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Dr. Bursh: Medical staff, patients will not leave Gaza City’s hospitals

Palestinian Information Center – September 7, 2025

GAZA – Dr. Munir al-Bursh, director of Gaza’s health ministry, has affirmed that doctors and medical staff in Gaza City’s hospitals have decided to remain at their posts, staying close to children and all patients in intensive care units.

“There are more than 200 patients in intensive care who require life-support machines and artificial respiration, and these patients cannot be evacuated without facing certain death,” Dr. Bursh told Al Jazeera satellite channel on Sunday.

“If the Israeli occupation wants to kill us and our patients, so be it. We will not leave our hospitals or abandon our patients under any circumstances because the alternative is death,” he added.

He called for necessarily providing protection for hospitals and healthcare workers in Gaza in accordance with the Fourth Geneva Convention and international treaties.

September 7, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

AP Jerusalem chief participated in secretive Israeli govt anti-BDS event, leaked files reveal


By Max Blumenthal | The Grayzone | September 6, 2025

AP’s Israel-Palestine news director, Josef Federman, has spun data to minimize the Gaza death count. Leaked documents show he appeared on a panel aimed at assisting “Israel’s ability to effectively portray its narrative” during a gov’t-sponsored propaganda conference chaired by an ex-IDF official who legitimized killing journalists.

The Israeli massacre of five journalists in broad daylight on August 24, 2025 at Nasser Hospital in Gaza’s Khan Younis city prompted a sternly worded statement to the Israeli government from the Associated Press and Reuters, which each employed a reporter murdered by the IDF. The AP subsequently published a detailed investigation demonstrating that the Israeli military knowingly attacked a civilian target, then carried out a double tap strike after a rescue team and journalists arrived on the scene.

While the AP’s statement of outrage about the killing of its photographer in Gaza, Miriam Dagga, has brought the leading wire agency’s tension with the Israeli government to its height, the relationship with Tel Aviv was not always so adversarial.

The Grayzone has reviewed leaked documents revealing that the AP’s news director for Israel-Palestine, Josef Federman, participated in a private 2018 panel discussion aimed at assisting “Israel’s ability to effectively portray its narrative.” His host was a secretive Israeli government outfit dedicated to combatting the global BDS campaign to boycott, divest from, and sanction Israel. Called the Global Coalition For Israel (GC4I), the event was convened in Jerusalem on June 18, 2018 by Israel’s Ministry of Strategic Affairs and Diplomacy – the de facto propaganda arm of the Israeli government.

The moderator of the panel in which Federman participated was Avital Leibovich, the former spokeswoman for the IDF who has ardently defended the Israeli policy of defining Palestinian journalists as terrorists in order to assassinate them.

Federman has presided over the AP’s coverage of Israel-Palestine since 2014. Throughout Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza began in October 2023, Federman has helped shape a narrative that has subtly but effectively advanced Tel Aviv’s objectives, regurgitating the baseless and comprehensively debunked claim that “Israelis were raped or sexually assaulted” on October 7; legitimizing Israel’s violent invasion and theft of Syrian land as a historical “shift,” and relying on bogus data from an Israel lobby-affiliated researcher to minimize the civilian death count in Gaza – a grim toll which now includes one of his colleagues at AP.

Federman’s penchant for uncritically quoting notoriously mendacious Israeli military officials has helped secure his reputation for biased coverage.

Federman’s participation in the 2018 Israeli government anti-BDS event appears to contradict clearly stated AP guidelines on conflicts of interest. According to the AP’s website, “We avoid addressing, or accepting fees or expenses from, governmental bodies; trade, lobbying or special interest groups; businesses, or labor groups; or any group that would pose a conflict of interest.”

In response to a detailed query from The Grayzone about Federman’s participation in the semi-covert conference, AP Vice President of Corporate Communications Lauren Easton stated, “Josef Federman is a professional journalist and a former chairman of Israel’s Foreign Press Association. It is not uncommon for journalists to speak about their work at conferences and other events. It remains AP policy to refrain from accepting honoraria, and that policy was followed here.”

The details of the GC41’s gathering were gleaned from a massive tranche of documents extracted by hackers from Israel’s Ministry of Justice in 2024. A full schedule and list of GC4I conference participants has never been seen before by the public.

View GC4I’s 2018 schedule here.

AP, other agencies join semi-secret Israeli gov’t event chaired by ex-IDF official who justified killing journalists

When GC4I gathered in 2018, it met at the Mamilla Hotel Conference Hall in Jerusalem for two days of discussions and briefings on the fight to crush the growing Palestine solidarity movement and its BDS campaign. The conference opened with an address by Sima Vaknin-Gil, then the Director-General of Israel’s Ministry of Strategic Affairs. A former Israeli intelligence official, Vakhnin-Gil had emerged as one of the most influential coordinators of the country’s propaganda efforts abroad, especially in the US, where she helps the Israeli government evade the Foreign Agent Registration Act law.

Her speech was followed by a discussion moderated by celebrity Republican pollster Frank Luntz on the feasibility of defining the BDS movement as a “hate group.” Further panels focused on “developing relations in the corridors of power” and “how… legislation in Europe and the United States can be used to reduce funding for organizations delegitimizing Israel.”

On the second day of the GC41 conference, Federman joined a panel aimed at “discuss[ing] the difficulties of reporting fairly and accurately on Israel, while dealing with issues such as BDS, delegitimization, and the Israel-Palestinian conflict.”

The panel was explicitly aimed at helping the Zionist operatives gathered at the GC4I “understand the shortcomings in Israel’s ability to effectively portray its narrative, what reporters are looking for when writing an article and why the anti-Israel camp’s narrative resonates in the Western world.”

Avital Leibovich, a former IDF spokeswoman who moved on to the American Jewish Committee, chaired the panel. During her stint at the IDF, Leibovich played a leading role in justifying Israel’s deliberate killing of journalists in the Gaza Strip. In 2012, for example, she fired off a letter to the New York Times which smeared Palestinian journalists slain at the hands of the Israeli military: “Such terrorists who hold cameras and notebooks in their hands, are no different from their colleagues who fire rockets aimed at Israeli cities and cannot enjoy the rights and protection afforded to legitimate journalists,” she wrote.

