2024-01-17 VIDEO: Life in Jerusalem under Israel’s military dictatorship Journalist Jeremy Loffredo visits the occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, a climate of unprecedented repression has descended since October 7. Loffredo documents settler terror attacks on businesses and speaks to local activists who tell him they fear arrest and beatings from Israeli police if they speak out against the assault on Gaza. https://thegrayzone.com/2024/01/17/jerusalem-israels-military-dictatorship/
2024-02-23 Palestine Talks | Mohammed el Kurd gives an insight into growing up in Occupied East Jerusalem Poet and writer Mohammed el Kurd and his twin sister Muna became globally famous in 2021 when the Israeli state tried to evict them from their home in Sheikh Jarrah, Occupied East Jerusalem. Mohammed speaks to TRT World and sheds light on how Israeli settlers have used religion and the power of the state behind them to displace indigenous Palestinians. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4Byer9suho&list=PLUW304lJeu3Vg_nM0WQfWDZTDyu6h6PlD&index=11
2017-12 06 Why Jews and Muslims Both Have Religious Claims on Jerusalem The matter of Israel’s capital city has long been a source of dispute. Although nearly all foreign embassies in Israel are located in Tel Aviv, the country considers Jerusalem to be its capital. Jerusalem, which is one of the oldest cities in the world, has been formally divided between Israel and Palestine for nearly 70 years, yet changed hands many other times throughout the course of its over 5,000-year history.
On December 6, 2017, President Donald Trump broke with previous U.S. foreign policy and announced that the U.S. would recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, effectively endorsing Israeli control of the city. On May 14, 2018, the U.S. relocated its embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv. https://www.history.com/news/why-jews-and-muslims-both-have-religious-claims-on-jerusalem
2024-08-09 46% of Israelis fear an internal civil war, politicians rated by acts of division An N12 “Ulpan Shishi” survey conducted by Meno Geva reveals troubling insights into public perceptions of civil conflict in Israel. The data, collected on Thursday from a representative sample of 510 individuals aged 18 and over, shows that 46% of respondents are concerned about the possibility of civil war, while 48% are not. 6% were spilt on the issue.
On the list of figures seen as divisive, Public Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir tops the list, with 70% of respondents viewing him as a divider, compared to just 19% who see him as a unifier. Following him are Miri Regev, Bezalel Smotrich, and Tali Gotliv. Regarding Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, 62% of the public considers him divisive, while 30% view him as a unifier. Even among Netanyahu’s supporters, 30% consider him divisive, and among his opponents, a striking 93% believe he is a divider. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/46-of-israelis-fear-an-internal-civil-war-politicians-rated-by-acts-of-division/ar-AA1oxS1m?
2023-11-03 Israel On Brink Of Civil War! Reader Comments “There were riots and protests in Israel for 30 weeks against Netanyahu for corruption by people of the Jewish faith in Israel. Then Netanyahu wanted to abolish the judiciary. The protests , and riots got even more heated. Then there were the attacks. How long this guy Netanyahu been going in and out of power in Israel? He seems to be in power almost as long as Putin, if not longer.” “The Hamas attacks were allowed to happen in order to give Israel a reason to do this. Does anyone think it was an accident that the most defended boarder in the world was left unattended and undefended on the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur war??“ “This conflict has woken up many in questioning the reality of democracies, free speech, fairness and trustworthiness of news outlets.” “ Have they ever explained how the security was breached without any response, almost like they let them attack.” “Israel can say whatever they want but their actions are showing their true intentions!”
Given all the obstacles to their rescue, the fate of the hostages is uncertain. The Hamas leaders have refused to allow the International Red Cross to visit the hostages. And I was told by a well informed Israeli that two weeks ago Netanyahu instructed Israel’s foreign and domestic intelligence agencies “to hunt down and kill every single Hamas political and military leader” in the Middle East. “Israel, ruthlessly,” I was told, “is going after the families, wives, kids, brothers, sisters, parents of Hamas political and military leaders.” He said fourteen members of the family of Ismail Haniya, the political leader of Hamas based in Qatar, had already been killed. Within two days of the October 7 raid, he said, the widow of Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi, a Hamas co-founder who was assassinated in 2004, was killed. Similarly, he said, eight members of the family of Muhammed Deif, the Hamas military leader, were killed in safe homes. “From Israel’s perspective,” the Israeli told me, “It is now a no-holds-barred war.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Niafzk6Exc8&t=1s
2023-11-01 Netanyahu’s ‘PSYCHOTIC’ Tweet Deleted As GROWING COALITION of Israelis Push To DUMP PM: Analysis Senior correspondent at Vox Zack Beauchamp weighs in on Israel’s view of Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu amid the war with Hamas. #Palestine #Gaza https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUb8xm1mwus
2024-01-12 How Does Iron Dome of Israel Work? Israel’s Iron Beam is the world’s first energy-based weapons system that uses a laser to shoot down incoming UAVs, rockets & mortars at a cost of $3.50 per shot. Are energy weapons becoming a viable option for modern armies? SUPPORT Interesting Engineering. https://www.msn.com/en-us/video/webcontent/how-does-iron-dome-of-israel-work/vi-AE21i6MhsD00pA?
2024-01-12 Why Iron Beam Can’t Replace Israel’s Iron Dome Israel’s defense system known as the “Iron Dome” costs a whopping $100,000 per shot, mostly paid for by the United States, but a new defense weapon that is a fraction of the cost is on the horizon. Check out today’s epic new video to find out why Israel will never replace the “Iron Dome” despite how much it costs. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/israel-is-not-going-to-stop-until-it-finishes-the-job-nathan-sales/vi-AA1mBwTI
2021-05-20 Drones add little to rocket-filled Israel-Palestine skies, but represent growing global threat Beneath the ongoing collision of Israel’s cutting-edge and costly missile defense systems and imprecise but inexpensive Palestinian-built rockets, Hamas has begun using so-called “kamikaze drones” to try penetrating Israeli defenses another way. The Israeli government has claimed that its Iron Dome rocket defense system is effectively blocking most incoming rockets that pose a threat to Israel’s cities. Hamas has launched more than 3,000 rockets from Gaza since May 10, but Israeli officials claim most have either been intercepted by Iron Dome’s missile interceptors or did not reach significant targets (landing in unpopulated areas or failing in flight). https://thebulletin.org/2021/05/drones-add-little-to-rocket-filled-israel-palestine-skies-but-represent-growing-global-threat/#post-heading
2014-07-29 Israel’s Iron Dome: a misplaced debate Back in 2012, Israel’s Iron Dome rocket defense system was hailed as a real, working battlefield weapon that could shoot down unguided rockets before they struck Israel. Iron Dome was lauded as a game changer in the Israel-Palestine conflict; at the time, Israel claimed that it shot down 441 Hamas rockets in flight, before they could do serious damage. Admittedly, normal life in Israel was disrupted, as its citizens had to scamper to bomb shelters when the siren sounded, but that was held to be acceptable. Israeli casualties were negligible in comparison to more than 1,000 Palestinian deaths.
