with a range of services. Additionally, HPE maintains the central server system for the Israeli Prison Service (IPS), placing the company at the core of Tel Aviv’s use of mass incarceration to suppress Palestinian resistance. A 1994 Human Rights Watch report highlighted this by noting:

“The extraction of confessions under duress, and the acceptance into evidence of such confessions by the military courts, form the backbone of Israel’s military justice system.”

Moreover, HPE is the primary provider of the Basel system, an automated biometric access control system employed at Israeli checkpoints and the Gaza apartheid wall. ID cards distributed under Basel are integral to the systematic discrimination against Palestinians.

The checkpoints, by design, segregate and fragment the Occupied Palestinian Territories and its inhabitants, separating workers from their places of employment, students from their schools, and families from each other through electrified fences, watchtowers, and concrete barriers.

Electronic counter intifada

This system is part of a broader state of siege under which Palestinians have lived for decades, significantly intensified by the sealing off of Gaza and the West Bank. The Israeli navy, another HPE customer, relies on the company’s IT infrastructure and support services. The siege severely restricts the movement of goods and people in and out of Palestinian territories, aiming explicitly to crush Palestinian resistance.

In 2006, Dov Weisglass, an adviser to then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, explained: “The idea is to put the Palestinians on a diet, but not to make them die of hunger.” It was hoped hunger pangs through limited caloric intake might encourage Palestinians to reject Hamas or at least force its fighters to temper their resistance efforts. The starvation of Palestinians has only galvanized their support for Hamas and their yearning for freedom from Israeli occupation.

The occupation state failed to crush the Palestinian resistance via Operation Swords of Iron, an effort so catastrophic that even Israeli media has branded it a “total defeat.”

Following Iran’s successful 14 April retaliatory strikes against Israel, Tel Aviv’s reign of impunity appears to be nearing its long-overdue end. It is only a matter of time before major western tech firms like HPE, which facilitated the oppression of Palestinians, will face consequences for their complicity.

This investigation is the second in a series at The Cradle that examines illegal investments by western corporations in the occupied Palestinian territories and/or that assist Israel in implementing its apartheid system. The first investigation can be found here.

July 20, 2024 Posted by | Economics, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation | , , , , , | Leave a comment

‘Israel’ attacks Yemeni civilian facilities, Sanaa vows heavy price

Al Mayadeen | July 20, 2024

Israeli war jets launched a series of airstrikes on Saturday targeting Yemen’s province of Hodeidah on the Red Sea coast.

The aggression targeted an oil refinery, leading to a massive fire that can be seen kilometers away.

Al Mayadeen’s correspondent reported that the strikes targeted the Ras Kathib power station in Hodeidah, igniting the oil storage facilities.

The Yemeni Ministry of Health reported martyrs and wounded as a result of the aggression, confirming that civilians suffered severe burns due to the fires.

Israeli Kan 11 channel citing a US official reported that the Israelis conducted an attack in Yemen.

Civil defense teams are battling to extinguish the fires and flames engulfing the targeted zone, our correspondent added, noting that the size of the blaze is making the task extremely difficult.

Yemeni sources informed Al Mayadeen that these airstrikes were coordinated between US and Israeli forces, indicating that the nature of the targets hit by the aggression shows the blindness of the enemy.

They emphasized that there will be a response to the aggression.

Israeli media quoted official American sources stating that 25 F-35 fighters attacked multiple targets in Yemen in several attack waves.

Furthermore, an Israeli media platform mentioned that Italians assisted “Israel” with refueling aircraft in Yemeni airspace.

Following the Israeli aggression, the head of Yemen’s negotiating delegation, Mohammad Abdul-Salam, affirmed that pressuring Yemen to cease supporting Gaza is “a dream that will not come true for the Israeli enemy.”

“The brutal Israeli aggression will only increase the determination and the steadfastness of the Yemeni people and its brave armed forces in an escalating manner.”

July 20, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Wars for Israel | , , , , | Leave a comment

UN’s top court says Israel’s presence in Palestinian territories ‘illegal’

Press TV – July 19, 2024

The United Nations’ top court has ruled that Israel’s presence in the 1967-occupied Palestinian territories is “unlawful” and must end.

