Tag: Gaza

Anti- Media, Anti-Media

Israel Lobby Involved with Washington Post

What’s behind Washington Post hit piece on EI? | The Electronic Intifada

Censorship by stealth

What could be the motivation for Dwoskin’s hit piece?

In the segment, I suggest that it is an effort to police and deter reporting about 7 October, by smearing anyone who questions Israel’s official narrative as a Jew hater.

It is also a specific attempt to discredit independent publications including The Electronic Intifada that have reached vast audiences since 7 October with accurate, groundbreaking reporting that mainstream US media refuse to do.

This includes reporting on how Israeli commanders ordered their forces to fire on their own people on 7 October, and debunking Israel’s claims of systematic mass rape by Palestinian fighters.

The Washington Post’s attack on The Electronic Intifada indicates the frustration Israel and its cheerleaders in the US media feel because they have been unsuccessful in imposing Israel’s version of events.

With First Amendment protections for free speech still strong in the United States, direct censorship of publications is not an option.

So there has emerged a nexus among governments, think tanks funded by governments and arms manufacturers, and big tech companies aiming to control what we can all say online.

The Washington Post article is therefore likely to be used by Israel lobby groups to pressure big tech firms to suppress the reach of journalists who challenge Israel’s lies, under the banner of fighting supposed “disinformation.”

This, however, will not stop us from doing our work and pursuing the truth.

What’s behind Washington Post hit piece on EI? | The Electronic Intifada

Israel, Israel Crimes

UNRWA claims: UK halts aid to UN agency over allegation staff helped Hamas attack – BBC News

Trucks carrying humanitarian aid for Palestinians that entered Gaza through Rafah border crossing on the Egyptian border arrive at the UNRWA warehouse, in Deir al Balah,

British Justice applied to “he said, she said” allegations by Israel who’d been severely chastised by the ICJ for blocking aid to Gaza and told to stop. So it seems to have put pressure on their Western allies to cut aid rather than help increase it as the ICJ directed. Israel is making fools of governments and using them to assist in Gazan’s suffering. In the meantime, Doctors, Medical Professionals, UN Aid agencies, Reporters, Academics, and teachers have all had their turn being called Hamas operatives, antisemites, Jew-haters, and rapists and targeted for elimination. Meanwhile, Israel trains conscripts and brainwashes its children claiming they are being maligned for protecting Israelis dining in restaurants from genocide.

“One million displaced people are currently taking refuge in and around UNRWA buildings. They are the ones who will suffer as a result of this decision,” said Mr Gunness, adding: “The curtailing of UNRWA services will also destabilise the region at a time when Western governments are trying to contain a regional conflagration.”

“The UK is appalled by allegations that UNRWA staff were involved in the 7 October attack against Israel, a heinous act of terrorism that the UK Government has repeatedly condemned,” the UK Foreign Office said in a statement.

“The UK is temporarily pausing any future funding of UNWRA whilst we review these concerning allegations,” it added.

Source: UNRWA claims: UK halts aid to UN agency over allegation staff helped Hamas attack – BBC News

Informed Comment

The ICJ’s Provisional Orders: The Genocide Convention Applies to Gaza – » The Australian Independent Media Network

From the other side of the legal aisle, the South African foreign minister, Naledi Pandor, wished that the ICJ had grasped the nettle to order a halt in military operations. But, with some deft reasoning, she was satisfied that the only way Israel could implement the provisional measures would be through a ceasefire. Much the same view was expressed by the Associated Press: “The court’s half-dozen orders will be difficult to achieve without some sort of cease-fire or pause in the fighting.” That logic is clear enough, but the actions, given the various statements from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his officials alleging slander and a blood libel against their country, are unlikely to follow.

Source: The ICJ’s Provisional Orders: The Genocide Convention Applies to Gaza – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Israel

Gaza is exposing Western Liberals for the frauds they are – Pearls and Irritations

Silence is Complicity Graffiti on the concrete wall built by Israel

Biden is a really Republican dressed as a Democrat. As a politician, he’s had a quid pro quo relationship with AIPAC and the Israeli Lobby for years. $3.5B p, a military aid alone is evidence coupled with bypassing Congress to deliver extra weapons removed any doubt. Apart from the fact he’s been wedged between the Israeli demands for more and Trump in this an election year.

The one faint glimmer of brightness in this profoundly dark chapter in human history is that it might start opening some eyes to the fraudulence of the mainstream fake-left political faction that has been marketed to the western public as an alternative to far right depravity. That westerners might start awakening to the reality that everything they’ve been trained to believe about politics, their government and their world is a lie. Such an awakening would be the first step toward a mass-scale movement into health.

Source: Gaza is exposing Western Liberals for the frauds they are – Pearls and Irritations

Informed Comment, Israel, Israel Crimes

Chris Hedges – It May be Genocide, But it Won’t Be Stopped – Brave New Europe

Image

Residents of al-Dahra forced to evacuate by Israeli army and then fired on, as Khan Younis relentlessly targeted by Israeli strikes and snipers shoot at Palestinians leaving al-Amal Hospital.

