2024-04-21 Edward Said Warned Against Anti-Palestinian McCarthyism Said’s legacy reads today as a scathing condemnation of the hypocrisy of U.S. liberal institutions, their moral corruption, and the hollowness of the very values that they profess to teach.
Students across the United States are rising up against Israel’s genocide in Gaza, bringing to memory the student movements of the 1960s. From Columbia to Brown, from Yale to Harvard, students are staging sit-ins, hunger strikes, class walkouts, and interfaith prayers, demanding an end to U.S. support for Israel and the complicity of their academic institutions in the ongoing genocide.
While some U.S. institutions are treading a delicate path, the Columbia University administration, led by President Minouche Shafik, has violently cracked down on its own students, summoning the NYPD to mass arrest over 100 students, and suspending others with a 15-minute notice. In an unprecedented brutal crackdown on free speech on campus, the police destroyed solidarity encampments and student belongings, while charging arrested students with “trespassing” on the campus that they are charged a whopping tuition of more than $60,000 a year to attend!
In its attempt to appease far-right extremists in Congress, and to save Columbia from “being cursed by God,” as a Republican Congressman warned Shafik, Columbia has sided with genocide, thus undermining its own legacy of safeguarding free speech and peaceful protest on campus https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/edward-said-anti-palestinian-mccarthyism
2021-12-24 Wadie Said on the New McCarthyism People in the U.S., the story goes, value few things more than individual freedom and money. So you’d think the way an individual uses their money would be sacrosanct. A sign of where we’re at are currently congressional efforts to put people in prison, and fine them millions of dollars, for choosing not to buy products from countries that are not declared “official enemies” by, well, presumably whoever’s in the White House at the moment. The anti-boycott measure the House Foreign Affairs Committee is pushing may never see daylight, of course, but it indicates a willingness by some in elected office to use state power to silence and sanction anyone using their voice in dissent of official actions — in this one case, of people critical of Israel’s ongoing mass murder and displacement of Palestinians.
The work to shut down opposition to the siege of Gaza, and U.S. facilitation of it, reminds Americans of what it means when powerful institutions, including in the media, combine a decidedly selective understanding of free expression with a vehement desire to enforce it.
We talk about that with Wadie Said, professor of law at the University of Colorado Law School, and author of the book Crimes of Terror: The Legal and Political Implications of Federal Terrorism Prosecutions. https://kpfa.org/episode/counterspin-december-24-2023/
2023-11-12 UNIVERSITY STUDENTS OUTRAGED AT BLATANT ADMINISTRATIVE OVERREACH Over the past four weeks, National Students for Justice in Palestine has witnessed the most blatant administrative and governmental assault on students’ political speech in recent history. We are deeply concerned with politically-motivated administrative retaliation against individual students and student organizations at universities across North America. This unconstitutional and immoral suppression of our students—students speaking out against the decades-old genocidal depravity of a US vassal state—has cast a dark shadow over our supposedly pluralistic institutions.
American universities pride themselves on providing a diversified, transformative education. Yet, world-renowned institutions, including Columbia University, Brandeis University, and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, have taken direct action against Palestinian, Jewish, and allied students who have dared to speak out against US participation in the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. This isn’t just an infringement on Palestinian rights; it’s a signifier of the erosion of US democracy itself. The administrative surveillance and targeting of individual students sets an extremely concerning precedent.
The agendas of political lobbyists and wealthy donors have no place on our university campuses; it’s crucial to hold these institutions and their administrative bodies accountable and protect the voices of students facing unjust McCarthyist targeting. National Students for Justice in Palestine calls on all journalists of conscience to cover these administrator-led recrimination campaigns and wide-scale violations of student and faculty rights. We commend student organizers for steadfastly upholding their political line despite these attempts to silence our righteous fight for justice.https://nationalsjp.org/university-students-outraged-at-blatant-administrative-overreach
2023-11-21 ‘THIS IS MCCARTHYISM ALL OVER AGAIN’: NY COURT BLOCKS UNION FROM VOTING ON PRO-PALESTINE RESOLUTION In a seemingly unprecedented move, the NY Supreme Court just granted a temporary restraining order preventing members of the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys – UAW Local 2325 from even voting on a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. Over the past month and a half, the world has borne witness to a genocidal military campaign to clear out Gaza once and for all. This is prompting people of conscience around the world, including unions and worker-led groups, to speak out and take action to try to stop the slaughter.
One of those unions is the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys – UAW Local 2325 (ALAA), whose members include legal aid workers at over 25 organizations, including the Bronx Defenders, Brooklyn Defender Services, Neighborhood Defender Service, and the Legal Aid Society of New York City. Last week, ALAA members were preparing to hold a vote on whether or not to approve the union publicly issuing a “Resolution Calling for a Ceasefire in Gaza, an End to the Israeli Occupation of Palestine, and Support for Workers’ Political Speech.”
In the lead-up to the vote, union members at different legal aid offices reported strong opposition from management. “These statements call for the elimination of the state of Israel and the annihilation of the Jewish people,” Twyla Carter, Chief Executive Officer of the Legal Aid Society, reportedly told staff, expressing concern that certain donors would pull funding from the Legal Aid Society if the union passed the resolution.
Then, on Thursday, Nov 16, as Akela Lacy reports at The Intercept, “attorneys at the Legal Aid Society of Nassau County sued in New York State Supreme Court to stop the vote, saying it posed an ethical dilemma for attorneys that would make it “impossible for them to properly do their job as Public Defenders.” Those four attorneys were ALAA bargaining unit members. “On Friday,” Lacy continues, “the court granted a temporary restraining order enjoining the vote. Voting had gotten underway at 9 a.m. and only 15 minutes were left on the clock when the injunction was issued. The tally never got underway.” https://therealnews.com/ny-court-blocks-union-from-voting-on-gaza-ceasefire-palestine-resolution-uaw-legal-aid
2024-02-26 Examining Israeli Allegations of Atrocities by Resistance in Operation al-Aqsa Flood Israel’s objective extends beyond seeking justice, as it claims, rather, it aims to solidify its aggressive settler colonialism in Palestine, prioritizing the Judaization of the land and its inhabitants over the plight of Palestinians.