In 2016, Leibovich appeared at Washington DC’s Newseum amid protests – including by this reporter– and condemnation from the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate, which urged the institution in a May 31 letter “not to provide a platform to someone who has justified, on record and to a world audience, Israel’s grave violations of international law and war crimes, and in particular attacks against journalists and press freedoms.”

Chaired by Leibovich, the 2018 GC4I panel featured featured the Jerusalem Bureau Chief of RT, Paula Slier, and Laurent Lozano, who held the same position at Agence France Press, alongside the AP’s Federman. Slier has since left RT, while Lozano is currently AFP’s bureau chief in Dakar, Senegal.

Reached by The Grayzone, Slier described the gathering as “a very pleasant experience.”

She said she considered her participation in a semi-covert Israeli government conference as a normal part of her duties as a correspondent in Jerusalem. “It was a chance for them to hear how foreign channels worked in Israel,” Slier commented. “I used to participate and attend all conferences – whether they were pro-Israel or pro-Palestinian – I thought it important to engage with everyone, and it was also an opportunity to talk about RT.”

GC4I launched at “secret conference” with “closed sessions” on criminalizing BDS

GC4I’s first gathering took place in 2010, at a time of heightened Zionist anxiety about the rising global grassroots movement to boycott Israel. A who’s who of Israeli lobbyists from the US, UK and Australia were on hand, alongside Israeli officials from the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the newly created Ministry of Strategic Affairs.

“The aim was to end the perceived lack of co-ordination within the pro-Israel movement, a concern frequently voiced by Israel-advocates,” wrote researcher Hil Aked.

Marcus Dysch of the Jewish Chronicle gained access to a 2014 GC4I meeting in London, England. He described it as a “secret conference… held in closed sessions amid heavy security.”

“We have the resources. We have the intelligence. Most important, we have unbounded determination,” Ronald Lauder, the billionaire Zionist financier and Netanyahu confidant, told the crowd of Jewish communal leaders and Israeli officials in London.

Lauder pledged to leverage his fortune to criminalize the BDS movement: “We will draft and lobby for legislation that will withhold government funding from academic institutions that boycott Israel.”

Reporting back to Jewish Federation at home, minimizing deaths in Gaza

Well before he emerged in the Middle East as a reporter, Josef Federman enrolled as a graduate student at Israel’s Hebrew University.

He grew up in Westborough, Massachusetts, where his parents helped found the B’nai Shalom Congregation, a Reform Jewish synagogue. Federman has returned on two occasions to deliver lectures at the synagogue, once in 2021 to discuss the Abraham Accords alongside an Israeli academic, and again in March 2024, during the height of Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza, for an event titled, “Reporting from Israel.” That speech was co-sponsored by the Jewish Federations of Central Massachusetts, a top sponsor of pro-Israel lobbying inside the US.

Two months later, the Israeli government seized camera equipment from the AP to prevent it from live-streaming video from the Israeli side of the northern Gaza frontier. While Israel announced that it would return the equipment and allow the broadcasts to continue, the event eerily foreshadowed the Israeli military’s double tap strike on the Reuters live position at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis this August 24.

The following month, Federman published a piece of “AP data analysis” that relied on dubious statistics to advance one of Israel’s most important propaganda objectives in Gaza. According to the headline of Federman’s piece, “Women and children are killed less frequently as war’s toll rises.” The article therefore implied that all men in Gaza between the ages of 18 and 59 were possible militants. Throughout the piece, Federman referred to Gaza’s Health Ministry as “Hamas-run,” casting doubt on its casualty counts.

To legitimize his conclusions, Federman turned to Gabriel Epstein, a researcher at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, or WINEP, the most prolific think tank of the Israel lobby in Washington DC. WINEP director Robert Satloff, a veteran Israel lobbyist, praised the AP’s Federman for “tak[ing] a big step toward setting the record straight.”

Another researcher cited in the article, Michael Spagat, defended the quality of death counts by Gaza’s Health Ministry. Months later, in September 2024, Spagat revised his view of the death toll, declaring, “I now believe that the true death toll almost certainly exceeds the official total.”

This August, a review of an internal Israeli intelligence database further discredited Federman’s analysis, revealing that 83% of those killed by the Israeli military in Gaza were civilians.

Today, Federman’s “data analysis” on the Gaza death has been discredited by virtually every expert outside the Israel lobby, and by the gruesome reality on the ground. However, a revealing post remains on his personal LinkedIn page which shows him liking a rant by Idit Shamir, consul general of Israel in Toronto, mocking the official death count in Gaza:

“Isn’t it curious?” wrote the Israeli official. “Hamas is clueless about Israeli hostages’ status but has a crystal-clear count of Palestinian casualties before Israeli strikes even occur!”

Now that a fellow AP reporter, Miriam Dagga, has joined the tens of thousands of civilians murdered by Israel in Gaza over the past two years, Federman’s agency has been forced to release a rare expression of outrage at Tel Aviv. The indignation offers a stark contrast from the comity Federman displayed when he bantered at an Israeli government conference with the former IDF official who legitimized the policy that would claim Dagga’s life.

September 7, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Fake News, Mainstream Media, Warmongering | , , , | Leave a comment

Elbit Systems shuts down UK site targeted by Palestine Action

Al Mayadeen | September 6, 2025

Elbit Systems UK’s arms factory in Bristol has gone quiet after years of determined resistance by Palestine Action, according to The Guardian, marking what campaigners see as a major victory against “Israel’s” largest weapons producer.

The Aztec West facility, repeatedly targeted by direct actions, now sits deserted save for a lone security guard at the gate. Although Elbit had a lease lasting until 2029, the company has offered no explanation for the site’s status.

Factory Silence

Palestine Action staged dozens of disruptive actions against the site, ranging from rooftop occupations and blockades to smashing windows and covering the premises in red paint to symbolize Palestinian blood. The latest protest, on July 1, came just days before the UK government banned the group under the Terrorism Act.

