40 Killed In Hamas Attacks In Israel

One of the best commentators in the UK print media, in my opinion. Gets it right again on western politicians and Gaza:

https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...-uk-eu-changed

The marked change in tone this past week from leaders in the UK and EU is a clear break from the pabulum of “concerns” and reiterations of Israel’s right to defend itself. Now the rhetoric is that Israel’s actions are “morally unjustifiable” and “wholly disproportionate”, and the threats of its leaders “abhorrent”. Some of this is future-proofing. The war has amounted to genocide and ethnic cleansing in ways that are increasingly undeniable, indefensible and unspinnable. Some had a good go at it for a year and a half, but now cannot stand at a lectern or sit at a dinner table and argue that, yes, actually, there is an argument for killing 100 people a day, as was the case last week. Or that Israel has any plan other than what its leaders have consistently declared to be one of displacement and settlement. Long gone is the argument that this is simply about wiping out Hamas. Israel, as one British media ally lamented, has hung its friends out to dry.

But there is a disconnect between condemnation and outrage, and what happens on the ground. When it comes to Israel, the levers of international censure are broken. Throughout the war, international organisations, humanitarian missions and courts of justice have been rendered powerless by their inability to translate their findings into action. Words alone mean nothing. They simply bounce off Israel’s iron dome of impunity. Every day, the world wakes up and is confronted with an Israeli leadership that violates every law of morality and logic. Victims are aggressors, humanitarians are biased, an army that kills unarmed medics is the most moral army in the world. Up is down.

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If this new attitude taken by western leaders is designed to fend off a reckoning, then it’s too little, too late: the record has already been taken....

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And even then, all this would only be a start, and a colossally, tragically late one at that. One can break down why none of these things have yet happened: the hopes that keeping Israel on side preserves some modicum of leverage; concerns that strong measures will embolden Iran; loyalty to the notion of historic debt; fears of the uncertain world that a break with Israel would usher in. But that world is already here, and cowardice has only accelerated its arrival, rather than prevented its emergence.

Palestinians, from Gaza to the West Bank, are paying the highest price for inaction, but an acute wound has been inflicted on the rest of the world. If nothing happens, its moral and political morbidity will encompass all.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...3e4_story.html

JERUSALEM — Chanting “Death to Arabs” and singing “May your village burn,” groups of young Israeli Jews made their way through Muslim neighborhoods of Jerusalem’s Old City on Monday ahead of an annual march marking Israel’s conquest of the eastern part of the city.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...sraeli-strikes

Eleven-year-old Yaqeen Hammad, Gaza’s youngest influencer, is among the dozens of children killed by Israel in recent strikes, as its forces intensify their military offensive across the Palestinian territory.

Known for her bright smile and volunteering efforts, Yaqeen was killed on Friday night after Israeli forces shelled the al-Baraka area of Deir al-Balah in northern Gaza, amid intense fighting in the region.

Yaqeen and her older brother, Mohamed Hammad, delivered food, toys and clothing to displaced families, Al Jazeera has reported.

She was also Gaza’s youngest influencer, offering practical survival tips for daily life under bombardment, such as advice on how to cook with improvised methods when there was no gas.

In one social media post, Yaqeen wrote: “I try to bring a bit of joy to the other children so that they can forget the war.”

She played an active role in the Ouena collective, a Gaza-based non-profit organisation dedicated to humanitarian relief.

She often accompanied her older brother, Mohamed, a humanitarian worker, and together they distributed aid – food, toys and clothing. They often visited camps and makeshift shelters for displaced families. In each place they went, she tried to spread cheer and comfort to the children.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...y-in-jerusalem

https://english.wafa.ps/Pages/Details/157796

LONDON, May 27, 2025 (WAFA) – The UK must impose sanctions on the Israeli government and its ministers and also consider suspending it from the UN to meet its “fundamental international legal obligations”, more than 800 lawyers, academics and retired senior judges, including former supreme court justices, have said.

In a letter to the prime minister, they welcomed Keir Starmer’s joint statement last week with the leaders of France and Canada warning that they were prepared to take “concrete actions” against Israel. But they urged him to act without delay as “urgent and decisive action is required to avert the destruction of the Palestinian people of Gaza”.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...an-800-lawyers

https://businessday.ng/world/article...ck-war-crimes/

Israel’s former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says he now believes his country’s constant attack on the Palestinian people amounts to “war crimes” and must stop.