Israeli allegations against Palestinian resistance forces and GS residents involved in Operation al-Aqsa Flood on 7/10/2023, were diverse. These claims, orchestrated by organized entities within Israel’s government, aimed to justify its assault on GS and globally vilify Palestinian resistance, despite lacking validity.
Despite most of the claims against Palestinians being refuted, Israel launched an international campaign in mid-November 2023 to compile files against Palestinians involved in the events of 7/10/2023, in anticipation of criminal prosecution. Israel disseminated false and fabricated information through sympathetic journalists, accounts and websites to garner global public opinion support for its GS war. This article will address some of these allegations and present evidence to debunk them. https://www.globalresearch.ca/examining-israeli-allegations-atrocities-resistance-operation-al-aqsa-flood/5850689
He was speaking on the grand stage of the U.N. General Assembly, but no world leaders bothered to attend. Outside, some 2,000 people, a mixture of American Jews and Israeli citizens, protested his attacks on the independence of the Israeli judiciary system. The scene served as a reminder of how deeply unpopular his far-right governing coalition, not to mention Netanyahu himself, had become in Israel. At that moment, it seemed that Netanyahu was pushed against the ropes, in a losing battle to continue his political reign.
Just days later, as Hamas commandos penetrated the barriers encircling Gaza and embarked on their deadly raids targeting several military installations as well as kibbutzim, everything changed in an instant. Just as the Bush administration exploited the 9/11 attacks to justify a sweeping war in which it declared the world a battlefield, Netanyahu is using the horrors of October 7 to wage the crusade he’s been preparing for his entire political career. With his grip on power fading last fall, the October 7 attacks provided him with just the opportunity he needed, and he hitched his political survival to the war on Gaza and what could be his last chance to eliminate Israel’s Palestinian problem once and for all. https://theintercept.com/2024/02/07/gaza-israel-netanyahu-propaganda-lies-palestinians/
2024-02-05 Senate Deal Would Block All Funding to UNRWA as Gazans Starve Just after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) said in an interim ruling late last month that South Africa’s claim that Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza is “plausible,” Israel announced it had discovered that 12 of the agency’s 13,000 employees in Palestine had been involved in the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7.
As the United Nations warned Monday that at least a quarter of civilians in Gaza are suffering from “catastrophic” food insecurity and the collapse of the healthcare system is causing disease to spread, the U.S. Senate doubled down on cutting funding for the U.N.’s top humanitarian agency serving Palestinians by including in a bipartisan package a provision that would block aid for the body. The proposed $118 billion Emergency National Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, chiefly negotiated by Sens. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), and James Lankford (R-Okla.) includes $14.1 billion for Israel, which has killed at least 27,468 Palestinians in Gaza and at least 360 in the West Bank since beginning its assault on the occupied territories in October.
But a provision notes that none of the $10 billion in humanitarian assistance for Palestinians and Ukrainians “may be made available for a contribution, grant, or other payment” to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). https://www.commondreams.org/news/senate-deal-unrwa
2024-02-04 ZAKA’s World – How an Israeli Organization Used October 7 to Tell Lies and Make Money Composed mainly of volunteers, ZAKA is a non-governmental ultra-Orthodox organization “with sole responsibility in Israel for dealing with incidents of unnatural death,” according to its website. Its task is to collect bodies and body parts, including blood, so that it can be buried in accordance with Jewish religious law. An investigation by the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, however, has raised several questions about procedures during the retrieval of the bodies.
The paper says “it is based on the accounts of military personnel present at the body retrievals and the Shura military base (which was made a body identification center), as well as volunteers from ZAKA and other rescue organizations who worked in the broader communities.” It raised concerns that “in the first and critical days after October 7”, the Israeli military decided to forgo the deployment of hundreds of soldiers specifically trained in the identification and collection of human remains in mass casualty incidents. “Instead, the Home Front Command chose to use ZAKA, a private organization, alongside soldiers in the Military Rabbinate’s search unit” for the south, the paper said.
In the meantime, Haaretz says ZAKA volunteers worked at the sites from morning to night. However, “as part of the effort to get media exposure, ZAKA spread accounts of atrocities that never happened, released sensitive and graphic photos, and acted unprofessionally on the ground,” the report states.
In what the Haaretz article subtitles ‘Tales of Imagination’, it reports that a ZAKA volunteer “tearfully” recounted on social media that “We saw a woman, around 30 years old, (and) she was lying on the floor in a large puddle of blood, facing the ground.” The volunteer continued, “We turned her over in order to place her into the bag.” “She was pregnant …Her stomach was swollen, and the baby was still attached by the umbilical cord when it was stabbed, and she was shot in the back of the head. I don’t know if she suffered and saw her baby murdered or not.” The incident, which the volunteer alleged occurred in Be’eri, “simply didn’t happen, and was one of several stories that have been circulated without any basis.” “There is no evidence for this incident, and no one in the kibbutz has heard of this woman. A ZAKA senior official admitted in a conversation with Haaretz that the organization knows the incident didn’t occur,” the Haaretz report states.
The article goes on to say that in another video, the same volunteer weepingly describes “how he found the burnt and mutilated bodies of 20 children in one of the kibbutzim.” He told Haaretz that this was behind the dining hall in Kfar Azza, while in another instance, he said it was in Be’eri. However, reports Haaretz, two adolescents, aged 14 and 16, were killed in Kfar Azza. Ten children were killed in Be’eri, but at least some were known to have been with a parent and were killed in their homes, the report adds. Haaretz reports that the organization “has been accused of spreading false information before.”
In December 2022, Haaretz reported that ZAKA had inflated its stated number of volunteers for years in order to receive more funding. Haaretz reports that before October 7, the organization faced insolvency. “In the time since, says a source at ZAKA, they have raised over 50 million shekels ($13.7 million),” the report adds.
“Not only do these men lack the professional qualifications to make such assessments (they are not medical experts), but their testimonies also lack details: no age, no location, and no time,” Mondoweiss stressed. The report continues that “Details and/or evidence have not even been given to journalists who have asked to see them while reporting on these testimonies. This means that it is impossible to either confirm or debunk them.”
On November 23, 2023, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly met with the organization’s teams. He is reported as having said “You have an important role in influencing public opinion, which also influences leaders. We are in a war; it will continue. The war is not only to take care of the 1,400 people…but also to give us the maneuvering room.”
