December 2023 Continued from page one (P1)
December 25 is the 80th day since the genocide in Gaza began
Today December 25 is the 80th day since the genocide in Gaza began. Israel kills 100 Palestinians in one of Gaza's deadliest nights Sunday. Medics said an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis in southern Gaza killed 23, bringing total Palestinian fatalities overnight to more than 100. An Israeli attack on the headquarters of the Palestinian television channel Al-Aqsa TV in Gaza City resulted in the killing of 13 members of its media personnel and the total destruction of the building and equipment of the channel. Human Rights Watch said in a report released Monday that Meta’s content moderation policies and systems have increasingly silenced voices in support of Palestine on Instagram and Facebook in the wake of the hostilities between Israeli forces and Palestinian groups.
Israel kills 100 Palestinians in one of Gaza's deadliest nights
Daily Sabah: At a funeral in Gaza on Monday a line of Palestinians touched white shrouds containing the bodies of at least 70 people who Palestinian health officials said were killed by an Israeli airstrike targeting Maghazi in the center of the besieged strip. It followed one of the enclave's deadliest nights in the 11-week-old battle between Israel and Hamas. Strikes that began hours before midnight persisted into Monday. Palestinian media said Israel stepped up air and ground shelling in central Gaza. Medics said an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis in southern Gaza killed 23, bringing total Palestinian fatalities overnight to more than 100. Read More
Israel uses foreign mercenaries in attacks on Gaza
Anadolu Agency: Recent reports and revelations by lawmakers and the South African government sparked controversy about Israel's use of thousands of mercenaries as it carries out one of the most ruthless attacks against Gaza. Israel has a history of using mercenaries from various countries, including the U.S., France, Spain, and Ukraine, in its wars since 1948, but the Israeli government has opted to remain silent this time. Read More
Israel Bombardment on Palestinian Al-Aqsa TV Chanel
Telesure: An Israeli attack on the headquarters of the Palestinian television channel Al-Aqsa TV in Gaza City resulted in the killing of 13 members of its media personnel and the total destruction of the building and equipment of the channel. The director of Al-Aqsa TV, Muhammed al-Saidi, was killed a day earlier in the Israeli air attack on the Palestinian radio station when he and several members of his family were killed in Nuseirat, in the central Gaza Strip. Read More
Meta (Facebook and Instagram) is Systemically Censoring Palestine Content
Human Rights Watch: Meta’s content moderation policies and systems have increasingly silenced voices in support of Palestine on Instagram and Facebook in the wake of the hostilities between Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The 51-page report, “Meta’s Broken Promises: Systemic Censorship of Palestine Content on Instagram and Facebook,” documents a pattern of undue removal and suppression of protected speech including peaceful expression in support of Palestine and public debate about Palestinian human rights. Human Rights Watch found that the problem stems from flawed Meta policies and their inconsistent and erroneous implementation, overreliance on automated tools to moderate content, and undue government influence over content removals. Read More
Israelis have killed the same Percentage of Gazans in 11 Weeks as Allies did Italians in all of WW II
By Juan Cole: The UN reports figures from the Gaza Ministry of Health as of Friday: “between 7 October and 7:00 on 22 December, at least 20,057 Palestinians were killed in Gaza. About 70 per cent of those killed are said to be women and children. As of then, 53,320 Palestinians have been injured.” Italy is a good comparison for Gaza, since about 1.1% of its pre-war population was killed in WW II. That took from 1940 to 1945 (Mussolini’s Italy entered the war in 1940 and he fell in 1943 but Allied dithering allowed the Nazi Germans to take over Italy until 1945). Read More
Jesus of Palestine. Jesus of the Gaza Strip
by Richard Eskow: Every now and then an image perfectly captures the moment, in all its light or darkness.I was struck by the creche that was set up in Bethlehem’s Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church after that city’s Christians canceled this year’s Christmas celebrations. You’ve probably seen it: it shows the Nativity scene, as all such displays do, but the newborn infant Jesus is lying in the ruins of a concrete building. “God is under the rubble in Gaza,” says the pastor who created the creche, Rev. Munther Isaac. “This is where we find God right now.” Read More
December 24 is the 79th day since the genocide in Gaza began
Today December 24 is the 79th day since the genocide in Gaza began. Israeli occupation forces continued their airstrikes and artillery shelling on various areas in the region, resulting in the murder and injury of dozens of civilians. Health Ministry in Gaza says 166 Palestinians killed, 384 wounded in Israeli attacks in last 24 hours. The Israeli attacks have left Gaza in ruins with 60% of the coastal territory's infrastructure damaged or destroyed, and nearly 2 million people displaced amid shortages of food and clean water. In its atrocious war against Palestinians, Israel has demolished or ignored all international laws and norms “to save Western civilization, to save the values of Western civilization,” in the words of Israeli President Isaac Herzog.
