Aletho News

ΑΛΗΘΩΣ

Yemen says hit south of Tel Aviv with new hypersonic ballistic missile

Press TV – September 15, 2024

The Yemeni armed forces have struck an Israeli target near Tel Aviv with a new hypersonic ballistic missile after the occupying regime failed to repel the attack and intercept the long-range advanced projectile.

Brigadier General Yahya Saree, the Yemeni army’s spokesman, announced in a brief televised statement on Sunday that the missile force in the military had carried out a qualitative operation striking a military target of the Israeli enemy in the Jaffa area, south of Tel Aviv, in occupied Palestine.

“The operation was carried out with a new hypersonic ballistic missile that managed to reach its target, and the enemy’s defense systems failed to intercept and confront it,” Saree said.

“It crossed a distance of 2040 km in 11 and a half minutes, and caused a state of fear and panic among the Zionists, as more than two million Zionists headed to shelters for the first time in the history of the Israeli enemy.”

The spokesman said the operation was part of the fifth phase of the battle against the Israeli enemy, and successfully reached its target by overcoming all obstacles, including American and Israeli interception systems on land and sea.

“The geographical challenges, the American-British aggression, and the monitoring, espionage and interception systems will not prevent beloved Yemen from performing its religious, moral and humanitarian duty in solidarity with the Palestinian people,” Saree underlined.

“The Israeli enemy should expect more strikes and specific operations to come as we approach the first anniversary of the blessed October 7th Operation, including responding to its criminal aggression on the city of Hudaydah, and continuous supportive operations for the oppressed Palestinian people.”

Nasruddin Amer, a member of the political bureau of Yemen’s popular Ansarullah resistance movement, earlier said in a Hebrew-language post on X that the missile fired from Yemen reached Israel after “20 missiles failed to intercept” it.

Amer also described the Yemeni attack as the “beginning.”

Leader of Yemen’s Ansarullah resistance movement Abdul-Malik al-Houthi censured in a televised speech on Saturday the Israeli regime’s nearly year-old onslaught on the besieged Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank with US-made lethal munitions.

The Ansarullah leader said the United States is definitely a partner in Israel’s crimes in Palestine, fully supporting the regime’s interests and willing to act against any Arab country.

He also warned that the Israeli enemy continues to impose a siege, torture prisoners, and engage in other brutal practices against Palestinians.

Yemenis have declared their open support for Palestine’s struggle against the Israeli occupation since the regime launched a devastating war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, after the territory’s Palestinian resistance movements carried out a surprise retaliatory attack, dubbed Operation Al-Aqsa Storm, against the occupying entity.

The Yemeni Armed Forces have said that they won’t stop their attacks until unrelenting Israeli ground and aerial offensives in Gaza end.

So far, Israel has killed at least 41,182 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 95,280 others.

September 15, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , , | Leave a comment

To stifle truth, Israelis threaten to decapitate Lebanese journalist

Al Mayadeen | September 14, 2024

Israeli attempts to silence the truth are relentless, with one method focusing on deliberately targeting journalists who cover the massacres committed by Israeli occupation forces against the Palestinian and Lebanese people, which are crimes against humanity, to say the least.

The latest of such attempts was aimed at Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil, of Al-Akhbar newspaper, who is tasked with covering the Israeli aggression on South Lebanon. Khalil came under a direct threat via WhatsApp, in which a number contacted her and said that “they will decapitate her if she does not leave Lebanon.”

Journalist Amal Khalil revealed that she received a message from the Israeli enemy threatening to kill her and demolish her home and calling on her to leave Lebanon. This prompted Khalil to inform the relevant authorities of this matter, “as the enemy has recently resorted to this method against a lot of people.”

Speaking to Al Mayadeen, journalist Khalil said that the threat she was subjected to is against every journalist who continues to stand strong in the South, documenting Israeli crimes in video and audio.

“I received a message from an Israeli number on my personal phone on August 25,” she recounted in the interview, noting that she contacted the relevant security services, which, in turn, confirmed that this threat was serious and that the number was from inside occupied Palestine.

Khalil recalled the Israeli attacks on journalists in southern Lebanon, which resulted in the martyrdom of Al Mayadeen’s correspondent Farah Omar and cameraman Rabie Me’mari, as well as Reuters photojournalist Issam Abdallah, stressing that all Israeli attempts were to intimidate the press crews and force them to leave.

“After nearly a year of the Israeli aggression, many journalists in Palestine and South Lebanon continue to stand strong and remain steadfast,” stressing that “all credit for exposing the truth of the Israeli killing machine to the public opinion goes to these steadfast journalists.”

“All the bombing and raids will never frighten us,” she asserted.