Campaigners argue that their actions have exacted a tangible toll. Elbit Systems UK swung from a £3.8 million profit in 2023 to a £4.7 million loss last year, with rising security costs and repeated shutdowns cited as key factors.

“This closure is extremely significant,” arms trade expert Andrew Feinstein told The Guardian. “We need to remind ourselves that Elbit (Systems) is one of the two most important Israeli arms firms, along with IAI, that is it is obviously a key component of Israel’s military industrial complex.”

Elbit Retreat

The closure in Bristol fits a broader pattern of Elbit’s retrenchment in Britain. In Oldham, an 18-month wave of roof occupations and blockades led to the sale of Ferranti P&C in 2022. In Tamworth, the company’s Elite KL subsidiary, targeted repeatedly by Palestine Action, was sold in 2024 after profits collapsed; its new owners, rebranding as Calatherm, pledged to scrap all defense contracts with Elbit.

Long-running campaigns at Shenstone in Staffordshire and at Instro Precision in Kent have also seen repeated shutdowns, rooftop occupations, and trials of activists, showing the breadth of pressure across Elbit’s UK operations.

Still, the company has not disappeared from Britain, The Guardian noted. Its Filton site in Bristol remains active, and 24 activists face trial for actions carried out there, including charges of criminal damage and aggravated burglary. Meanwhile, Elbit is reportedly close to securing a £2 billion Ministry of Defence contract as a “strategic partner”, a deal that former Labour minister Peter Hain has urged the government to block, citing “the devastation unfolding in Gaza.”

Defiant Resistance

Palestine Action has vowed to continue targeting Elbit and its partners. Though proscribed in July, the group has secured permission for a judicial review of the government’s decision in November. The Home Secretary is set to appeal that ruling later this month.

For campaigners, the deserted Aztec West site stands as proof that sustained action can shake even the most entrenched corporations. It also sends a message: as long as companies profit from “Israel’s” assault on Gaza, they will face resistance on British soil.

September 6, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Solidarity and Activism | , , , | Leave a comment

What you need to know about PCHR, Al-Haq and Al-Mezan sanctioned by US

By Ivan Kesic | Press TV | September 6, 2025

In yet another glaring example of shielding the Israeli regime from accountability, the United States has imposed sanctions on three Palestinian human rights organizations, including Al-Haq, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, and the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights.

Enacted on September 4, 2025, under the pretext of Executive Order 14203, these measures explicitly target the human rights groups for their legitimate engagement with the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate Israeli war crimes amid the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

This move, watchdogs argue, represents a direct attack on the core principles of international law and human rights defense, strategically designed to criminalize truth-telling and protect Israeli impunity.

They say it forms a sinister pattern of obstruction, following earlier sanctions against the Palestinian prisoner rights group Addameer, UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, and the ICC itself.

It comes amid the ongoing genocide in Gaza that has claimed nearly 65,000 Palestinian lives, most of them children and women, since October 2023.

Al-Haq

Established in 1979 in Ramallah, the occupied West Bank, Al-Haq stands as one of the oldest and most respected Palestinian human rights organizations, dedicated to protecting human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory under the strict frameworks of international law.

The organization has consultative status at the UN Economic and Social Council and is a member of international federations like FIDH for its meticulous documentation of Israeli crimes, including extrajudicial killings, torture, and the institutionalized practices of apartheid and settler colonialism.

Al-Haq’s advocacy work has been instrumental in providing critical evidence to the ICC, directly supporting the court’s 2024 arrest warrants for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former military affairs minister Yoav Gallant for horrendous war crimes.

The organization’s reaction to the US sanctions was one of defiant condemnation, issuing a statement that labeled the measures an “internationally wrongful act” aimed at shielding the Israeli “Zionist settler-colonial apartheid regime.”

Al-Haq’s director, Shawan Jabarin, emphasized that the sanctions, which freeze assets and criminalize essential transactions, pose a direct threat to operational capacity and staff safety, but the official vowed unwavering resilience, stating: “We will not be silenced.”

This reprisal mirrors a previous Israeli designation of Al-Haq as a “terrorist organization” in 2021, which was widely condemned by major human rights watchdogs at the time.

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights

Founded in 1995 in Gaza City by prominent lawyers and activists, including Raji Sourani, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) has built a formidable reputation for its grassroots advocacy and legal action against human rights violations in the besieged Gaza Strip.

PCHR holds consultative status with the UN and has been a vital source of documentation throughout the devastating Gaza genocidal war, reporting on Israeli airstrikes, extrajudicial killings, and the crippling blockade that violates international humanitarian law.

Its advocacy work has relentlessly focused on providing legal aid to victims and submitting detailed evidence of war crimes to the ICC, making it a key partner in the international pursuit of justice.

PCHR reacted to the sanctions by directly naming US complicity, stating on its X account, “Yesterday, the US government, Israel’s partner in the ongoing genocide, shamefully sanctioned Palestinian human rights organisations.”

The organization highlighted the chilling effect these sanctions will have, threatening its ability to operate amid a dire humanitarian crisis where its work documenting atrocities and offering legal services is most critically needed.

PCHR framed the US action as a deliberate attempt to criminalize their truth-telling mission and protect Israeli impunity, vowing to continue its advocacy despite the immense risks and calling for global solidarity to counter this blatant intimidation.

The Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights

The Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights, established in 1999 in Gaza, has dedicated its mission to monitoring and documenting human rights violations with a specific focus on the devastating impact of Israeli gencoidal war and siege on the civilian population.

As a member of international networks like FIDH and the OMCT, Al-Mezan has built a reputation for credible reporting on the ground, detailing the destruction of infrastructure, civilian deaths, and the famine-like conditions exacerbated by the ongoing conflict.

Its advocacy work has been pivotal in supporting the ICC’s investigation, providing crucial evidence that contributed to the case against Israeli leaders for atrocity crimes.

