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Palestine Action Proscription: We Fight Back

By Craig Murray | July 1, 2026

I publish below in full the Note we have submitted to Court today to re-establish the separate Scottish judicial review of the proscription of Palestine Action. Not only is the state doubling down on prosecution of pro-Palestine activists, a new National Security State Threats Bill is being fast tracked through parliament to extend the attack on free speech.

Under this bill receiving a benefit including “information” from a state entity designated as “hostile” by the Home Secretary will be a crime bringing up to 14 years in prison. So publishing casualty figures from Iranian sources, for example, will be terrorism. Publishing information about Ukrainian attacks on Russia will be illegal.

This is the relevant clause of the Bill. My emphasis:

17C Obtaining etc material benefits from a designated body
(1) A person commits an offence if—
(a) the person—
(i) obtains, accepts or retains a material benefit which is not an excluded benefit, or
(ii) obtains or accepts the provision of such a benefit to another person,
(b) the benefit is or was provided by or on behalf of a designated body, and
(c) the person knows, or having regard to other matters known to them ought reasonably to know, that the benefit is or was provided by or on behalf of a designated body.
(2) A person commits an offence if—
(a) the person agrees to accept—
(i) a material benefit which is not an excluded benefit, or
(ii) the provision of such a benefit to another person,
(b) the benefit is to be provided by or on behalf of a designated body, and
(c) the person knows, or having regard to other matters known to them ought reasonably to know, that the benefit is to be provided by or on behalf of a designated body.
(3) Material benefits may include financial benefits, anything which has the potential to result in a financial benefit, and information…

Please note there is specifically no public interest defence, no journalism defence and it is to be illegal to receive true information. It is not about the spread of disinformation, it is about the spread of information contrary to the British state narrative. Receiving information from a designated enemy of the UK is the offence, whether you publish it or not.

There in no modern precedent for this in peacetime. It is being forced through all its parliamentary stages – three readings, amendments and two Lords sittings – in a single day. I have repeatedly said that liberal democracy has collapsed. I do not need further proof.

Under the current legislation, yesterday prominent international lawyer Dan Kovalik was detained in Liverpool, his phone and laptop seized and he was questioned about his support for Palestine. Dan is a lawyer. He is entitled to lawyer/client confidentiality. His clients include the President of Colombia and other international figures. The UK is a rogue state.

The UK state is currently attempting to gaslight us with a concerted campaign of messaging about a few millions in aid to Gaza – much of which is concentrated on assisting ethnic cleansing by various medical and educational routes for people to leave Gaza. But with Labour Friends of Israel member Andy Burnham to take over as PM with former Chair of Labour Friends of Israel James Purnell as his Chief of Staff, support for the Genocide will continue unabated.

The absurd National Security (State Threats) Bill shows that attack on dissidents and free speech will continue at home too. The debanking by Lloyds of The Canary is another prong of the extraordinary destruction of civil liberty under New Labour.

So I am determined not to bow to the sisting of the Scottish judicial review and we have lodged a motion to “reclaim” or restart proceedings.

We have not yet reached the actual Scottish judicial review or had any chance to give the arguments we will use there. It is my intention that we will attack the proscription in the most fundamental way, making these points among others:

  • There is an active obligation on states to do everything possible to stop a Genocide. By contrast, the UK has done everything in its power to facilitate Genocide, including protecting its supply chain.
  • It is patently absurd to call a non violent direct action group a terrorist organisation
  • The state should not be treated as neutral or infallible by the courts. The false narrative on Iraqi WMD, and the terrible deaths and destruction to which that narrative led, should be a warning the state can get it very wrong.
  • As a former senior civil servant who was in the FCO during that period, I can testify to the pressures on civil servants and agencies to produce the evidence and policy recommendation that Ministers wish to hear
  • The evidence base produced by JTAC to support the proscription recommendation was fundamentally untrue. The Filton jury proved that the Met Police and JTAC assertions of escalating violence, carrying weapons with intent to harm, did not happen as a matter of fact. The jury rejected the aggravated burglary and violent disorder.
  • Only one Palestine Action activist has ever been convicted of an offence of violence, and there the jury specifically found no intent
  • Lady Justice Carr in the Appeal Court judgement both relied on Sheriff McCormick’s sentencing remarks in the Thales case. But there were no convictions of violence in the Thales case. Sheriff McCormick misrepresented the evidence. Last week he the Sheriff Appeal Court in Scotland overturned his finding of anti-Israeli racism against Mick Napier of Scottish Palestine Solidarity Committee. The inaccurate and frothing remarks of one zionist Sheriff are not a basis for proscription.
  • Lady Justice Carr ruled that the Home Secretary must be given “appropriate latitude” and a “wide margin of appreciation” in security cases. But the Home Secretary should not be idealised. They are a politician, and in this case a politician who is parti pris. Yvette Cooper is massively financed by the Zionist lobby. The courts should operate in the real world not in an idealised and unrealistic one.