For the current conflict, Israel has reportedly improved Iron Dome, claiming that the system intercepts 90 percent of the rockets that it attempts to hit. It is true that there have been only two Israeli civilian casualties so far (one from mortar fire), which buttresses claims of the success of Iron Dome. Yet, while citizens of distant Tel Aviv and other cities far from Hamas’ Gaza-based rocket launch sites are now able to lead normal lives, people continue to run toward bomb shelters in areas closer to the action. https://thebulletin.org/2014/07/israels-iron-dome-a-misplaced-debate/#post-heading
2014-07-23 AS DEBUNKING CONTINUES, CONGRESS PUSHES FOR US CONTRACTORS TO PROFIT OFF IRON DOME Back in April, I wrote about the horrible success rate of Israel’s Iron Dome defense system and the outrageous sums of money that the US has poured into it. With more rockets now being fired from Gaza and Israel responding by massacring Palestinians who have no escape, the Iron Dome system is getting renewed attention. And as with much in the Israel-Palestine situation, there is the propaganda we see in much of the main press and then there is the stark reality behind it that is vastly different. Writing in The Atlantic, James Fallows noted a week and a half ago how the Washington Post had swallowed the propaganda completely, putting up the headline ‘Israel’s “Dome’ changes the fight” and provided a snippet of the Post’s praise:
To Israeli security officials, the success of Iron Dome is akin to that of the separation barrier between Israel and the West Bank, which they say helped bring an end to an onslaught of suicide bombings in the early 2000s. The Iron Dome system has rendered rockets so ineffective that Hamas and its allies have, in recent days, been attempting more-creative ways of attacking Israel.
To debunk this baseless propaganda, Fallows relied heavily on an article by John Mecklin in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Mecklin pulls no punches, titling his piece “Iron Dome: the public relations weapon”.
Despite the abysmal performance of Iron Dome, the US has sunk over a billion dollars into the program. And despite this horrific waste of money, it appears that our elected officials are only upset about one aspect of the program. Most of the money spent to date on the program has gone to Israeli companies, and so Congress is moving now to make sure US contractors get a piece of the action: https://www.emptywheel.net/2014/07/23/as-debunking-continues-congress-pushes-for-us-contractors-to-profit-off-iron-dome/
2014-07-10 Iron Dome: the public relations weapon The New York Times, noted for its authoritative reporting, wrote that the Israeli Army contended Iron Dome “intercepted about 27 percent of all the rockets fired between Monday night and midday Wednesday.” But the Times did not indicate how many missiles had been targeted, leaving the efficiency of the Iron Dome system in this conflict unclear, even as the newspaper reported that “Israel has said that the system has a success rate of nearly 90 percent in intercepting the missiles it is meant to thwart.” The Times also put a headline over its online story—“A Growing Arsenal of Homegrown Rockets Encounters Israel’s Iron Dome”—that could be read as suggesting Israel’s missile defense was, overall, as effective as its name implies. https://thebulletin.org/2014/07/iron-dome-the-public-relations-weapon/
2012-12-13 Iron Dome: Behind the hoopla, a familiar story of missile-defense hype Since an Israeli-Hamas ceasefire was announced in November, Israel’s Iron Dome system has been hailed as proof that missile defense has emerged from the realm of the theoretical and assumed the status of a real battlefield weapon. It’s also been called a game changer for the Israel-Palestine conflict. The verdict is in, crowed Max Boot, a defense expert at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York: “Missile defense works.” But behind press reports on the supposedly spectacular success of Iron Dome — which the Israeli government claims shot down more than 400 rockets launched toward Israel from Hamas-controlled Gaza during recent hostilities — lies a murkier story. https://thebulletin.org/2012/12/iron-dome-behind-the-hoopla-a-familiar-story-of-missile-defense-hype/#post-heading
2023-10-30 Israel-Hamas, Ukraine-Russia and China: John Mearsheimer on why the US is in serious trouble! PART 1. Professor John Mearsheimer addressed an audience in Brisbane on Monday, 23 October as part of an event with Tom Switzer and Peter Varghese. This video is John’s standalone lecture, you can find the rest of the conversation and Q&A session in PART 2 in the coming days.
The Middle East crisis will have have severe repercussions for Israel, its neighbors, and U.S. foreign policy. Israel’s response to Hamas’s attacks is expected to continue to provoke anger across the Middle East, potentially fueling jihadist movements and escalating conflicts with other groups, contributing to regional instability. The U.S. has a vital interest in maintaining stability in the Persian Gulf, but the Israel-Hamas conflict threatens to undermine this. It’s crucial to acknowledge that Russia, rather than constituting a substantial threat to the U.S., has the potential to be an ally in containing China. However, the U.S.-supported campaign in Ukraine has inadvertently drawn Russia closer to China, contravening the principles of balance-of-power politics, and this commitment to Ukraine is likely to remain.
All this conflict risks diverting American focus from East Asia, where efforts to forge a coalition to address a significant strategic challenge are underway, it’s in Australia’s interest to collaborate with the U.S. in deterring China. Beijing’s optimal outcome involves the U.S. remaining deeply involved in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, preventing a full pivot to East Asia. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62FCVJycwSA
2023-10-27 Here’s Why U.S. Elites Support Israel No Matter What Why does the US gov’t support Israel no matter what? Hint: it has to do with imperialism. BT’s Kei Pritsker explains the crucial role Israel plays in US domination of the Middle East and geopolitics. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fH8d7UJNmaA
2024-03-26 Scott Ritter Unmasking Israel isolation: is attacked by Hezbollah’s rockets & abandoned by France US Hamas carried out a strategic and tactical raid military and hostages that would expose Israel and its policy against Gaza and Palestinians. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLz6fVPopwg
2024-02-27 Examining Israeli Allegations of Atrocities by Resistance in Operation al-Aqsa Flood Hamas’s Narrative: It’s important to note that the Hamas movement, amidst numerous false Israeli accusations after Operation al-Aqsa Flood on 7/10/2023, had its media office issue a document in January 2024 to clarify that their operation specifically “targeted the Israeli military sites, and sought to arrest the enemy’s soldiers to pressure on the Israeli authorities to release the thousands of Palestinians held in Israeli jails through a prisoners exchange deal. Therefore, the operation focused on destroying the Israeli army’s Gaza Division, the Israeli military sites stationed near the Israeli settlements around Gaza.” These locations were responsible for bombarding Gaza and its residents.
It also clarified that “Avoiding harm to civilians, especially children, women and elderly people is a religious and moral commitment by all the Al-Qassam Brigades’ fighters. We reiterate that the Palestinian resistance was fully disciplined and committed to the Islamic values during the operation and that the Palestinian fighters only targeted the occupation soldiers and those who carried weapons against our people,” adding, “if there was any case of targeting civilians; it happened accidently.”
The Israeli accusations against the Palestinian resistance and GS residents of brutality and inhumanity in the attack on 7/10/2023 are an attempt to legitimize further Israeli crimes in GS. These accusations do not justify the retaliation against more than 2.3 million Palestinians living there, nor do they justify the commission of more than 2,325 massacres, the killing of more than 27,238, including more than 12,000 children, and more than 8,190 women, 122 journalists, 339 medical staff, and 46 civil defense members. Nor do they justify the loss of more than 7 thousand Palestinians under the rubble (70% of them are children and women), the injury of more than 66,452 Palestinians, the displacement of more than 2 million people in GS, and the destruction of hundreds of thousands of residential units, mosques, churches, health centers and government buildings, all until 3/2/2024, the 120th day of the war.