ZAKA was founded in the late 1990s by Yehuda Meshi-Zahav, who was previously the leader of Keshet, an ultra-Orthodox group. The group “fought against autopsies and archaeological digs in gravesites,” according to a YNet news article. Meshi-Zahav ran ZAKA until 2021, when he attempted suicide after numerous allegations of rape and sexual assault against him, including of minors. He died in 2022. https://fgww.palestinechronicle.com/zakas-world-how-an-israeli-organization-used-october-7-to-tell-lies-and-make-money/
2024-01-04 MASS RAPE By Hamas on Oct 7th? NYT Coverage QUESTIONED By Max Blumenthal: Rising DEBATES Editor at The Grayzone Max Blumenthal weighs in on recent updates surrounding October 7th https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bN9Rh3XOeo8
2023-12-04 Watch: Debunking Israel’s “mass rape” propaganda Israel and its proxies have launched a new media blitz, reviving unverified claims that Hamas fighters perpetrated mass rapes of Israeli women during its 7 October military operation. Despite blanket coverage, Israel does not claim to have identified any specific victim of such crimes, nor produced any videos or forensic evidence corroborating that they took place. On The Electronic Intifada livestream we dissected this propaganda campaign and showed how it is being fronted by operatives close to the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/watch-debunking-israels-mass-rape-propaganda
2023-11-24 Israeli spokesperson vs Tom Swarbrick caller over ‘IDF propaganda’ | LBC Israeli spokesperson joined Tom Swarbrick to answer callers over the Israel-Hamas war, and the consequential humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Caller Shahadah challenges Eylon Levy over the claims that ‘babies were beheaded’ by Hamas after Israeli-newspaper Haaretz released reports contesting the allegations. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qoo1z5TGAxQ
2023-11-22 Israeli admits its helicopters killed Israelis on 10/7 The Grayzone’s Max Blumenthal and Aaron Mate discuss new Israeli police revelations vindicating their reporting about the events of October 7, and undermining those who branded them “conspiracy theorists.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9Ja8zHUjlw
2023-11-21 US OK’s Bombing Children as Hamas Fights for Their Freedom from Illegal Israeli Military Occupation Israel maintains an illegal air, sea and land blockade on Gaza, not allowing anyone, including children, to escape being bombed to death. The US government, providing Israel with warplanes, missiles, weapons, ammunition and political and diplomatic backing, is complicit in this ongoing genocide of bombing to death thousands of militarily confined civilians, mostly women and children . The Israeli government claims the right to bomb its illegally occupied and captive Palestinians and kill all the members of their Hamas government.
As to Israel’s using the Israelis killed in the Hamas Oct 7th attack to justify the Israeli response of murdering already 12, 500 Palestinian civilians, resent investigations find that a large fraction of the bodies recovered had been charred beyond all recognition, making it very difficult to distinguish between Israelis and Hamas attackers. Since the Hamas fighters had only been carrying rifles and other small arms, all those victims must have been killed by explosive tank shells and Hellfire missiles. Indeed, newly released video footage revealed that hundreds of Israeli cars had been incinerated by such munitions, suggesting that many or most of the Israelis killed fleeing the dance festival had probably died at the hands of trigger-happy Apache pilots, who reported that they had blasted anything that moved. https://countercurrents.org/2023/11/us-oks-bombing-children-as-hamas-fights-for-their-freedom-from-illegal-israeli-military-occupation/
2023-11-18 IDEO: What really happened on October 7? The Grayzone’s Max Blumenthal joins Chris Hedges to discuss his investigation into Israel’s indiscriminate use of heavy weapons against Israeli citizens on October 7, and the shock-and-awe campaign of misinformation it subsequently employed to create political space for its brutal assault on Gaza.
Editor’s note: Since the publication of this interview, an Israeli police investigationhas confirmed that Israeli Apache helicopters killed numerous Israeli citizens at and around the Nova electronic music festival, and that Hamas did not know in advance about the festival. The Israeli government has also acknowledged that 200 of those it counted as Israeli casualties were, in fact, Hamas militants killed by its forces on October 7, and that it may have marketed images of their charred bodies to the public as proof of Hamas’ brutality.
For all the sensationalism surrounding the events of Oct. 7, when Hamas broke through the Gaza fence and seized territory in the Gaza Envelope as part of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, there is still much that we do not know. The official Israeli death toll from the attack is estimated at 1,200 civilians, revised from an initial estimate of 1,400. Among this figure are several hundred civilians, which Israel says were killed by Hamas militants. Other testimony from survivors of Oct. 7 suggests an alternative explanation—that in its fervor to defeat Hamas, Israeli commanders may have willingly targeted and sacrificed Israeli soldiers and civilians in the crossfire. Max Blumenthal of The Grayzone joins The Chris Hedges Report for an in-depth look. https://thegrayzone.com/2023/11/18/video-what-happened-october-7/
2023=11-17 Max Blumenthal Tweet Israeli govt propagandist Mark Regev confirms reporting by me and others that burned bodies presented by Tel Aviv as evidence of Hamas atrocities were in fact Hamas activists burned by Israeli hellfire missiles. This also adds legitimacy to claims that many Israelis found burned beyond recognition were friendly fire victims. https://twitter.com/MaxBlumenthal/status/1725518601740767338?s=20
2023-11-13 The October 7 Hamas Assault on Israel The Most Successful Military Raid of this Century. Israel has characterized the attack carried out by Hamas on the various Israeli military bases and militarized settlements, or Kibbutz, which in their totality comprised an important part of the Gaza barrier system, as a massive act of terrorism, likening it to the September 11, 2001 terror attacks against the United States. Israel supports this characterization by citing the number of persons killed (some 1,200, a downward revision issued by Israel after realizing that 200 of the dead were Palestinian fighters) and detailing a wide variety of atrocities it claims were perpetrated by Hamas, including mass rape, the beheading of children, and the wonton murder of unarmed Israeli civilians.
The problem with the Israeli claims is that they are demonstrably false or misleading. Nearly a third of the Israeli casualties consisted of military, security, and police officers. Moreover, it turns out that the number one killer of Israelis on October 7 wasn’t Hamas or other Palestinian factions, but the Israeli military itself. Recently released video shows Israeli Apache helicopters indiscriminately firing on Israeli civilians trying to flee the Supernova Sukkot Gathering held in the open desert near Kibbutz Re’im, the pilots unable to distinguish between the civilians and the Hamas fighters. Many of the vehicles that the Israeli government has shown as an example of Hamas perfidy were destroyed by the Israeli Apache helicopters.