Due process to take place

Commenting on the incident, the head of the Syndicate of Lebanese Press Editors, Joseph al-Qusaifi, denounced the Israeli threat against “our colleague Amal Khalil” and reported informing the Union of Arab Journalists, the International Federation of Journalists, and the relevant UN bodies of the matter to apply due process.

Al-Qusaifi, who was informed of the incident against Khalil, said she was threatened with being killed and her house demolished via social media under an Israeli number.

The Israeli message calls on Khalil to leave not only South Lebanon, where she is stationed, but Lebanon entirely to Qatar “if you want your head to remain attached to your body.”

The message added, “We know where you are, and we will get to you when the time comes.”

Expressing solidarity with Khalil, Al-Qusaifi condemned “the insolent threat that violates all international charters, covenants, and laws of protecting journalists in times of war.” He warned the relevant journalist and UN bodies “to be aware of the Zionist scheme against every journalist and media professional doing their professional duty and exposing the deliberate crimes committed by the Israeli war machine against civilians in Gaza, the West Bank, and South Lebanon,” vowing to follow up on the matter.

An enemy terrorized by the truth

Blue helmets and protective shields clearly marked with the word “Press” never protected journalists from Israeli attacks. Rather, the Israeli military deliberately attacks journalists to obscure the facts, through deliberate killing in cold blood, terrorizing and making arrests, and targeting family members, homes, and properties. According to the latest tally by the Government Media Office in Gaza, the number of journalists martyred since the beginning of the aggression and the genocidal war on the Gaza Strip has risen to 172, while hundreds remain detained in Israeli occupation prisons and detention centers, under the most heinous forms of abuse and torture.

In addition to targeting individual journalists and their families, Israeli occupation forces have bombed many foreign and local media HQs inside the Gaza Strip during the past period.

In Lebanon, the Israeli attacks targeted many journalists, including Al Mayadeen’s team, which led to the martyrdom of correspondent Farah Omar, cameraman Rabih Me’mari, and their colleague Hussein Aqil by a drone attack. Prior to this incident, Reuters photojournalist Issam Abdallah was martyred and several other journalists were injured, some in serious condition, by a shell from an Israeli tank while they were covering the situation on the border between Lebanon and occupied Palestine.

As a matter of fact, Israeli incitement against journalists and media outlets has extended to the West Bank, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his call in a government session to shut down the Al Mayadeen Media Network in the region.

“Why are orders against Al Mayadeen in the West Bank not being enforced?” Netanyahu questioned. In response, Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi said that this falls under the authority of Security Minister Yoav Gallant.

Even Israeli Channel 14 made a report on Al Mayadeen, in which it expressed its fear of the channel’s media activity in the West Bank, inciting the renewal of its ban, and expressing its particular displeasure with the meeting with the commander of the Tulkarm Battalion in the al-Quds Brigades, Abu Shujaa.

The far-right channel didn’t stop at mere incitement; it went further by demanding that Israeli Minister of Security Yoav Gallant issue the ban. Gallant, however, is already grappling with numerous complications and challenges, primarily the ongoing resistance his “army” faces in the Gaza Strip, the continued military operations on various fronts—especially in the north—and the mounting problems plaguing his exhausted forces after nearly 11 months of war.

September 14, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Full Spectrum Dominance, War Crimes | , , , | Leave a comment

#BlockTheBoat: Global mobilization to stop cargo vessel carrying explosives to Tel Aviv

By Maryam Qarehgozlou | Press TV | September 14, 2024

In a display of solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, activists around the world have joined forces to block the MV Kathrin, a cargo vessel carrying explosives for the Israeli regime.

While the vessel has been traversing the seas for over a month, a campaign dubbed “#BlockTheBoat” aims to expose the Zionist regime’s violations of the Genocide Convention and the UN Human Rights Declaration amid the genocidal war on Gaza that has already claimed over 41,000 lives.

The campaign has been trending globally on social media platforms with supporters expressing anger and outrage over the continued military aid to an apartheid regime in Tel Aviv.

Spearheading this fight is the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which has been advocating for an end to Israeli occupation and apartheid through boycotts and sanctions.

The movement has called on countries with stakes in the MV Kathrin to end their complicity in the Israeli genocidal war on Gaza while urging people to pressure their governments to comply with international law and rulings of the top UN court.

Key facts about MV Kathrin

The MV Kathrin (IMO 9570620) is owned by Lubeca Marine Germany GMBH and operated by Ocean 7 Project through AGL (Africa Global Logistics).

The vessel is reportedly carrying eight containers of Hexogen/RDX explosives destined for the Israeli-occupied territories, in addition to 60 containers of TNT with unknown destinations.

The explosive cargo was loaded in Hai Phong, Vietnam, on July 21. It is scheduled to be unloaded at the port of Koper, Slovenia, before reaching its final destination in the occupied territories.

This information was provided to the media by the Namibian National Police and Namport authorities.

What is RDX?