Lady Carr’s judgement is entirely and directly predicated on the notion that in any conflict in law between the state and the citizen, special deference should always be given to the state as more noble and trustworthy. That reasoning is fundamentally flawed.

To get heard at all we have to roll back Lord Young’s extraordinary ruling that the English Court of Appeal judgement should be accepted as law in Scotland in the interests of “comity”. This overturns centuries of doctrine on the separate jurisdiction of Scotland going back to the Treaty of Union itself – though it does reflect what had in truth been the unchallenged though illegal practice of deference to England in such matters. … continue

July 1, 2026 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Full Spectrum Dominance | , , , , | Comments Off on Palestine Action Proscription: We Fight Back

UK ‘Counter Terrorism Police’ Detain American Lawyer And Human Rights Activist For Criticism Of Israel

By Justin K.P. | The Dissident | June 30, 2026

The UK’s Zionist owned police state continues to detain Israel critics on bogus terrorism charges, in this case against a well-known American human rights lawyer.

Dan Kovalik is a well-respected human rights lawyer and author who previously taught International Human Rights at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.

Kovalik is currently representing Gustavo Petro, the president of Colombia.

He is a critic of Zionism and U.S. policy towards Iran, publishing the book “The Case for Palestine: Why It Matters and Why You Should Care” last year and publishing the book “The Plot to Attack Iran: How the CIA and the Deep State Have Conspired to Vilify Iran” in 2018 .

For this, Kovalik was detained “at John Lennon International Airport in Liverpool, England” by counterterrorism police who seized his “phone, computer, fingerprints and DNA sample” over his “opposition to the Genocide on Gaza and the war on Iran.”

Kovalik wrote on X, “In the height of irony, I was detained at John Lennon International Airport in Liverpool, England by anti-terrorism police concerned about my opposition to the Genocide on Gaza and the war on Iran. They seized my phone, computer, fingerprints and DNA sample.”

Writer Nalia reported that Kovalik “was detained for approximately two and a half hours and interrogated extensively on his political views about Israel’s genocide in Palestine, Lebanese resistance organisation Hezbollah and on the war against Iran”.

She also reported that “Kovalik’s phone and laptop were seized along with his DNA, fingerprints, photos from multiple angles and copies of his bank and credit cards. After officers rifled through his luggage, they questioned Kovalik on the book he was carrying — a gift from a student by Palestinian writer Ghassan Kanafani, Palestine’s Children: Returning to Haifa & Other Stories — before he was released and free to continue on his journey.”

She also noted that “Despite informing officers that he is a practising lawyer and that his phone and laptop contain documents protected by legal professional privilege — including attorney-client privilege — Kovalik objected to their seizure, which a supervising police sergeant confirmed to Kovalik that he had properly raised privilege objections. Regardless of his objections, his electronic devices were retained ‘with intention to copy,’ raising serious questions about the protection of legally privileged material, client confidentiality and compliance with the safeguards governing legal privilege under Schedule 3 and its accompanying Code of Practice.”

Commenting on the detention of Kovalik, former MP George Galloway, who himself was previously detained at Gatwick Airport for his support of Palestine, said: “The Political Police in Britain are out of control.”

July 1, 2026 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Full Spectrum Dominance | , , , , | Comments Off on UK ‘Counter Terrorism Police’ Detain American Lawyer And Human Rights Activist For Criticism Of Israel

Col Douglas Macgregor: Trump Sabotaging his own Iran Deal

Daniel Davis / Deep Dive – June 30, 2026

June 30, 2026 Posted by | Video, Wars for Israel | , , , | Comments Off on Col Douglas Macgregor: Trump Sabotaging his own Iran Deal

Slovenia president seeks probe into Israeli interference in elections

Al Mayadeen | June 30, 2026

Slovenian President Nataša Pirc Musar has called for an international investigation into Israeli interference in Slovenia’s parliamentary elections, escalating a diplomatic row that has also exposed deep internal political divisions over the country’s stance on the Middle East, VINnews reported.

President Musar, who previously accused “Israel” of committing genocide in Gaza, appealed for the release of intelligence findings that reportedly point to a coordinated disinformation campaign targeting the then-ruling liberal party during the March 2026 elections.

According to Slovenian intelligence investigations, the operation involved an electronic disinformation network that leveraged deepfake technology and artificial intelligence to undermine the liberal camp. The probe allegedly attributed the campaign to a private Israeli intelligence firm operating in coordination with elements of Slovenia’s right-wing opposition.