Likewise, the Israeli government has widely publicized what it is calling the “Re’im massacre,” citing a death toll of some 112 civilians it claims were murdered by Hamas. However, eyewitness accounts from both surviving Israeli civilians and military personnel involved in the fighting show that the vast majority of those killed died from fire from Israeli soldiers and tanks directed at buildings where the civilians were either hiding or being held hostage by Hamas fighters. It took two days for the Israeli military to recapture Re’im. It only did so after tanks fired into the civilian residences, collapsing them onto their occupants, and often setting them ablaze, causing the bodies of those inside to be consumed by fire. The Israeli government has publicized how it has had to make use of the services of forensic archeologists to identify human remains at the Kibbutz, implying that Hamas had burned the occupants’ home. But the fact is it was Israeli tanks that did the destruction and killing. https://www.scottritterextra.com/p/the-october-7-hamas-assault-on-israel
2023-11-01 I saw a baby who had been baked in an oven, says Israeli emergency worker
[MEK Note: We now know that IDF Tanks and Helicopters fired on the music festival and Kibbutz’s causing all the charred cars, homes, and bodies. (see – Hamas Attack October 7, 2023 – Israel Involvement]
The body of the baby came from Kibbutz Kfar Aza, the site of one of Hamas’s worst massacres. An Israeli emergency worker has claimed he saw the remains of a baby who had been baked to death in an oven by Hamas terrorists at Kibbutz Kfar Aza on October 7.
Speaking in a video testimony, Asher Moskowitz of the United Hatzalah first responder group said he made the discovery on the fourth day of the war at a military base that had been set up as a centre for identifying those murdered by Hamas. Moskowitz said the baby arrived in a small bag. Inside he saw the tiny body, burnt and swollen, bearing marks that he claimed to be able to identify as the result of the body having been pressed against a heating element. “They took the baby and put it, literally, in a kitchen oven,” Moskowitz said, recounting the assessment of professional staff at the base. “The body hardened and, unfortunately, appeared to have also swollen,” he said. “And really, the heating element of the oven was on the body itself.”
Hatzalah’s founder and president Eli Beer first made the horrific claim at an American political convention in Las Vegas. “We saw a little baby in an oven,” Eli Beer, the founder and president of Hatzalah, said in a speech to the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual conference on Saturday night. In the days after the massacre, Israel invited foreign journalists to tour Kfar Aza and other communities hit by Hamas. Many wrote harrowing accounts about what they had seen. Last week, it showed them 43 minutes of raw footage from October 7 to counter what a government spokesperson called “a Holocaust denial-like phenomenon evolving in real time.” The IDF did not comment on Moskowitz’s claim about the baby, however, and the JC was not able to independently verify it. https://www.thejc.com/news/i-saw-a-baby-who-had-been-baked-in-an-oven-says-israeli-emergency-worker-qw2nn4os
2023-10-27 October 7 testimonies reveal Israel’s military ‘shelling’ Israeli citizens with tanks, missiles Israel’s military received orders to shell Israeli homes and even their own bases as they were overwhelmed by Hamas militants on October 7. How many Israeli citizens said to have been “burned alive” were actually killed by friendly fire? Several new testimonies by Israeli witnesses to the October 7 Hamas surprise attack on southern Israel adds to growing evidence that the Israeli military killed its own citizens as they fought to neutralize Palestinian gunmen.
Tuval Escapa, a member of the security team for Kibbutz Be’eri, set up a hotline to coordinate between kibbutz residents and the Israeli army. He told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that as desperation began to set in, “the commanders in the field made difficult decisions – including shelling houses on their occupants in order to eliminate the terrorists along with the hostages.”
A separate report published in Haaretz noted that the Israeli military was “compelled to request an aerial strike” against its own facility inside the Erez Crossing to Gaza “in order to repulse the terrorists” who had seized control. That base was filled with Israeli Civil Administration officers and soldiers at the time. These reports indicate that orders came down from the military’s high command to attack homes and other areas inside Israel, even at the cost of many Israeli lives.
An Israeli woman named Yasmin Porat confirmed in an interview with Israel Radio that the military “undoubtedly” killed numerous Israeli noncombatants during gun battles with Hamas militants on October 7. “They eliminated everyone, including the hostages,” she stated, referring to Israeli special forces. As David Sheen and Ali Abunimah reported in Electronic Intifada, Porat described “very, very heavy crossfire” and Israeli tank shelling, which led to many casualties among Israelis. While being held by the Hamas gunmen, Porat recalled, “They did not abuse us. We were treated very humanely… No one treated us violently.” She added, “The objective was to kidnap us to Gaza, not to murder us.”
According to Haaretz, the army was only able to restore control over Be’eri after admittedly “shelling” the homes of Israelis who had been taken captive. “The price was terrible: at least 112 Be’eri residents were killed,” the paper chronicled. “Others were kidnapped. Yesterday, 11 days after the massacre, the bodies of a mother and her son were discovered in one of the destroyed houses. It is believed that more bodies are still lying in the rubble.” Much of the shelling in Be’eri was carried out by Israeli tank crews. As a reporter for the Israeli Foreign Ministry-sponsored outlet i24 noted during a visit to Be’eri, “small and quaint homes [were] bombarded or destroyed,” and “well-maintained lawns [were] ripped up by the tracks of an armored vehicle, perhaps a tank.”
Apache attack helicopters also figured heavily in the Israeli military’s response on October 7. Pilots have told Israeli media they scrambled to the battlefield without any intelligence, unable to differentiate between Hamas fighters and Israeli noncombatants, and yet determined to “empty the belly” of their war machines. “I find myself in a dilemma as to what to shoot at, because there are so many of them,” one Apache pilot commented. https://thegrayzone.com/2023/10/27/israels-military-shelled-burning-tanks-helicopters/
The lighting assault immediately overwhelmed Israel’s Gaza Division. Video recorded from GoPro cameras mounted on the helmets of Palestinian fighters shows Israeli soldiers cut down in rapid succession, many still dressed in underwear and caught off guard. At least 340 active soldiers and intelligence officers were killed on October 7, accounting for close to 50% of confirmed Israeli deaths. The casualties included high ranking officers like Col. Jonathan Steinberg, the commander of Israel’s Nahal Brigade. (Many first responders and armed Israeli civilians were also killed).
