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Trump’s remarks on Gaza aid meant to justify Israeli policy of starvation: Hamas

Press TV – May 6, 2025

Hamas has rejected the accusation by US President Donald Trump that the Palestinian resistance group makes it impossible for aid to reach Palestinians in Gaza, saying the remarks are meant to justify Israel’s policy of starvation in the besieged territory.

In a statement released on Tuesday, Hamas said the remarks by Trump were “nothing more than a surprising parroting of the lies propagated by Netanyahu’s terrorist regime, which seeks to justify the systematic starvation it is inflicting upon innocent civilians.”

President Trump said on Monday that the US would help provide some food to the people of Gaza, where famine is currently being observed. He accused Hamas of taking all the aid that is brought into the besieged territory.

“We’re gonna help the people of Gaza get some food. People are starving, and we’re gonna help them get some food,” Trump said.

Hamas said the remarks by the US president contradict testimonies from humanitarian organizations operating in Gaza.

“These accusations blatantly contradict United Nations reports, testimonies from humanitarian organizations operating in the Strip, and all on-the-ground evidence, while aligning perfectly with the occupation’s policy of using starvation as a weapon, in clear violation of international law and humanitarian norms.”

The Palestinian movement also urged the Trump administration “to correct its position, cease providing cover for the genocide and starvation policies pursued by the occupation in the Gaza Strip.”

Hamas said it was not enough for Trump to ask Netanyahu to “send some food.”

It also called on the US to pressure Israel to “halt its aggression and open the crossings to allow the entry of all essential life-saving supplies.”

“What is required is a responsible stance that respects international humanitarian law, demands the immediate opening of crossings, ensures the uninterrupted flow of aid and relief, and puts an end to the use of food as a tool of blackmail and pressure in this war.”

Separately, Hamas said Israel’s plans to expand the operation in Gaza meant sacrificing Israeli captives and repeating past failures.

Hamas said the plan showed that the Israeli prime minister was determined to commit further war crimes against civilians in Gaza.

The Palestinian group urged the international community to intensify popular pressure to end the war against Gaza.

In March, after two months of ceasefire, Israel resumed its brutal military offensive in Gaza.

Furthermore, the regime imposed a blockade on all aid supplies, refusing to allow even a single truck carrying humanitarian or commercial goods to enter.

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

Israeli Forces Carry Out Large-Scale Demolitions Across West Bank

IMEMC | May 6, 2025

Israeli occupation forces have demolished an entire Palestinian village, Khirbet Khallet ad-Dabe’ in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron, in the occupied West Bank, in addition to demolishing many homes and structures in villages near Ramallah, Qalqilia, and the northern Jordan Valley.

The demolitions, carried out under the pretext of “unauthorized construction,” mark one of the largest waves of destruction in recent months.

Mass Displacement in Masafer Yatta

In Khirbet Khallet ad-Dabe’, Israeli soldiers razed 25 structures, including homes, water wells, caves, agricultural rooms, livestock pens, and solar panels, most of which belonged to the Dababsa family.

Residents were forcibly evicted, prevented from retrieving their belongings, and left without shelter.

The village, home to 120 Palestinians, has been under constant threat of displacement since 2022, as Israel seeks to seize the land for colonial expansion by designating it a military firing zone.

Local activist Osama Makhamra stated that Israeli forces forced residents to evacuate at gunpoint, leaving them stranded in harsh conditions. He noted that only a school and two homes remain standing after the demolitions.

Expanding Colonial Control

The destruction in Masafer Yatta is part of a broader Israeli policy aimed at erasing Palestinian communities and replacing them with Jewish colonizers.

According to Nidal Younis, head of the local village council, Israel’s actions reflect a long-standing strategy of forced displacement, involving land confiscation, demolitions, and expansion of illegal Israeli colonies, built in direct violation of international law.

“Nearly 90% of the homes in Khirbet Khallet ad-Dabe’ have been destroyed, leaving families and livestock without shelter. This is a deliberate effort to wipe out Palestinian presence in the area,” Younis said.

Younis warned that all villages in Masafer Yatta are under threat, with Israel systematically declaring Palestinian lands as closed military zones to facilitate colonial expansion.

Over the past two years, Israel has established eight new colonies in the area, alongside colonizer-run livestock farms that encroach on Palestinian land.

Widespread Demolitions Across the West Bank

Israeli forces also demolished homes and structures in multiple locations, including:

– Al-Mughayyir, northeast of Ramallah – A 150-square-meter home housing five people was destroyed, with another home marked for demolition.

– Al-Funduq, east of Qalqilya – A 200-square-meter home belonging to Firas Bleyya was razed.