Right-wing takes over Slovenia, strives to repair ties with the occupation

While the liberal party ultimately won the highest share of the vote, it failed to secure a governing coalition. That deadlock paved the way for right-wing leader Janez Janša, who successfully formed a government and took office as Prime Minister in May 2026.

In a sharp reversal of his predecessor’s foreign policy, Prime Minister Janša has announced plans to repair bilateral ties with “Israel”. In an exclusive interview for the Israeli daily Israel Hayom over the weekend, Janša confirmed his intention to relocate the Slovenian embassy from Tel Aviv to al-Quds, a move that aligns with the policies of several right-wing Israeli governments but has drawn international criticism in the past.

Janša also pledged to revoke the previous administration’s formal recognition of a Palestinian state, a decision he characterized as a violation of Slovenian domestic law.

June 30, 2026 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Deception | , , , | Comments Off on Slovenia president seeks probe into Israeli interference in elections

Board of Peace says first ‘tactical vehicles’ arrive at multinational force base in Gaza

Displaced Palestinian families inside an overcrowded makeshift tent camp alongside Gaza City, Gaza, Palestine on June 22, 2026. [Ahmed Jihad Ibrahim Al-arini – Anadolu Agency]
MEMO | June 30, 2026

The Board of Peace announced on Tuesday the arrival of the first “tactical vehicles” at the base of the International Security Force (ISF) in the Gaza Strip, as logistical preparations continue for the deployment of a multinational force in the enclave, Anadolu reports.

“Tactical vehicles arrive at Logistics Support Area: Endurance,” it said on the US social media company X.

The announcement was accompanied by photographs documenting the arrival of the vehicles.

A Hamas delegation arrived in Cairo on Tuesday for talks with Egyptian officials and mediators on implementing the Gaza ceasefire agreement.

The Board of Peace was established in January on the initiative of US President Donald Trump as part of efforts to reach a peaceful settlement in Gaza.

The first Board of Peace meeting on Gaza was held on Feb. 19 at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington under Trump’s leadership.

The initiative formed part of phase two of Trump’s 20-point plan aimed at ending the war in Gaza, backed by a UN Security Council Resolution from last November.

The first phase of the ceasefire agreement included a truce and prisoner exchange between Israel and Palestinian factions, a permanent ceasefire, as well as a gradual Israeli withdrawal from the enclave. Israel, however, has continued to violate the agreement on a near-daily basis.

Under the second phase, Israel is expected to carry out further withdrawals from the territory, while an international stabilization force would assume security responsibilities, including facilitating the delivery of humanitarian aid and reconstruction materials.

With US support, Israel launched a genocidal war in Gaza in October 2023, killing more than 73,000 Palestinians and injuring over 173,000 others, most of them women and children, according to Palestinian figures.

June 30, 2026 Posted by | Wars for Israel | , , , , | Comments Off on Board of Peace says first ‘tactical vehicles’ arrive at multinational force base in Gaza

Gaza Reconstruction Plan Sent by US to ‘Israel’ Leaves Out Hamas Disarmament: Report

Al-Manar | June 30, 2026

The United States has reportedly delivered a document to ‘Israel’ outlining a framework to move forward with the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip even if Hamas does not surrender its weapons, according to Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation.

The report said Washington is seeking written approval from ‘Israel’ for the proposal, which reportedly reflects US pressure to advance President Donald Trump’s post-war Gaza plan while avoiding a renewed war in the enclave.

Neither the United States nor ‘Israel’ had officially commented on the reported document as of Tuesday.

According to the report, the framework would require ‘Israel’ to allow major infrastructure projects across the Gaza Strip, including work on water, electricity, and other essential services in areas that have yet to be specified.

The proposal also reportedly calls for relocating residents from areas “controlled by Hamas” to zones administered by the Peace Council by the end of 2026.

It further includes establishing the headquarters of a technocratic government, permitting the construction of bases for an international stabilization force, and rebuilding the European Hospital. The plan would also allow the entry of construction materials and medical equipment, along with the creation of an access corridor to the hospital through Hamas-controlled areas.

According to the reported document, ‘Israel’ would transfer Palestinian Authority tax revenues related to Gaza to the Peace Council while gradually recognizing the technocratic government as the governing authority in the territory.

The proposal would also grant the technocratic administration freedom of movement inside and outside the Gaza Strip for official purposes, allow digital payments, expand fuel distribution, and introduce fourth-generation (4G) mobile services, which are currently unavailable in Gaza.

The report said these measures are intended to “reduce Hamas’ ability to collect taxes and administrative fees.”

The framework also includes conditional amnesty for individuals who “surrender their weapons and commit to maintaining peace.”

The reported proposal envisions security being overseen by an international stabilization force supported by an unarmed Palestinian civil guard.

At the same time, it would preserve “Israeli right to take what it considers necessary security measures if Hamas does not comply with calls to disarm.”