Israeli crimes in GS are well-documented with audio and visual evidence, and even admitted by Israeli officials, despite their false denials. This is often encouraged by the extreme right-wing settlement movement, which, according to a Haaretz article by Uri Misgav, prohibits criticism of the government and Israel’s “saintly soldiers.” They believe that “it is forbidden to end the fighting; dead soldiers and hostages are a worthy, noble sacrifice on the way to redemption, the silver platter on which the State of Judea will arise. For this camp, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is the Messiah’s donkey, a useful idiot. They keep warning him that the day he dares stop the fighting is the day that his government falls.” https://www.globalresearch.ca/examining-israeli-allegations-atrocities-resistance-operation-al-aqsa-flood/5850689
2023-12-29 IRGC commander: October 7 was independently conducted by Palestinians Esmail Qaani, the commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force, told Iranian news organization IRNA this week that Hamas planned and executed the October 7 attacks on southern Israel without Iranian help. IRNA (Islamic Republic News Agency) is funded and controlled by the Iranian government. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/irgc-commander-october-7-was-independently-conducted-by-palestinians/ar-AA1mdNHp
2023-11-20 Palestinian Activist Remembers Vivian Silver, Israeli Canadian Peace Activist Killed in Hamas Attack [MEK Note:We will probably never know for sure, but is more likely that Vivian was killed by IDF tank firing at Kibbutz housing]
Israeli and Palestinian peace activists are mourning 74-year-old Canadian Israeli peace activist Vivian Silver after she was confirmed killed on October 7 during the Hamas attack on Kibbutz Be’eri, where she lived. She was previously thought to be held hostage. Silver co-founded the Arab-Jewish Center for Equality, Empowerment and Cooperation, sat on the board for the human rights group B’Tselem and was an active member of Women Wage Peace. Silver’s friend and colleague Samah Salaime, a Palestinian feminist activist, says Silver would have pushed for dialogue to find a peaceful solution to the conflict. “This was her legacy, and this is what we have to march for and fight for after her death.” https://www.democracynow.org/2023/11/20/vivian_silver
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/
2023-11-19 IDF combat helicopter targeting Hamas fighters at Nova festival massacre shot some partygoers by mistake, says Haaretz A police investigation of the Nova music festival massacre on October 7 indicates that the IDF mistakenly shot some festival attendees while firing at Hamas terrorists. The alleged debacle was reported by Israeli newspaper Haaretz, citing a police source. The source told Haaretz that their police investigation intimates that an IDF combat helicopter fired at terrorists after arriving on the scene. While targeting the perpetrators, the helicopter reportedly also hit the festivalgoers. Three hundred sixty-four people were killed at the festival, a third of the fatalities from Hamas militants’ coordinated terrorist attacks on Israel on October 7, per The Times of Israel. Approximately 3,500 people attended the psychedelic trance festival three miles away from the Gaza border, per The New York Times.
2023-11-18 Hamas had not planned to attack music festival, Israeli report says Hamas fighters who attacked a music festival in Israel on October 7, killing hundreds, likely did not know in advance about the event and decided to target it on the spot, Israeli media has reported citing police and security sources. According to a copy of the first Israeli police report into the attack, obtained this week by Israel’s Channel 12, Palestinian fighters had originally intended to attack nearby kibbutz Re’im as well as other villages near the Gaza border. They found out about the music festival with drones and from the air as they parachuted into Israel.
2023-11-17 DID ISRAEL’S MILITARY KILL ITS OWN CIVILIANS ON OCT. 7? Testimony from survivors of Al Aqsa Flood, combined with the documented past actions of Israel’s armed forces against captured soldiers and civilians, raise questions about what really caused the high Israeli death toll. 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://therealnews.com/did-israels-military-kill-its-own-civilians-on-oct-7
2023-11-16 Were the Hamas Attacks in Israel a False Flag? The October 7th Hamas attack on Israelis has been referred to as “Israel’s 9/11,” which gives us good reason to believe that it was probably another false flag psy-op. Some people really do believe it was a false flag, i.e., that the Israeli regime allegedly knew that it was being planned and let it happen. As Paul Craig Roberts notes, how could Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency not know this was being planned? Don’t Israeli intelligence and military have the most sophisticated and comprehensive monitoring and surveillance of the Israeli sheeple and of Palestinians and of Hamas? The planning allegedly was going on for 2 years. Really? And there were warnings from other countries or intelligence agencies, including Egypt who had warned the Israelis of a terrorist attack being planned, warnings ignored.
And now we are learning that there is a high probability that many of the Israelis killed on October 7th were killed by the Israeli military (IDF) itself, possibly as high as 80% of the Israeli deaths, according to Scott Ritter. And Ron Unz described the IDF as possibly “trigger-happy Apache pilots”. It has also been difficult for Israeli authorities to distinguish between many killed Israeli and Palestinian bodies.
2023-11-14 Biden SLAMMED for Israel/Gaza ‘MISINFORMATION’ By 100+ STATE DEPARTMENT Employees Internal Memo Briahna Joy Gray and Robby Soave react to latest updates on Israel and Palestine [MEK Note: at 3minutes – discussion of actual Hamas attack fatalities and cross-fire deaths.] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cck1z_N71K8&list=RDNSDQH8HYIkCwU&start_radio=1&rv=DQH8HYIkCwU
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
2023-11-07 A deadly cascade: how secret Hamas attack orders were passed down at last minute Plan drawn up by handful of leaders was unknown to men who would carry it out until morning of attacks on Israel a month ago.
The first orders went out before 4am: anyone who had been attending the regular training sessions and was not planning to attend dawn prayers at their usual mosques must go to pray. An hour later, as the sky began to lighten over Gaza and the congregations began to disperse, new instructions were issued. These too were straightforward and passed mainly by word of mouth: bring your weapons and any ammunition you have and assemble at specific landmarks. But still no one was told what was about to happen. Operation al-Aqsa Flood, the most ambitious operation launched by Hamas since the extremist Islamist organisation had taken control of Gaza in 2007, was still a secret.
The plan had been formulated by a handful of hardened, veteran Hamas leaders and was still unknown to the men whose violence was about to shatter any passing sense of calm or progress towards a new stability in the Middle East. It was unknown, too, to Israel’s much vaunted military and intelligence services. The decision to pass instructions verbally to thousands of Hamas militants scattered among Gaza’s 2.3 million inhabitants was the latest in a series of measures designed to deceive one of the most potent surveillance systems in the world and keep any word of what might be about to happen from a network of spies.
The instructions spread across Gaza in a cascade, given first to the commanders of the “battalions” of a hundred or more, then to leaders of platoons of 20 or 30, who told the squad commanders at the head of a dozen, who passed the message on to the friends, neighbours and relatives who had joined them at the twice weekly drills held in dozens of locations in the enclave. Only when the men had assembled was extra ammunition and more powerful weaponry distributed. Many had handled such arms over previous months and had returned them to Hamas’s arsenals after each lesson. Soon they were carrying hand-held and rocket-propelled grenades, heavy machine guns, sniper rifles and explosives. It was now 6am. The sun was up and the final orders were issued. Now, these were written down: the men were to rush through gaps that would soon be blown or smashed through the $1bn perimeter fence around Gaza and attack Israeli soldiers and civilians on the other side.
One factor was the sheer number who came through the fence – some sources say as many as 3,000, including members of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), an allied but independent faction that was not told in advance of the attacks, sources said, but joined once aware of the breach of the fence. Civilians also poured out of Gaza in the general chaos, emboldened by the slow response of Israeli security forces.