– Northern Jordan Valley – Several residential structures and livestock pens were demolished in Khirbet al-Deir.

– Jisr al-Zarqa, near Haifa – A Palestinian home, occupied for three decades, was destroyed under the pretext of unauthorized construction.

Colonizers’ Attacks and Illegal Land Seizures

Israeli paramilitary colonizers have intensified attacks on Palestinian communities, including:

– Al-Mughayyir – Colonizers cut down 200 olive trees belonging to Mohammad and Samir Hamayel.

– Al-Mu’arrajat, northwest of Jericho – Colonizers attempted to burn a Palestinian home and set fire to a tractor, while Israeli forces stood by without intervention.

Escalating Demolition and Colonial Expansion

A recent report by the Wall & Colonization Resistance Commission documented 1,693 Israeli violations in April 2025, including:

– 152 demolitions, affecting 96 homes and 34 agricultural structures.

– 46 demolition orders issued.

– 54 dunams of Palestinian land seized.

– 1,168 olive trees uprooted.

– Plans for 10 new colonial outposts, mostly agricultural and pastoral.

– 27 expansion projects for illegal colonies are under review to seize more Palestinian land.

May 6, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , , | Leave a comment

New PCHR Report Reveals Israeli Destruction of Gaza’s Agricultural Sector and Food Systems

IMEMC | May 6, 2025

In a new report issued Monday, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) confirms that the ongoing Israeli military assault on the Gaza Strip, which began in October 2023, has deliberately and extensively targeted Gaza’s agricultural sector and food production systems. This assault has resulted in the near-total collapse of a sector essential for the survival of the population. PCHR reveals that this destruction is part of a longstanding and systematic strategy by the IOF to exterminate the Palestinian people and uproot their existence. This objective has become a central policy of the current Israeli government, which uses destruction and starvation as weapons of war within the broader framework of the crime of genocide—seeking to eliminate Palestinians and strip them of the basic means of survival.

The report, titled “We Will Leave Them Nothing: The Israeli Systematic Destruction of the Agricultural Sector and Food Production Systems in Gaza”, meticulously documents the deliberate and large-scale destruction by the IOF of Gaza’s agricultural infrastructure. Nearly 75% of farmlands and orchards have been bulldozed and obliterated. The vast majority of agricultural facilities—including greenhouses, storage warehouses, farming equipment, irrigation systems, and power supplies—have been destroyed. In addition, livestock and fishery facilities, which are vital pillars of Gaza’s food security system, have also been decimated.

The report highlights that IOF has seized more than 130 km² of land across Gaza, much of it agricultural, and converted it into military buffer zones. This has deprived Palestinians of vast areas essential for food production—an explicit violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention’s protections for civilian property during wartime and the prohibition against seizing the land of occupied populations. The report also stresses that these unprecedented attacks on Gaza’s food sources have been compounded by an intensified blockade, the denial of humanitarian aid and food supplies, and the systematic use of starvation as a weapon of war. These acts have had catastrophic consequences for food security, triggering a severe hunger crisis and soaring levels of malnutrition.

PCHR warns that the destruction of Gaza’s food systems not only threatens the current survival of the population but also constitutes an assault on the future of Palestinian existence in the Strip. It entrenches a devastating reality of hunger and dependency by eliminating the foundations of recovery and forcing Gaza’s population into total reliance on external aid. This reflects Israel’s long-term colonial objective: to depopulate the land, seize control of its resources, and suppress any possibility of Palestinian self-sufficiency or resilience. Such conduct, the report asserts, directly violates Article II of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which criminalizes the imposition of living conditions calculated to destroy a group physically and psychologically.

The report further affirms that these acts constitute grave violations of international law, particularly the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, especially Article 11, which guarantees the right to adequate food and a dignified life. It also violates Article 54 of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions, which prohibits targeting “objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population.” According to Article 8 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, these acts constitute a full-fledged war crime.

In its recommendations, PCHR calls on the international community to break its silence and to uphold its legal and moral responsibilities in confronting these crimes against Palestinian civilians and their sources of sustenance. It urges effective measures to hold Israel accountable, stop the ongoing genocide in Gaza, and ensure urgent international support for the rehabilitation of the agricultural sector. PCHR also emphasizes the necessity of restoring Palestinian sovereignty over their food systems and land, and demands an end to the culture of impunity that enables the repetition of Israeli crimes and undermines the foundations of international justice.

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

Do Trump’s Slick Comments Put Iran Talks in Jeopardy?

By Ted Snider | The Libertarian Institute | May 6, 2025

U.S. President Donald Trump’s unexpected answer on Sunday to an interviewer’s question has thrown his administration’s nuclear negotiations with Iran into confusion.