According to the broadcaster, the overall message of the document suggests Washington no longer sees resuming the war in Gaza as a preferred option and instead wants to accelerate efforts to establish an alternative governing authority, even if Hamas refuses to relinquish its weapons.

June 30, 2026 Posted by | Illegal Occupation, Wars for Israel | , , , , , | Comments Off on Gaza Reconstruction Plan Sent by US to ‘Israel’ Leaves Out Hamas Disarmament: Report

Congress blocks Massie-Khanna effort to kill US-Israel integration

By Ben Freeman | Responsible Statecraft | June 29, 2026

Congress has refused to even allow a full House vote on a provision that would pave the way for an unprecedented integration of the U.S. and Israeli military industrial complexes.

The move came through the House’s Rules process for the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which determines which of the more than one-thousand proposed amendments to the defense policy bill will be publicly debated and voted upon by the full House. Unfortunately, after no debate on Monday, the Rules Committee chose to reject a bipartisan amendment introduced by Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) that would have stripped the “United States-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative” from the bill.

The committee released a list of amendments that were ruled “in order” for a vote on Monday night, and theirs was not on it.

This provision they wanted to squelch, previously known as Section 224, creates an executive agent within the Department of Defense whose sole responsibility is furthering U.S. and Israeli military tech integration across nearly every facet of the defense process, from co-producing weapons to “data fusion.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has described this shift in the U.S.-Israel relationship as “my plan.”

Top-ranking former national security officials have lambasted the proposal and raised serious alarms about what its passage would mean for U.S. national security. Joe Kent, the former Director of the National Counterterrorism Center explained that, “The dangers of allowing any other nation to access our sensitive military technologies are obvious, including the fact that back doors and spyware can be installed that will most certainly be used by the Israelis to influence U.S. policy.”

Paul Pillar, who spent more than a quarter century working at the Central Intelligence Agency, has raised serious concerns about Section 224 and a related measure that would effectively force the U.S. to share intelligence with Israel. “In intelligence, Israel is more of an adversary than an ally. Being an adversary in intelligence means indulging in the hostile act of espionage. Israel has a long record of conducting that type of hostile act against the United States,” Pillar wrote in Responsible Statecraft.

To Pillar’s point, Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) officials recently revealed that Israeli espionage efforts in the U.S. have been deemed “critical,” the highest threat level in the DIA system.

By rejecting the Khanna and Massie amendment, the Rules Committee on Monday ensured the American public would not even get to see how their representatives would vote on this pivotal issue. This is despite unprecedented levels of public distrust in the Israeli government and widespread public outrage directed at these proposals.

Constituents from across the country have let their representatives know, in every way possible, that they do not support any further military industrial integration with Israel. The story went viral on social media, with commenters flagging the issue for their representatives. Letters to the editor opposing Section 224 have appeared in papers all over the nation, and, critically, Republican and Democratic staffers who have spoken to Quincy Institute colleagues have reported being inundated with calls from constituents about this issue.

While the Rules Committees decision is undoubtedly a setback for those worried about this unprecedented U.S.-Israel military industrial integration, the Senate is considering its own version of the Section 224 proposal, and ultimately the two versions of the NDAA will have to be negotiated in a Conference Committee.

All of these points are opportunities to strip this dangerous provision from the defense policy bill. If they fail and this provision is enacted, the U.S. will find itself inexorably tied to the Israeli military. As my Quincy Institute colleague Steve Simon has written, “The measure risks tethering the US military to its Israeli counterpart technologically and making it difficult to uproot should conditions change.” In short, there may be no turning back if this provision becomes law, so the next few months may very well decide the U.S.-Israel relationship for decades to come.

Ben Freeman is Director of the Democratizing Foreign Policy program at the Quincy Institute and the author of “The Trillion Dollar War Machine: How Runaway Military Spending Drives America into Foreign Wars and Bankrupts Us at Home” (2025)

June 30, 2026 Posted by | Militarism, Wars for Israel | , , | Comments Off on Congress blocks Massie-Khanna effort to kill US-Israel integration

Israeli forces open fire on civilians in southern Syrian village

Israeli military camp with armored vehicles along strategic road connecting the villages of Jamla and Saysoun in Daraa Governorate, Syria on June 28, 2026. [Enver Asfur – Anadolu Agency]
MEMO | June 29, 2026

Israeli forces opened fire on Syrian civilians on Sunday evening as they began withdrawing from the village of Abidin in Daraa province, southern Syria.

The Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported that “Israeli occupation forces opened fire towards residents while withdrawing from the village of Abidin in the western Daraa countryside.”

There were no immediate reports of injuries, and the Syrian authorities have not commented on the incident.

Earlier on Sunday, the Israeli army set up tents on Tal al-Maghar, west of Abidin village, and in the Yarmouk Basin area in the Daraa countryside.