Written orders explained to Hamas units a precise plan drawn up by two men believed by Israel to have been the main planners of the attack: Yahya Sinwar, the overall head of Hamas in the enclave, and Mohammed Deif, the commander of Hamas’s military al-Qassam brigades and elite Nukhba squads. Each unit was given a separate objective: a military base, a kibbutz, a road or a town. Often their orders were accompanied by maps showing details of defenses and key locations within their targets, drawing on information derived from sympathizers working in Israel, the sources claim. The rave at which 260 people died was not among the initial targets, it is thought. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/07/secret-hamas-attack-orders-israel-gaza-7-october
2023-10-27 The Hannibal Directive: What Really Happened On October 7th As the fog of war clears, it seems the true story of October 7 is not quite as cut and dry as it once seemed. MintPress director Mnar Adley reports on how Israel used the Hannibal directive that resulted in the deaths of Israeli civilians at the hands of Israeli soldiers and police. This is a key piece of context missing from mainstream corporate media reporting on October 7th. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxGDRJJ9avw
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.
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.” https://thegrayzone.com/2023/10/27/israels-military-shelled-burning-tanks-helicopters/
2023-10-24 What really happened on 7th October?[MEK Note: Recommend reading full article] Evidence is now emerging that up to half the Israelis killed were combatants; that Israeli forces were responsible for some of their own civilian deaths; and that Tel Aviv disseminated false ‘Hamas atrocities’ stories to justify its devastating air assault on Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
In the interim, two weeks of blanket western media reporting that Hamas allegedly killed around 1,400 Israeli civilians during its 7 October military attack has served to inflame emotions and create the climate for Israel’s unconstrained destruction of the Gaza Strip and its civilian population. Accounts of the Israeli death toll have been filtered and shaped to suggest that a wholesale civilian massacre occurred that day, with babies, children, and women the main targets of a terror attack.
Now, detailed statistics on the casualties released by the Israeli daily Haaretz paint a starkly different picture. As of 23 October, the news outlet has released information on 683 Israelis killed during the Hamas-led offensive, including their names and locations of their deaths on 7 October. Of these, 331 casualties – or 48.4 percent – have been confirmed to be soldiers and police officers, many of them female. Another 13 are described as rescue service members, and the remaining 339 are ostensibly considered to be civilians. https://new.thecradle.co/articles/what-really-happened-on-7th-octoberhttps://progressiveissuesblog.com/2023/11/25/2023-10-24-what-really-happened-on-7th-october/
2023-10-18 Israel/Palestine: Videos of Hamas-Led Attacks Verified ICC Has Mandate to Probe Attacks as War Crimes. Human Rights Watch has verified four videos from the October 7, 2023 attacks by Hamas-led gunmen, showing three incidents of deliberate killings, and presents this analysis in a video published today. The attacks should be investigated as war crimes.
On the morning of October 7, 2023, heavily armed men breached the fences separating Israel and Gaza and entered southern Israel. At least 1,400 people were killed, many of them civilians, including children, according to Israeli officials. Human Rights Watch continues to investigate these incidents, as well as others, as war crimes.
“These attacks highlight the importance of the International Criminal Court (ICC)’s ongoing investigation,” said Ida Sawyer, crisis and conflict director at Human Rights Watch. “The ICC prosecutor has made clear he can investigate serious crimes committed both by Palestinian armed groups in Israel and by Israeli authorities in Gaza.” https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/10/18/israel/palestine-videos-hamas-led-attacks-verified
2023-10-16 Hamas attack Israel’s Kibbutz Sufa: Newly surfaced video details terrorists infiltrating homes Newly surfaced bodycam footage details how the terrorists attacked Israel’s Kibbutz Sufa residential compound on October 7. The footage, captured on a camera worn by Hamas, showed them entering the Kibbutz in the south of Israel by climbing over the entrance gate, after which they unleashed gunfire on the neighbourhood. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4XiTRkg9s8
2023-10-07,09 What happened in Israel? A breakdown of how Hamas attack unfolded A surprise attack by Palestinian group Hamas on Israel – combining gunmen breaching security barriers and a barrage of rockets fired from Gaza – was launched at dawn during the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah. Saturday’s attack came 50 years and a day after Egyptian and Syrian forces launched an assault during the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur in an effort to retrieve territory Israel had taken during a brief conflict in 1967. Here’s how the brazen assault unfolded:
03:30 GMT – Covering rocket fire
At about 6:30am (03:30 GMT) Hamas fired a huge barrage of rockets into southern Israel with sirens heard as far away as Tel Aviv and Beersheba. Hamas said it launched 5,000 rockets in an initial barrage. Israel’s military said 2,500 rockets were fired. Smoke billowed over residential Israeli areas and people sheltered behind buildings as sirens sounded. At least one woman was reported killed by the rockets. “We announce the start of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood and we announce that the first strike, which targeted enemy positions, airports, and military fortifications, exceeded 5,000 missiles and shells,” Mohammed Deif, head of the Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, said.
04:40 GMT – Dawn infiltration
The rocket attack served as cover for an unprecedented multipronged infiltration of fighters with the Israeli military saying at 7:40am (04:40 GMT) that Palestinian fighters had crossed into Israel. Most fighters entered through breaches in security barriers separating Gaza and Israel. But at least one Hamas soldier was filmed flying over in a powered parachute. A motorboat carrying fighters was seen heading to Zikim, an Israeli coastal town with a military base. One video showed at least six motorcycles with fighters crossing through a hole in a metal barrier. A photograph released by Hamas showed a bulldozer tearing down a section of fence.
06:45 GMT – Israeli attacks
At 9:45am (06:45 GMT) blasts were heard in Gaza and at 10am (07:00 GMT) Israel’s military spokesperson said the air force was carrying out attacks in Gaza.
07:00 GMT – Fighting at Israeli military bases
Israel’s military said at 10am (07:00 GMT) that Palestinian fighters penetrated at least three military installations around the frontier – the Beit Hanoon border crossing (called Erez by Israel), the Zikim base, and the Gaza division headquarters at Reim.
Hamas videos showed fighters running towards a burning building near a high concrete wall with a watchtower and fighters apparently overrunning part of an Israeli military facility and shooting from behind a wall.
Saleh al-Arouri, deputy chief of Hamas in the occupied West Bank, issued a call to arms. “We must all fight this battle, especially the resistance fighters in the West Bank,” he said in a statement.
Several captured Israeli military vehicles were later pictured being driven into Gaza and paraded there.
Border town raids
Fighters raided the Israeli town of Sderot, another community Be’eri, and the town of Ofakim, 30km (20 miles) east of Gaza, according to Israeli media.
Residents of southern Israel fortified their homes to function as bomb shelters and were using them as panic rooms. Israel’s military ordered residents to shelter inside, saying on the radio, “We will reach you.”
Throughout the day, the fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian commandos has been thickest in Kfar Aza, Re’im, Ofakim, Kissufim, Kibbutz Magen, Erez, Zikim, and several other Israeli colonies, although the map of confrontation continues to shift throughout the day, with some place being taken over by Israeli forces, while others coming under control of Palestinian resistance fighters.
Most importantly, both the resistance factions’ media organs and Israeli military sources are confirming that the Palestinian forces have been able to partially resupply in certain areas, which indicates that the resistance intends to prolong its operation in occupied Palestine. Hamas military spokesperson Abu Obidah confirmed that Hamas could resupply its fighters inside the occupied territories and managed to infiltrate more fighters.