Trump has consistently said that negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program are limited to preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapon: “You know, it’s not a complicated formula. Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.” But in an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press, when the interviewer asked Trump, “Is the goal of these talks limiting Iran’s nuclear program or total dismantlement?” Trump answered, “Total disarmament.”

There has been disagreement in the Trump team over, not just the goal of negotiations with Iran, but, more fundamentally, over negotiating with Iran. National Security Advisor Mike Waltz advocated for a military path, while Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Vice President J.D. Vance advocated for caution. Vance urged fully exploring talks before settling for a military solution. Trump sided with the diplomacy camp, believing that “we can make a deal without the attack.”

According to reporting by The Washington Post, Trump fired Waltz as National Security Advisor because he opposed Trump and “wanted to take U.S. policy in a direction Trump wasn’t comfortable with because the U.S. hadn’t attempted a diplomatic solution.” Waltz maintained that “the time was ripe to strike Iran.”

Having agreed on the diplomatic path, there appeared to be confusion over the goal of diplomacy. Waltz said that the U.S. is demanding “full dismantlement,” and Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff said that “a Trump deal” means “Iran must stop and eliminate its nuclear enrichment and weaponization program.” But these statements had been at odds with Trump’s more limited stated goal. Until Sunday.

If there was a lack of clarity in America’s goals in negotiating, there was no ambiguity in Iran’s. Iran wanted a deal that the United States couldn’t walk away from, as they walked away from the previous 2015 JCPOA nuclear agreement, and they wanted negotiations to lead to three things.

The first is that negotiations have to lead to a cessation of U.S. threats of a military solution. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian had made it clear that “the language of threats and coercion is absolutely unacceptable… It is unacceptable for someone to come along and say, ‘Don’t do this, don’t do that, or else.’ I won’t come to negotiate with you.”

The second is that negotiations have to lead to the complete lifting of sanctions.

The third is that, while Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has fully empowered his team to negotiate, he has placed the firm limit that Iran will not negotiate “the full dismantling of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure.”

The American-Iranian talks were showing signs of success. Iran called the first round “constructive” and “respectful.” The U.S. called it “constructive” and “positive.” The first round led to a second, which led to an agreement to begin work on a framework for a potential deal and a third round of talks.

Then a flurry of confusing and contradictory statements made by U.S. officials in the past few days began to derail the talks.

First, Pete Hegseth returned to the language of threats. Referring to Yemen’s Houthi attacking vessels in the Red Sea, Hegseth “warned” Iran, “You know very well what the U.S. Military is capable of… You will pay the CONSEQUENCE at the time and place of our choosing.” From Iran’s perspective, what is the point in negotiating limits on your civilian nuclear program to avoid American bombs if the United States is going to bomb you anyway for another purpose?

Then Trump returned to the threat of sanctions, posting that “Any Country or person who buys ANY AMOUNT of OIL or PETROCHEMICALS from Iran will be subject to, immediately, Secondary Sanctions. They will not be allowed to do business with the United States of America in any way, shape, or form.”

Following those two statements, the fourth round of scheduled talks between the United States and Iran were postponed. They were allegedly postponed “[f]or logistical reasons.” However, a senior Iranian official said that “U.S. sanctions on Iran during the nuclear talks are not helping the sides to resolve the nuclear dispute through diplomacy” and that “[d]epending on the U.S. approach, the date of the next round of talks will be announced.”

Then came the unexpected threat to future talks. Trump told Meet the Press that the talks are not negotiating what the Iranians thought they were negotiating. The United States he said, is not negotiating verifiable limits on Iran’s civilian nuclear program, it is demanding “total dismantlement” of Iran’s nuclear program.

“That’s all you’ll accept?” the interviewer clarified. “Yeah, that’s all I’d accept,” Trump confirmed.

The interviewer then, wrongly, suggested that Trump’s statement was inconsistent with Marco Rubio, his Secretary of State’s, suggestion that the U.S. “would accept… a peaceful, civilian nuclear program.”

Trump’s statement is not inconsistent with Rubio’s, though, because Rubio’s statement that Iran can have a civilian nuclear program by importing uranium enriched up to 3.67% but no longer by enriching their own, is consistent with Trump’s statement that Iran would have to dismantle its enrichment capability.

Though Trump’s statement may not be inconsistent with Rubio’s, it did, at this point, become a little confused with itself. Trump suggested that Iran has no need of a civilian nuclear program “to make electricity” because “they have so much oil, what do they need it for.” Trump then, confusingly repeated his earlier formulation, saying, “The only thing they can’t have is a nuclear weapon.” He said, “I think that I would be open to hearing” about a civilian nuclear program to generate energy before seemingly shutting it down again with the observation that “civilian energy often leads to military wars.”