RDX, a vital component in Israel’s aircraft bombs and missiles, has been widely used in the ongoing genocidal war on the Gaza Strip and the relentless bombings of the besieged territory and killing and maiming of nearly 136,000 Palestinians, more than 70 percent of them women and children.

Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer, ranks among the top global consumers of the explosive material RDX.

This highlights the significant role RDX plays in the manufacturing of Israel’s military equipment, according to military experts.

Industry insiders noted in March that Israel’s mass production of ammunition would be hindered by the limited availability of RDX on the global market.

Countries providing Israel’s RDX supply

MV Kathrin is a German-owned cargo ship and Germany has been a major supplier of weapons to Israel during its genocidal war against the 2.3 million civilian population of Gaza.

Germany is already facing charges at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for complicity in Israel’s genocide in Gaza in a case brought by South Africa to the top UN court late last year.

The vessel was loaded in Vietnam. The Israeli regime resumed its military cooperation with Vietnam a decade ago, despite its popular support for Palestinian rights.

Vietnam is now facilitating the export of the same explosives that the US used to exterminate and maim millions of Vietnamese in the Vietnam War (1954–75).

Kathrin is scheduled to unload its cargo in Koper, Slovenia. This marks the second instance in recent months that the Slovenian port has been implicated in illegal weapons transfers to Israel.

It also raises concerns about Slovenia’s lack of compliance with international law and the ICJ’s ruling on the ongoing genocide in Palestine.

Kathrin and Portuguese complicity in genocide

The MV Kathrin is registered under the Portuguese flag through the International Shipping Register of Madeira (MAR), which is one of the leading ship and yacht registers in the European Union.

Despite calls from Portuguese Palestine solidarity organizations and political parties like Bloco de Esquerda, Portuguese Foreign Minister Paulo Rangel in late August evaded responsibility, claiming that the Kathrin is not transporting ready-made weapons, is not headed to the Israeli-occupied territories, and that this arms trade has “commercial purpose.”

On Friday, the European Legal Support Center (ELSC) sent a legal notice to the Portuguese government demanding the removal of its flag from the MV Kathrin “in compliance with the erga omnes obligations to prevent the crime of Genocide.”

Despite mounting pressure from civil society and political stakeholders, Portugal has yet to take any concrete action in response to the controversial situation.

France, Italy, and Switzerland are other countries that are complicit in the Israeli genocide. Africa Global Logistics (AGL) is a French logistics operator with headquarters in Puteaux.

Although AGL functions independently, it is an integral part of the Cargo Division of the Italo-Swiss MSC group.

Which countries refused to be complicit in the genocide?

On August 20, almost a month after MV Kathrin left the port of Hai Phong, the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) warned activists and decision-makers in Namibia regarding the MV Kathrin which was set to arrive at the port of Walvis Bay.

The committee has raised concerns over credible intelligence suggesting that the ship was transporting military supplies destined for Israel.

On August 22, the Economic and Social Justice Trust (ESJT), a Namibian human rights organization, also called on Walvis Bay port to deny the MV Kathrin entry.

The Namibian government on August 24 canceled the docking permit for the Kathrin, after having received written confirmation from the vessel that 8 containers of RDX/Hexogen explosives were destined for Israel.

Namibian Justice Minister Yvonne Dausab said that this decision “complies with our obligation not to support or be complicit in Israeli war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, as well as its unlawful occupation of Palestine.”

Following a nearly week-long period of remaining stationary off the Namibian coast, the MV Kathrin had to change course and headed toward Angolan waters on August 31.

At about the same time, BNC sent an appeal to Angola to follow Namibia’s example, not to let the Kathrin dock or confiscate the military supplies destined for Israel.

Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, also urged Angola not to let the Kathrin dock.

“This may be a breach of the Genocide Convention. Critical reminder: Any military transfer to Israel, which the ICJ determined may be plausibly committing genocide, amounts to a breach of the Genocide Convention and of the HRC resolution 55/L.30 mandating an arms embargo on Israel,” she said.

MV Kathrin also waited over a week off the coast of Angola, however, on September 5 it was confirmed that Kathrin had to reroute and schedule Bar (Montenegro) as the next port of destination.

The BDS in its calls for blocking Kathrin warned concerned governments that Participation in arms transfer to Israel amounts to “complicity in genocide, crimes of humanity and war crimes.”

It highlighted since ICJ decided in January that Israel is “plausibly” perpetrating genocide, refraining from playing any direct or indirect role in arming Israel during its genocidal carnage in Gaza is a “legal duty for all states.”

“Together, we can block the boat and stop the deadly cargo from feeding Israel’s unspeakable massacres,” says BDS.

On Friday, Malaysia also joined global efforts to stop the MV Kathrin’s cargo.