“The Al-Qassam leadership managed to supply the fighters with weapons, shells, and equipment. The leadership also infiltrated new fighters and supported them with over 100 rockets.” Abu Obidah said. In a recent statement by Abu Obidah, he said that the Hamas air forces joined the battle with over 35 homemade drones.
The fighters inside Israel are not only Hamas-affiliated fighters, the PIJ also said that dozens of its fighters are joining the battle and fighting the Israelis. Whether this may lead to extended control over areas surrounding Gaza, or is part of a moving force meant to fulfill limited tactical objectives before withdrawing, remains to be seen. Media reports have reported increasing Israeli and Palestinian casualties from the ongoing fighting in the settlements, and the Israeli army released the names of 25 soldiers killed during the fighting as of 1 p.m. local time.
Hezbollah launches limited strikes
On Sunday morning, October 8, Hezbollah forces in southern Lebanon fired rockets into northern occupied Palestine at three Israeli targets in the Shebaa Farms region, which is historically Lebanese land that has been occupied by Israel since 1967. The areas targeted by Hezbollah were “radar sites” such as Zebdine and Ruwaisat al-Alam.
The Islamic resistance organization put out a statement following the attack, proclaiming that it was “on the road to the liberation of what remains of occupied Lebanese soil,” and that an armed force in Hezbollah had carried out these attacks on the Israeli sites with “a large amount of artillery fire and guided missiles.”
The immediate cause of the strike was its coinciding with the surprise attack of the Gaza resistance a day earlier, which Hezbollah conducted in retaliation for Israel’s retribution against Palestinians in Gaza and its attacks on Al-Aqsa, and “in solidarity with the Palestinian resistance and their struggle,” as conveyed by a Hezbollah spokesperson.
Yet the Lebanese strike was also preceded by gradually mounting tensions on occupied Palestine’s northern border, namely between Hezbollah and the Israeli regime. The tensions expressed themselves in various incidents and inflammatory remarks from Israeli officials, including Defense Minister Yoav Gallant’s threats of sending Lebanon “back to the Stone Age” after Hezbollah put up tents on the Israeli side of the border.
By approximately 11:50 a.m. local time,, the head of Hezbollah’s Executive Council, Hashem Safi al-Din, put out a statement saying that “we are not remaining neutral in the battle that is being waged against the Israeli occupation.”
2024-06-03 The Comma That Erases Genocide Israel wants to muddy the waters — as it always does — so it can carry on with its genocide, writes Jonathan Cook. Here’s an example of how the Western media help it along. Israel’s claim that a single comma exempts it from having to respect the International Court of Justice’s order on May 24 to immediately halt its murderous attack on Rafah should be ridiculed.
Instead it is being given space to breathe by complicit media like The Guardian. The paper’s diplomatic editor offers an “analysis” that takes seriously claims by Israel and the two judges at the ICJ — one an Israeli — who dissented from the ruling approved by the other 13. They argue the following:
“The world is wrong to think that the ICJ has required Israel to halt its Rafah assault and any actions elsewhere in Gaza that are genocidal. Instead, a comma in the text qualifies the ruling to mean the court wants Israel to halt its actions in Rafah and elsewhere only if they are genocidal. Because Israel’s actions are not genocidal, the court is not, in fact, asking Israel to halt anything.” https://consortiumnews.com/2024/06/03/the-comma-that-erases-genocide/
2024-05-25 Palestine Talks | In conversation with Max Blumenthal (Part 1) In the first of this two-part interview, investigative journalist at The Grayzone and author Max Blumenthal discusses the “genocidal” nature of the Democratic Party, in relation to its support for Israel’s campaign of violence against Palestine. While citing several concrete examples he also illuminates troublesome connections between American mainstream media, government and Israel, including how they work in tandem to vilify Palestinians and mislead the public. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g53T-x1o4OU&list=PLUW304lJeu3Vg_nM0WQfWDZTDyu6h6PlD&index=1&t=584s
2023-10-30 Biden Is a Genocide Denier and the “Enabler in Chief” for Israel’s Ongoing War Crimes For three weeks, President Biden has played a key role in backing Israel’s war crimes while touting himself as a compassionate advocate of restraint. That pretense is lethal nonsense as Israel persists with mass killing of civilians in Gaza. The same crucial standards that fully condemned Hamas’s murders of Israeli civilians on Oct. 7 should apply to Israel’s ongoing murders that have already taken the lives of at least several times as many Palestinian civilians. And Israel is just getting started.
“We need an immediate ceasefire,” Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib wrote in an email Saturday evening, “but the White House and Congress continue to unconditionally support the Israeli government’s genocidal actions.” That unconditional support makes Biden and the vast majority of Congress directly complicit with mass murder and genocide, defined as “the deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group.” The definition clearly fits the words and deeds of Israel’s leaders.https://rootsaction.org/news-a-views/3226-biden-is-a-genocide-denier-and-the-enabler-in-chief-for-israels-ongoing-war-crimes
2023-10-30 Israel-Palestine war: Will the West choose genocide or peace? I used to believe in the West as a part of the world that valued human rights, unlike countries such as China and Russia. I was wrong. This war has shown the true face of the West: pure racism. How can the West express shock over the terrorism that unfolded in Israel’s south, while in the same breath encouraging Israel to continue killing Palestinians in Gaza? Killing cannot be justified as a response to killing. Generations to come will no longer rely on the West to deliver justice for them. Western countries have turned their backs on the Gaza prison camp for more than 16 years. But without a just political solution, this conflict will not disappear.
Twenty days into Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, thousands of people have been killed, with the death toll climbing each hour – and still, the West remains silent. Over the course of my career, I have covered Israel’s repeated massacres in Gaza, its violent occupation of the West Bank, and the introduction of racist laws targeting Palestinian citizens of Israel. But I have never witnessed a war like this. Despite the fear, trauma and shock of the 7 October Hamas attack, Israel has crossed many red lines in its disproportionate response. The country has entered a genocidal state of mind – and it will be hard to go back.