Syrian media reported that Israeli forces fired live ammunition and illumination flares, targeting farmers near El-Tallah after a force of four armoured personnel carriers moved from al-Jazira barracks towards the area.

Israeli military activity in Syria has escalated in recent months, including raids on civilian homes, searches, the establishment of checkpoints, and the detention of civilians, including shepherds and children.

After the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime on 8 December 2024, Israel declared the 1974 Disengagement Agreement had collapsed and took control of the UN-monitored buffer zone.

June 29, 2026 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation | , , | Comments Off on Israeli forces open fire on civilians in southern Syrian village

Israel rebrands Gaza’s forced displacement scheme amid international outrage: Report

Press TV – June 29, 2026

The Israeli regime has reportedly rebranded a scheme to remove Palestinians from Gaza, replacing the term “voluntary migration” with “Free Movement Plan” amid mounting international condemnation.

According to Israeli media, the cabinet of the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is promoting the Gaza relocation initiative under a new name following growing international backlash.

Israel’s Channel 13 reported that instructions have been given to various bodies of the regime’s establishment to present the plan using language considered more acceptable abroad.

Sources involved in contacts with foreign governments reportedly expressed hope that the change in terminology could revive the scheme after previous diplomatic efforts stalled.

The reported rebranding comes as Israeli military operations, land seizures, and restrictions on the movement of civilians continue across the Gaza Strip despite a ceasefire that took effect in October 2025.

A senior Israeli official quoted by Channel 13 acknowledged that the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas “still exists” in Gaza and stated that Israel “seeks to encourage” as many Palestinians in Gaza as possible to leave the territory.

Earlier reports indicated that Israeli officials explored relocation schemes with Somaliland and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, although those efforts failed to secure agreements.

Channel 12 previously reported that Israeli institutions had presented plans to transfer Palestinians from Gaza by land, sea, and air as part of a broader relocation strategy.

The international community have denounced the plan as an attempt to empty Gaza of its population.

The relocation debate has intensified amid widespread destruction across Gaza, where more than 73,000 people have reportedly been killed, over 173,000 wounded, and nearly 90 percent of infrastructure damaged since October 2023 when Israel launched its genocidal assault on the enclave.

June 29, 2026 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , , | Comments Off on Israel rebrands Gaza’s forced displacement scheme amid international outrage: Report

Lebanon parliament speaker vows Israel deal ‘will not pass’

The Cradle | June 29, 2026

Lebanon’s Parliament Speaker and head of the Amal Movement, Nabih Berri, said on 29 June that the new US-brokered agreement between Beirut and Tel Aviv – reached in violation of Lebanese law – “will not be implemented.”

“This agreement will not pass, and it will not be implemented,” Berri said in an interview with Al-Akhbar newspaper.

He stressed that his opposition to the agreement will remain “within constitutional frameworks,” and that his party – which is closely allied to Hezbollah – “will not boycott any cabinet session in which the agreement is discussed.”

“That is where we will confront it and state our position,” he added.

“The greatest danger posed by the agreement is not only its political content but also the possibility that it could fuel internal divisions and provoke Lebanese factions into confronting one another – something that would serve Israel above all else.”

Berri also responded to reports and claims that Lebanese authorities were planning to dismiss Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) chief Rudolphe Haikal.

“No one should even joke about such an idea, and no one should play games with the army. The military institution is a red line and one of the pillars of national stability and the primary guarantee for preserving civil peace,” the parliament speaker told Al-Akhbar.

Haikal, over the past year, has reportedly refused to move ahead with Hezbollah disarmament plans while Lebanon remains occupied and under attack. He is also said to have threatened resignation over the matter in 2025.

During a trip to Washington weeks before the latest war, Haikal angered US officials after he refused to call Hezbollah a terrorist organization at a meeting in Washington.

Hezbollah official Nawaf al-Moussawi recently said that Lebanese President Joseph Aoun had plans to dismiss the army chief.

During Monday’s interview with the Lebanese parliament speaker, Berri went on to refer to the Lebanon–Israel agreement as a series of “dictates.”

The speaker called the deal “10 times worse than the 17 May Agreement of 1983,” referring to a Lebanese–Israeli peace deal decades ago which failed to materialize.

Berri, who at the time was at the start of his political career, played a key role in collapsing the 17 May 1983 agreement.

“I’d take 17 May 10 times over this agreement,” Berri stressed.

Berri also affirmed that the only way to achieve the country’s national goals “lies in the US–Iran negotiations,” rejecting Washington and Tel Aviv’s efforts to separate Lebanon from the Islamic Republic.

The US–Iran memorandum of understanding (MoU) is “the only framework capable of creating a balance of power that would force Israel to meet its obligations.”