BDS Malaysia activists lodged a police report at the Sentul Police Station concerning the involvement of United O7 Asia Sdn Bhd with a vessel, according to a statement issued by BDS Malaysia.

September 14, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , | Leave a comment

Israel far from defeating Hamas in Rafah, ‘Israel’ in an ‘endless tunnel’

Al Mayadeen | September 13, 2024

The Israeli military has not managed to defeat even a single battalion or company of the Hamas Resistance forces in Rafah, a member of the Israeli Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Security Committee said on Saturday.

Amit Halevi’s criticism came after the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) announced on Thursday that it had “defeated Hamas’ Rafah Brigades,” and that it now has “completed operational control over the entire urban area.”

Halevi, quoted by the Israeli Channel 7website, stated that the army claims to have killed over 2,000 fighters in Rafah, however, the actual number is significantly lower, noting that the inflated figure “doesn’t even represent 25%” of the Resistance’s fighting force.

He further highlighted that “Israel” had only destroyed a small fraction of the underground tunnels in Rafah, adding however that “even those (tunnels) were not all destroyed, but rather sealed, making it easy for Hamas to reactivate them.”

The senior Israeli official noted that the Resistance in Rafah holds a massive stockpile of weapons, and the amount uncovered by the IOF is minimal in comparison. He emphasized that “Israel remains far from defeating or destroying Hamas.”

Elsewhere in his criticism, Halevi described the messages coming from the Israeli army spokesperson as misleading for the public and the government.

“Every soldier who entered Khan Younis for the fourth time or the al-Zaytoun neighborhood for the fifth time knows that nothing has been defeated,” he said in reference to the repeated Israeli incursions into these areas, despite previous declarations that they were “under control” and claims that the Resistance groups there had already been “defeated”.

“With the current operational methods, the matter will never be settled, because for every [Resistance fighter] killed, two more are born; for every injured [fighter], three new fighters are recruited; and for every piece of weaponry seized by the Israeli army, five more are produced underground in Gaza.”

Halevi further remarked that the method the occupation army uses in the “war of shafts,” as described by the head of Shin Bet, cannot lead to defeating Hamas in quantitative terms, referring to the number of fighters and the weapons they possess in Gaza.

Therefore, “Israel” has no strategic achievements but is instead in an “endless tunnel,” according to Halevi.

September 13, 2024 Posted by | Deception, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , , | Leave a comment

Israeli forces restrict access to scene of Turkish-American activist’s killing

Press TV – September 13, 2024

The Israeli regime’s forces have restricted access to the murder scene of a Turkish-American activist, who was killed by the Israeli military last week while protesting the regime’s illegal settlement construction activities.

Reporting on Friday, the official Palestinian Wafa news agency said the forces had placed military checkpoints at intersections in the town of Beita, south of the city of Nablus, in the northern part of the occupied West Bank.

Mahmoud Barham, head of the Beita Municipal Council, said the troops would prevent Palestinians from crossing the intersections to reach Mount Sabih, where the atrocity had taken place.

The activist, Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, was killed last Friday while protesting alongside locals in Beita against the settlement of Evyatar.

An autopsy report confirmed that the 26-year-old had been killed by an Israeli sniper’s bullet to the head, Nablus Governor Ghassan Daghlas said on Saturday.

The Israeli military has alleged that Aysenur was killed during an effort by the forces to quell a “riot.”

Available footage of the protest as well as numerous witness accounts, however, contradict the claim.

The United Nations has called for an investigation of the crime.

“I can tell you that we would want to see a full investigation of the circumstances and that people should be held accountable,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said at a news conference following the activist’s death.

According to Wafa, Aysenur is one of 17 people who have been killed since the Evyatar settlement’s emergence in 2021.

September 13, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Full Spectrum Dominance, War Crimes | , , , , , | Leave a comment

Free Speech Group Slams Pennsylvania Gov. Shapiro’s Gag Order on Public Employees

By Didi Rankovic | Reclaim The Net | September 13, 2024

The Foundation for Individual Rights (FIRE) has condemned a new executive order issued in Pennsylvania as unconstitutional, where that pertains to the First Amendment speech protections.

Governor Josh Shapiro’s move, described by the group as a “sweeping gag order” targeting public employees, is believed to be so egregious that FIRE is at the same time urging those affected across the state to join forces and challenge it in court.

The executive order prohibits anyone in the public sector – teachers, librarians, those working for utility companies among them – from making statements that can be interpreted as “scandalous” or “disgraceful.”

These changes to the code of conduct were added in May, in an “under-the-radar” fashion, but with rather significant impact: the code of conduct was now being extended to cover speech as well.

And these amended rules apply both to employees while at work, and off duty, FIRE remarks, bringing up a key question: who will decide what’s scandalous and disgraceful to the point that it must be punished?

“Impossibly vague” is how FIRE treats the wording of the order, which it believes merits a class action suit to overturn what is condemned as unconstitutional government overreach.