In a recent interview with Al Jazeera, former Knesset member Moshe Feiglin said the only solution is the “complete destruction of Gaza … destruction like in Dresden and Hiroshima, without a nuclear weapon”. Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has likened Palestinians to “human animals”, imposing collective punishment on millions of civilians, and vowed to “wipe this thing called Hamas, ISIS-Gaza, off the face of the earth”. He has made these threats to a population of 2.3 million people in Gaza who have been under a crippling siege for 16 years, with the UN warning the territory would already be considered uninhabitable by 2020. Researcher Eliyahu Yossian, who has been dubbed “the new star of this war”, has made some of the most savage comments, asserting: “You have to enter Gaza at the height of brutality, with the aim of revenge, zero morality, maximum corpses.” It is a call to finish off Gaza – to leave no one alive. https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/israel-palestine-war-will-west-choose-genocide-or-peace
2023-10-14 It’s Not The ‘Israel-Hamas War‘, It’s The Israel-Gaza Massacre Stop calling it the “Israel-Hamas war”. It’s the Israel-Gaza massacre. Calling it the Israel-Hamas war creates the false impression that this is a war that is directed exclusively at Hamas when it’s really an ethnic purge that’s directed at all Palestinians in Gaza. https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/its-not-the-israel-hamas-war-its
2023-11-02 “The world is responsible for failing to call out the reality of the Israeli regime” Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett during Leaders’ Questions asks the Irish leader: “How many innocent Palestinian civilians – men, women and children – does Israel have to slaughter, how many war crimes does Israel have to commit, and how much death and destruction does Israel have to visit on the people of Gaza and Palestine before the Taoiseach will call for and impose sanctions on Israel, expel the Israeli ambassador from this country and call for the immediate referral of Israel to the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity and war crimes?” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfwVvOBrB6A
2023-10-23 The U.S. and Europe in a Time of Crisis The Biden administration has been working hard to keep the European Union and its major constituent nations in support of America’s basic policies on Israel-Gaza and Russia-Ukraine. This is no mean feat, since many Europeans tend to be more war-weary and averse to open conflict with Russia, and less clearly on the side of Israel. On Sunday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen doubled down on her support both for Ukraine and for Israel, in a speech to the youth organization of the CDU, the German center-right party from whence von der Leyen came. This came after more than 800 EU staff took the unusual step of writing the Commission president to protest what they criticized as her pro-Israel tilt. Meanwhile, the close and necessary U.S.-EU bond is fraying over economic issues. https://prospect.org/blogs-and-newsletters/tap/2023-10-23-us-europe-time-of-crisis/
2021-05-27 “You should be expelled from this country!” Irish politician stands up to Israeli Ambassador Irish MP Richard Boyd Barrett TD slams Israeli ambassador for racist apartheid policy in 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkXWi2OI6ns
Explainer: Plan Dalet & The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine Plan Dalet (also known as Plan D) was the blueprint used by the new Israeli army and its militia forerunner to expel indigenous Palestinians from their homeland during Israel’s establishment in 1948. https://imeu.org/article/explainer-plan-dalet-the-ethnic-cleansing-of-palestine
2024-07-29 “Ethnic Cleansing Tactics”: 86 Percent of Gaza Is Under Evacuation Orders Only about an eighth of the area of Gaza is not currently under forced evacuation orders from Israel, the UN reports, in a clear show of the ethnic cleansing campaign Israel is carrying out as it relentlessly massacres Palestinians in the region.
UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said on Sunday that only 14 percent of Gaza isn’t currently under an evacuation order, with Israeli forces issuing new orders “every other day.” Nearly the entire population of Gaza has been forced to evacuate at least once, with people being forced to flee once a month on average since October, he said.
2024-05-20 Decolonizing Palestine w/ Dr Hatem Bazian On today’s show we’ll listen to selections from Dr Hatem Bazian in a talk he gave at the Aqsa Conference in Fullerton, California, just a few months ago in February of this year. The talk is called Decolonizing Palestine. Dr Hatem Bazian is a scholar of religion, politics and globalization. He is a co-founder of Zetuna College and a professor at UC Berkeley’s Near-Eastern Department. Dr Bazian is a leading advocate and academic on the Palestinian cause and in this talk, he discusses the meaning of decolonization for Palestine, he makes the case for European racism never being able to get over its deep anti-semitism as well as deep islamophobia, and he discusses Palestine’s long relationship with the South African freedom struggle. https://kpfa.org/episode/law-disorder-may-20-2024-2/
2024-05-14 ‘We Must Settle Gaza Now’ | Netanyahu Ministers Join Israeli Far-right ‘March to Gaza,’ Demand Palestinians’ Expulsion Thousands of Israelis joined a far-right Independence Day march on Tuesday in the south, led by Jewish activists advocating for resettling Gaza and forcing Palestinians to leave the enclave. Two activists participating in the march crossed the border into Gaza and were arrested by Israeli forces near the Erez crossing.
The march was supported by lawmakers speaking at the event, including two cabinet members: Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi, who is a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir of Otzma Yehudit.
2024-04-12 Israel Kills Gaza Aid Workers for a Reason: Ethnic Cleansing The latest killing of the international World Central Kitchen workers in Gaza was done to serve the same goal: ensuring that no aid distribution mechanism is allowed.
Israel is, obviously, lying. This entire so-called war—actually genocide—in Gaza, has been based on a series of lies, some of which Israel continues to peddle. For some, in the mainstream media, it took months to accept the obvious fact that Israel has been lying about the events that led to the war and the military objectives of its constant targeting of hospitals, schools, shelters, and other civilian facilities. https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/israel-kills-aid-workers
2024-03-20 ‘That sounds like ethnic cleansing’: CNN questions lead figure in Israel’s settler movement CNN’s Clarissa Ward reports from the West Bank where the Jewish settler movement is seeking a new goal in the wake of the October 7th attack by Hamas. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkXJwErm8DM
2024-02-03 ‘Ethnic Cleansing and Genocide’ – Hundreds of US, EU, UK Civil Servants Issue Joint Statement on Gaza More than 800 civil servants from the United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union have released a statement criticizing their governments’ support of Israel in its ongoing aggression on Gaza, warning that such policies could be contributing to war crimes and violations of international law.
2024-01-29 Israel Ministers Call for Ethnic Cleansing of Gaza at Settler Conference Members of the Israeli government—including National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich—attended a far-right conference on Sunday calling for the “resettlement” of Gaza and increased Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.
The conference, at which both Ben-Gvir and Smotrich repeated calls for the removal of Palestinians from Gaza, came days after the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to “take all measures within its power” to prevent its military from committing genocide in Gaza.
“The colonial meeting in Jerusalem poses a blatant challenge to the International Court of Justice decision, accompanied by public incitement to forcibly displace Palestinians,” the Palestinian Foreign Ministry wrote on social media. https://www.commondreams.org/news/israeli-ministers-settler-conference
2023-12-Israel’s Long History of Ethnic Cleansing Senior Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, are again publicly advocating the ethnic cleansing of the Gaza Strip. Their proposals are being presented as voluntary emigration schemes, in which Israel is merely playing the role of Good Samaritan, selflessly mediating with foreign governments to find new homes for destitute and desperate Palestinians. But it is ethnic cleansing all the same.
Alarm bells should have started ringing in early November when U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other Western politicians began insisting there could be “no forcible displacement of Palestinians from Gaza.” Rather than rejecting any mass removal of Palestinians, Blinken and colleagues objected only to optically challenging expulsions at gunpoint. The option of “voluntary” displacement by leaving residents of the Gaza Strip with no choice but departure was pointedly left open.
Ethnic cleansing, or “transfer” as it is known in Israeli parlance, has a long pedigree that goes back to the late-19nth-century beginnings of the Zionist movement. While the early Zionists adopted the slogan, “A Land Without a People for a People Without a Land,” the evidence demonstrates that, from the very outset, their leaders knew better. More to the point, they clearly understood that the Palestinians formed the main obstacle to the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine. This is for the simple reason that, to them, a “Jewish state” denotes one in which its Jewish population acquires and maintains unchallenged demographic, territorial, and political supremacy.
Enter “transfer.” As early as 1895, Theodor Herzl, the founder of the contemporary Zionist movement, identified the necessity of removing the inhabitants of Palestine in the following terms: “We shall try to spirit the penniless population across the border by procuring employment for it in the transit countries, while denying it any employment in our own country… expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly.” David Ben-Gurion (née Grün), chairman of the Executive Committee of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, and later Israel’s first prime minister, was more blunt. In a 1937 letter to his son, he wrote: “We must expel the Arabs and take their place.” https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/israel-history-ethnic-cleansing
2023-12-11 Displacement, Disease and Death Plague Gazans as Israel Continues Its Genocidal Assault Israel’s unrelenting assault on the Gaza Strip continues as the death toll has reached 18,000 Palestinians killed in just over two months. Airstrikes rocked the Nuseirat and Maghazi refugee camps in central Gaza overnight. At least 23 people were killed in Maghazi. Airstrikes also struck at least two residential homes in Rafah. Meanwhile, the ground battle is pushing ahead in Khan Younis, which is under heavy bombardment.