The Erez Crossing is the home of a massive military and Coordination of Government Activities in the [Occupied] Territories (COGAT) facility which functions as the nerve center of Israel’s siege on Gaza. When it was overrun by Palestinian fighters on October 7 with droves of army bureaucrats inside, the Israeli military flew into a panic.
According to Haaretz, the commander of the Gaza Division, Brig. Gen. Avi Rosenfeld, “entrenched himself in the division’s subterranean war room together with a handful of male and female soldiers, trying desperately to rescue and organize the sector under attack. Many of the soldiers, most of them not combat personnel, were killed or wounded outside. The division was compelled to request an aerial strike against the [Erez Crossing] base itself in order to repulse the terrorists.”
2023-10-27 October 7 testimonies reveal Israel’s military ‘shelling’ Israeli citizens with tanks, missiles However, the Israeli government has not been content to rely on verified video evidence. Instead, it continues to push discredited claims of “beheaded babies” while distributing photographs of “bodies burned beyond recognition” to insist that militants sadistically immolated their captives, and even raped some before torching them alive.
The objective behind Tel Aviv’s atrocity exhibition is clear: to paint Hamas as “worse than ISIS” while cultivating support for the Israeli army’s ongoing bombardment of the Gaza Strip, which has left over 7000 dead, including at least 2500 children at the time of publication. While hundreds of wounded children in Gaza have been treated for what a surgeon described as “fourth degree burns” caused by novel weapons, the Western media’s focus remains trained on Israeli citizens supposedly “burned alive” on October 7.
Yet the mounting evidence of friendly fire orders handed down by Israeli army commanders strongly suggests that at least some of the most jarring images of charred Israeli corpses, Israeli homes reduced to rubble and burned out hulks of vehicles presented to Western media were, in fact, the handiwork of tank crews and helicopter pilots blanketing Israeli territory with shells, cannon fire and Hellfire missiles.
Indeed, it appears that on October 7, Israel’s military resorted to the same tactics it has employed against civilians in Gaza, driving up the death toll of its own citizens with the indiscriminate use of heavy weapons.
2023-10-11 Source of dubious ‘beheaded babies’ claim is Israeli settler leader who incited riots to ‘wipe out’ Palestinian village An international outcry erupted when Israel’s Foreign Ministry announced that Palestinian militants from the besieged Gaza Strip had killed 40 “babies,” and beheaded several of them during an incursion into Kfar Aza, a kibbutz on the Gaza border. President Joseph Biden repeated the inflammatory claim during an October 10 White House Rose Garden address, while networks across the West carried the story without a shred of critical scrutiny. According to CNN correspondent Nic Robertson, apparently citing Israeli military sources, Palestinian militants carried out, “ISIS-style executions,” in which they were “cutting the heads off of people,” including babies and pets.
The Grayzone has now identified a key source of the claim that Palestinian militants beheaded Israeli babies. He is David Ben Zion, a Deputy Commander of Unit 71 of the Israeli army who also happens to be an extremist settler leader who incited violent riots against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank earlier this year. In an October 10 interview with reporter Nicole Zedek of the Israeli state-sponsored i24 network, Ben Zion stated, “We walked door to door, we killed a lot of terrorists. They are very bad. They cut heads of children, they cut heads of women. But we are stronger than them.” He added, “We know that they are animals,” referring to Palestinians, “but we found that they don’t have any heart.”
2023-11-23 IDF elite intel officer warned about Hamas attacks, ignored – report junior Israeli officer in the elite 8200 intelligence unit warned over Hamas’s plan of a mass infiltration event and was ignored by her commanders, N12 reported on Thursday evening. The officer claims to have warned for the past 12 months about a scenario that involves a mass intrusion event by Hamas, foreshadowing what occurred on October 7. She turned to her commanders, but they did nothing. “You are imagining it,” her commanders were quoted by N12 as telling her.
2023-10-16 Gaza is Burning in Lockstep with the Great Reset The latest Israel-Hamas conflict was either deliberately engineered or it was the result of a remarkable concatenation of security lapses. Current affairs commentator Efrat Fenigson, a former Israel Defense Force (IDF) reservist, was among the first to concisely unpack the sheer improbability of a Hamas sneak attack on an ultra-secure Israeli border complex. https://www.activistpost.com/2023/10/gaza-is-burning-in-lockstep-with-the-great-reset.html
2023-10-12 Israel had intel on Hamas activity but didn’t put Gaza border on high alert Why it matters: Israeli leaders are facing growing criticism — and questions — over how they failed to prevent or quickly stop the deadliest attacks on its territory in decades.
Behind the scenes: The Israeli officials said that on Friday — the day before the attack — Israeli intelligence saw signs of Hamas activity in Gaza that suggested the militant group could have been preparing for an attack. As a result, several high-level consultations took place on Friday night to try to understand what the new intelligence meant, the officials said. IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, Shin Bet director Ronen Bar and Aharon Haliva, head of military intelligence, participated in some of these consultations, which discussed whether the irregular activity was a Hamas exercise or initial preparation for an attack. Israeli officials said that one of the possibilities that was raised in the consultation was to put IDF forces around Gaza on high alert because of a possible attack. But after the consultations, the leaders decided to wait for more intelligence to come in. Several hours later, Hamas attacked. https://www.axios.com/2023/10/12/hamas-attack-israel-intelligence-failure-high-alert-shen-bet
2023-10-11 While Israeli Media Examine Government Failure, US Papers Push ‘National Unity’ How could Israel—so famous for its military might and advanced intelligence capabilities—have missed the warnings of such an attack? The coordinated nature of the rocket attacks and assaults on nearby towns make clear that this was a huge operation that took time and planning; paragliding attacks require practice runs that are not easy to hide (L’Orient Today, 10/9/23), for instance. Already, Israeli media have begun looking closely at the Israeli government’s actions to understand how and why this happened—in sharp contrast to US broadsheet opinion, which has largely rallied unquestioningly behind Israeli “national unity.”
An Israeli military veteran in the New York Post (10/9/23), hardly considered a pro-Palestine publication, blamed Israel for ignoring warnings from Egyptian intelligence about “something big.”