At least 26,083 people have been killed and 64,487 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7. The death toll in Israel from the October 7 Hamas attacks stands at 1,139.

“This is the case with respect to the right of the Palestinians in Gaza to be protected from acts of genocide and related prohibited acts identified in Article III, and the right of South Africa to seek Israel’s compliance with the latter’s obligations under the Convention.”

It is clear from the ruling that the court is fully aware of the magnitude of Israel’s crimes. This makes the decision not to call for the immediate suspension of Israeli military activity in and against Gaza all the more distressing.

But the court did deliver a devastating blow to the mystique Israel has used since its founding to carry out its settler colonial project against the indigenous inhabitants of historic Palestine. It made the word genocide, when applied to Israel, credible.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) refused to implement the most crucial demand made by South African jurists: “the State of Israel shall immediately suspend its military operations in and against Gaza.” But at the same time, it delivered a devastating blow to the foundational myth of Israel. Israel, which paints itself as eternally persecuted, has been credibly accused of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. Palestinians are the victims, not the perpetrators, of the “crime of crimes.” A people, once in need of protection from genocide, are now potentially committing it. The court’s ruling questions the very raison d’être of the “Jewish State” and challenges the impunity Israel has enjoyed since its founding 75 years ago.

Source: Chris Hedges – It May be Genocide, But it Won’t Be Stopped – Brave New Europe

Israel

The four horsemen of Gaza’s apocalypse – Pearls and Irritations

The policies embraced by the Biden administration not only blithely ignore the realities in the Arab world, but the realities of an extremist Israeli state that, with Congress bought and paid for by the Israel lobby, couldn’t care less what the Biden White House dreams up.

Israel has no intention of creating a viable Palestinian state.

Its goal is the ethnic cleansing of the 2.3 million Palestinians from Gaza and the annexation of Gaza by Israel. And when Israel is done with Gaza, it will turn on the West Bank, where Israeli raids now occur on an almost nightly basis and where thousands have been arrested and detained without charge since Oct. 7. 

Israel

Israel wants a Palestinian intifada in the West Bank – Pearls and Irritations

Silhouette of soldiers with Israel flag against the sunrise. Concept

Israeli cunning 1) Start and Intafada 2) Create an Oct 7. 3) Create the 2024 Nakba 4) Call it Defense

The settlers want Gaza in the West Bank so they can drive out as many Palestinians as possible, and the army backs them up. According to UN figures, since October 7, 344 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank, 88 of them children. Eight or nine of them were killed by settlers. At the same time, five Israelis were killed in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, four of them by security forces.

The reason is that the IDF has in recent months started firing from the air to kill in the West Bank, like in Gaza. On January 7, for example, the army killed seven youngsters who were standing on a traffic island near Jenin, after one of them apparently threw an explosive charge at a jeep and missed.

It was a massacre. The seven youngsters were members of one family, four brothers, two more brothers and a cousin. That doesn’t interest Israel.

Now the IDF is moving forces from Gaza to the West Bank. The Duvdevan undercover unit is already there, the Kfir Brigade is on its way. They’ll return to the West Bank stoked with the indiscriminate killing in Gaza and will want to continue the great work there as well.

Israel wants an intifada. Maybe it will even get one. It should just not feign surprise when this happens.

 

 

Source: Israel wants a Palestinian intifada in the West Bank – Pearls and Irritations

Israel

Horrific Traumatic Injuries of Children: British Dr. Witnesses Israel’s Destruction of Gaza Hospitals | Democracy Now!

Before Israel’s unprecedented assault on Gaza, the territory had 36 functioning hospitals. Now only 16 partially functioning health facilities remain. As Israeli bombs and ground troops approach Nasser Hospital, the largest remaining partially functioning health facility in Gaza, we speak with Dr. James Smith, an emergency medical doctor recently returned from Gaza, where he worked alongside Palestinian healthcare workers to treat patients at Al-Aqsa Hospital. “Every single day, without exception, there were multiple mass casualty incidents at the hospital,” says Smith. “They would include open chest wounds, open abdominal wounds, traumatic amputations, severe full-thickness burns … really some of the most horrific traumatic injuries that I have ever seen.”

Source: Horrific Traumatic Injuries of Children: British Dr. Witnesses Israel’s Destruction of Gaza Hospitals | Democracy Now!

Israel

NSO Founder Shalev Hulio Gathers Old Team at Dream Security

Israel's NSO Group lifts veils on a system that commandeers and force-lands intruding drones, in Tel Aviv, Israel

Gaza isn’t just defense IT’S BUSINESS Just as Colonialism and Slavery were just business for the British

Spyware, Arms, and methods of control are investments on offer and all being tested, advertised, and available for sale at in REAL TIME EXHIBITION in Gaza

“We are here on the Gaza border,” said Hulio, the Israeli entrepreneur, on a little-noted YouTube video released by his new start-up, Dream Security. Hulio, a reservist who had been called up for duty, appeared in the video with a gun slung over his shoulder.