On Friday, the International Court of Justice said “Israel’s continued presence in the occupied Palestinian territory is unlawful”, adding that the regime “is under an obligation” to end it “as rapidly as possible.”

Israel occupied the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East al-Quds, areas Palestinians want for a future independent state, in a 1967 war.

The 83-page advisory opinion read out by court President Nawaf Salam outlined a wide list of policies that it said violated international law, including the building and expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and east al-Quds.

“Israel is under obligation to cease immediately all new settlement activities and to evacuate all settlers from occupied Palestinian territory,” the court said, adding that the regime must “make reparation for damage caused to all natural and legal persons concerned.”

The ruling urged all states and international organizations, including the United Nations, “not to recognize as legal” the situation arising from the unlawful presence of Israel in occupied Palestinian territory.

According to the opinion, the UN and the Security Council “should consider the precise modalities and further action required to bring to an end as rapidly as possible” to the unlawful presence of Israel in the occupied territory.

In February, a record 52 countries presented arguments at the ICJ, known as the World Court, about the legal ramifications of Israel’s actions in the territories.

This case was initiated by a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution in December 2022, before Israel’s October genocidal war on the Gaza Strip.

Erwin van Veen, a senior research fellow at the Clingendael think tank in The Hague, was quoted by the Associated Press as saying that if the court rules that Israel’s policies in the West Bank and east al-Quds breach international law, it would “isolate Israel further internationally, at least from a legal point of view.”

He noted that such a ruling would “worsen the case for occupation. It removes any kind of legal, political, philosophical underpinning of the Israeli expansion project.”

The case is separate from another ICJ case filed against Israel by South Africa.

South Africa filed a genocide case against Israel in December 2023 over its war on the Gaza Strip. According to South Africa’s application, Israel’s actions in Gaza were “genocidal in character because they are intended to bring about the destruction of a substantial part of the Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group.”

The ICJ’s final ruling on the broader South African case may take months if not years to rule, but the court can order urgent measures while weighing its decision.

In January, the ICJ, whose orders are legally binding but lack direct enforcement mechanisms, issued an interim ruling, ordering the occupying regime to take all measures to prevent genocide in Gaza, but stopped short of ordering a ceasefire.

In May, the court ordered Israel to halt its offensive in Rafah after South Africa asked the ICJ to order a halt to the war in Gaza, and in the refugee-packed city in particular.

While Israel ignored the ruling, the Friday opinion could add political pressure over Israel’s nine-month-old war against Gaza.

Israel launched the war on Gaza on October 7 after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas waged the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity in response to the Israeli regime’s decades-long campaign of bloodletting and devastation against Palestinians.

Since the start of the offensive, the Tel Aviv regime has killed at least 38,848 Palestinians and injured 89,459 more. Thousands more are also missing and presumed dead under rubble.

July 19, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation | , , , | Leave a comment

Palestinian Factions: The day after the war is a Palestinian internal affair

Palestinian Information Center – July 19, 2024

GAZ – The Palestinian national and Islamic factions said on Thursday evening that the day after the war on Gaza is a purely Palestinian national affair, and no external party will be allowed to interfere in the Palestinian internal affairs.

The factions stressed in a statement that the Rafah crossing is a Palestinian-Egyptian border crossing, and that the form of its management on the Palestinian side is determined by the Palestinian forces and definitely not the USA or Israel, or those who cooperate with them.

“The recent Knesset resolution which rejects the establishment of a Palestinian state takes us to the heart of the conflict with the occupier,” the statement added.

The factions called for establishing a widespread national movement aimed at “reclaiming the Palestine Liberation Organization that has been silenced for decades and for developing a national strategy and program for liberation.”

The factions’ statement comes in light of the news about a secret meeting held last week between the USA, Israel, and the Palestinian Authority, represented by its intelligence chief Majid Faraj, to discuss reopening the Rafah crossing under the control of Israel and the USA.