Al-Mezan connected the sanctions to the ongoing genocide, stating, “As the genocide in Gaza continues, the US has sanctioned us, @alhaq_org, and @pchrgaza, citing our support & involvement with the ICC’s efforts.”

The organization warned that the US measures constitute a direct attack on their ability to document atrocities and provide essential legal and psychological support to victims, thereby further endangering staff safety and isolating them from international partners.

Al-Mezan urgently called on the European Union and other international actors to invoke blocking statutes to neutralize the sanctions’ impact, framing the US move as an extension of its complicity in the Israeli campaign to eradicate Palestinian resistance and silence any witness to its crimes.

International outrage

The sanctions against these three organizations have been met with universal condemnation from the international human rights community, with leading global NGOs labeling the measures a “blatant attack on human rights” and a “cruel and vindictive effort to punish those advocating for victims.”

UN High Commissioner Volker Türk deemed the measures “completely unacceptable,” arguing they serve only to deepen impunity and silence victims.

This concerted effort to dismantle Palestinian civil society exposes a US foreign policy that has wholly abandoned any pretense of supporting a rules-based international order, choosing instead to act as the legal shield for a Zionist project of dispossession and genocide.

By weaponizing its financial power to sanction human rights defenders, the United States is not merely observing but actively participating in the suppression of the Palestinian people, revealing a profound moral bankruptcy that history will judge with severity.

September 6, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

‘Israel’ commits new massacre in Gaza’s Sheikh Radwan neighborhood

Al Mayadeen | September 6, 2025

At around noon today, a massacre was reported in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood, where the occupation targeted the home of the Abu Tayeh family on al-Jalaa Street.

The airstrike resulted in the martyrdom of eight civilians and caused multiple injuries. Several victims remain trapped under the rubble, according to Al Mayadeen’s correspondent.

At least 30 Palestinians have been martyred since dawn today across the Gaza Strip, including a child, as the ongoing aggression by the Israeli occupation continues to target aid distribution points and areas where displaced people seek shelter.

Al Mayadeen’s correspondent in Gaza reported that four martyrs and several wounded individuals arrived at Nasser Medical Complex following an Israeli attack on Palestinians waiting for aid north of Rafah.

In a separate incident, a civilian was martyred after occupation military vehicles opened fire on tents housing displaced families in al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis, southern Gaza.

Additionally, a child was martyred and others were injured in artillery shelling that struck a residential building near Sheikh Radwan Bridge in northwestern Gaza City.

Occupation issues evacuation orders for high-rises in Gaza City

The occupation has issued evacuation orders for several residential towers in Gaza City. Among them was al-Sousi Tower in the city center and the al-Ru’ya Building in Tal al-Hawa, near the al-Maliya junction, signaling plans to strike both.

Occupation warplanes subsequently bombed and destroyed al-Sousi residential tower, located opposite the United Nations headquarters on al-Sinaa Street in the Tal al-Hawa neighborhood, southwest of Gaza City.

“Israel” is systematically destroying high-rises in Gaza City, as it did yesterday with the al-Mushtaha high-rise, as it moves forward with its plan to occupy Gaza City.

Gaza Health Ministry report

The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza confirmed that 68 martyrs and 362 injuries were recorded in the last 24 hours. Among them, 8 were recovered from beneath the rubble, as occupation bombardments continue to leave victims trapped in inaccessible areas due to the inability of ambulance and civil defense crews to reach them.

This brings the total number of casualties since October 2023 to 64,368 martyrs and 162,367 wounded. Meanwhile, the number of casualties since “Israel” broke the ceasefire in March stands at 11,828 martyrs and 50,326 injuries.

“Israel” continues to massacre Palestinians as they wait for aid, as over the past 24 hours alone, 23 Palestinians seeking humanitarian aid were martyred, and 143 others were injured. This raises the total number of aid-related fatalities received at hospitals to 2,385, with over 17,577 injuries.

As for famine-related deaths, hospitals recorded six new deaths, including one child, in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of such fatalities to 382, among them 135 children. Since the IPC’s declaration of famine last month, 104 deaths from hunger have been recorded, including 20 children.

September 6, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , | Leave a comment

Scotland’s parliament votes for boycott of Israel amid Gaza genocide

Press TV – September 5, 2025

Scotland’s Parliament has voted to impose an immediate and comprehensive boycott on Israel and companies connected to its genocide in Gaza.

The decision, which highlights Scotland’s solidarity with the Palestinian people, came on Thursday in response to the ongoing humanitarian crisis in the besieged territory.

The motion to sanction Israel and affiliated entities was spearheaded by the Scottish Greens, who allege that the Israeli military actions in Gaza constitute genocide. Reports indicate that at least 64,231 Palestinians have died due to the genocide, and almost the entire population of Gaza has been displaced.

The amendment passed with 62 votes in favor and 31 against, calling on the Scottish and UK governments to implement a series of boycotts, divestment strategies, and sanctions aimed directly at Israel and companies deemed complicit in its genocide.

Support for the motion came from the Scottish Greens and the Scottish National Party (SNP), alongside a proposal introduced by External Affairs Secretary Angus Robertson that acknowledged the recognition of a Palestinian state. However, the Scottish Conservatives opposed the motion, while most Scottish Labour and Liberal Democrat MSPs chose to abstain. The Liberal Democrats notably shifted their voting stance to oppose the amendment’s language.

Scottish Green MSP Patrick Harvie, who introduced the motion, expressed hope that this vote could signal a change in the conversation surrounding Israel and encourage other European governments to adopt a stronger response to the humanitarian crisis. “Palestinians are being starved and massacred every day as part of a campaign of collective punishment and ethnic cleansing. It is our duty to act,” he stated in an interview with The National.

Harvie emphasized the importance of holding companies accountable for their involvement in the genocide, asserting, “If a company profits from apartheid and genocide, it should not be allowed to profit here in Scotland. This vote sets a precedent for action that I hope will inspire governments across Europe and beyond.”