The recent return by Washington to military threats and sanctions are not helping negotiations that seemed to be on a path to possible success. Trump’s latest remark that Iran has to fully dismantle its civilian nuclear program and stop all enrichment appears to take away any motivation for Iran to negotiate. Since Trump has said that “If they don’t make a deal, there will be bombing,” it is imperative to clarify the confusion and the positions and get the fourth round of talks back on schedule.

May 6, 2025 Posted by | Wars for Israel | , , , , , | Leave a comment

Israeli Settlers Show Louis Theroux Their Full Colours

Novara Media | April 29, 2025

May 6, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Video | , , , , | Leave a comment

UCLA Gaza protesters sue over police violence, rubber bullet injuries

Al Mayadeen | May 5, 2025

A new lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court accuses law enforcement of police brutality during a violent crackdown on pro-Palestine protesters at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in spring 2024.

At the height of nationwide demonstrations against “Israel’s” war on Gaza, the UCLA encampment became a central site of student-led protest. On April 30, a pro-“Israel” mob attacked the encampment for more than four hours. Protesters say that police stood by as counter-demonstrators launched fireworks, sprayed chemical agents, and engaged in harassment and sexual assault, according to The Intercept.

The following day, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, UCLA officials, and multiple law enforcement agencies coordinated plans to dismantle the encampment. On May 1, the encampment was forcibly cleared.

On February 12, 2025, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Graduate Students for Justice in Palestine (GSJP) were placed on interim suspension.

Police response: coordination and forceful dispersal

More than 700 police officers descended on campus, including members of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), California Highway Patrol (CHP), Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, University of California Police Department, and private security forces.

During the raid, law enforcement fired over 50 rounds of rubber bullets into the crowd, striking multiple protesters in the head. Several individuals were hospitalized, including one who sustained internal bleeding and another whose hand bones were shattered, requiring surgery and extensive rehabilitation.

Protesters are now suing both the state of California, which oversees CHP, and the city of Los Angeles, which oversees LAPD. The suit argues that the use of rubber bullets by LAPD and CHP amounted to excessive force and violated protesters’ constitutional rights.

Legal violations: restricted rubber bullets and protesters’ rights

Following mass protests in 2020 against the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, California lawmakers passed a law limiting the use of kinetic impact projectiles, commonly known as rubber bullets. The legislation bans their use at protests unless there is an objective and immediate threat to life or serious injury.

The lawsuit states that officers’ actions at the UCLA encampment violated this law. Attorney Becca Brown, representing the plaintiffs, emphasized that the indiscriminate firing of such projectiles is both illegal and dangerous.

“They cannot be used simply because someone is non-compliant,” she explained.

Despite UCLA’s revised protocols following 2020 to minimize reliance on external police forces, CHP, typically less involved in protest response, played a prominent role in the May 1 raid.

An LAPD after-action report later attempted to justify the force used, citing incidents like a protester throwing a traffic cone or removing a police helmet. However, the report admitted communication breakdowns among agencies and recommended improved command clarity.

Chilling effect: trauma, criminalization, and fear of future protest

The lawsuit includes plaintiffs such as a UCLA Ph.D. candidate, an undergraduate student, another student from a different university, and an architectural designer. All were struck with rubber bullets, several in the head. Beyond physical injuries, the plaintiffs say the crackdown has severely impacted their willingness to participate in future demonstrations.

“The encampment clearance by means of violence, excessive force, and kinetic energy projectiles traumatized Plaintiffs,” the complaint reads. “It justifiably made them less willing to engage in any further Palestine-related protest activity.”

One plaintiff, Abdullah Puckett, now fears future retaliation if he returns to protest. The complaint states that he is “more hesitant and afraid,” and has had to reevaluate the extent of his participation in pro-Palestine demonstrations.

Broader implications: political accountability and state repression

More than 200 people were arrested during the UCLA encampment clearance. LAPD later requested over $500,000 in reimbursement for the operation, which included 2,400 overtime hours, according to the Daily Bruin. The arrests resulted in criminal records for many students.

Lawyers say those records are now being used by the Trump administration to conduct background checks on international students and potentially flag them for deportation.

“For international students that may have been arrested at any of these encampments, that got flagged and could be subject to deportation under Trump’s fascist policies,” said Ricci Sergienko, one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs.

Sergienko criticized Democratic leaders such as Governor Gavin Newsom and Mayor Bass, arguing that their actions laid the groundwork for broader state repression. “These attacks also happened in Democratic-run cities and blue states,” he said.