166 Palestinians killed in Gaza in last 24 hours
Al Jazeera: Health Ministry in Gaza says 166 Palestinians killed, 384 wounded in Israeli attacks in last 24 hours. UNRWA says it “cannot deliver meaningful aid” under intense Israeli bombardments of Gaza after the UN Security Council called for increased access. “Stop the genocide now,” says Bethlehem Pastor Munther Isaac, as churches across Palestine cancel Christmas celebrations. Read More
Gaza facing a Christmas genocide
by Jennifer Welborn Williams: Palestine’s Christian community is – not surprisingly – the oldest in the world, dating back to the first century. In Gaza, the community is now tiny, with just some 800 to 1,000 Christians remaining. But Gaza’s churches are some of the oldest in existence anywhere on the planet. Now these churches are shelters for refugees, and Christians are targets of Israel’s genocidal violence. Read More
Houthi Red Sea Blockade Could 'Starve' Western War Machine of Oil
By Ekaterina Blinova: US oil stockpiles are at their 40-year lows and the Houthi Red Sea blockage can make matters much worse for Washington. Yemen's armed forces stepped up attacks on trade vessels linked to Israel in the Red Sea in a bid to force Tel Aviv into halting its ground operation in the Gaza Strip. In response, the US brought together a 10-nation coalition against the government in Sana'a led by the Ansarallah movement — dubbed the Houthis by the West. However, the coalition includes only one Arab state, Bahrain, while Yemen's other neighbors have so far hesitated to join the US-led Operation Prosperity Guardian. Could they jump on Washington's bandwagon anytime soon? Read More
US ‘Trapped’ in Red Sea, Should Prepare for Gibraltar Strait’s ‘Closure’ - IRGC
By Ilya Tsukanov: The US set to work this week assembling a coalition to secure the Red Sea for shipping amid unrelenting hijacking and missile attacks against Israeli-tied commercial cargoes by Yemen’s Houthi militias against the backdrop of the Gaza crisis. Now, Iran, leader of the regional ‘Axis of Resistance’ coalition, has stepped in with a warning of its own. The United States and its allies are “trapped” in the Red Sea and should prepare for the closure of waterways stretching all the way to the western gates of the Mediterranean Sea, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Chief of Staff Mohammad Reza Naqdi has warned. Read More
Yemen Ready to Stare Down a New Imperial Coalition
By Pepe Escobar: No one ever lost money betting on the ability of the Empire of Chaos, Lies and Plunder to construct a “coalition of the willing” whenever faced with a geopolitical quandary. In every case, duly covered by the reigning “rules-based international order”, “willing” applies to vassals seduced by carrots or sticks to follow to the letter the Empire’s whims. Read More
Tehran International Conference on Palestine kicks off
IRNA: Tehran International Conference on Palestine has started in Iran’s capital today with representatives from over 50 countries in attendance. Hosted by Iran’s Foreign Ministry, the single-day event addresses the latest developments in occupied Palestine. The attendees who are a group of former and present diplomats are to exchange views on the political and legal impacts of the Gaza war. Read More
December 23 is the 78th day since the genocide in Gaza began
Today December 23 is the 78th day since the genocide in Gaza began. Israeli occupation forces continued their airstrikes and artillery shelling on various areas in the region, resulting in the murder and injury of dozens of civilians. At least 25,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel launched brutal operation on October 7. The toll in Gaza stood at 20,057 people as of Friday morning, amid renewed international calls for a fresh cease-fire in Gaza. The Gaza Health Ministry says thousands more dead remain buried beneath the rubble. About 70% of those killed are women and children, it says. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), only six of Gaza's 36 hospitals were receiving casualties, all of them in the south. The Israeli attacks have left Gaza in ruins with 60% of the coastal territory's infrastructure damaged or destroyed, and nearly 2 million people displaced amid shortages of food and clean water. In its atrocious war against Palestinians, Israel has demolished or ignored all international laws and norms “to save Western civilization, to save the values of Western civilization,” in the words of Israeli President Isaac Herzog.
More than 200 dead in 24 hours in Gaza as Israeli raids turn ‘more intense’
Al Jazeera: At least 201 Palestinians have been killed and nearly 370 wounded by Israeli forces in the past 24 hours in Gaza as the assault on the besieged enclave nears its 12th week. Bombing in central Gaza’s Bureij refugee camp killed at least eight Palestinians, including children, on Saturday while another attack on Jabalia camp is believed to have killed dozens more. The death toll in Gaza during the 11-week assault has hit 20,258 while 53,688 others are wounded, the Palestinian health ministry said on Saturday. Thousands more bodies are believed to be trapped under the rubble across the strip. Read More
Gaza genocide death toll tops 20,000 amid mass starvation
by Andre Damon: The death toll of Israel’s genocide in Gaza reached 20,057, according to a statement Friday by Gaza’s Ministry of Health. Taking into account the 7,000 missing, most buried under rubble, the true death toll has likely already exceeded 25,000. A death toll of 20,000–25,000 out of a population of just over 2 million means that more than one out of 100 people in Gaza has been killed in the past two-and-a-half months. This is the equivalent of 3.3 million people in the United States. Read More
Normalization With Israel Has Been Ended by Its Brutal War on Gaza
by Vijay Prashad: The actions of Hezbollah and Ansar Allah have sent a message to the Arab capitals that at least some political forces are willing to offer material solidarity with the Palestinians. This will inspire the Arab populations to put more pressure on their governments. Normalization with Israel seems to be off the table. But, if this pressure mounts, countries like Egypt and Jordan might be forced to reconsider their peace treaties. Read More
170 container ships rerouted, 35 docked due to Houthi attacks in Red Sea
Yeni Safak: The American shipping company Flexport Inc. announced on Thursday that nearly 170 ships have been diverted from the Bab el-Mandeb Strait in the Red Sea and 35 ships have been halted, awaiting instructions from their operating companies. According to a statement by the San Francisco-based company, about 170 container ships have been rerouted around Africa, with 35 other ships docked due to attacks in the Red Sea. Read More
December 22 is the 77th day since the genocide in Gaza began
Today December 22 is the 77th day since the genocide in Gaza began. Israeli occupation forces continued their airstrikes and artillery shelling on various areas in the region, resulting in the murder and injury of dozens of civilians. Israeli warplanes carried out multiple airstrikes on Jabalia refugee camp. Simultaneously, Israeli artillery targeted the Al-Bureij refugee camp. The toll in Gaza stood at 20,057 people as of Friday morning, amid renewed international calls for a fresh cease-fire in Gaza. The Gaza Health Ministry says thousands more dead remain buried beneath the rubble. About 70% of those killed are women and children, it says. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), only six of Gaza's 36 hospitals were receiving casualties, all of them in the south. The Israeli attacks have left Gaza in ruins with 60% of the coastal territory's infrastructure damaged or destroyed, and nearly 2 million people displaced amid shortages of food and clean water. In its atrocious war against Palestinians, Israel has demolished or ignored all international laws and norms to save “Western civilization, to save the values of Western civilization,” in the words of Israeli President Isaac Herzog.