Berri added that “separating the Lebanese file from that process, or entering into separate negotiations with Israel under American and Israeli terms, would merely prolong the occupation and give Israel more time to impose new realities on the ground without providing Lebanon with any genuine guarantees.”

On 28 June, several Hezbollah officials slammed the agreement brokered by Washington – following months of direct talks that were conducted in violation of Lebanon’s laws and constitution.

MP Hussein al-Hajj Hassan reiterated Berri’s previous calls to avoid civil strife, but warned that the Lebanese state “bears the responsibility” for whatever “outcome” results if Beirut attempts to actually implement the outcome.

The US-Lebanese-Israeli deal signed in Washington on 26 June stipulates that Hezbollah must be disarmed before any withdrawal of occupation forces can take place.

The agreement also builds on aspects of earlier direct talks between Israel and Lebanon, specifically the establishment of “pilot zones” in which the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) would deploy in order to dismantle “non-state armed groups,” including the resistance.

“Two initial zones have been agreed to by the [Israeli army] and the LAF, and future pilot zones will also be agreed upon by mutual consent,” Clause 3 of the framework stipulates, in effect forcing the Lebanese army to take permission from Israel on where it would deploy.

The deal would also bar Lebanon from filing legitimate international legal complaints against Israel, which has killed over 4,000 Lebanese and displaced over a million since the start of March this year.

This is represented by Clause 13 of the Lebanon–Israel deal, which calls for “the cessation of all hostile or adverse actions in international political or legal fora.”

One of the clauses also explicitly states that the “Government of Lebanon herewith requests the support of international and, particularly Arab partners, under the leadership of the US, to achieve this outcome.”

Lebanese journalist Hassan Illaik said this was among the “most dangerous” clauses, and interpreted it as a legitimization of a Syrian military assault against Hezbollah.

This is something US officials have repeatedly threatened, including President Donald Trump.

According to Israeli news outlet Channel 12, the framework agreement between Lebanon and Israel includes a classified security annex that remained secret at the explicit request of the Lebanese government.

The report says the agreement does not set fixed implementation timelines, with every step instead conditioned on meeting specific requirements on the ground.

It adds that there will be no automatic Israeli withdrawals, with any redeployment depending on verified progress and the results achieved in the field.

It also says the two agreed “pilot zones” are the only ones currently approved, and that no additional pilot zones will be established in the foreseeable future without Israeli approval.

Channel 12 further reported that the Lebanese government granted Israel freedom of military operations inside the ‘security zone’ that Israel has illegally established inside Lebanon.

According to Israel’s Channel 15, the agreement signed between Lebanon and Israel grants the Israeli army the right to enter the “pilot zones” to verify that they have been cleared of weapons and military infrastructure by the LAF.

June 29, 2026 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Militarism, Wars for Israel | , , , , , | Comments Off on Lebanon parliament speaker vows Israel deal ‘will not pass’

The Middle East, Hormuz and the New Mercantilism

By Craig Murray | June 29, 2026

The provisional surrender document signed by Donald Trump appeared to represent a triumph for Iran and indeed for the world; but neither the USA nor Israel has the slightest sense of honour and they cannot be trusted to negotiate in good faith.

Iran knows this – after all, the USA twice attacked Iran actually during peace negotiations, on each occasion killing key Iranian negotiators.

To understand the American position, it is important to realise two key points:

  • Greater Israel is an absolute priority
  • Opening the Strait of Hormuz is not a US priority

While the US/Israeli alliance were defeated in their attempt to impose regime change on Iran, and indeed have consolidated the popular support of the Iranian government, they have succeeded in expanding Greater Israel. Israel has ethnically cleared and devastated a vast swathe of Southern Lebanon, expanding its military footprint, and notably attempting to repeat its ploy from November 2024 of pushing forward its armour under cover of ceasefire.

Israeli withdrawal from Southern Lebanon has been a major negotiating point for the Iranian government and is a key – indeed the very first – point of the Iran/USA MOU. But in an extraordinary coup aimed at negating that deal, the USA has signed a deal with Israel and its puppet Aoun regime in Lebanon which seeks to legitimise Israeli occupation of Southern Lebanon through the agreement of the “Lebanese government”.

This is an astonishing development. I did not think I could have a lower opinion of the appalling bloated traitor “General” “President” Aoun but not even I – nor I think any commentator – believed he would make such a deal with Israel. The plan is that the Americans, Israelis and Lebanese Army will act together to forcibly eliminate Hezbollah, and only after that is certified – by the Israelis – will the Israelis withdraw from Southern Lebanon.

Here are the operative paragraphs. Note that they carefully do not say in terms that Israel will actually leave Lebanon.