First Minister John Swinney highlighted the Scottish government’s commitment to humanitarian support, announcing plans to block public funding for firms supplying weapons to Israel. He also pledged £400,000 toward the Children’s Operating Room to aid the Gaza Hope Field Readiness Centre in Scotland and assist in establishing a rapid-deployment field hospital within Gaza.

Additionally, Scotland plans to provide medical support for 20 children injured in Gaza, expected to arrive with their families in September, and to donate £600,000 to the UN’s humanitarian coordination office in Palestine.

Swinney underscored the urgent need for action, stating, “We are witnessing a humanitarian catastrophe of historic proportions. The world cannot wait for a final court ruling to take action. A genocide is unfolding, and recognizing this reality carries with it a responsibility to act. The people of Scotland expect nothing less.”

September 5, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Solidarity and Activism, War Crimes | , , , | Leave a comment

41 percent of Palestinian child detainees have no charges

Defense for Children International – Palestine | September 2, 2025

A record number of Palestinian children are held in administrative detention without charge or trial.

360 Palestinian children are detained in Israeli prisons as of June 30, the latest data available from the Israel Prison Service (IPS), which is the highest number since early 2016. 147 children, or 41 percent of the total, are held in administrative detention without charge or trial, which is both the highest number and the highest proportion on record since Defense for Children International – Palestine began monitoring these numbers in 2008. The IPS, which typically releases detainee data on a quarterly basis, was more than two months late in releasing the data from the second quarter of 2025.

“Every month since October 2023, Israeli forces have rapidly expanded their use of administrative detention to target Palestinian children,” said Ayed Abu Eqtaish, accountability program director at DCIP. “These children are languishing in overcrowded Israeli prisons, fed rotten food, and beaten on a daily basis by Israeli guards, all while they are completely isolated from the outside world, including from their families and lawyers. They must all be released immediately.”

The delay in releasing the second quarter data is one more effort on the part of Israeli authorities to obscure and restrict information about Palestinian detainees, including children. Since October 2023, Israeli authorities have severely restricted lawyer visits to the prisons, and family visits were suspended entirely. DCIP has faced immense challenges in documenting rights violations, torture, and ill-treatment endured by Palestinian child detainees since October 2023.

The data released by the IPS accounts for prisons under its administration, including Megiddo and Ofer, where children are detained and imprisoned. This data does not include children who are detained at Israeli military detention and interrogation centers, such as Huwwara, or military bases like Sde Teiman. There is no available data for how many children or adults are detained at these sites, though DCIP has received testimony from previously detained children of torture and dehumanizing conditions being regularly implemented at these locations.

In September 2023, 15 percent of all Palestinian child detainees were held in administrative detention, according to IPS data monitored by DCIP.

Lawyers representing Palestinian detainees now face mounting barriers, including the cancellation of scheduled visits, severe limitations on visiting hours, prolonged delays extending for months, and bans on bringing in even basic case materials. Lawyers are also forbidden from passing on simple messages from families, and children who wish to pass along messages to their families through a lawyer have been beaten. Further, Israel has disallowed the International Committee of the Red Cross from visiting any Palestinian detainees held in Israeli places of detention since October 7, 2023.

Under international law, including Article 37(d) of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, every child has the right to prompt access to legal assistance and to challenge the legality of their detention before a court. Additionally, Israel’s deliberate obstruction of this right, alongside its prolonged bans on family visits and refusal to allow elected representatives to oversee detention conditions, violates the most basic standards of international humanitarian and human rights law. It is clear that Israel has no intention of maintaining its detention system in accordance with international law. Instead, its treatment of Palestinian prisoners amounts to collective punishment, deliberately imposing degrading conditions, restricting access to food, medicine, and communication with the outside world.

September 5, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Subjugation - Torture | , , , | Leave a comment

Washington sanctions Palestinian rights groups for aiding ICC in Gaza war crimes probe

The White House is covering for Israeli war crimes amid its operation to ethnically cleanse and demolish Gaza City

The Cradle | September 5, 2025

The US has imposed sanctions on three Palestinian human rights organizations that previously petitioned the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate Israel for war crimes in Gaza.

“Today, the Trump Administration is sanctioning three NGOs – Al Haq, Al Mezan, and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights – for assisting in the ICC’s illegitimate actions against Israel. The United States will continue to protect our own sovereignty and the sovereignty of our allies from the ICC’s overreach,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote on Thursday evening on X.

The announcement first appeared as a notice on the US Treasury Department’s website on Thursday.

In November 2023, the organizations requested that the ICC investigate Israel for war crimes in response to its actions in Gaza, including carrying out airstrikes on heavily populated civilian areas, imposing a complete siege to cut off food, water, and electricity to the civilian population, and causing the mass displacement of residents.

On 31 October 2023, Israel bombed the Jabalia refugee camp, killing some 120 people, mostly women and children, in one airstrike with a 2,000-pound (907 kilograms) bomb.

In May of 2024, ICC prosecutor Karim Khan requested that the court’s judges issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then-defense minister Yoav Gallant on charges of using starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza.

The ICC issued the arrest warrants in November 2024.

The US responded by imposing sanctions on ICC judges and Khan, calling the Hague-based court a “national security threat.”

A smear campaign was also launched, accusing Khan of sexual misconduct in the workplace.

The ICC was established in 2002 to try cases of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. The jurisdiction of the court is recognized by its 125 member countries. However, the US, China, Russia, and Israel do not recognize the court’s authority.

The US Treasury announcement comes as Israel continues its destruction of Gaza City, which Tel Aviv is seeking to ethnically cleanse of its hundreds of thousands of Palestinian residents.

While Israeli leaders say they wish to defeat Hamas, the Israeli military is systematically demolishing Palestinian cities to make way for a mega real estate project backed by Israeli businessmen and the White House.

US President Donald Trump has stated that Palestinians will be forced to leave Gaza, which will be turned into a high-tech smart city and resort hub he has dubbed the “Riviera of the Middle East.”

Israel has issued evacuation orders for Gaza City as the demolition moves forward.