Security Council approves resolution urging more aid, humanitarian access to Gaza
Daily Sabah: The United Nations Security Council finally adopted a resolution urging the delivery of more humanitarian aid and access to Gaza, which has been devastated by ruthless Israeli attacks, after days of delays and negotiations. The resolution calls for "urgent steps" to immediately allow "safe, unhindered, and expanded" humanitarian access to Gaza amid the ongoing Israeli offensive on the strip. After several days of intense negotiations and nail-biting delays, the resolution submitted by the United Arab Emirates passed by a vote of 13-0, with the U.S. and Russia – both permanent council members – abstaining. Negotiations had dragged on all week amid Israel's U.S.-backed rejection of any explicit call for a cease-fire. Read More
Gaza death toll passes 20,000 as Israel's military faces rising scrutiny
Daily Sabah: In the grim aftermath of the Gaza conflict, health officials in the Hamas-controlled region reported a devastating toll, with 20,057 Palestinians being killed by Israel. This distressing figure, representing nearly 1% of the prewar population, highlights the profound human cost incurred during Israel's military offensive, intensifying calls to reevaluate the scale of the operation. The profound impact of the conflict extends far beyond the casualty count, as 85% of Gaza's population has been displaced over the past 11 weeks, leaving wide expanses of the coastal enclave in ruins. Earlier statements indicated that roughly 70% of those killed were women or minors, with an additional 53,320 Palestinians wounded. Read More
Israeli forces arrest 25 more Palestinians in West Bank, bringing tally to 4,655 since Oct. 7
Anadolu Agency: The Israeli forces detained 25 more Palestinians in the West Bank on Thursday, taking the tally since Oct. 7 to 4,655, according to prisoners' affairs groups. At least 302 Palestinians have been killed and more than 3,100 others injured in the occupied territory since then, according to Palestinian figures. Read More
Court convicts 5 Serbs for murdering Bosnian civilians in 1992
Daily Sabah:: Bosnian court convicted five Serbs for killing dozens of Muslim Bosnians, including women and children in 1992. The perpetrators were sentenced to between 5 and 20 years in prison. The Bosnian State Court sentenced Ilija Zoric to a maximum of twenty years behind bars after he was found guilty of participating in the massacre of 29 women and children who had taken refuge in a house in the village of Zecovi near the northwestern town of Prijedor. Read More
Qassam Brigades kill Ukrainian mercenaries in Gaza
The Cradle: Fighters from Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, ambushed and killed at least seven Ukrainian mercenaries who were fighting with the Israeli army in Gaza, Quds News Network reported on 21 December. According to sources speaking with the network, Qassam fighters targeted the mercenaries on 14 November after spotting them on Hassanein Street in the Shujaiya neighborhood, one of the main centers of Palestinian resistance to the ongoing Israeli ground invasion. Read More
Amid mass executions & genocidal rhetoric, US deepens support for Israeli onslaught on Gaza
by Andre Damon: Amid reports that Israel is carrying out mass executions of civilian prisoners in Gaza and open statements of genocidal intent by Israeli politicians, the US has doubled down on its support for Israel’s war on Palestinian civilians. Before the eyes of the whole world, the bloodbath in Gaza is emerging as “America’s genocide.” Read More
Human Rights Watch reports mass censorship of opposition to Gaza genocide
Kevin Reed: A 51-page report published by Human Rights Watch on Thursday exposes the collaboration of Facebook and Instagram with US imperialist and pro-Zionist propaganda by documenting the censorship of content that exposes the war crimes being committed in Gaza by the Israeli military. Read More
As Israel fights to destroy Hamas, the group's popularity surges among Palestinians
NPR: More than two months into Israel's war against Hamas, the militant group's popularity appears to be rising dramatically among Palestinians. The Palestinian Center for Policy and Researchsurvey, published Dec. 13, found less than half of Palestinians support Hamas as an organization, but respondents showed "wide public support for Hamas' offensive" against Israel. A previous poll conducted by the group Arab World for Research and Development in late October and early November found 68% of Palestinians in the West Bank supported Hamas' Oct. 7 attack. Read More
The Atrocities In Gaza Are The Perfect Embodiment Of ‘Western Values’
By Caitlin Johnstone: When Israeli president Isaac Herzog described the assault on Gaza as a war “to save Western civilization, to save the values of Western civilization,” he wasn’t really lying. He was telling the truth — just maybe not quite in the way that he meant it. The demolition of Gaza is indeed being perpetrated in defense of western values, and is itself a perfect embodiment of western values. Not the western values they teach you about in school, but the hidden ones they don’t want you to look at. Not the attractive packaging with the advertising slogans on the label, but the product that’s actually inside the box. Read More
Israel is displaying barbaric brutality to save Western civilization
By Selçuk Türkyılmaz: This recent brutality should be charged to the Anglo-Saxons. If the Anglo-Saxons had not allowed Israel, Palestine would not have been drenched in blood from the beginning. This is not a brutality seen recently. Nations are also accomplices in this crime. If there were a different situation, we would have definitely seen some events in the opposite direction by now. But it didn't happen. Israeli President Isaac Herzog's statement, "This war is indeed a war to rescue Western civilization, the values of Western civilization," should have caused a reaction among the Anglo-Saxons as well. Read More
War on Gaza: What is Next after Genocide?