Gazan women say Israeli soldiers forced them to leave their husbands and sons behind and flee their Gaza City homes. They spoke from the Al-Aqsa Hospital in central Deir al-Balah where they were taking refuge.
Amnah Abu Zor: “They made us go to the south. They did not let us wait for our husbands. They said, ‘Go to the south from here, and that is it,’ and they made us leave. They lied to us, saying the road is safe, but they were shooting us throughout the way.”
Dina Abu Zor: “We asked the Israeli interrogator, ‘Where are our male relatives?’ He said, ‘They are gone. No one is left.’ We asked about the children. He said all of them are gone. Palestine is gone. Gaza is gone.”
2023-11-09 When Britain Aided Israel’s Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine Mark Curtis looks at the current war in Gaza from the perspective of Britain’s imperial past in this edited extract from his book Secret Affairs: Britain’s Collusion with Radical Islam.
After the Second World War British planners were confronted by the outbreak of a Jewish uprising in Palestine, which the U.K. had run since securing a “mandate” from the then League of Nations in 1922. This uprising led to a series of momentous events that shape the present-day Middle East: the British decision in February 1947 to withdraw from Palestine, the U.N.’s decree in November 1947 to partition the territory, the Jewish declaration of the state of Israel in May 1948 and the first Arab–Israeli war, in which Israeli forces annexed much of Palestine by December of that year.
A wave of terrorist attacks was conducted against British forces and Palestinian Arabs, in response to which the British declared martial law, enacted draconian emergency regulations and undertook brutal collective punishments on local Jewish communities. Jewish antagonism towards Britain was shaped partly by London’s policy on Jewish immigration from Germany and elsewhere which, in deference to Arab objections, Britain was now trying to restrict.
During the last three years of the mandate, 40,000 illegal immigrants succeeded in entering Palestine, but shiploads of Jewish refugees regarded as illegal were intercepted at sea. In 1946 the Royal Navy turned back 17 ships carrying refugees to their ports of origin, while MI6 [British foreign intelligence service] was instructed to sabotage some of the transport ships while in port. The policy continued throughout 1947, and by December of that year over 51,000 passengers on 35 ships had been intercepted and interned by the British in Cyprus.
By this time, Clement Attlee’s Labour government had decided to give up on finding its own solution to the rebellion and had resolved to relinquish the mandate and hand the problem over to the recently formed United Nations. Britain now began to promote the partition of Palestine into Jewish and Arab states, a policy supported by the Jewish leadership but which immediately undermined the interests of the Palestinians, who at the time made up around two-thirds of the population, compared to one-third of Jews. In November 1947, the U.N. passed General Assembly Resolution 181, partitioning Palestine and awarding the Jews a state that comprised over half the country, against the will of the indigenous, majority population. https://consortiumnews.com/2023/11/09/when-britain-aided-israels-ethnic-cleansing-of-palestine/
2023-11-10 “Clear Intention of Ethnic Cleansing”: Holocaust Scholar Omer Bartov Warns of Genocide in Gaza Israeli American scholar Omer Bartov, one of the world’s leading experts on the Holocaust, says Israel’s brutal assault on the Gaza Strip is at risk of becoming a genocide. The monthlong air and ground war has killed more than 11,000 Palestinians in the besieged enclave, a majority of them women and children. Israel has also severely limited the movement of food, water, fuel, medicine and other essentials into Gaza. Bartov says the disproportionate killing of civilians by Israel, as well as dehumanizing statements by Israeli leaders and suggestions of mass expulsion, are of grave concern. He recently joined hundreds of lawyers and academics in signing an open letter warning about Israel’s violations of international law in Gaza. “There is an indication that there are war crimes happening in Gaza, potentially also crimes against humanity,” says Bartov. “If this so-called operation continues, that may become ethnic cleansing … and that may become genocide.” Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mZMkNJYr-0
2023-11-01 Text Translation: The Israeli plan for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza Read an English translation of the Israeli Ministry of Intelligence policy paper “Alternatives for a Political Directive for the Civilian Population in Gaza,” which advocates for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Gaza.
Editor’s Note: On October 24, Mondoweiss reported on an Israeli media report of a plan to ethnically cleanse the Gaza Strip of Palestinians that was being circulated by the Israeli Ministry of Intelligence. On October 28, the Israeli news website Local Call published a leak of the entire ten-page document. The following is the full translation of the document.
The analysis begins, “Israel is required to bring about a significant change in the civilian reality,” and it outlines three alternatives for the future of Gaza: A. Importing Palestinian Authority governance, B. Fostering “local Arab governance,” or C. The “evacuation of the civilian population from Gaza to Sinai.” The paper concludes, “Alternative C is the one that yields positive and long-term strategic results for Israel” and includes considerations for its implementation. https://mondoweiss.net/2023/11/text-translation-the-israeli-plan-for-the-ethnic-cleansing-of-gaza/
2023-10-31 Israeli Historian Ilan Pappé on Gaza War, Hostages & the Context Behind Current Violence We speak with Israeli historian Ilan Pappé about Israel’s escalating war on Gaza, as well as a leaked document from the country’s Ministry of Intelligence that suggests permanently expelling Gaza’s entire population to the Sinai Desert in Egypt. “This is a massive operation of killing, of ethnic cleansing, of depopulation,” says Pappé. He also says the only way to secure the release of the more than 200 hostages held by Hamas is to agree to an all-for-all swap for the thousands of Palestinian political prisoners held by Israel, including many women, children and elderly people. “This is the only way to release the people who were taken.” Pappé is a leading critic of the Israeli occupation, a professor of history and the director of the European Centre for Palestine Studies at the University of Exeter. His books include The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, A History of Modern Palestine: One Land, Two Peoples and The Idea of Israel: A History of Power and Knowledge. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yK7jckzam5c
2016-12-27 Israel Outraged That Countries Object to Ethnic Cleansing of Palestinians So what unthinkable, egregious violation did the Security Council commit? Why, they dared to condemn ethnic cleansing, of course.
More specifically, the Security Council passed Resolution 2334 last week, condemning “all measures aimed at altering the demographic composition, character and status of the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, including, inter alia, the construction and expansion of settlements, transfer of Israeli settlers, confiscation of land, demolition of homes and displacement of Palestinian civilians, in violation of international humanitarian law and relevant resolutions.”
For those not well versed in the subject, compare the resolution’s language to the literal dictionary definition of ethnic cleansing: “the expulsion, imprisonment, or killing of an ethnic minority by a dominant majority in order to achieve ethnic homogeneity.”