Source: NSO Founder Shalev Hulio Gathers Old Team at Dream Security

Israel

Diplomacy, morality and media have failed the people of Gaza – Pearls and Irritations

Concept of military aggression, crisis in Gaza, Middle East.

Imagine this headline: “Brits bomb Belfast to obliterate IRA – 24,000 dead, 50,000 injured, all hospitals flattened – children limbless and starving”.

Source: Diplomacy, morality and media have failed the people of Gaza – Pearls and Irritations

Uncategorized

Food as a Weapon of War: The Crime of Starvation in Gaza

A worldwide resolution to stop trading with Israel, an immediate global BDS is necessary and would stop this intentional genocidal state in its tracks. It did Racist South Africa and it’s why today they know better than anyone how to stop this Godzilla of carnage. Israel needs America for it’s support to veto the UN and they have done just that. It’s why they created AIPAC to influence its politicians. They need tiny Pacific nations to bribe They need oil companies in the Middle East to protect for the West. They need despots to sell weapons to and wars to show them off. They need the world and their citizens to live in fear. However most of all they need land to give away to Jews and ethnic cleansing because they can’t continue to be a minority in Palestine. They have become an invasive colonial parasite and have partnered with antisemites as their friends

Israel needs Trump and so does Putin, and Kim Jong Un. Israel is currently open to the best offer and has Biden by the short and curlies. They are the tail-wagging the dog in 2024. A rogue state with a lot of options the ready to blackmail and even betray their once best friends and media control. Their Mossad and Lobbys have so many Western politicians all dancing to their tune. It’s something they have been intentionally working on for years to bend democracies. AIPAC is just the tip of the iceberg of influence but its the blueprint they use. Don’t just believe me ask Jeremy Corbyn in the UK. The ABC in Australia. Jews by nature are socialists but Israel’s IDF, religious usurping colonizers Apartheid politics and institutional social systems have been designed to change that social psychology entirely.

“AIPAC makes sure that its friends get strong financial support from the many pro-Israel political action committees. Anyone who is seen as hostile to Israel can be sure that AIPAC will direct campaign contributions to his or her political opponents.”

 It is the largest pro-Israel PAC in America and contributed more resources directly to candidates than any other PAC. 98% of AIPAC-backed candidates won their general election races in 2022.
They have Biden on a string

In conflict zones, more civilians were killed because of hunger and diseases than by weapons in battle ground. In Gaza, there is no battle ground, everywhere is battle ground, and as one of the Israeli military leaders said: “There is no innocent civilians in Gaza!” This statement itself carries an ‘intent’ to eliminate entire Gazans that consitutes crime of genocide conducted against entire population.

Source: Food as a Weapon of War: The Crime of Starvation in Gaza

Israel

Israel’s argument at The Hague: We are Incapable of Genocide – » The Australian Independent Media Network

The Israeli State was built on European anti-semitism joining hand in hand with Zionism along with Generals, the IDF, and Mossad. Before its birth in 1948, Israel had already been fully immersed in War.  Since the 1917 Belfour Declaration when Zionists and anti-semites partnered to form Israel the State of War. Its Institutions and culture began the process of prostituting Judaism for the purpose of material gain at the expense of Palestinians by systemic apartheid. 66% of European Jews didn’t follow them down that sociopath’s path. The religious orthodox disagreed outright in Israel while the intelligent Jews the ones who valued education intelligence and human values simply stayed home or went to America. Israel remains an outpost.

Israel without Big Brother America and oil would never have existed both have been at war since birth. America since 1776 and Israel since 1948. Basically, Israel has been America’s military base in the Middle East. Both view themselves as the only chosen and their cultures dehumanise all others. Israel isn’t any longer Jewish it’s rather a satellite of the very fast-failing Democratic State of the USA

In yet another jurisprudential innovation, Becker insisted that the Genocide Convention was not connected in any way to “address the brutal impact of intensive hostilities on the civilian population, even when the use of force raises ‘very serious issues of international law’ and involves ‘enormous suffering’ and ‘continuing loss of life’.” The Convention, rather, was meant “to address a malevolent crime of the most exceptional severity.”

Source: Israel’s argument at The Hague: We are Incapable of Genocide – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Israel

Civilian Casualties in Gaza Are No Accident

Israeli leaders have openly endorsed starving, killing, and displacing Palestinian civilians — and that’s what they’re doing. Is Biden listening?

Source: Civilian Casualties in Gaza Are No Accident

Israel

How to Create an Unlivable Hellscape in Gaza | The Smirking Chimp

Weapons Of Mass Destruction were originally designed and promised to be a defensive deterrent never to be used. We invaded Iraq on a suspicion that proved to be a lie and not just a myth that they were going to use them. We know Israel has them. We are witness to the fact that they are prepared to use them. They are currently demonstrating it with their illegal use of white phosphorus and the tonnage being dropped on the postage stamp known as Gaza. Bush invaded Iraq and now the worm has turned and Biden says it’s all OK why? Oil, oil tankers, and that Gas field off the coast of Gaza are far more important than any Palestinians

The violence inflicted on Palestinians by an Israel backed so strikingly by President Biden and his foreign policy team is unlike anything we had previously witnessed in more or less real-time in the media and on social media. Gaza, its people, and the lands that have sustained them for centuries are being desecrated and transformed into an all too unlivable hellscape, the impact of which will be felt — it’s a guarantee — for generations to come.