“No elected official can slap a gag order like this on state workers,” said FIRE’s director of public advocacy, Aaron Terr, adding that the group regards it as an abuse of power and hopes to team up with those affected for a legal battle.

In August, FIRE tried to communicate to the Pennsylvania governor that the rules were violating the First Amendment, in the hope of avoiding a lawsuit.

The August letter was ignored by Shapiro’s office. Back in May, those behind the contested changes made it obvious what prompted them: a war in the Middle East.

We obtained a copy of the second letter for you here.

In order to bring “moral clarity” into the way people are allowed to speak about that, concepts like “antisemitism, Islamophobia, and other forms of hate speech” are mentioned as being on the rise in Pennsylvania, the US, and the whole world.

But Tarr is unimpressed. “The state is strategically putting all the chess pieces in place to punish everyday Americans for nothing more than saying something the government doesn’t like,” is his take on the true nature of all this.

And, Tarr added, “Our job is to smack those pieces off the board before someone gets fired for speaking their mind.”

September 13, 2024 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Full Spectrum Dominance | , , , | Leave a comment

Israel Suddenly Has A Problem With Attacks On Population Centers

By Caitlin Johnstone | August 13, 2024

Israel has been loudly and melodramatically fretting about an impending retaliatory attack from Iran and Hezbollah which it claims will likely include strikes in the vicinity of civilian population centers. This is of course rich coming from the regime that has spent ten months turning Gaza into a flattened wasteland of rubble and civilian corpses.

A Washington Post article titled “Israel anticipates direct attack from Iran; U.S. deploys more vessels to region” contains the following interesting paragraph:

“Israel has communicated to Iran and Hezbollah that targeting civilian population centers would be considered a red line for Israel, which is preparing for a spectrum of scenarios, including one in which Hezbollah attacks first and is joined by Iran afterward, said Yoel Guzansky, a former official on Israel’s National Security Council who is now a senior fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv.”

Israel’s fretting about attacks on its population centers is echoed in a recent Axios post titled “New Israeli intelligence suggests Iran prepares to attack Israel within days,” whose Israeli intel sources “said the attacks by Hezbollah and Iran are likely to be bigger than the one conducted by Iran last April and include the launching of missiles and drones at military targets in central Israel, including in the vicinity of civilian population centers.”

This claim that Iran may launch attacks “in the vicinity of civilian population centers” is funny in a couple of different ways. Firstly, the IDF headquarters is located smack dab in the heart of Tel Aviv, so any attack on the hub of the Israeli war machine would necessarily occur in the vicinity of civilian population centers. Secondly, it’s funny because Israel has spent years justifying its attacks on Palestinian population centers by claiming Hamas is using “human shields” by surrounding themselves with civilians to deter attacks.

Placing a legitimate military target in the heart of a civilian population center and then declaring a “red line” against attacking civilian population centers where legitimate military targets are located—after launching an insanely escalatory assassination in Tehran — is obviously using civilians as human shields. And what’s wild is that Israel’s own claims about Hamas using human shields in the same way have been conclusively debunked, firstly by the self-evident fact that the presence of civilians obviously doesn’t deter Israeli attacks at all, and secondly by revelations that the IDF deliberately waits to launch airstrikes on suspected Hamas members until they are at home with their families, thereby ensuring the maximum number of civilian deaths possible.

It goes without saying that Israel does not have any sincere concern for civilian lives, at least for anyone who’s paid attention to its actions at any time between the state’s inception and today. But it is worth highlighting these contradictions anyway, to contextualize all the histrionic garment-rending we’re going to witness should an attack on or near civilian population centers occur in the coming days.

September 12, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , | Leave a comment

‘Israel’s’ Bloody Negotiations Strategy in Gaza

By Jamal Kanj | Al Mayadeen | September 12, 2024

Fifty-two years ago, almost to the day, on September 8, 1972, I survived the first of many air and sea raids on my refugee camp in northern Lebanon. I was less than two hundred yards from the area across the river where a group of us young kids met every day, between 4 and 5 p.m., to play in the large field, swim in the river, or the Mediterranean Sea.

At first, I heard what sounded like a humming plane. Before I could even turn my head to look up at the sky, I was startled by the booming sound of low-flying fighter jets passing overhead, dropping massive rockets onto the open field. The first bomb exploded in the northwest area of the field, creating a massive fireball—a black column of smoke intertwined with a glowing red blaze. The shockwave threw me off my bike. Soot filled the air and fragments rained down like strafing bullets all around me.

In less than 15 minutes, the once grassy green play area of approximately 20 acres was transformed into a lunar landscape, pocked with craters. One pit was so large and deep that groundwater filled the hole.