By Dr. Mahboob A. Khawaja: American complicity in Israel’s war of vengeance and collective punishment of innocent civilians of Gaza, debacles the American history of giving life to knowledge, wisdom, ideals of freedom and justice. Analyzing the compelling realities on the ground, America would undermine the way forward for its destiny as a powerful nation of reason, reliability and stability. Read More
The Dire Need for an Immediate Ceasefire in the Israeli War on
USCMO: The U.S. Council of Muslim Organizations (USCMO) calls on President Biden and the United Nations to forcibly and immediately stop the U.S. supplied and diplomatically shielded Israeli genocide and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza and the massive Israeli military and extremist settler-colonist assault on Palestinians in the West Bank. Read More
Türkiye’s Growing Drone Exports
The International Crisis Group: As drones change the face of modern warfare, their price sinks and their technological sophistication races ahead, more and more buyers are knocking on Türkiye’s door. Its flagship Bayraktar TB2 drone has proven effective on battlefields in Ukraine, Libya, Nagorno-Karabakh and elsewhere; it generally costs less or performs better than rival models. Ankara, surprised at and proud of this success, sees drone sales as increasingly important for the growth of the Turkish defence industry. Read More
December 21 is the 76th day since the genocide in Gaza began
Today, December 21 is the 76th day since the genocide in Gaza began. Wafa reported on Thursday that dozens of people were killed and others were injured in the ongoing occupation attacks on Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, and on several areas in the central Gaza Strip. Israel has killed thousands of Palestinians, with over 8,000 being children in Gaza and occupied West Bank. For the past two months, Gaza has been without electricity, and access to water, and over 2 million surviving inhabitants are unable to access food and essential supplies. Israel restricts humanitarian aid to Gaza from entering.
Dozens killed and wounded in the ongoing Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip
WAFA: Dozens of people, including children and women, were killed and others were injured since dawn today, and dozens of homes and buildings were destroyed in the ongoing Israeli occupation bombing of the Gaza Strip by land, sea and air. Local sources reported that dozens of people were killed and others were injured in the ongoing occupation attacks on Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, and on several areas in the central Gaza Strip. During the past 24 hours, 55 people were killed in Israeli raids on homes in the city of Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip. Read More
Hamas demands release of 3 top Palestinian leaders in any hostage deal with Israel: Report
Anadolu Agency: Hamas demands the release of three top Palestinian leaders in any hostage swap deal with Israel, according to Israeli media on Thursday. Hamas insists Marwan Barghouti, Ahmed Saadat and Abdullah Barghouti be on the list of prisoners to be released in any new deal, Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported. Read More
The future of Gaza: Post Israeli war scenarios
By Ali Bakir: The 2023 Israeli war on Gaza has ignited a flurry of speculations about the future of the Gaza Strip and who will hold sway there once the dust of the Israeli aggression settles. These questions are not only pivotal for the immediate future of Gaza and the Palestinians but also have far-reaching implications for the broader Middle East region and international diplomatic efforts. At the heart of the unfolding catastrophe lies the fate of Hamas, the de facto governing authority in Gaza following the 2006 elections. Since its decision to put boots on the ground in Gaza on October 7, Israel's officials have asserted that the goal is to “destroy” Hamas. However, the action of defeating Hamas, in this case, is not defined, which makes it almost impossible. Read More
Gaza Genocide: Hezbollah Confronting and “Inflicting Serious Damage” on Israel. “Expect Escalation…”
Global Research: Hezbollah is not sitting passively watching Israel completing its genocide on Gaza. The real and vast scale on which Hezbollah is causing damage on Israel is hidden by the US media, but the Hindustan Times reports on it. With over 500 attacks so far, Hezbollah is inflicting serious damage on Israel – all the time. Read More
United Nations reports Israeli forces are carrying out mass summary executions in Gaza
by Andre Damon: On Wednesday, the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) published a report alleging that Israeli forces carried out a mass execution of civilians in northern Gaza Tuesday, separating 11 men from their families and summarily shooting them. This report and a similar allegation by the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor imply that Israel has moved from murdering civilians through bombing to mass executions. Read More
The Evil Israel Does is the Evil Israel Gets
By Chris Hedges: Israel’s genocide in Gaza is rearing a new generation of enraged, traumatized and dispossessed Palestinians who have lost family members, friends, homes, communities and any hope of living ordinary lives. They, too, will seek retribution. Their small acts of terrorism will counter Israel’s ongoing state terror. They will hate as they have been hated. Read More
The anatomy of Zionist genocide
Yoav Litvin: War in Gaza not only poses a threat of elimination to the Palestinian people but since the Occupied Territories are used as a laboratory for the development and testing of new military technology and strategies, it could also set the stage for similar violent escalations against oppressed communities in the Global South as well as against BIPOC and immigrant communities within the Global North. Read More
US-client Field Marshal Al-Sisi to remain president of Egypt till 2030
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: Not unexpectedly, on December 18, 2023, US-client Field Marshal Abdel Fattah al-Sisi clinches victory in a controversial election. The Egyptian electoral officials of his regime announced his victory. He received 89.6 percent in the three-day elections between December 10 and 12 and is therefore set to rule the country until at least 2030. Read More
December 20 is the 75th day since the genocide in Gaza began
Today, December 20 is the 75th day since the genocide in Gaza began. Israel has killed thousands of Palestinians, with over 8,000 being children in Gaza and occupied West Bank. Al Jazeera’s correspondent reported Wednesday Israeli air attacks hit close to an Al Jazeera crew reporting live on air, striking a residential building near a hospital in Rafah, southern Gaza. For the past two months, Gaza has been without electricity, and access to water, and over 2 million surviving inhabitants are unable to access food and essential supplies. Israel restricts humanitarian aid to Gaza from entering.