Source: How to Create an Unlivable Hellscape in Gaza | The Smirking Chimp

Israel

Daily death rate in Gaza higher than any other major 21st Century conflict – Oxfam – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Israel’s Mossad is strategically aiming at eliminating independent reports from antisemitic global Aid agencies in it’s defense.

Israeli military killing 250 Palestinians per day with many more lives at risk from hunger, disease and cold.

Source: Daily death rate in Gaza higher than any other major 21st Century conflict – Oxfam – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Israel

Corporate murder: the Australian companies behind Gaza’s destruction – Pearls and Irritations

Palestinians inspect the damage following an Israeli airstrike on the El-Remal aera in Gaza City on October 9, 2023.

The action, launched in the Federal Court of Australia, is intended to cast some light on the arms exports permits being granted by the Australian Defence Minister to Israel since the initial Hamas attacks. Only then can we get a better sense of Australia’s complicity in the genocidal apocalypse currently unfolding in Gaza.

Source: Corporate murder: the Australian companies behind Gaza’s destruction – Pearls and Irritations

Israel

US ignores silence of Netanyahu on ethnic cleansing | The Electronic Intifada

Benjamin Netanyahu and Brian Mast meet with an injured Israeli soldier at a hospital as an additional person looks on

The denied reality of ethnic cleansing will be what the US is forced to accept after all is simply done is the Netanyahu plan.

But that is not, in fact, the case with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He has reportedly asked Ron Dermer, Israel’s minister of strategic affairs and a member of the country’s war cabinet, to design a plan to “thin” Gaza’s population.

Michelle Goldberg noted in The New York Times, “By acting as if Ben-Gvir and Smotrich can be hived off from the government in which they serve, US policymakers are fostering denial about the character of Netanyahu’s rule.”

This denial is very real. Mainstream media have time and again made clear that Israel’s practice of apartheid will not be broached at this juncture. This is the “character” not just of Netanyahu’s government but its predecessors. Netanyahu is just clearer than most in his practice of anti-Palestinian racism and apartheid.

The Israeli prime minister, according to The Times of Israel, reportedly told a recent Likud faction meeting that “our problem is [finding] countries that are willing to absorb Gazans, and we are working on it.”

Source: US ignores silence of Netanyahu on ethnic cleansing | The Electronic Intifada

Israel, Israel Crimes

Corporate Media Whitewash
Informed Comment

Hamas it’s origins by Chris Hedges. Israel
Israel, Israel Crimes

Joe Biden Is Still Giving Unrestricted Support to Israel’s War on Gaza

How is the tail wagging the dog?

US officials suggested that Israel would have to shift to a “lower-intensity” campaign in Gaza from the new year. But Joe Biden is still unwilling to apply any serious pressure, even if his support for Israel’s war threatens to hand victory to Donald Trump.

Source: Joe Biden Is Still Giving Unrestricted Support to Israel’s War on Gaza

Israel, Israel Crimes

Inside Israel’s torture camp for Gaza detainees

Palestinian men are detained in the streets of Beit Lahiya, in the northern Gaza Strip, December 7, 2023. (Social media; used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

They are such nice boys they’re not filming it because it would destroy the myth that the IDF are really a bunch of Paskudnyaks (A cruel person, one who enjoys making others suffer.)

The IDF Spokesperson said that Palestinians in Gaza were being detained “for involvement in terrorist activity,” and that “detainees who were found not to have been involved in terrorist activity and whose continued detention is not justified are returned to the Gaza Strip at the first opportunity.”

Regarding allegations of ill-treatment and torture, the IDF Spokesperson said that “any allegations of improper conduct in the detention facility are thoroughly investigated. The detainees are handcuffed according to their risk level and health condition, according to a daily assessment. Once a day, the military detention facility holds a doctor’s lineup to check the medical condition of the detainees requiring it.”

The detainees who spoke to +972 and Local Call, however, said that they were examined by a doctor only upon their arrival at the facility, and they did not receive any subsequent medical treatment despite their repeated requests.

 

Source: Inside Israel’s torture camp for Gaza detainees

Israel

Israel uses Starvation as a Weapon of War in Gaza

While Goebellian Propagandists like Dr. Eli David brag about Israel’s generosity for allowing hundreds of aid trucks into Gaza the drivers report they are being shot at by the Israelis. Fewer trucks enter daily for the 2.3M people than did before this war and back then they were only delivering the calorific minimum. Gazans had to supplement their own food sterilize their own water and queued for 12 hours to seek permission for medical help. Often simply refused and turned back.