“The Israeli forces, when they mark any area by red color and they request the people to leave, they really will destroy it,” said Gaza City resident Mohammed Alkurdi while speaking with AP.

“It’s not something partial like before. It’s 100 percent,” he said. “The house, I’m telling my friends, it keeps dancing all the day. It keeps dancing, going right and left like an earthquake.”

Another Gaza City resident, Amjad Shawa, the director of a Palestinian NGO network, told AP that “Gaza [City] will be leveled and destroyed,” like other cities in the enclave.

After months of Israeli bombing, “there is no Rafah. Almost no Khan Yunis,” Shawa said.

Some residents of Gaza City are choosing to leave ahead of the Israeli warplanes and bulldozers.

For others, leaving is not possible at all due to age, sickness, and lack of anywhere else to go.

“The elders, they’re saying we will die here,” Shawa said. “This has pushed the other members of the family to stay, not to leave.”

September 5, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes, Wars for Israel | , , , , | Leave a comment

UK anti-genocide activists face dozens of terrorism charges

The Cradle | September 5, 2025

UK authorities charged six campaigners with 42 terrorism offenses on 3 September over their efforts to challenge the ban on Palestine Action.

They were released on bail the following day and placed under a strict curfew. Following hearings at Westminster Magistrates Court, the defendants, including former government lawyer Tim Crosland, were granted bail after the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) requested they be held on remand.

Defend Our Juries (DOJ), the advocacy group to which the activists belong, said the judge’s decision prevented them from facing up to 18 months in custody due to court backlogs.

According to DOJ, the bail conditions include a tagged curfew between 7:00 am and 9:00 pm, a ban on contacting co-defendants, and a prohibition on supporting Palestine Action either “directly or indirectly.”

A DOJ spokesperson described the outcome as both relief and outrage. “We welcome the release of our key spokespeople and the judge’s decision to reject the CPS’s absurd attempt to remand them in prison for what could have been many months. However, the fact that they are now facing 42 charges between six of them and extraordinarily draconian bail conditions for hosting public Zoom calls is nothing short of a scandal.”

Police said the charges stem from an investigation led by the Counter Terrorism Command into allegations that the defendants coordinated protests and held 13 Zoom calls supporting Palestine Action.

Section 12 (2) of the Terrorism Act makes it a criminal offense to arrange a meeting in support of a proscribed organization, while Section 12 (3) criminalizes addressing such a meeting with the intent of encouraging support.

DOJ said the six were targeted by UK authorities when their homes were raided earlier this week, hours before they were due to announce details of a mass action planned for Saturday.

The group reported that homes were searched and the activists were held beyond the 24-hour custody limit before being charged.

The case follows the UK government’s 4 July decision to proscribe Palestine Action under anti-terror laws, a move triggered by an incident in which members broke into RAF Brize Norton and vandalized two military aircraft with paint and crowbars. The aircraft are reportedly linked to the genocidal war in Gaza and wider military operations across West Asia.

The designation equates the group with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, making public support for its activities punishable by up to 14 years in prison, a move strongly condemned by various groups and individuals as “grotesque,” “chilling,” and an “unprecedented legal overreach.”

September 5, 2025 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Full Spectrum Dominance | , , , , | Leave a comment

Making Palestinians Go Away

The Trump Administration Seeks to Ignore the Genocide

By Philip Giraldi • Unz Review • September 4, 2025

Donald Trump, recently sporting his red ballcap modestly featuring the words “Trump Was Right About Everything,” is apparently in regular contact with Israel’s genocidal Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Per Netanyahu, the most recent telephonic exchange had Trump expressing full support for the establishment of control over all of Gaza and the West Bank by the Israeli Army. Trump observed that Israel has been losing the “PR” (Public Relations) war over the carnage and must push ahead “with full force” to “finish the job” as quickly as possible.

There are also reports of a scheme perhaps launched during a White House meeting including Trump, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner which would give Palestinians willing to be ethnically cleansed a “relocation package” of $5000 and some other benefits to get the hell out. Where exactly they would go to is not very clear but it would eliminate the bad publicity if the Israeli army’s has to kill all of them. Gaza would then be freed up to develop the long-sought Trump Gaza Riviera under US trusteeship over the ruins and the tens of thousands of unburied bodies.

As the slaughter of mostly women and children in Gaza continues, the American public as well as voters in many European nations have turned sharply against Israel, presumably a manifestation of Trump’s “PR problem” for the Jewish state. But Israel is striking back with its own weapons, namely the tools that it has used to corrupt the government and media in the United States and all across Europe. There are numerous Jewish organizations as well as Christian Zionist churches backed by the ample funds contributed by Jewish billionaires that make sure that politicians and journalists know which side their bread is buttered on. But it is generally conceded that the most powerful component of the Israel Lobby is the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). AIPAC openly declares that its principal purpose is to strengthen the relationship between Israel and the United States. That actually in practice means subordinating US interests to those of the Jewish state but no politician or journalist on the make is going to defy AIPAC and cut off both the largesse and the political support. AIPAC says it has five million members, 17 regional offices, and “a vast pool of donors.” In 2022, it had 376 employees, an endowment of more than $10 million plus more than $79 million in revenue. AIPAC’s claims to be bipartisan – at its yearly policy conference in 2016 it featured both major parties’ nominees: Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump.

One of AIPAC’s most prized initiatives is the arranging fully paid for trips by Congressmen and other prominent influencers to Israel, where they are wined and dined and fed the full panoply of lies that the Israelis use to justify their horrific agenda. The trips are in full violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938 (FARA) rules that organizations that operate on behalf of foreign governments must register and provide full information providing transparency both on their funding and their meeting with foreign government officials. As the last president to actually seek to have an Israel Lobby entity register was John F Kennedy, his fate might explain why none of the presidents since that time have attempted to do the same.

AIPAC’s latest trick was to send 22 House of Representative Republicans to Israel over the Congressional recess in August where they were hosted by Benjamin Netanyahu himself during what was dubbed a “week long educational seminar”. Netanyahu’s office said in a statement. “The Prime Minister briefed the members of Congress on the war in the Gaza Strip and commented on the issue of the humanitarian assistance and the mendacious campaign being waged by Hamas against the State of Israel.” Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, a Christian Zionist know nothing, was leading a separate delegation of five leading Republicans. He was treated to a private dinner with Prime Minister Netanyahu.

