The Global Sumud Flotilla sets sail from Barcelona to break the Gaza siege
Palestinian Information Center – August 31, 2025
BARCELONA – The “Global Sumud (Resilience) Flotilla” set sail from the Spanish city of Barcelona on Sunday in a new humanitarian solidarity initiative aimed at breaking the Israeli blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip for years, which has intensified since last March.
The flotilla groups several international and humanitarian organizations, most notably the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, the Global Gaza Movement, the Convoy of Resilience, and Malaysia’s Nusantara Resilience Organization.
Participants finalized preparations to sail with dozens of ships loaded with humanitarian aid, joined by activists from 44 countries, along with European parliamentarians and public figures, including former Barcelona mayor Ada Colau and Portuguese left-wing MP Mariana Mortágua.
The flotilla’s steering committee said that this step aims to open a safe humanitarian corridor to the besieged enclave and to exert international pressure to stop the ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people.
It confirmed that parallel actions will be launched from Tunisia and other countries on September 4, coinciding with large-scale demonstrations in several countries around the world in support of the flotilla and the demand to end the blockade.
This initiative builds on the efforts of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition since 2010, when the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara came under a deadly attack by Israeli forces while attempting to break the naval blockade on Gaza.
Since then, attempts to break the siege have continued, including the ships al-Dhamir (Conscience), Madleen, and Handala earlier this year, all of which were attacked and seized by Israeli forces.
Since March 2, Israel has continued to close all crossings leading into the Gaza Strip, preventing the entry of humanitarian aid, causing unprecedented levels of famine, according to UN agencies.
Although Israeli authorities have allowed limited quantities of aid to enter in recent weeks, they fall far short of minimum needs, while many aid trucks are looted by armed gangs operating under Israeli protection, according to governmental and human rights sources.
The United Nations recently declared famine officially in Gaza City, warning that it could spread to the central and southern parts of the Strip by September if the international community fails to take concrete action to contain the disaster and protect civilians.
60% of Gen Z support Hamas over Israel, but majority of Americans support genocide: Survey
MEMO | August 31, 2025
Some 60% of Generation Z in the US favor Palestinian resistance group Hamas over Israel in Tel Aviv’s ongoing war in Gaza, a new survey found, Anadolu reports.
As part of a broad set of questions, the survey asked online respondents: “In the Israel-Hamas conflict, do you support more Israel or more Hamas?”
According to the online survey released this week, 60% of the young people aged between 18 to 24 expressed support for Hamas over Israel.
Among the age groups that sided with Israel were 25-34-year-olds with 65%, 35-44-year-olds with 70%, 45-54-year-olds with 74%, 55-64-year-olds with 84%, and 65 and older with 89%.
The poll also found that voters were evenly divided on whether Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza, with a 50-50 split.
It also revealed that the slight majority of the respondents (51%) believe criticism of Israel is driven more by a concern for Palestinian human rights rather than antisemitism.
Conducted by The Harris Poll and HarrisX between Aug. 20-21 with 2,025 registered voters and a margin of error of 2.2% points, the poll has been widely cited as evidence of a fundamental shift in American public opinion.
Israel’s offensive has killed nearly 63,400 Palestinians since October 2023, devastating the enclave as famine spreads in the second year of genocide.
Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.
With traps and tactical ingenuity, Al-Qassam fighters outmaneuver invaders in Gaza
By Ivan Kesic | Press TV | August 30, 2025
In the smoke-filled streets of Gaza, a powerful message is being written these days in the language of resistance and fire by the Palestinian armed resistance groups.
As the Israeli military machine grinds forward with its brutal offensive, it is being met not with submission but with a fierce and strategic defiance from the Palestinian resistance, led by the fighters of the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Gaza-based Hamas resistance movement.
From the dense urban labyrinths of Gaza City to the southern approaches of Khan Younis, every inch of Palestinian land is being contested in a series of devastating engagements that have exposed the fragility of the Israeli occupation’s so-called invincibility.
The Israeli regime’s latest assault, codenamed Gideon’s Chariots II, has been met with a humiliating and painful reception. Yesterday, as many as three “security incidents” were officially acknowledged, implying heavy casualties and possibly the deadliest day for the invaders in more than a year.
In the Al-Zaytoun and Al-Sabra neighborhoods of Gaza City, resistance fighters have pushed to the city’s edges, refusing to wait behind barricades and instead taking the fight directly to the advancing invaders in intense, close-quarter combat.
At least four regime soldiers have been missing since Friday, most likely captured by the resistance fighters or eliminated by the occupation forces to prevent them from being captured.
Their advanced night vision capabilities allowed them to detect and ambush Israeli units, triggering fierce clashes that forced the occupation army into a panicked deployment of reinforcements.
The resistance has entrenched itself in formidable defensive positions, turning entire districts into deadly traps where every alleyway holds the threat of a well-planned ambush.
Nowhere is the resistance’s effectiveness more starkly illustrated than east of Hamad City, where a brilliantly executed Al-Qassam Brigades’ ambush targeted the Israeli Kfir Brigade.