The hospitals are now destroyed nothing grows and the civilians are totally imprisoned and living in tents or scavenged plastic. They are being killed,shot like fish in a barrel by 2000-pound American bomb, tanks, snipers, and conscripted troops on the ground. Meanwhile, The Supreme Court of Israel isn’t cheering as loudly as the Netanyahu Government would want and troops are being pulled out. Will the ICJ let this genocidal activity pass?

The use of mass starvation as a weapon of war echoes a historical barbarity that humanity should have long transcended. This egregious strategy, reminiscent of past sieges where starvation was deliberately employed as a tool of warfare, highlights the dire consequences of collective punishment on innocent civilians.

In Gaza, Israel has been deliberately blocking the delivery of water, food and other essentials to the besieged enclave’s 2.2 million people.

Source: Israel uses Starvation as a Weapon of War in Gaza

Media

Big media outlets ‘lack balance’ in Gaza reporting – Pearls and Irritations

Media manipulation and controlling the narrative or directing the conversation as news censorship or political fake news persuasion controlling the story as a symbol of managing and marketing in a 3D illustration style.

Five out of six major Australian media outlets have substantially imbalanced reporting when it comes to covering the Gaza conflict, new research claims.

Source: Big media outlets ‘lack balance’ in Gaza reporting – Pearls and Irritations

Israel

Palestinians Say Netanyahu ‘Confessions’ Reveal Truth of ‘Genocidal War’ in Gaza

Benjamin Netanyahu holds a map of the Middle East without Palestine

Israel like Germany should no longer be allowed a voice in their fascist demand to rid Palestinians of their homeland.” Voluntary migration” at the point of a gun is not just an Oxymoron but a crime against humanity. Netanyahu’s rapist lies have been” I’ll put it in a little bit if it hurts I’ll take it out” and ” I’m only defending Israel against Hamas” “All Palestinians even babies are Hamas therefore…..” “From the river to the sea is Jewish”

The Foreign Ministry said that the Israeli prime minister’s push for what he terms “voluntary migration” shows that ethnic cleansing of the besieged enclave is the real goal of the ongoing bombing and ground invasion.

 governments in the Middle East, Europe, and the U.S. have rejected any plans to transfer the population of Gaza to another country, according to Middle East Eye. Both Egypt and Jordan have refused to accept large numbers of Gazan refugees, wanting to avoid a repetition of the first Nakba, in which Israel forced more than 700,000 Palestinians from their homes in 1948.

Netanyahu admits he’s pushing for the expulsion of Gaza’s population under the label “voluntary migration” “Voluntary” as in leave Gaza or die by starvation, airstrikes, diseases, bullets or under an IDF bulldozer! Israel destroyed 2/3 of all buildings in Gaza’s northern half

Source: Palestinians Say Netanyahu ‘Confessions’ Reveal Truth of ‘Genocidal War’ in Gaza

Israel, Israel Crimes

97Journalists Slaughtered in Gaza

Human impact and fighting

  • Thousands of Palestinians were again forced to flee their homes, this time after the Israeli military issued new evacuation orders in the central Gaza Strip. Since a United Nations Security Council resolution was passed on Friday without a clear call for a ceasefire, there has been a surge in aerial bombardments in central Gaza.
  • Israeli air raids killed more than 400 people in Gaza in the past 48 hours. Gaza’s Government Media Office said more than 20,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since October 7. The death toll from Hamas’s attack on Israel stands at nearly 1,140, revised from 1,400.
  • At least 101 journalists have been killed since October 7, according to the Government Media Office, which also said more than 50 media offices have been completely or partially destroyed by Israeli attacks. Al Jazeera Arabic’s cameraman Samer Abudaqa was among those killed in Israeli strikes.
  • The Palestine Red Crescent Society said it continues to operate at its medical point in Jabalia, northern Gaza, despite incessant shelling of the area. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also said on X: “As the conflict intensifies and the horror grows, we will continue to do our part. We will not give up.”
Ignorance, Israel

How a Top U.K. Official Displays the Terrifying Ignorance of the World’s Leaders on Gaza

GAZA CITY, GAZA - DECEMBER 14: Head of the Political Bureau of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh (L) and the leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Yahya Sinwar (R) greet people as they attend an event held to mark the 30th anniversary of Hamas, at Al-Katiba Square on December 14, 2017 in Gaza City, Gaza. (Photo by Mustafa Hassona/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

World’s West leaders wallow in ignorance presented as wisdom

The problem is that Wallace places great significance on Hamas’s original 1988 charterOpens in a new tab, which is explicitly antisemitic and rejects any coexistence with Israel. But he doesn’t appear to know Hamas issued a new charterOpens in a new tab in 2017. In it, Hamas affirms that its “conflict is with the Zionist project not with the Jews because of their religion.” And, while the revised charter rejects the legitimacy of Zionism, it accepts “the establishment of a fully sovereign and independent Palestinian state, with Jerusalem as its capital along the lines of the 4th of June 1967, with the return of the refugees and the displaced to their homes from which they were expelled, to be a formula of national consensus.” This reference to the lines of June 4, 1967 — before Israel captured the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in the Six-Day War — is regarded as accepting the existence of Israel within the borders it had at that time.