Meanwhile, waiting in the wings was a group of 23 Democratic Party congressmen who descended on Israel after the Republicans departed, also funded by AIPAC. The Democrat delegation was led by House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar of California and Representative Steny Hoyer of Maryland. Steny Hoyer has led 20 Congressional trips to Israel.

Journalist Glenn Greenwald has observed how members of the US Congress travel to Israel more than any other country by a large margin. In fact, they make “more trips to Israel than to the entire Western Hemisphere and the continent of Africa combined.” That fact added to the other blandishments offered by the Israel Lobby to “opinion makers” means that Congress and the Media are dramatically pro-Israel and anti-Palestinian to an extent which the American public does not share. In Israel there is no such problem, with a recent poll indicating that a majority of the Jewish Israeli public believing that Palestinians are little more than animals and “should be killed.”

The non-existence status of Palestinians has in fact been a hallmark of the Trump Administration’s foreign policy. The latest move to place the Palestinians in a separate category when it comes to their being allowed to exist at all has come from the US State Department, which has blocked the issuance of visas for the Palestinian delegation which was expected to attend the opening of the United Nations General Assembly session later this month in New York. The State Department said it was doing this to hold the Palestinian Authority and the PLO “accountable for not complying with their commitments, and for undermining the prospects for peace” and there were also evidence-free claims that some of the delegation might have terrorist connections with Hamas. This was followed a few days later by a decision by the State Department to block the issuance of visas to any holder of a Palestinian Authority passport, even including Palestinians who have family in the United States. The new measures will affect visas for medical treatment, university studies, visits to friends or relatives and business travel.

The visa moves come on top of the ghastly tale regarding the fate of a number of Gazan children who were badly injured or wounded by the Israelis and who had the good fortune to fall into the hands of a US-based charity called HEAL PALESTINE that was able to get them out of the Strip for medical treatment in the United States and elsewhere. The children were in need of major surgery and other complicated treatment and were accompanied by at least one of their parents in most cases as they were unable to function independently. The blocking of the children came soon after a right-wing American Zionist extremist, Laura Loomer, described Palestinians from Gaza being brought to the United States for treatment as “jihadis” and “a national security threat.” Inevitably, after America’s Zionist cheering section learned of the arrival of the sixty or so children in the US and went to work, the US State Department, blocked the issuance of any more visas and is now engaged in a “full and thorough investigation” into how the travel was approved and arranged in the first place.

The moves against Palestinian travelers apparently came after a Netanyahu request to Secretary of State Marco Rubio to lower the profile of Palestinians who are likely to be in a position to protest publicly against behavior of Israel in Gaza and on the West Bank. The visa and travel curbs also follow declarations by a number of US allies, including France, the United Kingdom and Canada, that they plan to recognize a Palestinian state at the UN in the coming weeks. Some Trump officials, including the president himself, have strongly opposed this drive for international recognition, which Israel has condemned.

Palestinian officials have inevitably denounced the US action as a deliberate attempt to silence them at a time when Gaza faces mass displacement, starvation, and what UN and International courts have described as a genocide. The US move has drawn sharp criticism from legal experts and international diplomats, who say it violates the 1947 UN Headquarters Agreement, which obligates the United States in its role as the host country to facilitate access for all accredited delegations.

This has led to pushback by the United Nations itself, which reportedly has decided to stage the opening session of the General Assembly in Geneva instead of New York. In fact, in 1988, the UN similarly relocated to Geneva because the US denied a visa to Yasser Arafat, then head of the PLO. The current relocation is similarly intended to insure full Palestinian participation, particularly in a scheduled September 22nd segment which will be dedicated to Palestinian rights. President Mahmoud Abbas is expected to address the Assembly in Geneva, where he will call for international protection, recognition of Palestinian sovereignty, and accountability for Israeli war crimes.

The Geneva session is also expected to increase calls for action under the “Uniting for Peace” resolution, which empowers the General Assembly to recommend steps to take when the Security Council is unable to act due to political obstruction through exercise of vetos or lack of consensus. Advocacy groups are urging the UN to consider deploying an international protection force to Gaza and to suspend Israel’s privileges within the UN system until full humanitarian access is restored. It might also be useful to suspend the United States’ privileges, most particularly including its permanent veto rights on the Security Council, but, alas, that is perhaps asking for way too much!

Philip M. Giraldi, Ph.D., is Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest, a 501(c)3 tax deductible educational foundation (Federal ID Number #52-1739023) that seeks a more interests-based U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. Website is councilforthenationalinterest.org, address is P.O. Box 2157, Purcellville VA 20134 and its email is inform@cnionline.org.

September 4, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

No conflict over shared values

By Ramona Wadi | MEMO | September 4, 2025

EU Foreign Policy Chief Kaja Kallas has partly blamed the US for the bloc’s losing political leverage in Gaza. “If America is supporting everything that the Israeli government is doing, then the leverage they have is there; the leverage we have is in another place,” Kallas said at the annual EU Institute for Security Studies (EUISS) conference on Wednesday this week.

Yet Kallas’s focus on the “humanitarian crisis” in Gaza is too narrow to put the EU completely at odds with the US. The US and the EU have diverged on the distribution and accessibility of humanitarian aid, but the EU, like the US, is largely silent on Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

When Israel announced its intention to obliterate Gaza, the EU brandished its so-called principles and stood by Israel’s security narrative. It was only after the humanitarian deprivation became impossible to ignore that the EU pretended to shift its stance and focus on humanitarian aid without focusing on ending the genocide. How is the US impeding EU leverage in Gaza if the ultimate aim is Israel’s colonial survival?