In a sophisticated joint operation with the Al-Quds Brigades, resistance fighters struck an Israeli Eitan armored personnel carrier with a Kornet guided missile, scoring a direct hit that necessitated a desperate helicopter evacuation for the crew.
This is not an isolated event; it is part of a sustained campaign of sophisticated warfare.
Israeli Merkava tanks, the pride of their armored corps, have been repeatedly destroyed by Al-Yassin 105 shells and powerful landmines in Jabalia, turning these multi-million dollar vehicles into smoldering monuments to Palestinian ingenuity and resolve.
Faced with this steadfast resistance, the Israeli regime has revealed its true nature: a desperate and criminal enterprise lashing out with indiscriminate force.
Its warplanes strike the Nuseirat refugee camp, its artillery pounds civilian neighborhoods, and its leadership enacts the horrific Hannibal Directive, a policy so barbaric that it involves killing its own soldiers and settlers to avoid capture.
Abu Obeida’s remarks
As Al-Qassam Brigades’ spokesperson Abu Obeida stated on Friday, Netanyahu and his ministers have effectively “decided to cut the number of living captives by half,” knowingly endangering them through their reckless military escalation in a cynical gambit to avoid future prisoner exchanges.
The Palestinian resistance, in stark contrast, operates with a principled transparency and honor that shames its oppressors. Abu Obeida’s pledge to announce the name and provide proof for any captive killed by Israeli strikes stands as a powerful testament to their moral high ground.
“The enemy’s criminal plans to occupy Gaza will be disastrous for its political and military leadership. The enemy’s army will pay the price in the blood of its soldiers, and the chances of capturing new soldiers will only increase,” the Al-Qassam Brigades spokesperson said.
“Our fighters are on full alert, ready and in high spirits. They will present exceptional examples of heroism and bravery, and they will teach the invaders harsh lessons, with God’s help,” he added.
His warning that the invasion of Gaza City will be “disastrous” for Israel’s political and military leadership is not mere rhetoric; it is a promise backed by the extraordinary heroism and high morale of Al-Qassam fighters, who are prepared to deliver harsh lessons to the invaders.
They fight as the guardians of a people who have been left with no other option but to resist a genocidal occupation, and through their bravery, they are not just defending Gaza; they are exposing the world’s greatest military powers as paper tigers and writing a new chapter of dignity in the Palestinian liberation struggle
Deadly summer continues
The summer of 2025 has proven to be a season of profound humiliation and strategic failure for the Israeli regime. Despite unleashing the full, brutal force of its military machine in a series of operations with biblical pretensions like “Gideon’s Chariots,” the occupation forces have been met with an unyielding and devastating response from the Palestinian resistance.
Far from being crushed, Hamas has adeptly shifted to a sophisticated war of attrition, leveraging its intimate knowledge of the rough terrain and unparalleled ingenuity to turn Gaza into a graveyard for Israeli ambitions and advanced weaponry.
The regime’s much-hyped “Operation Gideon’s Chariots,” which ran from May to early August, was a catastrophic endeavor despite its claims of territorial gain.
While the regime forces boasted of controlling 75 percent of the Strip, this “victory” was revealed as hollow and illusory. The operation failed in its core objectives: Hamas’s governance and military capabilities remain potent, and the goal of freeing all hostages was abandoned.
More damningly, it came at a staggering cost, with former Israeli army Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon estimating a shocking 15,000 Israeli soldiers killed or wounded by March 2025—a number that has only swelled throughout this deadly summer. This is not the sign of a victorious army but of one being bled dry in a quagmire of its own making.
In response to this aggression, Hamas launched its own “Stones of David” counteroffensive, a masterclass in asymmetric warfare.
This campaign has seen resistance fighters move with audacious skill, refusing to cede the initiative. Instead of waiting behind barricades, Al-Qassam Brigades fighters have pushed to the edges of Gaza City, engaging invading forces in close-quarter combat and springing devastating ambushes.
Their tactics are a testament to their strategic acumen: operating in small, agile cells, they have exploited the extensive tunnel network not as a hiding place, but as a dynamic web for staging attacks, storing weapons, and moving undetected beneath the feet of a disoriented enemy.
The results of this resistance have been tangibly catastrophic for the Israeli war machine.
In a stunning display of effectiveness, the Al-Quds Brigades alone announced the destruction of over 52 military vehicles in the eastern neighborhoods of Gaza City—including Shuja’iyya, al-Tuffah, and al-Zaytoun—using a combination of pre-planted Thaqib and Zelzal explosive devices and reverse-engineered bombs crafted from Israeli munitions.
These are not random acts of violence but the outcome of meticulous preparation and battlefield intelligence. The Al-Qassam Brigades have consistently targeted the enemy’s nervous system, striking command and control centers, as with the attack on a site on Mansoura Street using machine guns and Rajum rockets.
Rushing to repeat mistakes
The launch of “Operation Gideon’s Chariots II” by the Israeli regime, aimed at seizing Gaza City, is not seen as a sign of strength but an admission of the first operation’s failure.