Source: How a Top U.K. Official Displays the Terrifying Ignorance of the World’s Leaders on Gaza

Israel

The atrocities in Gaza are the perfect embodiment of ‘Western Values’ – Pearls and Irritations

The destruction caused by air strikes on their homes Palestinian citizens inspect the destruction caused by air strikes on their homes on December 12, 2023 in Khan Yunis, Gaza. Image: Alamy/ Bashar Taleb apaimages Khan Yunis Gaza Strip Palestinian Territory 121223_KhanYunis_BT_005.jpeg Copyright: xapaimagesxBasharxTalebxapaimagesx

That’s us. That’s western civilization. We say we value freedom, justice, truth, peace and free expression, but our actions paint a very different picture. The real western values, the actual product inside the box underneath the attractive label, are the ones you see acted out in Gaza today.

Source: The atrocities in Gaza are the perfect embodiment of ‘Western Values’ – Pearls and Irritations

Informed Comment

Horrors of Gaza America’s role
Israel

Israeli Troops Kill Child, Block Ambulances and Tear-Gas Hospital in Occupied West Bank | Democracy Now!

In the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces killed an unarmed 17-year-old boy inside the Khalil Suleiman Hospital. Médecins Sans Frontières, or Doctors Without Borders, also witnessed Israeli soldiers blocking medical workers in ambulances carrying discharged patients home. Drivers were forced to get out of their vehicles, strip down and kneel in the streets. MSF says it’s part of a pattern targeting healthcare workers in the West Bank since October 7, which also has included shooting live fire and tear gas at hospitals, blocking emergency vehicles, and humiliating and harassing medical staff.

Outside the hospital compound, Israeli soldiers desecrated a mosque in Jenin and read out Jewish prayers in the style of an Islamic call to prayer. This came as part of a three-day Israeli raid on the Jenin refugee camp which killed at least 12 Palestinians. Israeli forces arrested over 100 others.

Source: Israeli Troops Kill Child, Block Ambulances and Tear-Gas Hospital in Occupied West Bank | Democracy Now!

Israel

“If I must die, you must live to tell my Story:” On Gaza, Biden is Violating International Law

“If I must die, you must live to tell my story,” wrote Dr. Refaat Alareer, a 44-year-old Gazan poet and literature professor. A few weeks later, Alareer was killed while sheltering in his sister’s apartment, along with six family members.

Source: “If I must die, you must live to tell my Story:” On Gaza, Biden is Violating International Law

Informed Comment

Opinion | Want to Understand Israel-Palestine? Consume Noam Chomsky, Not Corporate Media | Common Dreams

Noam Chomsky

Over the decades and with few exceptions, in major U.S. media—notably unlike major media in most of the rest of the world—Chomsky has been persona non grata.

Source: Opinion | Want to Understand Israel-Palestine? Consume Noam Chomsky, Not Corporate Media | Common Dreams

Israel Crimes

The Forcible Transfer of 85% of Palestinians in Gaza Is a Crime Against Humanity – ScheerPost

The biased chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court condemns Hamas but ignores Israel’s atrocious crimes.

Forcible Transfer Is Crime Against Humanity, War Crime and Genocide

The Rome Statute for the International Criminal Court (ICC) lists the forcible transfer of population as a crime against humanity “when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack.” Israeli forces have mounted a widespread and systematic attack against the civilians in Gaza.

Forcible transfer under the Rome Statute “means forced displacement of the persons concerned by expulsion or other coercive acts from the area in which they are lawfully present, without grounds permitted under international law.” There is no legal or moral justification for Israel to forcibly displace 85 percent of the population of Gaza.

The Rome Statute also classifies the “transfer of all or parts of the population of the occupied territory within or outside this territory” as a war crime.

Numerous statements by Israeli officials have demonstrated their intent to commit genocide by ethnically cleansing all or part of the population of Gaza. They have vowed to “eliminate everything in Gaza” and turn it into “a city of tents.”

Source: The Forcible Transfer of 85% of Palestinians in Gaza Is a Crime Against Humanity – ScheerPost

Israel

Kill them all – Pearls and Irritations

Central London 9 December 2023 Thousands of Pro Palestine, gathered in central London by Whitehall and Trafalgar Square to demand an immediate cease of fire in Gaza. Image: Alamy/Paul Quezafa-Neiman/Alamy Live News

Tel Aviv, 2016 a banner said, No matter how many Palestinians the Israeli Occupation Forces kill, the cry will always be ‘Kill them all’.

This is a direct quote from a banner that was paraded in Tel Aviv in 2016 in support of the Israeli soldier, Elor Azaria who shot, at point blank range, a Palestinian teenager, Abdel Fattah al-Sharif two years earlier. No matter how many Palestinians the Israeli Occupation Forces kill, the cry will always be ‘Kill them all’.