An editorial at Ha’aretz (10/8/23) put the blame squarely on Netanyahu, saying “he is the ultimate arbiter of Israeli foreign and security affairs.” It also pointed the finger at his right-wing policies on settlement expansion and allies with far-right extremist parties. “As expected, signs of an outbreak of hostilities began in the West Bank, where Palestinians started feeling the heavier hand of the Israeli occupier,” the editorial said, noting that “Hamas exploited the opportunity in order to launch its surprise attack.”
At the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (10/7/23), David Halperin, chief executive officer of the Israel Policy Forum, wrote that for the last year, “my colleagues and I…have joined with others in expressing concern about the nature of Israel’s far-right government.” The article—which questioned why Netanyahu’s government, famously hard-nosed on security, failed to protect the people—was reprinted in the Jerusalem Post (10/7/23).
2023-10-08 SCOTT RITTER: Israel’s Massive Intelligence Failure The origins of Israel’s intelligence failure on the Hamas attacks can be traced to the decision to rely on AI instead of the contrarian analysis born of the earlier intelligence failure of the 1973 Yom Kippur War. How did such a massive, complex undertaking escape the notice of Israel’s vaunted intelligence service? An equally important question is why wasn’t this attack detected by the U.S. intelligence community as well, given the massive expenditures made in countering terrorism since the terrorist attacks on the U.S. homeland of September 11, 2001?
The answers lie in the history of success Israel has enjoyed in identifying and responding to Hamas operations in the past, success which manifested itself into a culture of complacency, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of Israeli citizens — the very people the intelligence services were dedicated to protect. The fact that this attack took place 50 years and a day from when Israel suffered what had been — up until this moment — Israel’s greatest intelligence failure, the 1973 Yom Kippur War, only reinforces the depth of the failure that transpired.
Israel’s fatal mistake was to openly brag about the role AI played in Operation Guardian of the Walls. Hamas was apparently able to take control of the flow of information being collected by Israel.
There has been much speculation about Hamas “going dark” regarding cell phone and computer usage to deny Israel the data that is contained in those means of communication. But “going dark” would have, by itself, been an intelligence indicator, one that AI would have certainly picked up. Instead, it’s highly probable that Hamas maintained an elaborate communications deception plan, maintaining a level of communications sufficient in quantity and quality to avoid being singled out by AI — and by Israeli analysts deviating from the norm. In the same way, Hamas would likely have maintained its physical profile of movement and activity to keep the Israeli AI algorithms satisfied that nothing strange was afoot. This also meant any activity — such as training related to paragliding or amphibious operations — that might be detected and flagged by Israeli AI was done to avoid detection.
2023-10-24 Why Language Matters in Israel’s War on Gaza FEATURING NORMAN SOLOMON – In his remarks to the American public on October 19, 2023, President Joe Biden said, “history has taught us that when terrorists don’t pay a price for their terror, when dictators don’t pay a price for their aggression, they cause more chaos and death and more destruction.” Biden was referring to the Palestinian militia known as Hamas which carried out a series of deadly attacks inside Israel on October 7th. But Norman Solomon says that if Hamas is a terrorist organization, then, “the same description fits the Israeli government.” Why is language so important when discussing this war? https://risingupwithsonali.com/why-language-matters-in-israels-war-on-gaza/
2023-11-13 How the Israel-Gaza Crisis Is Dividing American Jews | Amanpour and Company As American Jews face an unprecedented surge in antisemitism, they are also grappling with division in their own communities. The debate over support for Israel is playing out among Jews across the country, with some calling for a ceasefire while others unequivocally back the Israeli government. Journalist and author Emily Tamkin explains this moment of division and highlights the importance of listening to one another during this period of pain and grief. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Rv9RmF9q7o
2023-11-13 ON THE GROUND IN JENIN WITH THE WEST BANK’S RESISTANCE FIGHTERS ‘They call us terrorists. Who planted terrorism? Wasn’t it they? As long as there is occupation there is no future for the people. There will be no future unless they let us live.’
Where there is occupation, there is resistance, and numerous Palestinian resistance groups exist across the Occupied Territories. These groups consist of occupied subjects turned freedom fighters—those who have been directly targeted by Israel, who have witnessed their friends and families die at the hands of occupying forces, and who have been labeled “terrorists” for resisting their slow extermination. In Jenin, a 1km square ghetto-like refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, and the target of numerous Israeli incursions, there are many who have chosen the path of armed resistance, and many who felt they had no other choice. https://therealnews.com/on-the-ground-in-jenin-with-the-west-banks-resistance-fighters
2024-03-08 Women are shattering the IDF elite units’ glass ceilings Women are breaking through more and more barriers to serve in elite IDF units in parallel to the ongoing war. Twenty-three recently passed initial vetting rounds to move toward more specific training programs for potentially serving in elite units. Out of those 23, eight out of 10 passed from the Five Fingers training organization which focuses on assisting women through these processes. One woman, Li Hochman, from Even Yehuda, has even moved on to potential vetting for the Sayeret Matkal special forces unit. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/women-are-shattering-the-idf-elite-units-glass-ceilings/ar-BB1jya7c?
2023-03-01 Israeli women soldiers give shocking testimonies about Israeli army (Full Documentary, 2007) A personal account of female soldiers about their life in the Israeli Army, the only one to draw women for mandatory military service. A female point of view on the drama of an unending war, on the moral challenges they faced at the encounter with the Palestinian population. Questions that were not dealt with during the service are raised today with great pain – and courage. A female point of view on the drama of an unending war, on the moral challenges the soldiers faced at the encounter with the Palestinian population. The young women look back critically at the way they handled the power that was placed in their hands at the young age of eighteen. Did they really smile in the pictures? In 1988 the filmmaker served herself in the Israeli Defence Force in the Occupied Territories. ‘How could I ever think I’d forget…’ is what one of the young women asks herself at then end of this film. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jI6rTimkfJE
2023-01-03 The IDF has a problem with female soldiers – opinion We are already heading in a dangerous direction with female representation in this new government. Will we allow this to happen in the IDF as well?