It is a move of sheer desperation, one that has been met with widespread international condemnation and deep fear for the fate of the remaining captives.
The regime’s response—calling up 60,000 more reservists to throw into the meat grinder—speaks to a leadership devoid of strategy, relying solely on overwhelming and indiscriminate force.
Through their bravery and strategic genius, the Palestinian resistance has exposed the fundamental weakness at the core of the Israeli military project.
They have turned the regime’s multi-billion-dollar Merkava tanks into smoldering wrecks and its much-vaunted technological superiority into an irrelevant talking point.
Each ambush, each destroyed vehicle, and each fallen soldier is a testament to the failure of the occupation and the unstoppable will of a people fighting for their freedom.
The resistance does not just endure; it prevails, teaching the Israeli regime and the world a harsh lesson in the power of a just cause.
Mass displacement from Gaza City’s northeast begins as Israeli attacks intensify
MEMO | August 30, 2025
The mass displacement of Palestinians from northeastern Gaza City began on Friday evening as Israeli forces escalated attacks from the north and south, bombarding entire neighbourhoods, Anadolu reports.
A Palestinian security source told Anadolu that the situation in the city’s eastern neighbourhoods is deteriorating “at a rapidly accelerating pace” due to Israel’s intensifying offensive.
The source said the Israeli army has increased demolitions in southern and northeastern Gaza City, using explosive-laden robots alongside artillery shelling and airstrikes.
Anadolu’s correspondent reported “mass displacement” of residents from the city’s northeastern districts toward western Gaza City or farther south in the enclave.
He also reported additional shelling in Gaza City’s southern al-Sabra neighbourhood.
Israel declared a “dangerous combat zone” on Friday and launched one of its most intense bombardments since the war began, striking by air, land, and sea, while nearly 1 million Palestinians are still trapped inside.
The offensive is part of an Israeli plan approved earlier this month to gradually reoccupy Gaza, beginning with the enclave’s largest urban centre, which houses roughly half of the population.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) warned that the assault could force up to 1 million people to evacuate their homes again.
Israel has killed over 63,000 Palestinians in Gaza since October 2023. The military campaign has devastated the enclave, which is facing famine.
Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.
‘Unacceptable’: Spain condemns US visa ban on Palestinian officials
MEMO | August 30, 2025
Spain on Saturday condemned the US decision to revoke visas for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and 80 other officials, calling it “unacceptable” and urging the EU to take a leading role in defending Palestinian representation at the UN, Anadolu reports.
Spain’s Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares talked to reporters ahead of an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers in Copenhagen.
“It is unacceptable that the Palestinian delegation or Mahmoud Abbas couldn’t attend the UN General Assembly … its protection, its immunity is worldwide and the European Union must be at the forefront of those that defend it. That should also be a clear message from today’s meeting.”
Albares used the announcement to reiterate Spain’s call for urgent EU action on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, warning that words alone were no longer sufficient.
“The EU is doing too little, too late and doing nothing. Haven’t achieved anything. So the time of declaration is really over. We have to move forward,” he said, detailing a Spanish-proposed action plan.
“The European Union can only relate to Israel through human rights, and if there is a massive violation, as the report of the Commission has clearly indicated, we must act. This is not anymore the time of war. It’s the time for action, action to stop the war, action to break the blockade of famine from Israel to Gaza,” he added.
“Spain has proposed an action plan with things that, by the way, are nothing extraordinary. It’s just fulfilling and complying with our own European legislation or international legislation, that’s all and certainly, we are going to continue pushing forward,” he added.
Albares outlined four key measures for the EU.
“First to impose an arms embargo on selling weapons to Israel from the EU. Secondly, to enlarge the list of people that are being sanctioned, to anyone, absolutely anyone, that wants to spoil the two-state solution… Third, we have to back financially, very heavily, the Palestinian National Authority.”
“And fourth, we have to enforce and comply with all the rulings and all the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice, for instance, stopping all trade with products coming from the illegal settlements, and also we propose the full suspension of that agreement into the EU and Israel,” he added.
West Asia is lurching toward war
By M. K. BHADRAKUMAR | Indian Punchline | August 30, 2025
There is extremely alarming news about the situation around Iran. In consultations with the Trump administration — rather, in deference to the command from Washington — the E3 countries (Britain, France and Germany) who are the remaining western signatories of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal known as JCPOA, have initiated the process of triggering the so-called snapback mechanism with the aim to reimpose all UN sanctions against Iran on the plea that it has breached the terms of the ten-year old agreement.
A joint statement issued in the three European capitals on Thursday notified the UN Security Council that Tehran is “in significant non-performance of its commitments under the JCPOA” to give a 30-day notice “before the possible reestablishment of previously terminated United Nations Security Council resolutions.”
The E3 statement is patently an act of sophistry since it was the US which unilaterally abandoned the JCOPA in 2018 and the three European powers themselves have been remiss in ignoring their own commitments to lift the sanctions against Iran through the past 15-year period, which only had ultimately prompted Tehran to resume the uranium enrichment activity — although the Iranian side was ready to reinstate the JCOPA as recently as in December 2022.