That same cry was repeated last month, by a Floridian USA law-maker, Michelle Salzman, during a debate on the possible call for cease fire, when her colleague, Florida State representative, Angie Nixon said “We’re at 10,000 dead Palestinians. How many will be enough?”

“All of them,” replied Salzman.

This method and this message for dealing with us has always been the same. For the last 120 years.

Kill them all.

Ze’ev Jabotinsky, David Ben Gurion, Menachem Begin, Yizhak Shamir, Golda Meir, Yizhak Rabin, Benjamin Netanyahu, Ariel Sharon, Ben Gvr, Bezalel Smotrich, Rafael Eitan, Moshe Dayan, Chaim Weizmann, et al – have all made it very clear that there is no room in Palestine for Palestinians. Get rid of them.

Kill them all.

Source: Kill them all – Pearls and Irritations

Informed Comment

Antony Loewenstein and Chris Hedges
Israel

The View from Washington: Let the Killing in Gaza Continue – » The Australian Independent Media Network

As this farcical theatre of constipated morality unfolded, the Biden administration was happy to beef up the Israeli war machine by asking Congress to urgently approve the sale of 45,000 shells for the IDF’s Merkava tanks to aid its offensive in Gaza. The sale, worth around $500 million, does not form part of Biden’s $110.5 billion supplemental request that covers funding for both Ukraine and Israel.

In pursuing such a course of action, be it defending Israel’s policies in the Security Council, or via armaments, the US is effectively colluding in the perpetration of crimes against humanity. This was certainly the view of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who said in a statement released by his office that “the American position is aggressive and immoral, a flagrant violation of all humanitarian principles and values, and holds the United States responsible for the bloodshed of Palestinian children, women and elderly people in the Gaza Strip.”

Source: The View from Washington: Let the Killing in Gaza Continue – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Israel

Israel’s AI can produce 100 bombing targets a day in Gaza. Is this the future of war?

Last week, reports emerged that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are using an artificial intelligence (AI) system called Habsora (Hebrew for “The Gospel”) to select targets in the war on Hamas in Gaza. The system has reportedly been used to find more targets for bombing, to link locations to Hamas operatives, and to estimate likely numbers of civilian deaths in advance.

Source: Israel’s AI can produce 100 bombing targets a day in Gaza. Is this the future of war?

Colonialism

Opinion | The War in Gaza Has Galvanized the Global Indigenous Solidarity Movement | Common Dreams

Activists were arrested for disrupting the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

Is this what the ALP Government is doing or are we simply another American State? Did the Uluru Statement consciously align with Palestine? We certainly revisited 19th century attitudes without the costumes watching Peter Dutton and his Native Police troopers Jacinta Price and Warren Mundine in action before the referendum but where are they now? Have they been packed back in the LNP’s fake history box to be used another day?

As Indigenous struggles around the world ally with the struggle of the Palestinians, colonial and neocolonial powers have no other option but to ally with colonial Israel.

Source: Opinion | The War in Gaza Has Galvanized the Global Indigenous Solidarity Movement | Common Dreams

Israel

Is Israel Destroying Gaza to Control World’s Most Important Shipping Lane? – Gibraltar Messenger

Source: Is Israel Destroying Gaza to Control World’s Most Important Shipping Lane? – Gibraltar Messenger

Israel

When is genocide ever balanced? – Pearls and Irritations

Palestine vs Israel flag on cracked wall. Israel and Palestine war concept

This war didn’t begin on 7th of October and it isn’t Religious

Now, Israel justifies its indiscriminate attacks on Gaza by demanding return of the 230 hostages, military and civilian, captured by Hamas on 7 October (the 50th anniversary of Yom Kippur war). But between 6000 and 7000 (Scott Ritter says 10000) Palestinians are in jail in Israel, and Hamas won’t give the hostages up without their release. Political and military leaders in Israel have repeatedly stated their intention to rid Gaza of all 2.23 million Palestinians, either by forced emigration to Sinai, or by death.

‘Balance’ between supporters of Israel and of the Palestinians is what most police and State governments in Australia say they seek. So does the ABC. But what’s happening in Gaza isn’t balanced: it is asymmetric warfare.

Source: When is genocide ever balanced? – Pearls and Irritations

Israel

Gaza – What is the end game? – Pearls and Irritations

Blue UN helmets waiting for their deployment.

In recent weeks some frightening possibilities have come to the world’s attention. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz has noted plans, by some, for high density Jewish cities in the Gaza Strip. Such plans call for total destruction and mass expulsion in Gaza.

Source: Gaza – What is the end game? – Pearls and Irritations

Israel

Israel’s War on Gaza’s Hospitals and Patients: al-Shifa Bombed again, as 20 of 36 Hospitals Go Dark

Israel simply says “Evacuate”. But how do you evacuate severely sick people and premature babies from hospitals? The Israeli solution bit by bit

Reuters reports that Al-Shifa hospital complex has been forced to cease operations after its final remaining generator was hit in a bombardment. As I write, dozens of premature babies in incubators are in danger, and two have reportedly died.