He also warned of mounting censorship in academia, pointing to a proposed bill in California that targets ethnic studies programs under the pretext of combating antisemitism. “That’s another attack on speech coming from the blue state, the liberal paradise of California,” he said.

During a recent screening of the documentary The Encampments at UCLA, police were once again called in. LAPD officers arrested three students.

May 5, 2025 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance, Solidarity and Activism, Subjugation - Torture | , , , , | Leave a comment

Hind Rajab’s killers identified

MEMO | May 5, 2025

A human rights organisation has revealed the identity of the Israeli officer directly responsible for the killing of Palestinian child Hind Rajab, her family, and the two medics who tried to save her in the Tel al-Hawa neighbourhood, Gaza City, on 29 January 2024.

In a statement released on Saturday, the Hind Rajab Foundation, an independent NGO based in Brussels, said: “We now publicly name the commander responsible for killing Hind:

Lieutenant Colonel Beni Aharon

Commander of the 401st Armoured Brigade of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) at the time of the killing.”

The organisation said the identification followed a more than year-long investigation. It also confirmed it had identified the brigade’s soldiers, field commanders, and operations officers who took part in the attack under Aharon’s command.

The foundation asserted that it “has filed a war crimes complaint with the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague” to issue an arrest warrant for Lt. Col. Beni Aharon, adding, “we are preparing additional legal complaints against the battalion’s officers.”

The Hind Rajab Foundation is a legal and human rights branch of the March 30 Movement. It was established in memory of Hind Rajab and focuses on bringing Israeli soldiers accused of war crimes against Palestinians to justice.

Israeli military operations in Gaza, fully backed by the United States, have continued by land, sea, and air since 7 October 2023. More than 170,000 Palestinians have been killed or injured so far, with many still trapped under the rubble.

May 5, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , | Leave a comment

Israeli TV producer’s call for Holocaust against Gaza population sparks outrage

Press TV – May 4, 2025

A recently unearthed social media post by Elad Barashi, an Israeli producer associated with Channel 14, has sparked public outrage and condemnation for advocating a Holocaust against Gaza’s 2.3 million residents.

In the controversial social media post originally published in Hebrew on February 27, Barashi called for “a cruel and harsh death” for all Gazans, including women and children.

“Who is the fool who says there are ‘innocents’ in Gaza? Who is the despicable scoundrel who wants to let them flee to Arab countries or Europe freely?” he wrote.

In his lengthy post, Barashi made the claim that the entire population of Gaza “deserve death.”

“Men, women, and children — by any means necessary, we must simply carry out a Shoah [Holocaust] against them — yes, read that again — H-O-L-O-C-A-U-S-T!”

“Without fear, without weakness — just crush. Eliminate. Slaughter. Flatten. Dismantle. Smash. Shatter,” he added.

“Without conscience or pity — children and parents, women and girls — all of them are marked for a cruel and harsh death.”

Outraged social media users have criticized Elad Barashi for his recently resurfaced post, condemning the “graphic description” of death for all Gazans and dehumanization of Palestinians.

Channel 14 is a far-right television network widely seen as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s favored platform for interviews and messaging.

Barashi, a researcher and producer for shows such as “Story Night” and “Israel Morning” on Channel 14, has been peddling Israeli propaganda to the network’s audience.

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

Top UN expert urges trial for EU officials over complicity in Israel’s war crimes

Press TV – May 4, 2025

The top expert on Palestine at the UN has called for senior EU officials, including European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas to face prosecution for their complicity in Israeli war crimes committed in Gaza.

“The fact that the two highest figures of the EU continue business as usual engagements with Israel is beyond deplorable,” said UN special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese in an interview ran by The Intercept on Saturday.

“I’m not someone who says, ‘History will judge them’ — they will have to be judged before then. And they will have to understand that immunity cannot equate with impunity,” she added.

Israel has killed nearly 52,500 people and destroyed Gaza’s entire civilian infrastructure. Most of the dead have been civilians, including tens of thousands of children and women.

Israel’s initial aim of exchanging captives with Hamas has turned into a US-backed vision for ethnically cleansing Palestinians from Gaza.

To that end, the Israeli military has increased its lethal attacks after breaking a 2-month ceasefire deal with Hamas on March 18.

It has enforced a complete blockade on humanitarian aid, electricity, food, and water since March 2, marking the longest aid blockade since the start of the genocide nearly 19 months ago.

Human rights organizations have repeatedly called on the EU members to boycott Israel and stop selling weapons to the regime.

Nonetheless, since taking office in December, Kallas has blamed Hamas for Israel’s decision to end the ceasefire, continued normal diplomatic relations, and vowed to “stand in solidarity with Israel.”