A strange part of the E3 move is that they short-circuited the prescribed procedure in regard of the snapback mechanism with the intent to reduce the two other permanent member countries of the Security Council to be mere bystanders with no role whatsoever in the matter. Unsurprisingly, Russia and China have taken exception to this and in a lengthy statement on Friday, the Russian Foreign Ministry has demanded (with China’s backing) an extension of the time line by another six months by the Security Council as an interim measure so as to avoid a standoff with dangerous and tragic consequences.
Tehran has welcomed the Russia-China proposal as a “practical step.” Iran, of course, has explicitly warned that any such attempt by the E3 to reimpose the UN sanctions against it may compel it to reconsider its membership of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
It remains to be seen whether the E3 — or more precisely, the US-Israeli nexus which is the driving force behind the precipitate move — will be amenable to a compromise. All indications are that Israel with the full support of the Trump administration is spoiling for a fight with Iran and make a second attempt to force regime change in Tehran and the restoration of the erstwhile Pahlavi dynasty to replace the Islamic system that got established after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Simply put, it is a make-or-break attempt by the US and Israel to bring about a geopolitical realignment in the West Asian region.
The US and Israel have drawn lessons out of the miserable failure of their first attempt in June to overthrow the Islamic system in Iran, and Israel suffered huge losses as Iran retaliated. This time around, the US and Israel seem to be preparing for a fight to the finish, although the outcome remains to be seen. Indeed, a protracted war may ensue. The US is rearming Israel with advanced weaponry. At some point, early enough in the war, a direct American intervention in some form can also be expected.
Unlike in June when the Trump administration in an elaborate ploy of deception lulled Tehran into a state of complacency when the Israeli attack began, this time around, Iran is on guard and has been strengthening its defenses. Make no mistake, Iran will fight back no matter what is takes. Iran is also getting help from Russia for beefing up its air defence system and there are reports that Russian advisors are helping Iran’s armed forces to augment their capability to resist the US-Israeli aggression.
Many western experts, including Alastair Crooke, have predicted that an Israeli attack on Iran can be expected sooner rather than later. The Israeli-American expectation could be that Russia’s military operations in Ukraine will have reached a climactic point by autumn which would almost certainly preclude any scope for Moscow to get involved in a West Asian conflict, and that, in turn, will give them a free hand to take the regime change agenda to its finish.
Besides, in a policy reversal, Iran has taken up the standing Russian offer to provide an integrated air defence system. Such a system will possibly be in position by the middle of next year or so and it is expected to be a force multiplier for Iran. Israel will most certainly try to attack Iran before the integrated system which is connected to Russian satellites becomes fully operational. It remains to be seen whether the Trump administration will be able to withstand Israeli pressure, given the Mossad’s alleged involvement in the Epstein scandal.
A West Asian war of titanic scale will be unprecedented. Apart from large scale loss of lives and destruction, the regional turmoil that ensues will also affect the surrounding regions — India in particular. The point is, an estimated 6 million Indians live in the Gulf region. Their safety and welfare will be in serious jeopardy if the Gulf states get sucked in to the war at some point.
The probability is high that Iran’s retaliation this time around may involve the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz through which tankers carry approximately 17 million barrels of oil each day, or 20 to 30 percent of the world’s total consumption. If that happens, oil price will sky rocket and India’s energy security, which is heavily dependent on oil imports, will be affected. India’s main sources of oil supplies are Russia (18-20%), Saudi Arabia (16-18%), UAE (8-10%) and the US (6-7%).
Clearly, if the oil supplies from the Gulf region get disrupted, India’s dependence on oil flows from Russia will only increase further. In fact, there will be a scramble for Russian oil and, paradoxically, Trump’s best-laid plans to hollow out “Putin’s war chest” will remain a pipe dream.
Significantly, according to Israel’s Kanal 13, Russia has evacuated its diplomatic personnel and their families in its embassy in Tel Aviv in anticipation of a “dramatic” change in the security situation and growing signs of an outbreak of hostilities between Israel and Iran.
US denies visas to Palestinian officials, ahead of UN meeting
Press TV – August 29, 2025
The United States has announced it will deny and revoke visas for members of the Palestinian delegation ahead of the United Nations General Assembly in September.
The leaders of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) will not be allowed to attend the UN General Assembly scheduled for next month at the United Nations headquarters in New York City, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Thursday.
Rubio justified the unprecedented move by citing US laws that bar recognition of Palestinian statehood and impose sanctions on Palestinians for payments to prisoners and resistance fighters.
According to internal documents reviewed by Fox News, the decision affects senior officials from both the PA and the PLO, including President Mahmoud Abbas.
Permanent staff of the Palestinian UN Observer Mission, however, will be exempt under US treaty obligations.
The decision reflects “national security interests,” US State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said, adding that the PA and PLO leaders must repudiate “terrorism” and unilateral statehood efforts before they can be considered partners for peace.