According to Reuters, Olmert, who served from 2006 to 2009, spoke to the people of Israel in an article written in Hebrew that Haaretz published on Thursday. He condemned current prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government for “waging a pointless war, without a clear goal or plan, and with no chance of success,” according to Google’s translation of the piece.

Olmert wrote that he had previously defended his country against “accusations of genocide and war crimes.” However, the Israeli politician said he can no longer see the widespread killing of civilians, including women, children and the elderly, or the campaign to starve Gaza as just collateral damage in “a brutal war.”

“What we are doing in Gaza is a war of extermination: indiscriminate, unrestrained, brutal, and criminal killing of civilians,” he said.

“We are doing this not because of an accidental loss of control in a particular sector, not because of a disproportionate outburst of fighters in some unit — but as a result of a policy dictated by the government, knowingly, intentionally, viciously, maliciously, recklessly,” Olmert’s op-ed continued. “Yes, we are committing war crimes.”

Wow. Fair play.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...e-in-west-bank

Survivors of an attack by violent Israeli settlers have described being “hunted” across a West Bank valley by men armed with pistols, rifles and batons, who beat them so badly that all 10 had to be taken to hospital for their injuries.

They included a 14-year-old Palestinian boy, eight other Palestinians and an Israeli activist, who had three cameras, his phone, car keys and wallet stolen.

Moments before the attackers reached the activist, Avishay Mohar, he managed to remove and hide memory cards with photos documenting the early stages of the attack.

The assailants, some of them masked, descended on Palestinians dismantling the last homes in the village of Mughayyir al-Deir, east of Ramallah. Its residents had all been forced out by Israeli settlers in an aggressive campaign that lasted less than a week.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/...israel-on-gaza

An elected representative on the UK’s largest Jewish body has resigned, saying it had “failed to act morally and failed to represent the increasing diversity of opinion within the British Jewish community” amid growing horror at Israel’s renewed assault on Gaza.

Daniel Grossman, one of 36 elected members of the Board of Deputies facing disciplinary proceedings over their criticism of Israel’s actions in Gaza, told a meeting called by the board last weekend that he had “no confidence in the leadership”.

Grossman, 21, a final-year student at Bristol University, was one of three dozen deputies who signed an open letter last month that said “Israel’s soul is being ripped out” by the war in Gaza and that their “Jewish values compel us to stand up and to speak out”.

In response, the board, which consists of more than 300 deputies, opened a disciplinary procedure against all 36 and suspended two deputies. The board’s efforts to shut down debate over the Israeli government’s actions has prompted criticism and discomfort among a significant and growing proportion of British Jews.

Grossman told the Guardian: “It’s very simple: they are refusing to explicitly and publicly condemn Israel’s genocidal assault in Gaza and to criticise the [Israeli] government for abandoning the hostages, who have been in captivity for far too long.

“Increasing numbers of people are recognising that Israel’s actions in Gaza cannot be justified as purely self-defence. They seemingly want to declare a perpetual war against Palestinian civilians with the goal of ethnically cleansing them from the Gaza Strip.”

https://www.theguardian.com/politics...arks-criticism

The coherence of the UK government’s policy towards Israel is under question after Labour permitted its trade envoy to boost commercial links one week after the foreign secretary suspended talks on a further trade deal.

The trade envoy, Lord Austin, was pictured on a visit to Haifa in a post on X shared by the UK’s embassy in Israel. The post welcomed Austin to the country as he visited a hi-tech “customs scanning centre”, a port and a light rail project that the embassy said showed UK and Israeli “cooperation at every stop”.

David Lammy last week had described Israel’s behaviour in Gaza as “monstrous and extremist”. In an indication of his disapproval, welcomed by most Labour MPs, the foreign secretary suspended new trade talks and launched a review into a pre-existing high-level strategic cooperation roadmap with Israel.

One mainstream Labour MP said: “There is a large group of Labour MPs who are furious this has been allowed to happen after the progress made last week. Austin needs to be fired immediately; the department of business and trade response is completely unacceptable.”

Another MP said “this is not about mixed, but garbled messaging”.

GJP (Global Jews for Palestine) statement

https://www.jewishvoiceforlabour.org...cles-for-you_1

The 600th day of genocide is no time for words!

In the 86th week of genocide, 24 countries have objected to Israel’s escalating violence. They call for the restoration of real, sufficient, life-saving aid to which Palestinians have a right – not the mercenary coverlet which would enable Netanyahu’s final solution.