Over the last couple of weeks, Israeli women have taken to social media to voice their anger and frustration over the recent letter from senior religious Zionist rabbis discussing the issue of sexual harassment in the Israel Defense Forces. As some of us may know, Israeli women serve two mandatory years in the IDF. The army makes exemptions for medical and mental health reasons or if the person comes from a sector of the country that isn’t required to do mandatory services. The army also gives women special exemptions if they are married or pregnant and for religious purposes. Yet, a growing voice in Israeli religious society is pushing for women to opt out of the army and instead choose National Service.
It seems the IDF has an internal problem that it needs to address. A report from 2021 says that a third of Israeli female soldiers experience sexual harassment during their mandatory service. A State Comptroller’s Report found that less than half of the Israeli female soldiers who experienced harassment filed a complaint. Of those, 44% said their complaints were not handled properly, and 26% stated that their complaints were not handled at all. Unfortunately, this isn’t unusual in what are considered “male-dominated” environments. https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-726466
2023-11-16 Israel Has Enjoyed Decades of Legal Impunity. Could the War on Gaza Finally Change That? We speak with two experts in international criminal law about the long history of Palestinians attempting to seek justice in global institutions and the “very grave crimes” for which Israel is being prosecuted regarding the country’s ongoing assault and siege of Gaza. Chantal Meloni, an international criminal lawyer who represents victims in Palestine before the International Criminal Court, lays out the history of cases brought before the ICC regarding Israel’s siege and collective punishment of Palestinians being denied justice for more than 14 years. “The fact that there was no accountability for the last decades of occupation and crimes related to the occupation has created a sense of impunity,” says Reed Brody, a war crimes prosecutor, who reports this new assault on Gaza has forced ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan to confront Israel. “Will this be followed up by real action for the first time?”
Ruth Ben-Artzi, the niece of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, joins Democracy Now! to call for the Netanyahu government to focus efforts on releasing Israeli hostages and to stop the bombing. A professor of political science at Providence College, Ben-Artzi recently joined prominent Rhode Island rabbis, Jewish leaders and Israelis demanding a ceasefire in Gaza. “A ceasefire is really the only way that any solution can be achieved,” says Ben-Artzi, who explains why military actions will never resolve this conflict and that “finding a political situation … is really the only way that the roughly 7 million Jews and 7 million Palestinians who live between the river and the sea will ever be able to find peace.” Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3g2Qkq1ueBI
2024-01-02 South Africa Files Case Against Israel at International Court of Justice over “Genocidal” Gaza War South Africa has filed a case at the main judicial body for the United Nations, the International Court of Justice in The Hague, accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza. “I believe South Africa will win an order against Israel to cease and desist from committing all acts of genocide against the Palestinians,” says Francis Boyle, an international human rights lawyer who won two requests at the ICJ under the Genocide Convention of 1948 for provisional protection on behalf of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina against Yugoslavia. Boyle says Israel has a history of listening to the United States’ orders to stop its assaults on the Occupied Palestinian Territories. “We here in the United States of America have the power to stop this.” Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypxiFjrM8RA
2023-12-06 ICC’s Karim Khan centers Israelis in Palestine investigation Karim Khan, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, concluded an unannounced visit to Israel and the occupied West Bank on Sunday. Instead of boosting hopes for justice for Palestinians at the world’s court of last resort, however, Khan’s trip gives more cause for alarm over his failure to prevent the genocide unfolding in Gaza.
The Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) last month accused Khan of complicity in enabling genocide in Gaza by failing to issue arrest warrants or even issue statements aimed at deterring the commission of crimes against humanity. The BNC, which steers a movement representing a broad spectrum of Palestinian society, called on all states, especially African Union governments, “to push for sacking” Khan during the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute that is currently underway in New York City.
Five ICC member states – Bangladesh, Bolivia, the Comoros, Djibouti and South Africa – referred the situation of Palestine to the court prosecutor in mid-November, upon receipt of which Khan affirmed that his office “is presently conducting an investigation.” Despite his insistence that the investigation in Palestine remains a priority, Khan’s visit and other recent statements will only bolster perceptions of the ICC as a tool of imperialist powers. Not only has Khan failed to describe Israel’s campaign of extermination in Gaza as a genocide, he appears to be largely focused on the conduct of Hamas and other non-state actors. https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/iccs-karim-khan-centers-israelis-palestine-investigation
2023-11-17 Canadian lawyers warn Justin Trudeau they will seek genocide prosecution On Thursday, Canadian lawyers served a notice of intent to seek prosecution of Canadian officials complicit in Israel’s war crimes in Gaza. Canada’s arms exports to Israel have risen in recent years. The notice follows the filing of a federal lawsuit in the US, earlier this week, against President Joe Biden and his secretaries of state and defense to stop them from further aiding and abetting Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
The lawyers, who are part of the legal working group of the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians, warn that the Canadian government – including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Minister of Foreign Affairs Melanie Joly – are risking complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity. “It is a crime to supply arms to a state with knowledge that they will be used for war crimes and genocide,” the notice explains. “The Government of Canada should also be aware that international criminal tribunals have previously examined the responsibility of those who have substantially contributed to a crime by providing encouragement and moral support to the perpetrators where the perpetrators are aware of this support,” it adds. https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/canadian-lawyers-warn-justin-trudeau-they-will-seek-genocide-prosecution
2023-11-17 ICJP’s Legal Working Group for Canadian Accountability issues Canadian government with notice of intention to seek prosecution of politicians for complicity in war crimes in Gaza The ICJP’s Legal Working Group for Canadian Accountability (ICJP LWGCA) has issued a notice to the Government of Canada of its intention to prosecute Canadian officials for their role in aiding and abetting Israel’s perpetration of war crimes. The notice was issued to leading members of the Liberal government, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Minister of Foreign Affairs Mélanie Joly, Minister of National Revenue Marie-Claude Bibeau, and Minister of Justice (Attorney General) Arif Virani. The notice included a stark warning that Canadian government officials could be individually liable and face charges before the International Criminal Court if there is evidence they have aided and abetted Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity (a violation of Article 25(3)(c) and (d) of the Rome Statute). https://www.justpeaceadvocates.ca/icjps-legal-working-group-issues-canadian-government-with-notice-of-intention-to-seek-prosecution-of-politicians-for-complicity-in-war-crimes-in-gaza/
2023-11-16 Denunciation to the International Criminal Court for genocide and other crimes (art. 15.1) On 9 November [2023] at 11 am in The Hague, a denunciation for genocide and other crimes (art.15.1) concerning Palestine in particular will be presented to the International Criminal Court. The underlying inspiration is “justice is the answer to violence”. The initiative was taken by an international group of lawyers coordinated by Gilles Devers (Lyon). Various associations (100), including the Agora of the Inhabitants of the Earth, acted as witnesses.