Source: Israel’s War on Gaza’s Hospitals and Patients: al-Shifa Bombed again, as 20 of 36 Hospitals Go Dark

Israel

The Holocaust should be a lesson not a template – Pearls and Irritations

Separation wall east of Jerusalem.

“Jewish people exterminating men, women and children in a concentration camp is _______.”

How do you finish a sentence like that? The words should fall like acid into your ear drums. It should be an impossible sentence. And yet, not so. We are witnessing it today in Gaza – the world’s largest open-air prison, home and hell to 2.3 million brutally repressed human beings – carried out by the Jewish State of Israel. Genocide.

Source: The Holocaust should be a lesson not a template – Pearls and Irritations

Israel

Israeli Minister’s Threat to Nuke Gaza displays Genocidal Mood: “There are no Civilians in Gaza”

A nuclear strike on Gaza, by the way, would create many tons of radioactive fall-out, which would rain down on Israelis.

Source: Israeli Minister’s Threat to Nuke Gaza displays Genocidal Mood: “There are no Civilians in Gaza”

Informed Comment, Uncategorized

Democracy Participation Hamas won the 2006 election Bernie..Gaza In the year 2020, Norman Finkelstein was named the fifth most influential political scientist in the world.

Must Listen to this Response from Norman Finkelstein to Bernie Sanders’s opposition to a Ceasefire. Two Jews at war
Israel, Netanyahu

Israeli PM Netanyahu’s Performative Genocide in Gaza

The most recent Israeli poll indicates that more than 75 percent of Israelis want Netanyahu to resign. It can’t be soon enough.

Hamas is winning the public relations war as Netanyahu leads Israel into becoming a pariah state. Hamas, however horrifying and grisly their actions may be, is playing three-dimensional chess with world opinion. Netanyahu is playing whack-a-mole, resulting in a horrific death toll that Hamas anticipated would weaken support of Israel and halt its rumored incipient recognition by Saudi Arabia.

For Israelis concerned about security, having Netanyahu as Prime Minister is like having an arsonist guard the fire station.

(Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s vow to destroy Hamas, whatever the cost to civilians in Gaza, is based on a brutally cynical reality that such a goal will not be achievable without completely decimating Gaza or forcing the Gazans into exile in Egypt (either of which many of his political partners endorse, calling all Gazans ‘beasts’ or ‘sub-human.’) Recently, Netanyahu referred to a biblical old testament passage that called for the killing of every Amalekite, as he sought to justify the thousands of civilian deaths in Gaza. As reported  on November 3rd in Mother

Source: Israeli PM Netanyahu’s Performative Genocide in Gaza

Informed Comment

Gaza and the Law of return

The civilian slaughter in Gaza today did not begin solely as a consequence of the monstrous Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, writes Dr Jennifer Wilson.

Source: Gaza and the Law of return

Israel

The BBC Is Failing to Report the Ugly Truth About Israel’s War On Gaza

Britain’s BBC is one of the world’s most influential and trusted news sources. But pressure from conservative political elites has warped its coverage of Israel’s war and caused it to downplay the violence being inflicted on Palestinian civilians.

Source: The BBC Is Failing to Report the Ugly Truth About Israel’s War On Gaza

Israel

Gaza-Israel Catastrophe — Autocracy

One of the founders of the “Peace Now” movement was the late novelist Amos Oz, a dear friend whose book on the settler-induced divisions In the Land of Israel (1983) I would later translate. He was among the first Israelis to advocate a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Oz warned of the dangers of the occupation back in1967 and called the radicalized settlers neo-Nazis. At the same time, he also said he loved Israel, “even when I can’t stand it.” In one way or another, all of us were called “traitors.” But like Amos, we’d respond: “At least we’re in good company.”

Like the peace movement, the international community considers the settlements a violation of international law.

[Related: Biden Administration’s Capitulation to Israel]

Yet, hawkish advocates of national security favoured their expansion. For all practical purposes, they have won. In the early 1970s, there were barely 2,000 settlers in the West Bank. Today, that figure exceeds 500,000. Their problem is that they will never win the peace.

Source: Gaza-Israel Catastrophe — Autocracy

Informed Comment

Israel’s bombardment of Palestinians: is Australia complicit in war crimes? – Michael West

Hamas, Israel, Gaza

Israel has killed more than 7000 Palestinians since the brutal Hamas attacks of October 7 sparked the war on Gaza. Human rights lawyer Greg Barns SC examines Australia’s complicity in war crimes.

Source: Israel’s bombardment of Palestinians: is Australia complicit in war crimes? – Michael West

Israel

The Lights Are Off in Gaza

Israel turned off the lights, cut the phone lines, and shut off the internet to Gaza on Friday night, plunging the region into darkness and isolation before launching a ground invasion. Only those inside know what’s happening there.

Source: The Lights Are Off in Gaza