For 73 days, Israeli occupation forces have been occupying and closing the Gaza crossings, preventing the wounded and sick from traveling abroad for treatment or bringing in any humanitarian aid into the besieged Strip, turning a blind eye to warnings from humanitarian and relief organizations and international demands to reopen the crossings to avoid famine and to save the lives of thousands of citizens.

July 19, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation | , , , , | Leave a comment

Hamas calls on PLO to withdraw recognition of Israel after Knesset rejects Palestinian statehood

Palestinian Information Center – July 18, 2024

DOHA – The Hamas Movement and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) called on the leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) to withdraw its recognition of Israel.

The announcement was made during a meeting between head of Hamas’s political bureau Ismail Haneyya and the PIJ Secretary-General Ziyad Al-Nakhaleh and his deputy Dr Mohammad Al-Hindi in Doha.

The leaders of the two movements discussed the overall political and field developments related to the Israeli genocide war on the Gaza Strip.

They also hailed the heroic steadfastness of the Palestinian people in the face of the Israeli bloody massacres in the Gaza Strip.

“The leaderships viewed that, in light of the Knesset’s declared position rejecting the Palestinian people’s right to establish their independent state, the national forces are required today to take a unified stance to confront these attempts to erase the Palestinian cause,” they said in a joint statement.

The joint statement also called on the leadership of the PLO “to withdraw its recognition of the Zionist entity, reaffirming at the same time our people’s right to establish their independent state with Jerusalem as its capital, and the right of return for refugees.”

Earlier Wednesday, Israel’s Knesset voted overwhelmingly in favor of a resolution rejecting the establishment of a Palestinian state.

The resolution garnered support from 68 Knesset members, including those from Benny Gantz’s National Unity Party. Nine Knesset members from Arab parties opposed the proposal, and members of the Labor Party abstained from voting.

July 19, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , , | Leave a comment

Israel weaponises water in its military campaign in Gaza: Oxfam

MEMO | July 19, 2024

Israel has been systematically using water as a weapon of war against Palestinians in Gaza, showing disregard for human life and violating international law, according to a new report by Oxfam published Thursday, Anadolu Agency reports.

The government of Israel “has used water deprivation to dehumanise and ultimately threaten Palestinian lives since the 1993 Oslo Accords,” Oxfam said.

Near total destruction of Gaza’s water and sanitation infrastructure by the Israeli military “has contributed significantly to the catastrophic deterioration of conditions of life in Gaza”.

The water supply has been reduced by 94 per cent which is less than 5 litres a day per person, or less than a single toilet flush, which is just under a third of the recommended minimum in emergencies, the report revealed.

This has drawn the attention of many international legal and water experts, many of whom have stated that Tel Aviv has weaponised water with military tactics and policies that have deprived Palestinians of water and sanitation.

“Israel’s actions have deprived the entire population of Gaza of life-saving water and sanitation services, creating unavoidable immediate and long-term threats to people’s health and survival,” Oxfam warned.

This comes at a time when Israel has also been accused by United Nations and other human rights organisations of using starvation as a weapon of war.

A lack of clean water and sanitation led to a quarter of Gaza’s population falling ill to easily preventable diseases, said Oxfam, also noting that the Israeli government instigated the water shortage by cutting off the external water supply, destroying water facilities and deliberately obstructing aid from getting to Palestinians in Gaza.

“These acts collectively, and combined with continuous bombardment by Israel, have obliterated the capacity of humanitarian actors to provide even minimal life-saving emergency services to the people of Gaza, and crippled efforts to restore water production. They have also caused widespread contamination by sewage, threatening the lives of Palestinians,” the NGO added.

Since the start of the Israeli brutal war on Gaza, five water infrastructure sites have been damaged every three days, while 70 per cent of all sewage pumps and 100 per cent of all wastewater treatment plants have been also destroyed, according to Oxfam.

Entire population of Gaza held hostage

The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry earlier this year warned that Israel holds the entire population of the Gaza Strip hostage.

“Statements from Israeli officials show their intent to instrumentalise the provision of basic necessities, including food, medicine, water, fuel and electricity, to hold the entire population of the Gaza Strip hostage to pursue political and military objectives,” it said.

According to Oxfam, the impact on public health in Gaza has been catastrophic, with reported cases of waterborne diseases skyrocketing.