The decision marks the first time the US State Department has blocked an entire delegation from participating in the UN General Assembly.
Washington said the measure aims to prevent Palestinian leaders from using the UN platform to advance a constitutional declaration of independence.
Turkiye boasts about anti-Israel measures despite continued trade ties
The Cradle | August 29, 2025
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on 29 August that his government will maintain the ban on all economic and trade ties with Israel, and keep its airspace closed to Israeli aircraft.
Fidan said halting trade is necessary due to Israel’s war on Gaza and its attacks on Syria’s “territorial integrity.”
“Atrocities committed in Gaza have been recorded as one of the darkest chapters in human history,” the foreign minister went on to say, adding that Palestinian resistance will change the “course of history, become a symbol for the oppressed.”
Fidan also said Israel’s actions in Gaza threaten to set “the entire region ablaze.”
Ankara’s public rhetoric has been harsh and critical of the genocidal war on Gaza, and has escalated since Israel launched a wide-scale occupation and campaign of strikes against Syria after the fall of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s government last year.
Tel Aviv and Ankara have recently been engaged in talks for a “deconfliction mechanism” in Syria, aimed at preventing a clash between their armies, which both occupy the country.
Fidan’s comments come days after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that Ankara was moving to impose a “full ban on maritime traffic connected to Israel, prohibiting both Israel-flagged or Israel-owned vessels from entering Turkish ports and Turkiye-flagged ships from sailing to Israel,” framing the move as a “new sanction” on Israel.
Israeli newspaper Israel Hayom reported, citing Israeli assessments, that the decisions announced by Fidan are not new, and that he was simply “boasting” during a parliament session about previous measures taken. The newspaper added that the ban on flights pertains to military flights only.
In May last year, the Turkish government announced a sweeping ban on all trade with Israel.
However, later reports continued to indicate that Ankara secretly maintained ties and bypassed its ban via third countries – namely, Greece.
According to data from Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), released in June 2024, Tel Aviv imported $116 million worth of goods from Turkiye in May of last year – a 69 percent decline from the same month in 2023.
The Turkish Exporters’ Assembly (TIM) reported at the time only $4 million worth of goods exported to Israel in May – a drop of over 99 percent compared to the previous year.
Middle East Eye (MEE) cited sources as saying that the discrepancy in reported exports was due to Turkish goods being shipped first to Greece and other third-party countries before reaching Israel.
“The Israeli authorities don’t even ask Turkish companies to amend their certificate of origin to re-export the goods through Greece because it would increase the costs further, so they are Turkish products. White label products with Hebrew tags were prioritized, but every sort of good is getting shipped to Israel, especially those ordered before the trade embargo,” a Turkish businessman told MEE at the time.
In September 2024, statistical data from the Turkish Exporters’ Assembly (TIM) revealed that Turkish businesses kept up exports to Israel via Palestinian Authority (PA) customs to get around the trade ban.
Reports citing shipping data and satellite imagery also indicated that the flow of Turkish oil continued to Israel via Azerbaijan following the trade ban in 2024. Ankara has denied this.
Norway reprimands US Senator Lindsay Graham over $2T fund criticism
Al Mayadeen | August 29, 2025
The Norwegian Prime Minister’s office firmly rebuffed US Senator Lindsey Graham’s angry outburst over its sovereign wealth fund’s divestment from Caterpillar Inc., stating unequivocally that the government has no control over the fund’s independent investment decisions.
A spokesperson for the prime minister’s office stated that Premier Jonas Gahr Store sent a text message to Graham, which included information about the fund’s mandate and how its oversight is set up, and received confirmation that it was received.
Norway’s $2 trillion sovereign wealth fund, which held roughly $2.1 billion in Caterpillar shares as of June 30, announced this week that it had divested its holdings in the company due to “Israel’s” use of its bulldozers to destroy Palestinian property in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
Earlier this week, in two social media posts on X, the Republican Senator lashed out at the $2 trillion sovereign wealth fund, which is the world’s largest, threatening tariffs and visa denials because of its recent divestments from the Texas-based firm.
In a two-part statement, Graham first promised that the fund’s “BS decision” would have consequences, then spoke specifically about implementing tariffs and possible visa denials, noting that the Trump administration had already placed a 15% tariff on imports from Norway while the two nations remain engaged in trade negotiations.
The reaction from the US lawmaker came at a delicate time for the fund and for the Norwegian government, as Norway is set to hold parliamentary elections on Sept. 8 and the fund has been under pressure to divest from Israeli companies contributing to the war in Gaza.
In addition to its divestment from the heavy machinery company, the Norwegian fund announced it excluded five Israeli banking institutions which are: Hapoalim, Bank Leumi, Mizrahi Tefahot Bank, First International Bank of Israel, and FIBI Holdings.
The decision followed recommendations from the fund’s ethics watchdog, the Council on Ethics, which concluded that there was an unacceptable risk of these institutions and Caterpillar contributing to serious rights violations in situations of war and conflict.