If the Israeli air raid had occurred just five or ten minutes later, I would have been in the middle of the field, playing with other 14-year-old kids. My friend Barakat, who was already there and likely had been eagerly anticipating my arrival, was killed. The raid left many unexploded devices and time-delayed bombs, making it difficult to recover his body until the next day. Our neighbor Mahdi was also killed, buried under the plowed soil. Years later, his skeleton was discovered when the area was being graded.

I’m reminded of this today, September 10, 2024, as I watch footage of the huge crater left behind by an American-made 2,000-pound MK-84 bomb. The bombs were dropped in the middle of the night on 20 tents housing displaced civilians in an Israeli-designated “safe area” in al-Mawasi, southern Gaza.

Early in the morning, the Israeli army issued its disinformation boilerplate communiqué, declaring the raid was a “precise strike” on senior resistance members. But videos from the crater, where tents lay buried under the sand, suggest that “Israel” targeted civilians in a supposed safe area.

Reading about the “precise strike” on a BBC site took me back 52 years. Almost three hours after the raid on my camp, I remember my father and our neighbors gathering around the radio to listen to the 7 p.m. BBC Arabic news. I still recall how they stopped breathing, their eyes wide, mouths agape, as the BBC quoted an Israeli army spokesman claiming “Israel” had targeted a military base in Nahr el-Bared refugee camp in northern Lebanon.

While I don’t remember the exact number of the killed and injured that afternoon, I know for certain that 100 percent were civilians—mostly young boys and girls, with at least one elderly man among them. I felt then as helpless as many of those who were sleeping on September 10 in their “safe” tents, unable to tell their story to the world. The photos left behind by the US-manufactured 2,000-pound bombs, however, expose “Israel’s” lies and the complicity of the managed Western media.

It is utterly despicable that the lecterns at the White House and the State Department have become platforms to market such lies, emboldening “Israel’s” intransigence and whitewashing its genocide. Especially egregious is the disinformation spread by White House National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby, who blamed the Palestinians as “the main obstacle” to a ceasefire. This brazen lie comes less than a week after the leak of a document pointing to new conditions that were added in late July by Benjamin Netanyahu to Joe Biden’s proposal from May 27, which torpedoed the ceasefire agreement.

After the Palestinians rejected Netanyahu’s new conditions in late July, “Israel” intensified its systematic campaign of bombing displaced civilians in safe areas, including 16 UN schools converted into mass shelters. Unable to compel a ceasefire on its terms, “Israel” is using these attacks on designated safe areas as part of its bloody negotiation strategy to exert pressure by inflicting maximum suffering on civilians through murder and starvation.

Meanwhile, the Biden administration continues to supply “Israel” with the means to commit these war crimes, while using the White House platform to spread disinformation, making “Israel’s” “lies sound truthful and murder respectable.”

September 12, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Fake News, Mainstream Media, Warmongering, War Crimes | , , , | Leave a comment

London renews demand to deploy combat troops in Lebanon: Report

The Cradle | September 12, 2024

The UK has renewed pressure on the Lebanese government to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that would allow London unrestricted military access to Lebanon’s soil, including the deployment of British troops in the country, Al-Akhbar reported on 11 September.

“The purpose of the memorandum is to define the responsibilities and general principles regarding the deployment of British armed forces within Lebanese territory for purposes other than training activities,” the draft copy of the memorandum, obtained by Al-Akhbar, reads.

The UK Foreign Office submitted the draft in July.

At the end of August, the foreign office sent a two-page letter to the Lebanese government “requesting facilities to deploy its army in Lebanon for the purposes of evacuating citizens, and in the event that Lebanon needs humanitarian assistance from Britain.”

Lebanon’s Foreign Ministry recently sent the draft to the Lebanese army, according to Al-Akhbar.

“The above-mentioned draft memorandum of understanding was studied from all aspects, and the study concluded that the memorandum of understanding raises concerns about Lebanon’s sovereignty and independence, with the scope of the mission of the British armed forces unclear, which increases the state of uncertainty,” the newspaper cites the army response as saying.

The army reportedly “acted as if” it was not informed and did not give prior approval for the UK memorandum, Al-Akhbar revealed.

The UK initially justified this request as a precautionary measure for evacuating citizens in case of war, citing past failures in Afghanistan and Sudan.

However, sources have confirmed to Al-Akhbar that the British requests predate Operation Al-Aqsa Flood and the outbreak of the war in October.

Al-Akhbar had revealed in November last year that the UK was pushing Lebanon to accept this agreement.

The clauses include granting British military personnel immunity from arrest or prosecution, adding that if any are detained, they must be immediately handed over to UK forces. Another is giving them authority to move around the country armed and in uniform.

“The memorandum guarantees that, in the event of a misinterpretation or non-compliance with the terms, Lebanon will not be able to resort to any international court or third party to resolve the dispute,” Al-Akhbar wrote in November.