Over 70% of Gazans face extreme hunger as Israel's war grinds on
Daily Sabah: Nearly 71% of Gazans are facing extreme hunger as they continue to suffer under relentless Israeli attacks, according to a study by the rights group Euro-Med Monitor. Released Tuesday, the study’s findings included a sample of 1,200 people in Gaza where 98% of the respondents said they eat insufficient amounts of food. Meanwhile, 64% admitted to eating grass, fruits, immature food and expired materials to satiate their hunger. The study also found that the rate of access to water in Gaza, including drinking, bathing and cleaning water, is down to 1.5 liters per person per day. Read More
UNSC delays Gaza vote as members wrangle over resolution wording
Daily Sabah: With members wrangling over wording, a U.N. Security Council vote on a resolution calling for a pause to Israel's war on Gaza was postponed for a second time Tuesday. Three diplomatic sources said the vote on the text, the latest version of which calls for the "suspension" of hostilities, had been pushed to Wednesday. Members of the council are grappling to find common ground on the resolution, a vote on which was pushed back several times throughout the day, according to diplomatic sources, after being postponed Monday. Read More
Some 'external forces' trying to use Gaza situation to fuel regional unrest in Mideast: Russia
Anadolu Agency: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday that some "external forces" are attempting to fan a fire of regional discord between Middle Eastern states by exploiting the situation in Gaza. The purpose of such actions is to "weaken countries that pursue an independent foreign policy course," Lavrov said at the Russian-Arab Cooperation Forum in Morocco's capital, Marrakesh. Read More
Israeli-flagged ships banned by Malaysia amid Gaza conflict
Daily Sabah: Israeli-flagged cargo ships have been banned from docking at Malaysian ports in response to Israel's actions in Gaza, which Kuala Lumpur says ignores "basic humanitarian principles." Ships on their way to Israel will also be barred from loading cargo at any port in the largely Muslim Southeast Asian nation with immediate effect, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said in a statement. Anwar singled out Israel's biggest shipping firm ZIM. Read More
The Balfour Declaration And Palestine
Countercurrents: The Balfour Declaration which supposedly gave the Zionists the right to establish a NATIONAL HOME for Jewish people in Palestine is completely illegal. On November 2nd, 1917, when the Balfour declaration was issued, Palestine was still under the domain of the Ottoman Empire and the British had no legal rights to give away a land which was not under their dominion. Further, the declaration speaks only of establishing a “NATIONAL HOME for Jewish people in Palestine” and not a JEWISH STATE. The declaration clearly states that “IT BEING CLEARLY UNDERSTOOD THAT NOTHING SHALL BE DONE WHICH MAY PREJUDICE THE CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS RIGHTS OF EXISTING NON-JEWISH COMMUNITIES IN PALESTINE“. Whatever that the Zionists are doing now against Palestinians are against the Balfour declaration that the Zionists so dearly hold on to.Read More
Natural Gas Fuelling Conflict In Gaza
by Karyn Pomerantz: Hidden behind the justifications for the war on Gaza is the longstanding Zionist plan to ethnically cleanse all of Palestine and to gain control of natural gas and oil. Zionists justify the war as retribution for the October 7th killings of Israelis. Hamas portrays it as pay-back for decades of oppression. Neither side advocates unity of Palestinian and Israeli workers to establish a society that meets their mutual needs. Nothing short of an anti-racist, anti-capitalist global movement can end these conflicts. Read More
Comparing Gaza Genocide & Other Atrocities
by Dr Gideon Polya: The horror of the Gaza Genocide continues to worsen. As of Day 70, and considering the 8,000 buried in rubble, Occupied Palestinian deaths totalled 34,000 including 13,000 child deaths. This ever-worsening atrocity is succinctly compared quantitatively below to genocidal WW2 and post-WW2 atrocities. Ceasefire Now is insufficient – humanity demands that the World must enforce an immediate end to the US-backed Israeli Occupation by Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS). Read More
December 19 is the 74th day since the genocide in Gaza began
Today, December 19 is the 74th day since the genocide in Gaza began. Israel has killed thousands of Palestinians, with over 8,000 being children in Gaza and occupied West Bank. Al Jazeera’s correspondent reported Tuesday that tens of people have been killed and others wounded as a result of an Israeli bombing of a building in the Remal neighbourhood in Gaza City. The reporter added that dozens of others are missing and their fate is still unknown. At least 19,667 killed in Gaza and 297 in West Bank and East Jerusalem. For the past two months, Gaza has been without electricity, and access to water, and over 2 million surviving inhabitants are unable to access food and essential supplies. Israel restricts humanitarian aid to Gaza from entering.