Oxfam called on the Israeli officials to end its siege and lift its blockade on Gaza to allow unhindered and sustainable access to humanitarian assistance, particularly for food, clean water, sanitation and shelter.

The Charity urged the international community to take decisive action “to uphold justice and human rights, prevent further suffering and protect the rights of Palestinians in Gaza, including those enshrined in the Geneva and Genocide Conventions.”

Since Tel Aviv launched its brutal war on 7 October, at least 38,800 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, and 89,364 others are injured, according to Gaza’s local health authorities.

More than nine months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on 6 May.

July 19, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , | Leave a comment

Yemen has ‘very large stock’ of UAV used in unprecedented Tel Aviv attack

The Cradle | July 19, 2024

The Yemeni drone that successfully targeted Tel Aviv early on 19 July was locally produced, according to a source who spoke with Al Mayadeen.

The Yafa drone, named after the Palestinian city of Jaffa over which Tel Aviv was built, was “locally manufactured and developed [during the war], after Arab countries intercepted Yemeni [drones] that were targeting Umm al-Rashrash (Eilat), after 7 October,” the Yemeni source told Al Mayadeen on Friday.

The Armed Forces of Yemen’s Sanaa government has a “very large” stock of this type of drone, the source added.

“This is not the last weapon … [This drone] covers a distance of more than 2,000 km, and is equipped with modern jamming and infiltration systems … [The operation] coincides with ongoing naval operations, in accordance with the objectives announced by the Yemeni army. The operations will not stop,” the source went on to say.

“The target bank in Jaffa [Tel Aviv] is diverse … it will never be safe again … the operation is considered an advanced military success.”

The Israeli army identified the drone as an Iranian-made Samad-3, which was modified to have extended range, Israeli media reported.

The Yemeni Armed Forces – which are aligned with the Ansarallah resistance movement – announced the drone attack that struck Tel Aviv early on 19 July. At least one Israeli was killed and several others injured in the attack, which failed to trigger alarms.

In the statement, Yemeni army spokesman Yahya Saree declared Tel Aviv an “unsafe zone and a primary target within our weapon range.” He revealed that Sanaa holds “a bank of targets in occupied Palestine, including sensitive military and security targets, and will, with Allah’s help, continue to strike these targets in response to the enemy’s massacres and daily crimes against our brothers in Gaza.”

The Yafa drone did not set off any alarms as it entered Israeli airspace from the south before hitting a building near the US consulate in Tel Aviv.

According to Israeli media, the army has blamed its failure in intercepting the drone on a “human error.” The air force is also examining why the drone did not trigger sirens after entering Israeli air space from the south.

Israeli Army Radio reported on Friday morning that a preliminary investigation from the army showed that air defense systems detected the drone, but it was not classified as an aerial threat. Therefore, no alarm was activated, and the target was not shot down.

The successful drone attack “shouldn’t have happened,” the Israeli Air Force said. The Israeli army said fighter jets would increase patrols over Tel Aviv’s skies.

July 19, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Militarism | , , | Leave a comment

Collapsing Empire: Yemen Defeats US Navy

By Kit Klarenberg | Al Mayadeen | July 19, 2024

On July 12th, the Associated Press (AP) published an astonishing report, on the return of US Navy fighter pilots to Virginia after nine months of failing to thwart the righteous anti-genocide blockade of Red Sea shipping by Yemen’s Ansar Allah. The article was at pains to portray the pilots’ arrival Stateside as a heroic homecoming for courageous American flying aces. In reality, the Empire’s terminal weaknesses, and drastically ever-reducing power, were amply exposed.

AP described the pilots as “feeling relieved…after months of shooting down Houthi-launched missiles and drones off Yemen’s coast in the most intense running sea battle the Navy has faced since World War II.” Accompanying photos depicted them embracing their wives, and children waving the Star Spangled Banner. One pilot, “clearing the emotion from his voice,” boasted that he “couldn’t be prouder of his team” – the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier strike group – and “everything that the last nine months have entailed.”