“3. …The Government of Israel and the Government of Lebanon commit to a reciprocal, sequenced process, with clear conditions, whereby the LAF will restore effective sovereign authority over all Lebanese territory, pending the verified disarmament of non-state armed groups and dismantlement of associated infrastructure, enabling the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to progressively redeploy out of the Lebanese territory.”

“5 . …The Government of Israel underscores that the termination of this threat, through the disarmament and dismantlement of such groups in all of Lebanon and additional security arrangements to be agreed upon between the two countries, will eliminate any future need for IDF military action or presence in Lebanon.”

This is plainly completely incompatible with the USA/Iran MOU, which states as Point 1:

“The United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran and their allies in the current war are signing this MOU to declare the immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon, and undertake from now on not to initiate any war or any military operation against each other, and to refrain from the threat or use of force against each other, and ensuring the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Lebanon. The final deal will confirm the permanent termination of the war on all fronts, including in Lebanon and other provisions of this paragraph.”

Of course, everybody knows that Israel will never withdraw voluntarily, any more than they withdrew from the Golan Heights. Annexation is plainly the goal and expansion of Greater Israel at least to the Litani River and probably further.

It is important to realise that this is not only Aoun seeking the annihilation of the Shia population of Southern Lebanon; he is also betraying his own community. Aoun is himself a Southern Lebanese Christian, and Israel has been destroying the homes, churches, hospitals and families of Southern Lebanese Christians with as much glee as they attack Muslims.

The agreement names two “pilot zones” where the combined Israeli and Lebanese Army forces will eliminate Hezbollah, followed by Israeli withdrawal from those zones. But these are zones which Israel is not currently occupying – they are areas where Israel was defeated in fighting by Hezbollah and which have been since subject to relentless Israeli bombardment.

So Aoun has agreed to support militarily an IDF advance further into Lebanon, against an agreement that Israel will be able to withdraw once these key Hezbollah redoubts have been destroyed. Even if Aoun were stupid enough to believe the Israelis will withdraw after the operation, this is a level of treachery it is difficult to comprehend.

Greater Israel is not a concept. It is a reality being created before our very eyes.

Israel now occupies 70% of Gaza and plainly the entire “Board of Peace” mechanism is nothing but smoke and mirrors, pure fraud. It has zero effect on the continued tightening of the Gaza concentration camp into an ever-shrinking area. Israeli settlements in the West Bank expand daily and every night the skies are red with Palestinian homes and crops burning. In East Jerusalem Palestinians are continually evicted and replaced by fresh European or American arrivals. In Syria, Israel is building permanent fortifications and its armour creeps forward field by field, with the full cooperation of “President” al-Jolani.

Iran was able to resist the combined military might of the USA and Israel. That is cause for celebration. But do not allow it to blind your eyes to the continued hard reality of the expansion of Greater Israel.

There is no gain for the US in the US/Iran Memorandum of Understanding which the US did not already possess before starting the war. It is therefore very possible, and in many senses valid, to read it as the formalisation of US defeat: a surrender document. Which is why you should be sceptical about US commitment to the terms.

The Strait of Hormuz was fully open before the US started the war. Allowing the flow of oil to resume has become a short-term US priority due to high domestic retail prices and pending elections, but the MOU envisages more Iranian control – and potentially fees – in the Strait than existed before the war.

There is no indication of restrictions on the Iranian nuclear programme that were not already available in the peaceful negotiations. Crucially there are no limitations on Iran’s vital ballistic missile production. The proposed relaxation of sanctions and release of frozen assets is a triumph for Iran and long overdue, and the $300 billion in dollars in reparations, from unspecified sources, is stunning.

So stunning of course that anyone with their head screwed on will realise there is no long term American intention to keep faith with the deal.

Trump is not stupid. There are many ways of characterising his kind of cunning, but it is not stupidity. He was not, as the prevailing narrative seeks to state, the only person in the World who did not realise the Strait of Hormuz would be closed by the war. The USA is quite happy to see the Strait of Hormuz closed, or permanently made more difficult and expensive to transit.

The key to understanding Trump’s position is his famous love of tariffs. Trump is a mercantilist. For many years the world worked on the general basis of accepting the economics of Adam Smith – that freedom of trade promoted universal, reciprocal wealth creation. That was the founding basis of the World Trade organisation, and is the internal philosophy of big trading blocs like the EU.

Trump rejects this and returns to the philosophy that other nations are all competitors, not potential partners, and that success lies not only in increasing your own production, but in damaging your rivals’ production – which ultimately will increase domestic production further. Trump rejects the basic premise of free trade.

The long prevailing belief in the beneficial effects of free trade historically was, as logic demands, accompanied by the demand for freedom of navigation.

Sweeping away tariffs goes hand in hand with sweeping away the controls on shipping which carry the goods. Before the rise of liberal economics, almost all states had practised mercantilism, with controls on shipping being a major source of state revenue. The magnificence of Kronborg Castle in Helsingør, in which Hamlet is set, was constructed entirely from revenues from tolls on ships exiting the Baltic by passing the strait it overlooks, for example.