Israel: Starvation Used as a Weapon of War in Gaza
Human Rights Watch: Evidence Indicates Civilians Deliberately Denied Access to Food, Water. The Israeli government is using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare in the Gaza Strip, which is a war crime. Israeli officials have made public statements expressing their aim to deprive civilians in Gaza of food, water, and fuel – statements reflected in Israeli forces’ military operations. The Israeli government should not attack objects necessary for the survival of the civilian population, lift its blockade of the Gaza Strip, and restore electricity and water. Read More
As reports of hate crimes against American Muslims grow, here’s how you can help
CNN: The rise in anti-Muslim acts is undeniable and unnerving. Three Palestinian college students were shot in Vermont, and when a six-year-old was stabbed in Chicago, his mother couldn’t attend his funeral because she’d been stabbed, too. In Georgia, a middle school teacher was arrested after he allegedly threatened to behead a 13-year-old Muslim student. But most incidents of Islamophobia don’t make headlines – or even go reported. This recent unprecedented surge of anti-Muslim bias prompted the White House to announce a national strategy to combat Islamophobia. Read More
Sacking, censorship, threats: Pro-Palestine supporters face growing global backlash
Anadolu Agency: Over 2,100 such cases reported in the US between Oct. 7 and Dec. 2, Farah Afify of Council on American-Islamic Relations tells Anadolu. Read More
The War in Gaza: It’s Not About Hamas. It’s About Demographics
By Mike Whitney: We’ve been told repeatedly that the goal of Israel’s operation in Gaza is to “defeat Hamas”. But is that true? We don’t think it is. We don’t think that any reasonable person would attempt to eradicate a militant organization by laying to waste vast swaths of the country while killing tens of thousands of innocent people. That is not how one garners support for one’s cause nor is it an effective strategy for defeating the enemy. Instead, it is a policy that is guaranteed to horrify allies and critics alike greatly undermining the operation’s chances of success. And that’s why we don’t believe that Israel’s attack on Gaza has anything to do with Hamas. We think it’s a smokescreen that’s being used to divert attention from the real objectives of the campaign. And, what might those “real objectives” be? The real objectives relate to an issue that is never discussed in the media, but is the primary factor driving events. Demographics. Read More
25 dead in Israeli strikes on Rafah homes, 10 killed in Jabalia
Daily Sabah: At least 35 people were killed and dozens of others injured in two separate Israeli attacks on Gaza Tuesday. Some 25 Palestinians were killed and many others injured in overnight airstrikes on southern Gaza's Rafah city, according to Palestinian media and health officials. In another attack on Tuesday morning, at least 10 people were killed and 40 others wounded in an Israeli strike on the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza. Read More
Gaza death toll from Israeli attacks exceeds 19,600
Daily Sabah: The Palestinian death toll from Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip mounted to 19,667 since Oct. 7, the Health Ministry in the enclave said Tuesday. Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra added that 52,586 other people were injured in the Israeli onslaught. “Hospitals in Gaza's south are no longer able to accommodate more injured people,” the spokesman said at a press conference. Read More
American settlers in the West Bank...
By Abdullah Muradoğlu: There are about 700,000 illegal settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem now – a significant upgrade from the approximately 200,000 just two years ago. A significant number of these Zionist settlers are citizens of the U.S. and other Western countries. People and organizations in the U.S., among other places, are financing Jewish migration to Israel, particularly to expand these illegal settlements. Read More
The Holocaust Industry...
By Taha Kılınç: American Jewish scholar Prof. Dr. Norman Finkelstein, in his seminal book 'The Holocaust Industry,' explains how the Holocaust, perpetrated against Jews during World War II, was turned into an exploitation and profit system by Zionists. Finkelstein, who says, 'To boast to helpless people is the courage of organized American Jewry,' reveals the comprehensive panorama of American Judaism and the support offered to Israel. In his book, which he blends with his own family story as the son of parents who survived the Holocaust, Finkelstein exposes the hypocrisy of the Zionists, laying bare all their double standards. Read More
Zionism vs. humanity
BY MUHITTIN ATAMAN: Faced with Israeli atrocities against civilians, the world is divided into two camps: pro-Zionism and anti-Zionism, with the latter advocating for an end to bloodshed in Gaza. Instead of deterring Israel from committing more violent acts, the Western governments have been trying to abandon their traditional values of free speech and freedom by forbidding their citizens from criticizing Israel’s oppressive policies and atrocities against innocent Palestinians. Pro-Israeli governments are trying to punish institutions or heads of institutions that remain silent about the peaceful demonstrations. Officials in Western countries are trying to undermine the independence of higher education institutions. For example, presidents of some Western universities were punished for their neutral perspectives and their tolerance toward the pro-Palestinian peaceful demonstrations or other kinds of reactions. Read More
December 18 is the 73rd day since the genocide in Gaza began
December 18 is the 73nd day since the genocide in Gaza began. Israel has killed more than 22,000 civilians, with over 8,000 being children in Gaza and occupied West Bank. At least 19,453 killed in Gaza and 297 in West Bank and East Jerusalem. In Gaza, there are 7,000 missing or unaccounted for, and the number of casualties is staggering, with hospitals overwhelmed and more than 54,000 injured awaiting treatment. Injured include 8,663 children. For the past two months, Gaza has been without electricity, and access to water, and over 2 million surviving inhabitants are unable to access food and essential supplies. Israel restricts humanitarian aid to Gaza from entering.