Berlin police: The violent enforcers of Germany’s Staatsräson
By Timo Al-Farooq | Al Mayadeen | August 29, 2025
In March 2008, former chancellor Angela Merkel uttered an innocuous word that fifteen and a half years later would become the moral justification for two successive German governments to aid and abet “Israel’s” war of extermination in Gaza, occupied Palestine: “Staatsräson”, meaning “reason of state.”
Singing revisionist praises to the Zionist project in front of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, she derived from Germany’s “special historical responsibility” for the Jewish holocaust in Europe a moral imperative to safeguard “Israel’s security.”
“[T]his historical responsibility is part of the reason of state of my country,” Merkel proclaimed, thus retroactively birthing a nomenclature for decades of (West) German diplomatic and military support for “Israel’s” brutal history of ethnic cleansing, military occupation and apartheid.
As “Israel’s” genocide by bombs, bullets and forced starvation intensifies and the IOF is set to invade Gaza City in what Palestinian Youth Movement describes as a “campaign to bring the entirety of the Strip under the total subjugation of the Zionist army”, chancellor Friedrich Merz reiterated his government’s continued support for the Israeli regime in a TV interview earlier this month.
Weighted knuckle-gloves
Nowhere is Germany’s enforcement of its über-Zionist Staatsräson more visible than on the streets of the capital Berlin, home to the largest Palestinian community in Europe, where the city-state’s police have gained unparalleled notoriety for their brutal crackdowns on pro-Palestine protests.
Every other day, deeply disturbing video footage of aggressive officers in riot gear manhandling peaceful anti-genocide protesters with a reckless abandon that only a culture of impunity can embolden is posted to social media by those who are meticulously documenting Germany’s post-October 7 free-fall from a minimum-standard democracy to a quasi police state.
In yet another scandalous escalation of Berlin’s thuggish state brutality against pro-Palestine protesters, shocking social media footage shows police beating an Irish activist bloody at a civil disobedience action on August 28 against “Israel’s” deliberate killings of Palestinian journalists.
Far from ensuring public order and safety, as should be policing’s purpose in any civilised country, Berlin’s badge-wearing goon squads violently arrest non-violent people of conscience, be they men, women, children, or disabled, simply for exercising their right to freedom of speech.
The police’s confrontative combat gear, which includes weighted-knuckle gloves, is indicative of their violent mandate and penchant for hooliganism. Prohibited in some jurisdictions and classified as dangerous weapons, the gloves used by Berlin police are filled with quartz sand and can inflict severe injuries.
In a recent aggravated battery case involving an individual who used this type of glove to beat his victim, Germany’s highest appellate court ruled that twenty blows with weighted-knuckle gloves are indicative of attempted murder, reports the news website Legal Tribune Online.
Lawless law-enforcement
Despite Germany’s Staatsräson being a political philosophy with no legal responsibilities arising from it, Berlin police continue to interpret it as the law of the land in their nihilistic and racist fight to crush public opposition to “Israel’s” German-backed annihilation of the Palestinian people.
The German insanity of treating the traditional liberation slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” as antisemitic hate speech or even as a trademarked symbol of the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, which is proscribed as a terrorist organisation in Germany, is a case in point.
Despite numerous court rulings that say it is not a criminal offence to express these words in speech and writing, police in Berlin continue to arrest people who do so.
Two instances illustrate just how far post-October 7 policing has gone from enforcing laws to breaking them and even making them up, thus violating the separation of powers that distinguishes democracies from autocracies in the state’s attempts to criminalise anti-Zionism.
On July 30, prominent human rights defender Yasmin Acar was acquitted by a Berlin court for using the slogan “From the river to the sea.” The presiding judge even praised Acar’s political activism as “highly esteemed.”
This did not stop police from arresting supporters who had gathered in front of the courthouse for chanting the exact same slogan.
This absurdity is not accidental. Unfazed by the court’s ruling, the Berliner Polizei doubled down in a widely condemned public service announcement posted on X ten days later, implying that they would not obey the law in the context of Palestine solidarity.
“The slogan ‘From the river to the sea’ is deemed a criminal offence by Berlin’s public prosecutor’s office. Please refrain from this expression. We are obligated to prosecute crimes and take appropriate police-related measures,” the statement read.
In functioning democracies, prosecutors are supposed to make decisions based on legal standards, not act as self-appointed law-makers. But Germany is no functioning democracy anymore: Fanatic adherence to “Israel”, even as it perpetrates a colonial genocide which knows no red lines other than the gleefully spilled blood of native Palestinians, has seen Germany swiftly regress toward its authoritarian ways of yore.
As for Berlin’s uniformed street-brawlers who make up the lowest echelons of the police hierarchy and are thuggishly enforcing the red herring of “Israeli security” at Palestine liberation protests while “Israel” wipes Palestinians off the face of Gaza’s once fertile earth, their gross misconduct shows just how far the already oppressive institution of policing has gone rogue, its behaviour more apropos of a criminal organisation than of a law-enforcement agency.