It is true, as Kallas stated, that the EU is not united on its stance regarding Gaza. Several EU countries debated whether to apply the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Bejamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant. Calls for a weapons embargo have not been heeded. The hype building up to the EU discussing whether it should partially suspend Israel’s participation in the Horizon Europe research programme died down the minute no consensus was reached and failed to even state that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. All the report stated was “indications that Israel would be in breach of its human rights obligations under Article 2 of the EU-Israeli Association Agreement.” Since, according to the EU, there are only “indications”, why should Israel be punished? And since this is another rehashed version of US rhetoric regarding Israel, how is the EU impeded by the US from using its leverage? The EU is not even impeding itself – Israel’s survival remains a top priority for the bloc.

The EU made the most of ridiculing the first presidency of Donald Trump, attempting to make inroads by pitting itself against the US on several stances, while still failing to act. The US “deal of the century” was particularly magnified as the two-state diplomacy suffered a setback. With the Biden administration, under whose presidency Israel received the green light for genocide, the EU was in agreement. A change of presidency in the US will no longer be a convincing argument for Kallas to use. In varying degrees of colonialism and imperialism, the EU and the US are aligned.

In the latest EU meeting held in Copenhagen, there was no consensus once again over “initial punitive action” against Israeli start-ups. Almost two years into Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the EU is still trying to figure out which section of Israel’s economy it can symbolically target in its politics of pretence. Several governments are now speaking of taking initiatives on a national level – also belatedly. Both the US and the EU do not want to punish Israel; they are happy to stand by and let Israel complete its colonial project. “Shared values”, after all, are hard to come by.

September 4, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Progressive Hypocrite | , , , , | Leave a comment

Labelling the Palestinian resistance: Political propaganda or legal classification?

By Sayid Marcos Tenorio | MEMO | August 30, 2025

The dominant narrative in the West portrays the Islamic Resistance Movement – Hamas – as a “terrorist group”, uncritically repeating the rhetoric of Israel and its allies. However, when analysing the issue from the perspective of international law and the history of national liberation movements, it is clear that the “terrorism” label is more a tool of political propaganda than a legal definition.

In light of international law and the United Nations Charter, Hamas should be understood as a Palestinian resistance movement in the face of more than seven decades of Israeli colonisation, ethnic cleansing, and military occupation. This also includes almost two years of uninterrupted confrontation with genocide in the Gaza Strip.

The United Nations (UN) has never declared Hamas a terrorist group. Only a few countries, such as the United States, the European Union, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia, have unilaterally adopted this classification. International law, in turn, does not criminalise resistance against occupation.

Since 1967, Israel has maintained its occupation of the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem, in flagrant violation of the UN Charter and Security Council resolutions. According to International Humanitarian Law, peoples subjected to foreign occupation have the legitimate right to resist, including by armed means, against the occupying power.

This principle is supported by Article 51 of the UN Charter, as well as Resolutions No. 2649/1970, 2787/1971, 3070/1973, and 3103/1974, which explicitly recognise the inalienable right of peoples to fight against colonial domination, foreign occupation, and apartheid. Furthermore, the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and the Additional Protocols of 1977, along with the practice of the International Criminal Court (ICC), distinguish between armed resistance and terrorism.

Therefore, the existence of an armed struggle against occupation does not constitute terrorism, but rather a legitimate exercise of resistance.

Founded in 1987 during the First Intifada, Hamas is not just an armed group; it is also a political, social, and religious movement deeply rooted in Palestinian society.

Its surprising victory in the 2006 legislative elections, which were recognised as free and democratic by international observers, demonstrates its popular representation. It won 76 of the 132 seats, while its main rival, Yasser Arafat’s Fatah, won 43 seats.

Over the decades, Hamas has administered social institutions, hospitals, schools, and assistance programmes, playing a similar role to liberation movements in Algeria (FLN), Vietnam (Viet Minh), or South Africa (ANC), all of which were also labelled terrorists at some point in history. Today, many of these movements are recognised as legitimate builders of their national states.

The classification of Hamas as “terrorist” serves the clear objectives of Israeli policy: To silence the debate on occupation, apartheid, and genocide, diverting attention from the root cause of the conflict; to justify massive attacks against civilians in Gaza, presented as “the fight against terrorism”; to criminalise all forms of Palestinian resistance, whether armed or peaceful – from NGOs to journalists and students.

Judith Butler, an American philosopher from the University of Berkeley, observes that armed resistance under occupation cannot be reduced to terrorism, as this ignores the structural causes of violence: colonialism, supremacism, and military occupation.

Since 2007, Israel has imposed a land, air, and sea blockade on the Gaza Strip, which the UN classifies as collective punishment – a practice prohibited by international law. Millions of Palestinians live without freedom of movement, drinking water, electricity, and medicines. With each Israeli offensive, thousands of civilians are massacred, homes and hospitals are destroyed, and entire neighbourhoods are razed.

The current scenario of indiscriminate attacks on hospitals, schools, and refugee camps is described by international law experts and UN rapporteurs as ongoing genocide, due to the scale of the destruction and the explicit intention to expel or exterminate the original Palestinian population of Gaza.

In the face of this reality, Hamas’s armed resistance should be understood not as terrorism, but as the exercise of a people’s right to self-defence under occupation and ethnic cleansing. The Palestinian struggle is, in essence, a struggle for physical and cultural survival in the face of a colonial project to eliminate all forms of life in Palestine.

The framing of Hamas as a terrorist group is a political construct of Israel and its Western allies, without a basis in international law. Palestinian resistance, whether armed or not, is recognised as legitimate by the UN, the BRICS countries, and international treaties whenever it is intended to confront foreign occupation and colonial oppression.

Calling Hamas “terrorist” is an attempt to delegitimise the struggle of a people seeking freedom, justice, and self-determination. The truth is that Israel, as the occupying power, systematically violates international law, practices apartheid, and commits war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Hamas is an integral part of the Palestinian resistance and must be understood as a national liberation movement, not as terrorism. Recognising this fact is a fundamental step towards a fair and honest reading of the conflict and for seeking a solution based on historical truth, justice, and the right of peoples to self-determination.

September 4, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation | , , , | Leave a comment

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