Israel kills 110 Palestinians over just 24 hours in northern Gaza
Daily Sabah: At least 110 Palestinians were reported killed and dozens of others injured in Israeli strikes in northern Gaza over 24 hours, the Gazan Health Ministry said early Monday. In a brief statement, the ministry said: "There were 50 martyrs in occupation strikes on houses in Jabalia," bringing the number of deaths to 110 in the area since Sunday. At least 90 others were wounded and many others are still under the rubble, local sources said. Read More
Another journalist killed in Israeli strike in Gaza, tally rises to 96 since Oct. 7
Yeni Safak: Another Palestinian journalist was killed in an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip on Monday, taking the tally to 96 since Oct. 7, the government media office said. Read More
Mossad, CIA chiefs to meet Qatari PM for talks on new hostage swap deal with Hamas
Yeni Safak: Israeli Mossad chief David Barnea and CIA Director William Burns are scheduled to meet with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani for talks on a new hostage swap deal with Hamas, Israeli media reported on Monday. The three officials will meet in the Polish capital, Warsaw, to discuss a number of possible outlines for negotiations on a new deal to free Israeli hostages held by Hamas, Israeli Channel 12 reported. Read More
TFF Statement On the Genocide in Gaza
Countercurrent: As the brutal slaughtering in Gaza unfolds in increasingly horrific proportions, we, as an experienced research foundation for peaceful conflict resolution and peace-making since 1986, feel the urge to contribute our analytical points, sentiments and constructive conflict-resolution ideas. The Transnational Foundation for Peace & Future Research (TFF) also wants to be on record with this Statement so that when historians look back on this moral calamity, they will see who stood with whom and who advocated peace instead of ongoing genocide. Read More
As Gaza genocide continues, US prepares major escalation of war throughout Middle East
By Andre Damon: As Israel continues to massacre hundreds of Gazans each day and starve the entire population of 2.2 million, a series of US officials are traveling to Israel to coordinate US support for the genocide and prepare a military escalation throughout the Middle East. Last week, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan traveled to Israel to hold high-level meetings with Israeli officials. During the trip, Sullivan reiterated the United States’ open-ended support for Israel’s onslaught against the population of Gaza. Read More
The Death of Israel
by Chris Hedges: By the time Israel achieves its decimation of Gaza — Israel is talking about months of warfare — it will have signed its own death sentence. Its facade of civility, its supposed vaunted respect for the rule of law and democracy, its mythical story of the courageous Israeli military and miraculous birth of the Jewish nation, will lie in ash heaps. Israel’s social capital will be spent. It will be revealed as an ugly, repressive, hate-filled apartheid regime, alienating younger generations of American Jews. Its patron, the United States, as new generations come into power, will distance itself from Israel the way it is distancing itself from Ukraine. Its popular support, already eroded in the U.S., will come from America’s Christianized fascists who see Israel’s domination of ancient Biblical land as a harbinger of the Second Coming and in its subjugation of Arabs a kindred racism and white supremacy. Read More
December 17 is the 72nd day since the genocide in Gaza began
December 17 is the 72nd day since the genocide in Gaza began. Israel has killed more than 22,000 civilians, with over 8,000 being children in Gaza and occupied West Bank. At least 19,088 killed in Gaza and 297 in West Bank and East Jerusalem. In Gaza, there are 7,000 missing or unaccounted for, and the number of casualties is staggering, with hospitals overwhelmed and more than 54,000 injured awaiting treatment. For the past two months, Gaza has been without electricity, and access to water, and over 2 million surviving inhabitants are unable to access food and essential supplies. Israel restricts humanitarian aid to Gaza from entering.
Israeli strikes on Gaza homes kill 47 civilians, 5 die in West Bank
Daily Sabah: At least 47 Palestinians were killed Sunday in Israeli airstrikes targeting houses in Jabalia and the Deir al-Balah refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian media reported. "35 Palestinians were killed and dozens were injured on Sunday during an Israeli bombing of a house in the town of Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip," Palestine's official news agency WAFA reported. At least 90 others were wounded and many others are still under the rubble, local sources said. Read More
Death toll across Palestine surges to 19,088, over 54,450 wounded
WAFA: In the wake of the devastating Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, the Ministry of Health announced in an update this evening that the death toll has surged to at least 19,088, with over 54,450 individuals wounded. Read More
Israel bulldozes, 'buries alive' dozens at Gaza's Kamal Adwan Hospital
The New Arab: Israeli forces bulldozed and buried alive dozens of displaced Palestinians at Kamal Adwan Hospital in North Gaza, according to local journalists. Read More
Yemeni drones pound Israel’s Port of Eilat in solidarity with Gaza
Yemeni Armed Forces say they have launched a large-scale drone strike against “sensitive” targets in the occupied territories in a show of support for the Palestinian people in the besieged Gaza Strip. Read More
Israel and US Plan Complete Deportation from Gaza
By Marc Vandepitte: Deporting all Gazans is the joint plan of the US and Israel. According to the plan, the Palestinians will be ‘relocated’ to Egypt, Iraq, Turkey, and Yemen. This large-scale ethnic cleansing is cynically presented as a “moral and humanitarian” aid plan. Read More
The Gaza War, “Big Money” and the Insidious Role of the World Economic Forum
By Ernst Wolff: Some background events that are largely withheld from the general public by the mainstream media, but which may also be decisive for the future development of the conflict, could shed light on this. As is now widely known, there are natural gas and oil deposits worth around $500 billion about 20 nautical miles off the coast of the Gaza Strip. The Palestinians would actually be entitled to the proceeds, but Israel has been withholding them for a good 20 years, contrary to international law. Read More
December 16 is the 71sth day since the genocide in Gaza began