The Lebanese government has said that the MoU constitutes a violation of Lebanon’s sovereignty.

September 12, 2024 Posted by | Wars for Israel | , , | Leave a comment

Debate Debacle: Our Bleak Foreign Policy Future

By Daniel Larison | The Libertarian Institute | September 12, 2024

The first presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump presented a bleak picture of the future of U.S. foreign policy no matter who wins in November. On the most urgent and important foreign policy issue of the year, the war and genocide in Gaza, Harris repeated empty platitudes about a “two-state solution” and Trump fell back on tired “pro-Israel” rhetoric. Neither candidate offered voters any hope that there would be a meaningful change from incumbent Joe Biden’s policy of unconditional support for the slaughter and starvation of Palestinians.

Trump absurdly said that Harris hates Israel, but aside from her perfunctory expression of support for Palestinian self-determination there was unfortunately very little to distinguish the two of them on this issue. Like Trump, Harris backs Israel to the hilt, and the main difference is that she pays lip service to Palestinian rights while doing nothing to protect them. She says some of the right things about the need for a ceasefire, but the Joe Biden administration isn’t willing to use its leverage to secure one and Harris refuses to call for the halt to U.S. arms transfers that U.S. law requires.

Harris has had many opportunities in the two months since Biden dropped out to separate herself from the president on this issue. She squandered them all by sticking to the official administration line. The vice president would rather tout her support from the likes of Dick Cheney than try and win the support of antiwar voters across the country. Harris has been catering mostly to hawks this summer, and she prefers attacking Trump for being “weak” instead of using his policy failures against him.

For his part, Trump returned to his old obsession with Iran and criticized the Biden administration because “they took off all the sanctions that I had.” Unfortunately for diplomacy with Iran, Biden never lifted any Iran sanctions, and the small amount of sanctions relief that he was prepared to grant was never delivered. Biden kept Trump’s dangerous Iran policy in place with similarly poor results, and there is no evidence so far that Harris is interested in pursuing a policy of diplomatic engagement.

The candidates had almost nothing to say about diplomacy during the debate. It was telling that the only time the word diplomacy was uttered during the debate was when Harris was criticizing the Trump administration’s negotiations with the Taliban that led to the withdrawal of U.S. troops. Trump mentioned negotiating an end to the war in Ukraine, but he offered no specifics on how he would bring the belligerents to the table or what he would do to secure an agreement.

Harris also repeated the president’s strange lie that the United States isn’t at war anywhere. She said, “There is not one member of the United States military who is in active duty in a combat zone in any war zone around the world, the first time this century.” That would come as a surprise to the soldiers recently injured during a raid in Iraq and to the sailors waging Biden’s war in Yemen. It would also be news to the American forces fighting in Somalia and the troops illegally stationed in Syria. The U.S. Navy has said that its ships have been engaged in the most intense combat since World War II in the Red Sea, but as far as Biden and Harris are concerned it isn’t even happening.

Meanwhile, the U.S.-backed war in Gaza continues to claim innocent lives. Israeli forces bombed yet another tent encampment filled with displaced civilians on Tuesday, killing dozens of them. According to analysis of the damage, they used 2,000-pound U.S.-made bombs to do it. These bombs are so large and so powerful that using them in a densely populated area is obviously criminal. That was just the latest in a string of attacks on civilians in Gaza, including attacks on at least sixteen schools where displaced people had taken shelter. The official death toll is now over 40,000, but informed estimates from doctors that have worked in the territory suggest that the real number is more than double that.

During the debate there was no mention of that massacre in a so-called humanitarian zone, nor did anyone bring up the name of Aysenur Eygi, the American citizen murdered by an Israeli sniper in the West Bank just last week. People watching the debate would have had no idea that one of the worst man-made famines in modern times is currently raging in Gaza, and they wouldn’t know that the famine is the result of an Israeli campaign of deliberate starvation. The victims of the monstrous bipartisan foreign policy consensus in Washington are usually invisible in American debates, and this was no exception.

September 12, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Militarism, Wars for Israel | , , , | Leave a comment

Walaa Tanja ordered to 6 more months of arbitrary imprisonment without charge or trial

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network | September 11, 2024

Walaa Khaled Tanja grew up in Balata refugee camp (Nablus), in a family with a strong history of resistance for Palestinian liberation. At the age of 15, she received her mother, Latifa Abu Dara, on Al-Quds Street near the Huwarra checkpoint, when she was released as part of the Wafaa Al-Ahrar prisoner exchange in 2011.

Her mother was later martyred due to cancer and her brother has also been repeatedly pursued, imprisoned and wounded by occupation soldiers.

Walaa was arrested on August 20th 2022, with Tahrir Abu Sariya and Maryam Arafat, and accused of attempting to carry out an armed operation in retaliation for the murder of Ibrahim Al Nabulsi. The occupation claimed that they opened fire on soldiers at the “Kedumim” illegal colonial settlement near the occupied Palestinian cities of Nablus and Qalqilya.