A complaint against Leyen, the European Commission president, was also filed at the International Criminal Court last May for complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Evidence has shown that the EU has turned into a foundation upon which, the member countries contact and make deals with the Israeli regime.

Beyond demanding accountability from EU leaders, Albanese has said she has been working on a report that will expose banks, pension funds, tech companies, and universities for complicity in Gaza’s destruction.

“All those implicated and involved in the unlawful occupation, in providing it with support, are aiding and abetting violations of international law and human rights violations, and a number of these amount to crimes,” she said.

“There can be individual responsibility and individual liability for those who have been aiding and abetting or enabling such crimes,” she added.

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

US House to vote on bill criminalizing boycott of Israel

Press TV – May 3, 2025

The US House of Representatives is set to vote on a controversial bill that proposes fines or prison terms for Americans participating in boycotts of Israel or Israeli settlements, promoted by international governmental organizations such as the UN or EU.

The House is scheduled to vote Monday on the contentious anti-boycott act, which seeks to penalize American citizens with fines up to $1 million or prison terms as long as 20 years for boycotting the Israeli regime.

Sponsored by pro-Israel congressmen Mike Lawler and Josh Gottheimer, the bill will broaden the US anti-boycott law by targeting voluntary, values-based political actions undertaken by American citizens.

The underlying objective is to shield the Israeli regime from non-violent international pressure campaigns, notably the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement (BDS).

Rights groups warned that the legislation will criminalize constitutionally protected political expression.

The move, according to rights groups, is part of a broader push by the US government to suppress opposition to Israeli genocide, apartheid, and illegal settlement expansion, under the guise of fighting anti-Semitism.

The original act was introduced in 2024. Back then the Republican-controlled Congress passed this bill with broad bipartisan support, but the Senate Democrats blocked the legislation.

Now that Republicans control the Senate as well, there is a significant chance that the act will pass both Congress and Senate.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the most powerful Israeli lobby group in the US, said it “strongly supports” the act.

The Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) Action has already supported the legislation and broader congressional campaigns to push back against anti-Israeli boycotts.

The majority of anti-Israeli boycotts aim to force the regime to end its genocidal war on Gaza that has taken the lives of more than 52,500 Palestinians and injured at least 118,000, most of whom are children and women.

The Israeli regime has put Gaza on a total blockade for 2 months and barred the entry of all humanitarian aid, including food, which according to the UN’s Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), has driven the territory’s 2.3 million population toward famine.

May 3, 2025 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance, Solidarity and Activism | , , , , | Leave a comment

Melissa Jane Kronfeld: American Zionist who campaigns for demolition of al-Aqsa Mosque

By Maryam Qarehgozlou | Press TV | May 3, 2025

A viral video captures pro-Palestinian protesters chanting “war criminal” at Israeli minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, a convicted terrorist supporter and advocate for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, during a confrontation at the US Capitol in Washington, DC.

The demonstrators can be heard shouting “Shame on you!”, “Free Free Palestine!” and “War Criminal!” as Ben-Gvir, who has previously called for the expulsion of Palestinians and the destruction of the al-Aqsa Mosque, aggressively screams and attempts to lunge at them.

Accompanying Ben-Gvir in the video is Melissa Jane Kronfeld, seen filming and verbally assaulting protesters, who had convened at the Capitol for Muslim Hill Days (April 28–29), an annual event organized by the US Council of Muslim Organizations (USCMO) and other Muslim advocacy groups.

The gathering aimed to engage members of Congress on Capitol Hill to push for a ceasefire in the war-ravaged Gaza Strip and an end to the ongoing genocidal war and blockade.

This event overlapped with Ben-Gvir’s visit to the US Congress.

But who, exactly, is Melissa Kronfeld, the woman visibly incensed by pro-Palestine protesters at the US Congress, while accompanying Ben-Gvir?

A New York native, Kronfeld boasts a résumé spanning international relations, international law, national security, and Jewish philosophy, with academic credentials from George Washington, New York University, Rutgers, and Bar-Ilan University.

She is an American-Israeli propagandist, college lecturer, and political advisor who has spoken at conferences around the globe, including at the White House and Capitol Hill. Kronfeld is also a frequent commentator across pro-Zionist print, television, radio, and podcast news outlets.

Over the years, Kronfeld has worked with, joined, or supported numerous pro-genocide Zionist organizations, including the World Jewish Congress, the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations, StandWithUS, the Zionist Organization of America, and the Republican Jewish Coalition, among others.

In addition, she founded an organization named ‘High on the Har’, sponsored by the PFAP Foundation, a tax-deductible Zionist group operating out of Florida, US.

PFAP claims that it “develops and sponsors community projects advancing Israel, Judaism, Zionism, and the welfare of the Jewish people” in the occupied Palestinian territories.