December 16 is the 71th day since the genocide in Gaza began. Israel has killed more than 19,000 civilians, with over 8,000 being children in Gaza and occupied West Bank. At least 18,787 killed in Gaza and 270 in West Bank. In Gaza, there are 7,000 missing or unaccounted for, and the number of casualties is staggering, with hospitals overwhelmed and more than 50,000 injured awaiting treatment. For the past two months, Gaza has been without electricity, and access to water, and over 2 million surviving inhabitants are unable to access food and essential supplies. Israel restricts humanitarian aid to Gaza from entering. . Read More
Israel keeps the pressure on Gaza as Qatar confirms truce talks
Al Jazeera: The Israeli army has continued to pound areas across the Gaza Strip to devastating effect as Qatar has confirmed that talks are once more under way to evaluate if a new truce can be reached. Attacks on Saturday heavily targeted Khan Younis in the south, where thousands have been forced to flee. The Qatari foreign ministry said in a statement Saturday that talks are continuing. Read More
'Perfect storm' of deadly diseases looms over battered Gaza
Daily Sabah: The residents of Gaza, who have so far survived Israel's bombs and bullets, are now facing a silent, invisible killer as the besieged Palestinian territory faces a "perfect storm' of deadly diseases. A lack of food, clean water and shelter have worn down hundreds of thousands of traumatized people and, with a health system on its knees, it's inevitable epidemics will rip through the enclave, 10 doctors and aid workers told Reuters. Read More
The Plague as Life: 327,000 Stricken with Infectious Diseases in Gaza
By Juan Cole: The plague has come to Gaza. What happens when you force 1.8 million people into a postage-stamp-sized territory and destroy or damage half of their dwelling places, breaking the water pipes with 2000-pound bombs? You create homeless people sleeping rough, with few toilets. Many people are forced to urinate and defecate in the streets. Read More
Hezbollah member killed in clashes with Israeli forces on Lebanese border
Anadolu Agency: The Lebanese group Hezbollah said Thursday that one of its fighters was killed in clashes with Israeli forces near the border between Lebanon and Israel. Tensions have flared along the border between Lebanon and Israel amid intermittent exchanges of fire between Israeli forces and Hezbollah in the deadliest clashes since the two sides fought a full-scale war in 2006. Lebanese group says 105 members killed in clashes with Israeli troops since Oct. 8. Read More
Israeli regime assassinates journalist in Gaza amid growing threat of region-wide war
Jordan Shilton: The Zionist regime’s barbarism was demonstrated once again Friday with the targeted killing of Al Jazeera cameraman Samer Abudaqa. Abudaqa was fatally wounded in a drone strike on a school in Khan Younis. His colleague, Al Jazeera Gaza bureau chief Wael Dahdouh, suffered light injuries. A third journalist, Ramy Budair of the New Press Agency, also died in Khan Younis Friday. Earlier in the conflict, Dahdouh was forced to mourn the loss of almost his entire family following a deliberate Israeli air strike on his house. Read More
Is ICC still relevant? Not so, says Brazil’s Lula da Silva. And he is not alone
Pressenza: On December 4, Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, the President of Brazil (which has taken G20 presidency) said, after meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin, that he will invite Russian President Vladimir Putin to the G20 Summit that will take place in Brazil. Previously, Lula da Silva had stated Putin should not worry about being arrested, should he visit Brazil, despite the county’s membership in the International Criminal Court (ICC). The Brazilian leader later withdrew this promise but has maintained the invitation, thereby prompting a political controversy about the court in the Latin American country. On March 17, 2023 the Hague-based court issued a controversial arrest warrant for both Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights (of Russia) and for Putin, a ruling that has been praised by US President Joe Biden, among others. Read More
December 15 is the 69th day since the genocide in Gaza began
December 15th. It is the 69th day since the genocide in Gaza began. Israel has killed more than 19,000 civilians, with over 8,000 being children. In Gaza, there are 7,000 missing or unaccounted for, and the number of casualties is staggering, with hospitals overwhelmed and more than 50,000 injured awaiting treatment. Read More
Israel continues Gaza onslaught despite US envoy’s ‘new phase of war’
Al Jazeera: Israel has continued to pound Gaza despite a senior United States official saying that Tel Aviv has agreed to end widespread bombing and ground operations and move towards precision targeting of Hamas. Despite mounting international calls for restraint, Israel on Friday pressed on with its offensive in Gaza. Air strikes across the strip killed dozens of people, according to local authorities.The bombardment came after US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan met with Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Read More
Israeli officials spell out plans for ethnic cleansing of all Palestinians, as Gaza massacres continue
by Thomas Scripps: Following the United Nations General Assembly vote Tuesday for a ceasefire in Gaza, the Israeli government has not only pledged to continue the war but made clear its plan for an onslaught against the Palestinians across the whole region. Its leaders know they have full license to do so, whatever cynical votes are cast at the UN or statements made to the press by its imperialist backers. Read More
May Peace Prevail in Gaza
By Jim Miles: The feeble words and excuses of the U.S. government only emphasize how the politicians, the military-industrial-financial complex, and the corporate “persons” – all of whom reap large financial rewards for this carnage – do not want the savagery to end. The military corporations – Raytheon, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Northop Grumman, an almost endless list – and those supplying them, are providing as per President Biden a financial boost for the U.S. economy. Lives and deaths are not important; the dollar reigns supreme, both for profits and global hegemony. Read More
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The Journal of America Team:
Editor in chief:
Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Senior Editor:
Prof. Arthur Scott
Special Correspondent
Maryam Turab