What countries on the planet could possibly object to a resolution condemning ethnic cleansing? Well, for a long time the only two countries on the planet that have objected to this type of resolution have been Israel and the United States, with the US specifically vetoing resolution after resolution on the crimes of Israel in occupied Palestine. But the US sat this one out, choosing to abstain from the vote rather than veto it; hence Netanyahu’s ire at the Obama administration. The US’ abstention on this resolution is not just unorthodox; it is almost without precedent. https://www.corbettreport.com/israel-outraged-that-countries-object-to-ethnic-cleansing-of-palestinians/
2024-08-25 Egypt demands that Israel give up control of Rafah crossing in first days of possible ceasefire – report Egypt insists that Israel must relinquish control of the Rafah Border Crossing during the first days of a potential ceasefire, the Saudi-owned Al Hadath outlet reports, quoting unnamed sources.
2024-02-03 ‘Pressure Cooker of Despair’: UN, EU ‘Deeply Concerned’ about Rafah Invasion Israeli occupation forces intensified their attacks last night in the southern Gaza city of Rafah as their fighter jets struck three homes, killing 24 and wounding dozens, the Ministry of Health announced. Rafah is densely populated with displaced people from all around the besieged Gaza Strip.
On Friday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant confirmed that the Israeli army was preparing to move to Rafah. However, Israeli media reported on Saturday that Tel Aviv had pledged to Egypt it would not start an operation in Rafah before reducing its population. According to the Israeli media, the Israeli government would move the displaced people to Khan Yunis or Deir Al-Balah and not back to the northern part of Gaza. https://www.palestinechronicle.com/pressure-cooker-of-despair-un-eu-deeply-concerned-about-rafah-invasion/
For Palestinians, it would roll back a symbol of Palestinian sovereignty. It could also open the door to Israel maintaining longer-term control over the border after the war, altering a security arrangement with Gaza that has existed for nearly two decades.
Egypt is concerned that an Israeli operation could infringe on the terms of a 1979 peace treaty between the two countries, which places limits on the number of troops both nations can place near the borders in the area. An Israeli military operation also risks accidentally doing damage inside Egyptian territory. Israeli officials say they are working to address those concerns by coordinating their plans for an incursion on the Gaza side with Egypt. Egypt in recent days rejected an Israeli proposal that would involve stationing Israeli security personnel on the Egyptian side of the border for joint patrols with Egypt, saying it would breach Egyptian sovereignty.
An offensive in the area will be complicated militarily due to the presence of more than a million Palestinian civilians who have fled the rest of the strip and have concentrated in the area. Most of them are packed into the city of Rafah adjacent to the border or camping in areas along the boundary. Even a limited military operation to occupy a stretch of land a few hundred yards wide would require Israeli forces to push through Rafah city, which straddles the border, and areas where the displaced people have gathered in tent camps. Security analysts are concerned that such an operation would deepen the humanitarian crisis. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/israel-plans-risky-mission-to-seize-last-gaza-border-it-doesn-t-control/ar-AA1mUAkQ
2023-12-25 Egypt floats plan to end Israel-Hamas war and create transitional Palestinian government Egypt has put forward an ambitious, initial proposal to end the Israel-Hamas war with a cease-fire, a phased hostage release and the creation of a Palestinian government of experts who would administer the Gaza Strip and occupied West Bank, a senior Egyptian official and a European diplomat said Monday.
The proposal, worked out with the Gulf nation of Qatar, has been presented to Israel, Hamas, the United States and European governments but still appeared preliminary. It falls short of Israel’s professed goal of outright crushing Hamas and would appear not to meet Israel’s insistence on keeping military control over Gaza for an extended period after the war. Israel’s War Cabinet, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, will meet later Monday discuss the hostage situation, among other topics, an Israeli official said, but would not say if they would discuss the Egyptian proposal. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
The Egyptian proposal was an ambitious bid not only to end the war but also to lay out a plan for the day after. It calls for an initial cease-fire of up to two weeks during which Palestinian militants would free 40 to 50 hostages, among them women, the sick and the elderly, in return for the release of 120-150 Palestinians from Israeli prisons, the Egyptian official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing talks.
At the same time, negotiations would continue on extending the cease-fire and the release of more hostages and bodies held by Palestinian militants, he said. Egypt and Qatar would also work with all Palestinian factions, including Hamas, to agree on the establishment of a government of experts, he said. The government would rule Gaza and the West Bank for a transitional period as Palestinian factions settle their disputes and agree on a roadmap to hold presidential and parliamentary elections, he added. In the meantime, Israel and Hamas would continue to negotiate a comprehensive “all-for-all” deal, he said. This would include the release of all remaining hostages in return for all Palestinian prisoners in Israel, as well as the Israeli military’s withdrawal from Gaza and the Palestinian militants’ halting of rocket attacks into Israel. Close to 8,000 Palestinians are held by Israel on security-related charges or convictions, according to Palestinian figures. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/egypt-floats-plan-to-end-israel-hamas-war-and-create-transitional-palestinian-government/ar-AA1m0AHv?
2023-11-05 Israel Quietly Pushed for Egypt to Admit Large Numbers of Gazans Israel has quietly tried to build international support in recent weeks for the transfer of several hundred thousand civilians from the Gaza Strip to Egypt for the duration of its war in the territory, according to six senior foreign diplomats.
Israeli leaders and diplomats have privately proposed the idea to several foreign governments, framing it as a humanitarian initiative that would allow civilians to temporarily escape the perils of Gaza for refugee camps in the Sinai Desert, just across the border in neighboring Egypt.
The suggestion was dismissed by most of Israel’s interlocutors — who include the United States and Britain — because of the risk that such a mass displacement could become permanent. These countries fear that such a development might destabilize Egypt and lock significant numbers of Palestinians out of their homeland, according to the diplomats, who spoke anonymously in order to discuss a sensitive matter more freely.
The idea has also been firmly rejected by Palestinians, who fear that Israel is using the war — which began Oct. 7 after terrorists from Gaza raided Israel and killed roughly 1,400 people — to permanently displace the more than 2 million people living in Gaza.
More than 700,000 Palestinians either fled or were expelled from their homes in what is now Israel during the war surrounding the creation of the state in 1948. … https://www.democraticunderground.com/1134138511
2023-10-18 Egypt’s Sisi rejects transfer of Gazans, discusses aid with Biden President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said on Wednesday that Egyptians in their millions would reject the forced displacement of Palestinians into Sinai, adding that any such move would turn the Egyptian peninsula into a base for attacks against Israel. https://www.reuters.com/world/egypt-rejects-any-displacement-palestinians-into-sinai-says-sisi-2023-10-18/
2023-10-12 Egypt warned Israel days before Hamas struck, US committee chairman says Israel was warned by Egypt of potential violence three days before Hamas’ deadly cross-border raid, a US congressional panel chairman has said. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee head Michael McCaul told reporters of the alleged warning. Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu described the reports as “absolutely false”.
Israeli intelligence services are under scrutiny for their failure to prevent the deadliest attack by Palestinian militants in Israel’s 75-year history. “We know that Egypt has warned the Israelis three days prior that an event like this could happen,” Mr McCaul told reporters following a closed-door intelligence briefing on Wednesday for lawmakers about the Middle East crisis, according to AFP news agency. “I don’t want to get too much into classified, but a warning was given,” the Texas Republican added. “I think the question was at what level.” https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-670820472012-03-23 Hamas Minister of the Interior and of National Security Fathi Hammad Slams Egypt over Fuel Shortage in Gaza Strip, and Says: “Half of the Palestinians Are Egyptians and the Other Half Are Saudis”https://www.memri.org/tv/hamas-minister-interior-and-national-security-fathi-hammad-slams-egypt-over-fuel-shortage-gaza
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