High on the Har is also funded by taxpayers in the US, Canada, the UK, and Australia. It regularly organizes provocative incursions of the al-Aqsa Mosque under the guise of “tours.”

The al-Aqsa compound is Islam’s third-holiest site and a powerful symbol of Palestinian identity.

It doesn’t take deep investigation to grasp the real agenda: High on the Har, and Kronfeld herself, aim to see the Al-Aqsa Mosque replaced with a “Jewish Temple.”

The ultra-Zionist group actively incites settlers to storm the holy mosque and provoke Palestinians.

In an interview with CBS News last March, Kronfeld made her intentions clear, stating her desire to see Israel demolish the al-Aqsa Mosque compound and construct a “Jewish temple” in its place.

“The whole thing is going to go, we have to build a temple,” she said.

She has previously disclosed her involvement with the Israeli occupation army as well.

High on the Har has also been distributing “3rd Temple” patches to Israeli occupation soldiers taking part in the ongoing genocide in Gaza, where more than 52,400 Palestinians, most of them women and children, have been killed since the onslaught began 19 months ago.

High on the Har has been sending patches of the “3rd Temple” to Israeli soldiers committing a genocide in Gaza.
Since Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu formed his cabinet in 2022, Israel has been systematically eroding the status quo of the al-Aqsa Mosque with brazen audacity.

Last August, Ben-Gvir ignited outrage by declaring his intent to establish a Jewish synagogue within the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East al-Quds—should the opportunity arise.

Earlier this month, pro-settler social media accounts circulated an AI-generated video depicting the mosque engulfed in flames, eventually replaced by the so-called “Third Temple.”

The video, captioned with the message “Next Year in Jerusalem, Messiah Now,” sparked swift condemnation from several Arab countries, including Jordan, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia.

In 2024, more than 53,600 Israelis stormed the mosque compound, marking the highest number since Israeli occupation forces first allowed Jewish access over two decades ago.

According to the al-Quds governorate, approximately 13,000 settlers entered the site during the first quarter of 2025 alone.

Israel seized East al-Quds during the 1967 war and illegally annexed the city in 1980, a move that remains in violation of international law.

May 3, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation | , , , , | Leave a comment

Ansar Allah triumphant: US facing Red Sea defeat again

By Kit Klarenberg | Al Mayadeen | May 3, 2025

On April 28th, Western media outlets became abuzz with news that the USS Harry S. Truman – which is leading the Trump administration’s effort to dismantle Ansar Allah’s anti-genocide Red Sea blockade – lost an F/A-18E fighter jet and tow tractor, while executing a hard turn to evade fire from the Resistance group. While a US Navy press release on the incident made no reference to Ansar Allah’s assault, nameless American officials have briefed several mainstream journalists that the losses were Yemen’s doing.

Reporting on the disaster by dependably servile CIA and Pentagon propaganda megaphone CNN was extraordinarily candid. “US Navy loses $60 million jet at sea after it fell overboard from aircraft carrier”, its headline read. The outlet explicitly acknowledged this resulted from an Ansar Allah “drone and missile attack” on USS Harry S. Truman. CNN went on to note the aircraft carrier has “repeatedly been targeted in attacks” by Yemen, while suffering a series of shameful blunders since its deployment to the Red Sea in September 2024.

In December that year, a US fighter jet posted to USS Harry S. Truman was shot down while conducting a refueling mission over the Red Sea in a friendly fire incident. The USS Gettysburg, which was escorting the aircraft carrier, blasted the jet with a missile for reasons unclear. This gross misadventure remains subject to official investigation. Then, on February 12th this year, USS Harry S. Truman was extensively damaged after colliding with a commercial vessel near Egypt’s Port Said, at the Suez Canal’s northern end.

The aircraft carrier returned to service after a period spent in Greece’s Souda Bay for repairs. The US Navy refused to release details about the cost of these repairs, or the total damage USS Harry S. Truman sustained in the collision. Whether further repairs were required was also not clarified. However, the accident was apparently considered so catastrophic within the Pentagon that the carrier’s chief, Dave Snowden, was fired from his post on February 20th, “due to a loss of confidence in his ability to command”.

These humiliating developments were completely ignored by the media. Concurrently, however, mainstream outlets were engaged in a concerted effort to rehabilitate Operation Prosperity Guardian, the embarrassingly failed Biden administration attempt to smash Ansar Allah and end the Resistance group’s righteous Red Sea blockade. Launched with much hype following the Gaza genocide’s eruption, a vast US flotilla led by USS Eisenhower spent nine months getting battered by a relentless barrage of Ansar Allah drones and missiles to no avail, before scurrying back to the US.