It is well known that, in the current context, the use of international legal bodies does not have the weight it should have. Among the states that bear the greatest responsibility in the case in question, the United States and Israel have not recognized the legitimacy of the ICC and prevented inspectors from entering their territory. Additionally, the United Nations passed a series of motions calling for a ceasefire, but the United States vetoed and blocked them. Despite this, the presentation of the denunciation is of great importance because it involves defending the law, the international law, and the rights of peoples [by fighting] tooth and nail! It is about safeguarding the primacy of law and justice over any other political, economic, cultural, technological or religious emergency or opportunist “imperative”. https://rootsaction.org/news-a-views/3234-denunciation-to-the-international-criminal-court-for-genocide-and-other-crimes-art-151
2024-08-13 Investigation Details IDF Use of Gaza Civilians as Booby Trap Detectors Believing that “our lives are more important than their lives,” Israel Defense Forces soldiers have widely used Palestinians including civilians as booby trap detectors in Gaza, according to a new Haaretz investigation, the latest of numerous reports detailing IDF use of kidnapped Gazans as human shields.
The report, published Tuesday, features testimonies of IDF soldiers, who said commanders are fully aware of the practice of using captured Palestinians as human shields. One soldier said “there is pride in it,” referring to acts considered war crimes under Protocol I of the Geneva Conventions and international humanitarian law. https://www.commondreams.org/news/idf-human-shields
2024-06-12 The Case For Palestine and Why You Should Care The case for Palestine: why it matters and why you should care. Also, Israel illegally using humanitarian cover for military operations causing The World Food Program to halt its aid efforts in in Gaza. And our weekly Gaza news headlines with Nora Barrows Friedman and the electronic Intifada https://kpfa.org/episode/flashpoints-june-12-2024/
2024-05-06 ‘Unlawful and Catastrophic’: IDF Begins Forced Evacuation of Rafah Israel’s army on Monday ordered roughly 100,000 people living in eastern Rafah to evacuate ahead of an imminent military assault on the area, terrifying families who have been forcibly displaced to the southern Gaza city in recent months and intensifying warnings of a bloodbath.
The U.S., Israel’s top arms supplier, has said it would oppose a Rafah assault without a credible plan to evacuate civilians from the city. Humanitarian groups and analysts have said such a plan is impossible because there is no genuinely safe place for Gazans to go. Israeli forces have repeatedly attacked so-called “safe zones” and designated routes Palestinians have used to flee in compliance with past IDF orders.
“Israel’s military offensive in Rafah could lead to the deadliest phase of this conflict, inflicting horrific suffering on approximately 1.4 million displaced civilians in the area,” said Jan Egeland, secretary-general of the Norwegian Refugee Council. “The relocation orders issued by Israel today to thousands of Gazans, directing them to move to Al-Mawasi, are beyond alarming. The area is already overstretched and devoid of vital services. It lacks the capacity to house the number of people currently seeking refuge in Rafah, with no assurances of safety, proper accommodation, or return once hostilities end for those forced to relocate.”
“The absence of these fundamental guarantees of safety and return, as required by international humanitarian law, qualifies Israel’s relocation directives as forcible transfer, amounting to a serious violation of international law,” Egeland said. “Any Israeli military operation in Rafah—which has become the largest cluster of displacement camps in the world—will cause potential mass atrocities.”https://www.commondreams.org/news/evacuation-order-rafah
2024-02-09 Israel Army Lands In A Soup; How IDF Ran Racist ’72 Virgins – Uncensored’ Channel On Telegram The Israel Army has admitted to running a racist, genocidal anti-Palestinian Telegram channel amid the war in Gaza. The ’72 Virgins – Uncensored’ channel was exposed in December last year by Israeli newspaper – Haaretz. The IDF had denied its role back then but launched an investigation which found that the channel was indeed being managed by IDF’s department. The channel posted over 700 gory pictures and videos showing killing of Palestinians, Hamas fighters in Gaza and destruction of the besieged Palestinian enclave until the end of Dec. Watch this video for more details. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMZ04XRaoLU
2023-12-15 Videos Emerge Of IDF Assaulting Palestinians, Destroying Their Property Israeli Border Police officers violently attacking a photojournalist Mustafa Al-Haruf in East Jerusalem. Cenk Uygur, Brett Erlich and Jordan Uhl discuss on The Young Turks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56yGtL09CFA
2023-12-20 “Fu*k the Police, Free Palestine!” Protesters ARRESTED Outside IDF Fundraiser Following our Livestream covering the Global Protest for Palestine in NYC, they continued their protests at a DKNY Fundraiser for the IDF (Israeli Defense Force). Here they chanted and yelled at attendees, while police arrested them and protected the various guests. SUPPORT Status Coup’s ON-THE-GROUND and investigative reporting on the stories the corporate media COVERS UP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rkGkLj-QvU
2023-12-18 Israel Protests ERUPT After 3 Hostages SHOT DEAD By IDF Krystal and Saagar discuss protests erupting after the IDF killed three Israeli hostages in Gaza. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_g4v4E6mBQE
2023-11-10 Former Israeli soldier exposes IDF war crimes | The Marc Steiner Show There’s a contradiction inherent in how Israel reckons with its atrocities against Palestinians. On one hand Israel’s leaders and their supporters call for the genocide of Palestinians, such as this past weekend when Israel’s Defense Minister announced a blockade of Gaza, referring to its residents as “human animals.” On the other hand, the grisly truth of Israeli war crimes must stay out of sight, out of mind. Breaking the Silence, an organization of Israeli veterans, attempts to shatter the silence surrounding war crimes against Palestinians with soldier testimony. Nir Avishai Cohen of Breaking the Silence joins The Marc Steiner Show to talk about the work of his organization, the failure of the Israeli left, and his new book, Love Israel, Support Palestine: An Israeli Story.
Editor’s Note: This interview was recorded in September, 2023, before “The Flood of Al-Aqsa” operation by Palestinian armed resistance forces took place on Oct. 7. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRyBaPkdJ_c
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