Freedom of navigation was initially enforced ultimately by the British, and later the American, Navy. States attempting to enforce customary passage fees, for example in the Malaccan Strait, were classified as “pirates” and freedom of navigation became a routine justification for imperialist aggression and/or colonial occupation. Freedom of navigation eventually became customary international law, ultimately codified in the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea.

The simple truth is this: in openly abandoning the principle of free trade, the Trump regime has also abandoned the logically linked principle of freedom of navigation. This is evident not just in their indifference to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. It is evident in the naval blockades of Cuba and Venezuela and above all in the worldwide blockade of Russian hydrocarbon deliveries, including the effective end of free passage through the Strait of Dover, and a de facto naval blockade of the Arctic passages.

Following the shale boom, the United States is a net hydrocarbon exporter. The USA balance of trade benefits from high hydrocarbon prices. Trump is doing everything he can to increase US hydrocarbon production by slashing environmental and other controls. This is a core Trump policy.

The USA does not import hydrocarbons through the Strait of Hormuz. That fact is key to Trump’s thinking.

In this mercantilist view, closure of the Strait has two benefits for the USA.

  • It disadvantages rival hydrocarbon suppliers
  • It disadvantages rival industrial competitors in Europe and Asia who do get hydrocarbons through Hormuz.

This is exactly the same logic behind the destruction of Nord Stream 2. The same mercantilist system also explains the effective seizure through naval blockade and control of Venezuela’s oil production, and the blockade of Russian hydrocarbons through sanctions and the “shadow fleet” propaganda disguising another naval blockade.

The UK’s recent actions in the Dover strait indicate that the West, not just the United States has surrendered the principle of freedom of navigation in straits.

Trump believes, as he has repeatedly stated in public, that domestic fuel prices in the USA are a blip and will equalise as the USA increases its domestic fuel production and Venezuelan fuel production. However this was not happening in time for the mid-term elections which is why reopening the Strait of Hormuz became a temporary priority that occasioned the ceasefire and MOU with Iran.

None of this implies good faith negotiation or a real prospect for a lasting peace.

June 29, 2026 Posted by | Economics, Wars for Israel | , , , , , , | Comments Off on The Middle East, Hormuz and the New Mercantilism

Iran, Lebanon speakers agree trilateral unit to end Israeli aggression

Al Mayadeen | June 28, 2026

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri have affirmed their commitment to halting the ongoing Israeli aggression during a phone call, with Ghalibaf emphasizing that ending the war on Lebanon while safeguarding the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity remains a fundamental pillar of the Islamabad memorandum of understanding.

Ghalibaf reasserted that Iran’s firm objective is to halt the war, secure the return of the displaced, bring an end to the occupation, and force the total withdrawal of the Zionist entity from Lebanese territory.

He emphasized that ending the war on Lebanon, while safeguarding the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, remains a fundamental pillar of the first clause of the Islamabad memorandum of understanding.

Addressing diplomatic frameworks, Ghalibaf noted that the recent talks in Switzerland produced an agreement to establish a trilateral conflict management unit comprising Iran, the United States, and Lebanon.

According to Iranian television, both speakers stressed the urgency of convening this conflict management unit as soon as possible to effectively control and terminate the war.

Berri warns of Zionist efforts to circumvent Lebanese sovereignty

For his part, Speaker Berri welcomed the Swiss outcomes, stating they directly serve the interests of the Lebanese people. However, he warned that the Zionist enemy is actively attempting to circumvent the restoration of Lebanon’s full sovereignty.

Berri fiercely condemned the alternative Washington framework between Lebanon and the Zionist entity, describing the agreement as a “dangerous conspiracy” and a “deliberate plot to ignite internal strife.”

His remarks reflect deep concerns in Beirut about US-led efforts to bypass Lebanon’s legitimate institutions and impose arrangements that would undermine the country’s sovereignty.

Context: Implementation of the Islamabad memorandum

The Islamabad memorandum of understanding, signed between Iran and the United States on June 18, provides for the cessation of military operations on all fronts, including Lebanon.

The agreement has been a source of contention, with Israeli officials reportedly acknowledging that it represents a “catastrophe and strategic defeat” for the occupation state.

The trilateral conflict management unit is intended to ensure the implementation of the ceasefire provisions in Lebanon and to prevent further escalation.

However, continued Israeli violations and the alternative Washington framework threaten to undermine the agreement, highlighting the fragility of the diplomatic process.

June 28, 2026 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation, Wars for Israel | , , , , , | Comments Off on Iran, Lebanon speakers agree trilateral unit to end Israeli aggression

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