In light of this post-October 7 hyper-metamorphosis, the “Ganz Berlin hasst die Polizei!” (All of Berlin hates the police) chants protesters strike up whenever another one of theirs is brutalised by Staatsräson’s cowardly foot soldiers, have become the relatable soundtrack of resistance to German complicity in “Israel’s” genocide in Gaza and to the reawakening of fascist muscle memory at home.
Italians seek Israeli isolation over gaza genocide
Press TV – August 28, 2025
People from all walks of life protested near Rome’s iconic Pantheon temple on Tuesday, August 25, 2025 calling for Israel’s political and commercial isolation.
They rejected what they called Italy’s complicity in Israel’s genocidal operations in Gaza.
The lands occupied by Israel belong to Palestinians, and they will be returned to them. Those who will be living there, either they’re Muslims, Christians or Jews, will be Palestinian people.
We know full well. Italy is a colony of the US Empire, and for this reason, is subjugated to the Zionist regime.
Protestor 01
I don’t know exactly why the Italian government doesn’t uphold international norms when it comes to Israel. It would be interesting asking this question to [sic] our politicians directly. It is quite appalling.
Antonella Moschillo, Pro-Palestine Activist and Psychiatrist
The protesters demanded the cancellation of two FIFA World Cup qualifying matches between Italy and Israel, which are slated for September and October., demanding Israel be expelled from all sporting competitions.
Recently, Italy’s sports minister, Andrea Abodi, when asked by journalists about the debate sparked by an opposition lawmaker over possible punitive measures against the Israeli regime, said the Italy-Israel football match will proceed as scheduled.
He noted Russia was excluded from competitions as an aggressor, but Israel should not be suspended since it was attacked on October 7, 2023.
I pity him, because he’s obviously a hostage of a system, and of a political system that is servile to Israel.
Our country takes instructions from Israel.
We have not passed one sanction we have not passed, but we have passed 18 against Russia.
Anwaar Ahmed. Pro-Palestine Activist
Football, sports in general, must be unifying tools, and those who run football should refuse to pair with violent, genocidal actors like Israel.
Protestor 02
Recently, the Italian association of football coaches have formally called on football’s international and European governing bodies to suspend Israel over its genocidal war on Gaza.
The genocide in Gaza is now destabilising European politics: Dutch FM resigns, shaking his government apart
By Ricardo Martins – New Eastern Outlook – August 29, 2025
The resignation of the Dutch foreign minister over the Gaza genocide exposes Europe’s moral paralysis and highlights the power of conscience against complicity in genocide.
A Crack in Europe’s Wall of Silence and Inaction
On Friday, something extraordinary happened in Europe — something almost unthinkable within the European Commission or across the Atlantic. Caspar Veldkamp, the Dutch Foreign Minister, resigned from office rather than continue serving in a government that refused to sanction Israel for war crimes in Gaza and the West Bank.
Within hours, his entire party — the New Social Contract (NSC), including Deputy Prime Minister Eddy van Hijum, the Interior and Education ministers, the Health minister, and several state secretaries — followed him out of the fragile coalition.
This was no symbolic gesture. Veldkamp is not an unknown backbencher; he is a seasoned diplomat, a former ambassador to Israel itself. Few Europeans know Israel more intimately. He witnessed the apartheid system from inside, and now the genocide in Gaza, all while the international community remains paralysed in action, but with some strong words of condemnation. Confronted with a cabinet unwilling to act, he chose conscience over complicity.
Explaining his decision, Veldkamp told reporters:
“I felt resistance in the cabinet against more measures as a result of what is happening in Gaza City and the occupied West Bank… I saw efforts to meet me halfway, but in the end the concessions were insufficient… I have too little confidence that in the coming weeks and months I could act responsibly if I am restricted from pursuing the policy I deem necessary.”
A sitting European foreign minister walked away, saying he could no longer act “responsibly” while famine raged in Gaza. That is a political earthquake.
Why It Matters
Veldkamp’s resignation matters for three reasons.
First, it exposes what many in power have sought to hide: Western governments know what Israel is doing. They know it bluntly violates international law. And yet, they succumb to pressure and choose paralysis, or even false neutrality. Veldkamp’s break makes that complicity explicit.
Second, his career makes him a devastating witness. He was no enemy of Israel; he was its ambassador, its partner, its friend. If even he resigns, it signals the moral bankruptcy of Europe’s position.
And third, this was not just one man’s choice. It was an entire party withdrawing from government, destabilising an already weakened caretaker coalition. Gaza’s genocide is no longer just a humanitarian catastrophe abroad. It is shaking European politics at home.
The Immediate Trigger: Boycotts, Arms, and Famine
The resignation was sparked by a cabinet debate over boycotting goods from Israel’s illegal West Bank settlements. Veldkamp pushed hard, arguing the Netherlands could not condemn settlements while continuing to import their products. But coalition partners — the centre-right VVD and the populist Farmer-Citizen Movement — blocked him, insisting such a boycott should only be pursued “at the European level.” Others flatly opposed any new measures.