The pilot looked ahead to spending time with his family, and trying to “make up for nine months of lost time.” The wife of a Navy lieutenant commander and pilot lamented that she “initially thought this deployment would be relatively easy” – “it was going to be, if you could call it, a fun deployment where he’s going to get lots of ports to visit.” As it was, the USS Eisenhower became embroiled in a brutal, unwinnable quagmire, and “plans continued to change.”

The drastic prolongation of her husband’s deployment “was exacerbated” due to knowing “people” – in other words, Ansar Allah – “[wanted] to harm the ship.” She was forced to consult “counselors provided by the Navy,” and was not alone. AP records “months of fighting and extensions placed extra stress on roughly 7,000 sailors and their families.” Pentagon officials are now investigating how to care for pilots and sailors “when they return home, including counseling and treatment for possible post-traumatic stress.”

It’s been a hellacious nine months for the US Navy in the Red Sea, courtesy of God’s Partisans [literal translation of Ansar Allah]. AP notes the Eisenhower and its accompanying ships have been bombarded relentlessly by Ansar Allah drones, and ballistic and cruise missiles. Frequently, these attacks have penetrated multiple layers of on-ship defenses, which is totally unprecedented in modern history. AP reports many sailors “have seen incoming Houthi-launched missiles seconds before they are destroyed by their ship’s defensive systems.”

Battling an enemy that can actually fight back has been a deeply ravaging experience for the US Navy. One pilot remarked, “most of the sailors…weren’t used to being fired on given the nation’s previous military engagements in recent decades.” He described the experience as “incredibly different”, “traumatizing for the group”, and “something that we don’t think about a lot.” A new experience it may be – but it’s one the US military will need to promptly and permanently adapt to.

Given the pace with which events move in this epoch, many may have forgotten the tubthumping fanfare that accompanied Operation Prosperity Guardian’s launch in December 2023. This followed a flurry of ineffectual, flaccid British and US airstrikes on Yemen. Officials in Washington bombastically announced that a multi-country coalition led by the US, comprising Bahrain, Britain, Canada, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, the Seychelles, and Spain would be dispatched to the Red Sea, to decisively end Ansar Allah’s blockade, and ensure “freedom of trade”.

Almost immediately though, the much-vaunted coalition came apart. France, Italy, and Spain all announced they wouldn’t actually be taking part. Despite this inauspicious debut, when footage emerged of a grand international naval flotilla dramatically slicing its way to the region, many prominent social media users shrieked that Yemenis were about to find out why Americans don’t enjoy universal healthcare. Fast forward to July this year, and the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) published a forensic report on the impact of AnsarAllah’s “attacks on international trade.”

It found that container shipping through the Red Sea, which typically accounts for approximately 10-15% of international maritime trade, had declined by approximately 90% since Operation Prosperity Guardian began. Due to Ansar Allah’s inexorable onslaught against corporations and countries supporting the Gaza genocide, many ships were forced to take alternative routes around Africa, adding approximately 11,000 extra nautical miles, up to two weeks further transit time, and approximately $1 million in additional fuel costs for each voyage:

“For many shipping companies, the combined costs of crew bonuses, war risk insurance (roughly 1000% more than pre-war costs), and Suez transit fees make the additional time and financial costs traveling around Africa less expensive by comparison…Threats to Red Sea transits are compounding ongoing stress to global maritime shipping…Insurance premiums for Red Sea transits have risen to 0.7-1.0% of a ship’s total value, compared to less than 0.1% prior to December 2023.”

The DIA calculates that “at least 65 countries’ interests have been affected” by Ansar Allah’s actions, and “at least 29 major energy and shipping companies have altered their routes to avoid Houthi attacks.” And this is while their anti-shipping aerial strikes have been subject to relentless bombardment by US missiles and pilots.

On July 15th, mere days after Associated Press surveyed the smoldering wreckage of Operation Prosperity Guardian, AnsarAllah announced three separate operations in response to the Zionist entity’s massacre at the UN al-Mawasi Khan Yunis refugee camp. Undefeated and indefatigable, God’s Partisans are not backing down, and are going nowhere. The Resistance fights to win.

July 19, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Wars for Israel | , , , , , | Leave a comment

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