Walaa was released on November 24th 2023, as part of the first batch of the Al-Aqsa Flood prisoner exchange deal, in which 13 Israeli women and children were exchanged for 39 Palestinian women and children who were held hostage by the occupation.

This interrupted Walaa’s original 7-year sentence and she was welcomed home by her family. However, due to the heavy repression by the occupation, no big celebration was possible.

After her release, Walaa expressed her feelings about her liberation thanks to the Resistance in Gaza.

On March 12th 2024, while she was arriving to Tulkarem from Nablus together with her 16-year-old cousin, occupation special forces attacked the car with their guns pointed at them, and seized Walaa once again. She was taken to a military camp, then to Hasharon crossing and then to Damon prison.

Her abduction clearly broke the prisoner exchange agreement, which has now been done several times by the occupation.

Walaa was ordered to six months in “administrative detention” — arbitrary imprisonment without charge or trial, indefinitely renewable. On 11 September 2024, her detention was extended for another six months. We urge immediate liberation for Walaa Khaled Tanja, together with the liberation of all Palestinian prisoners and all of Palestine, from the river to the sea.

Follow the Dismantle Damon campaign for more updates on Palestinian women prisoners.

September 11, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Subjugation - Torture | , , , , | Leave a comment

ISM response to Biden’s statement on the murder of Aysenur Eygi

International Solidarity Movement | September 11, 2024

On 11 September 2024, President Biden claimed to be “outraged” and “deeply saddened” by Israel’s murder of our comrade Aysenur Eygi, but his actions tell a very different story. While he described the shooting as “unacceptable,” he is refusing the family’s demand for an independent, transparent investigation and continuing to trust the murderers to investigate themselves. Aysenur’s family and the ISM have been clear that we have no confidence in any Israeli investigation, given the Israeli army’s longstanding practice of using investigations as exculpatory coverups. We continue to demand a transparent and independent investigation.

For the United States government to accept the results of Israel’s internal military investigations is a complete dereliction of the US government’s responsibility to its own citizens, but it is nothing new. In 2003, the US did nothing to hold the Israeli killers of Rachel Corrie responsible for that murder. In recent years, the US has done nothing when Palestinian Americans, like Shireen Abu Akleh, have been murdered by Israel. President Biden is pursuing business as usual and allowing Israel to continue to kill both US Citizens and Palestinians with total impunity.

President Biden’s disrespect for Aysenur’s family and community extends even further. Although Aysenur’s family is mourning the death of a US citizen, his administration has yet to pick up the phone and call the family to offer condolences. He asserts that he will remain in contact with Israeli and Palestinian authorities but is unwilling to communicate with the ordinary people who were closest to Aysenur.

In his statement, President Biden asserts that he treats “violent extremist Israeli settlers” and “Palestinian terrorists” equally and implies that the violence in the West Bank is equally the fault of both groups. Both assertions are false. President Biden’s administration arms the violent Israeli extremists, as ISM volunteers can testify to based on our extensive experience doing protective presence work in the West Bank face to face with Israeli settlers armed with US weapons. These are the same weapons that make the US complicit in Israel’s genocide in Gaza. As long as the US continues to send weapons to Israel to kill Palestinians, in Gaza as well as in the West Bank, the US is sustaining the violent extremism of the Israeli settlers and the Israeli government. Meanwhile, President Biden’s false equivalence between Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank elides the fact that the current violence has its roots in over a hundred years of settler colonial terrorism, ethnic cleansing, and now genocide, all perpetrated by Israel. Contrary to what President Biden asserts, it is Zionist colonization that is the obstacle to peace.

Ultimately, it is hypocritical for President Biden to attempt to change the focus to Israeli settlers alone, given that the Israeli army killed Aysenur with weapons likely provided by the Biden administration, which is fully aware that they are used to attack people protesting or witnessing demonstrations against illegal settlements. As one American ISM volunteer who wishes to remain anonymous says, “When I was detained by the Israeli army for my nonviolent work with ISM, everything I saw in the army van was stamped with ‘made in the USA’ or ‘property of the USA.’” As Amado Sison, another American citizen shot by Israel in August during the weekly demonstrations in Beita noted, “The money I pay in my taxes as a teacher probably funded the bullet they have run through me.” President Biden and his administration are complicit in Aysenur’s death and his statement today attempts to elide what the whole world knows: Israel’s violence is funded, sustained, supported, and endorsed by the US. Honoring Aysenur’s memory requires a complete change of policy, starting with an independent, transparent investigation and extending to an arms embargo.

September 11, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Progressive Hypocrite | , , , , | Leave a comment

« Previous Entries     Next Entries »