‘Defensive Systems’

Throughout Operation Prosperity Guardian, current and former US military and intelligence officials expressed disquiet at the enormous “cost offset” involved in battling Ansar Allah. The US Navy squandered countless difficult-to-replace missiles costing hundreds of thousands of dollars – if not millions – daily to shoot down the Resistance group’s low-cost drones. As Mick Mulroy, a former DOD official and CIA officer, bitterly told Politico :

“[This] quickly becomes a problem because the most benefit, even if we do shoot down their incoming missiles and drones, is in [Yemen’s] favor… We, the US, need to start looking at systems that can defeat these that are more in line with the costs they are expending to attack us.”

There was no sign of this “cost offset” having been remediated by the time Operation Prosperity Guardian fizzled out in July 2024. Official US Navy figures on the “unprecedented” engagement suggest the USS Eisenhower-led carrier group fired a total of 155 standard missiles and 135 Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles, while accompanying fighter jets and helicopters “expended nearly 60 air-to-air missiles and released 420 air-to-surface weapons” – 770 munitions in total – over the nine-month-long conflict.

Independent analysis suggests these figures are likely to be even higher. Moreover, the US Navy did not provide a breakdown of the costs involved in Operation Prosperity Guardian. Even if one accepts the official figures, a single Tomahawk alone costs around $1.89 million, meaning firing 135 cost a staggering $255,150,000. There is also the enduring question of whether this astonishingly expensive arsenal failed to protect USS Eisenhower from direct Ansar Allah attack.

In February 2024, a cruise missile fired from Yemen penetrated so many layers of the aircraft carrier’s defences it was seconds from impact, forcing USS Eisenhower to employ the Phalanx Close-In Weapon System – its “last line of defense”. It marked the System’s first-ever recorded use in battle. Then in June that year, the USS Eisenhower inexplicably withdrew from its sphere of operations in the Red Sea at maximum speed, immediately after Ansar Allah announced it had successfully struck the carrier.

As Al Mayadeen recorded at the time, multiple Western news reports painted a dire picture of Operation Prosperity Guardian in its aftermath. Associated Press revealed that participating sailors and pilots had found the experience “traumatizing”, as they “weren’t used to being fired on.” Many had repeatedly come within seconds of being struck by “Houthi-launched missiles”, before they were destroyed “by their ship’s defensive systems.” The Pentagon was thus considering providing “counseling and treatment” to thousands of US Navy employees suffering from “post-traumatic stress”, and their families.

‘Supplemental Funds’

Fast forward to February 2025, and Business Insider published a curious article, claiming, based on documents exclusively obtained by the outlet, that in fact the US Navy had successfully “fended off” Ansar Allah’s Red Sea blitzkrieg throughout Operation Prosperity Guardian, “without firing a shot”. Instead, “undefined” and “unspecified” methods and weapons of a “non-kinetic” variety were “successfully” employed to protect “Navy and coalition warships and commercial vessels”. This was, of course, at total odds with literally everything the mainstream media had hitherto reported on the debacle.

With hindsight though, the report’s propaganda utility was clear. It served to rehabilitate the US Navy’s performance in its war on Yemen at a time the Trump administration was preparing to kickstart hostilities against Ansar Allah again. So it was on March 15th, US airstrikes began raining down on Sanaa anew, while the USS Harry S. Truman-led carrier force thrust stridently into the Red Sea. US officials have talked a big game about the fresh assault continuing “indefinitely”, and Trump has bragged that Ansar Allah is “decimated”.

The April 28th loss of an F/A-18E fighter jet due to Yemeni attacks amply demonstrates such boasts to be entirely untrue. In the meantime, on April 4th, the New York Times reported Pentagon officials were “privately” briefing that Trump’s belligerence was failing to graze Ansar Allah, while costing in excess of $1 billion to date. This not only meant “supplemental funds” for the operation needed to be mustered from Congress, but doubts about continued ammunition availability gravely abounded:

“So many precision munitions are being used, especially advanced long-range ones, that some Pentagon contingency planners are growing concerned about overall Navy stocks and implications for any situation in which the United States would have to ward off an attempted invasion of Taiwan by China.”

The New York Times also noted the Trump administration had offered no explanation as to “why it thinks its campaign against [Ansar Allah] will succeed”. Almost a month later, clarity on this crucial point remains unforthcoming. We can perhaps surmise then that the flurry of mainstream interest over the USS Harry S. Truman’s recent troubles is indicative of a determination by the Pentagon to end Washington’s renewed malevolence against Yemen before Ansar Allah inflicts yet another historic defeat on the US Empire.

May 3, 2025 Posted by | Wars for Israel | , , , , | Leave a comment

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