The day before, parliament had also voted down a motion to stop Israeli-linked arms sales to the Dutch military. Even in the face of genocide, even in the week that famine in Gaza was officially declared by UN-backed experts, Veldkamp’s government, led by Dick Schoof, refused to act. For him, that crossed a moral line.
This timing matters. His resignation coincided precisely with the famine declaration — one of only four famines officially recognised in two decades. Children skeletal, mothers unable to breastfeed, families clawing at crumbs. This famine is not a natural disaster. It is solely deliberately provoked by Israel.
When Veldkamp said he was “insufficiently able to take meaningful additional measures,” he was talking about famine and mass starvation. His cabinet refused to treat the deliberate starvation of Palestinians as reason enough to act. So he walked.
The Shadow of The Hague
There is a deeper hypocrisy here. The Netherlands hosts the International Criminal Court in The Hague. This is where global justice is supposed to be enforced. It is also the city where 150,000 Dutch citizens marched in June — the largest protest in two decades — demanding sanctions and accountability.
That contrast is brutal: a government in The Hague refusing to sanction genocide while its people fill the streets, while the world’s top tribunal sits only a few blocks away. The ICC investigates genocide elsewhere — Darfur, Myanmar, and South Sudan. But when genocide is committed by Israel, backed by the U.S., Germany, and other European partners, Europe paralyses itself.
Veldkamp’s resignation exposes that contradiction. The Dutch government now stands, with Berlin and Washington, on the wrong side of history — complicit in crimes against humanity while preaching international law.
Pressure From Below
The protests mattered. Veldkamp himself acknowledged that citizens’ demands for action influenced his decision. About 150,000 people marched in The Hague — the largest mobilisation since the Iraq War. That mattered. It showed politicians that silence is not free.
This is the lesson: protest cannot always stop bombs, but it can break walls of complicity. It can make ministers resign.
Europe’s Geopolitical Paralysis
Meanwhile, Europe as a whole remains paralysed. Ursula von der Leyen, previously Olaf Scholz, and now Friedrich Merz double down on “Israel’s right to defend itself,” even after more than 60,000 Palestinians are dead and famine is officially declared. Coalition partners in the Netherlands — VVD and BBB — blocked sanctions, refusing even a boycott of settlement goods.
This is not neutrality. It is an obstruction of an action against apartheid and genocide. And it is proof of Europe’s impotence. The EU, once a self-proclaimed “normative, moral power,” now reveals itself incapable of defending the very norms it enshrines in law.
Compare with America
Across the Atlantic, silence is even deeper. Congress continues to authorise billions in military aid to Israel, blocks ceasefire resolutions at the UN, and welcomes Netanyahu as an honoured guest. Donald Trump promises to go further, boasting he would let Israel “finish the job.”
No U.S. cabinet minister has resigned. No member of Congress has said what Veldkamp said: that they cannot act responsibly under such conditions. The silence in Washington is bipartisan and total.
Europe is no better — but cracks are now visible. And those cracks matter.
A Former Ambassador Breaks Ranks
Do not underestimate the symbolic power of this break. Veldkamp was once an ambassador to Israel. He knows its system intimately: the apartheid, the settlements, the 2018 supremacist law declaring Israel a “Jewish nation-state.” He cannot be dismissed as naïve or antisemitic.
When he resigns, he carries that credibility with him — leaving his government exposed, discredited, morally bankrupt, and aligned with genocide supporters. It also leaves Europe humiliated: the Netherlands, seat of the ICC, is now complicit in the very crimes its institutions were created to judge.
The Lesson of History
Resignations over Israel’s actions are almost unheard of in Europe. Condemnations, yes. Symbolic motions, yes. But ministers sacrificing office? Rarely. That is why this moment belongs in history.
Years from now, when Gaza’s famine is remembered, when historians count the dead, they will ask, Who spoke? Who resigned? Who refused complicity? Caspar Veldkamp’s name will be among the answers.
Conscience or Complicity?
This story is not just about Dutch politics. It is about the cracks forming in the West’s unconditional defence of Israel. It is about how famine and apartheid, once denied, are now destabilising European governments and credibility. It is about the power of protest to force moral lines.
Veldkamp said it plainly: Israel is violating international law. His government refused to act. So, he left.
The choice is now ours: conscience or complicity. What do we want our children, grandchildren, and students to read about us in the history books?
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From the Archives
Fourteen Incredible Facts About 9/11
By Kevin Ryan | Dig Within | August 8, 2015
… What is known about 9/11 is that there are many incredible facts that continue to be ignored by the government and the mainstream media. Here are fourteen.
- An outline of what was to become the 9/11 Commission Report was produced before the investigation began. The outline was kept secret from the Commission’s staff and appears to have determined the outcome of the investigation.
- The 9/11 Commission claimed sixty-three (63) times in its Report that it could find “no evidence” related to important aspects of the crimes.
- One person, Shayna Steiger, issued 12 visas to the alleged hijackers in Saudi Arabia. Steiger issued some of the visas without interviewing the applicants and fought with another employee at the embassy who tried to prevent her lax approach.
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