After 62,000 Palestinian deaths, according to a UN press release on 19 May, Israel is inflicting conditions of life on Palestinians increasingly incompatible with their continued existence in Gaza as a group. Furthermore, the pattern of strikes on Internally Displaced People’s (IDP) tents and residential buildings, as well as on crowded hospitals, indicates that little, if any, care is being taken to protect the lives of civilians in Gaza, while reports of the use of weapons with wide area effects suggest deliberate, indiscriminate attacks. Meanwhile, the humanitarian situation is beyond description.

Make no mistake: Our governments have always held the power to end this onslaught. But our states are speaking fine words while they arm and normalise Israel’s crimes. Every day that they delay, Israel kills another 35 children.

Foreign ministers of Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Norway, Slovenia, and Spain have expressed grave concern, but not so grave as to discontinue Israel’s participation in ‘security’ programmes under the EU-Israel Cooperation Agreement. And, heaven forbid, not so grave as to eject Israel from the Eurovision song contest.

A joint statement by UK, France, and Canada on 19 May vowed, “We will not stand by while the Netanyahu Government pursues these egregious actions.” They have stood by for another week since then. Another 629 Gazan Palestinians including nine journalists have been killed. Gazans are obtaining, on average, 67% of the calories they need to survive while the UK, France and Canada continue to stand by. Even in South Africa, Glencore continues to send coal to Israel.

For 19 months these states have done nothing to alter their relationships with Israel, or to impact the normal flows of trade and treatment. They have not enacted their responsibilities as outlined by world courts, nor have they brought the slightest real pressure to bear in defence of two million trapped civilians.

Such steps are not mere tokens. Israel can live without our approval as individuals. However, Israel cannot live in the style to which it is accustomed without European, North American, and other diplomatic indulgence, interactions, and normalcy. Israel’s colonisation and genocide is predicated on impunity, in which Western governments collude.

Historically, the withdrawal of diplomatic permission has been the brake that ended Israel’s assaults on the Gaza Strip.

In 2015, Israel’s Office of the State Comptroller published its assessment of Israel’s 2014 bombardment of Gaza. Israeli newspapers called the report “scathing” “scalding… blistering”. Among its criticisms: Israel bombed Gaza for fifty days without consistent objectives to focus and limit its use of violence. Israel’s security cabinet and IDF periodically paused to assess the war’s impacts on Israel’s international standing. Finding that states did not require Israel to stop, the security cabinet opportunistically wrote new objectives and carried on bombing. They did that four times – until they were stopped.

It is wrong to think that only Trump matters to Israel. Israel is deeply integrated into international – particularly European and American – trade, tourism, and culture. There is every reason to believe that Israel remains susceptible to broad international pressure.

Right now, 81% of Gaza is unilaterally designated as an IDF military zone and / or is under displacement orders. The people of Gaza are being funnelled into killing zones.

The danger to Gazan Palestinians is desperate and words do not protect them. They are starving and words do not fill their stomachs. Enough words! We must see action – sanctions, penalties, consequences.

Gaza cannot wait.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...estinian-state

Israel has said it will establish 22 new settlements in the occupied West Bank, including the legalisation of outposts already built without government authorisation, after a security cabinet vote held in secret last week.

Israel occupied the West Bank, capturing it from Jordan, in the six-day war of 1967. Since then, successive governments have tried to permanently cement Israeli control over the land, in part by declaring swathes as “state lands”, which prevents private Palestinian ownership.

The motion was said to have been put forward by the far-right defence minister, Israel Katz, and finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, who lives in the West Bank settlement of Kedumim, which is considered illegal under international law.

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The approval of new settlements by Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government represents a further implementation of its longstanding goal to annex the occupied Palestinian territory – an objective bolstered by the Trump administration.

Mike Huckabee, nominated as Trump’s new ambassador to Israel, signalled his support for Israeli claims on the West Bank in an interview last year. He said: “When people use the term ‘occupied’, I say: ‘Yes, Israel is occupying the land, but it’s the occupation of a land that God gave them 3,500 years ago. It is their land.’”

Rightwing settlers have described top officials Trump’s new administration, which rescinded sanctions imposed on violent Israeli settler groups, as a “dream team” that will offer a “special opportunity” to permanently end any prospect of a Palestinian state.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...ism-gaza-trump

As the administration continues to exploit antisemitism to arrest protesters and curb academic freedoms, more American Jews are saying ‘not in my name’

On the morning of Columbia University’s commencement last week, an intergenerational group of Jewish alumni gathered in the rain outside the Manhattan campus’s heavily policed gates, wearing keffiyehs and shirts emblazoned with the words “not in our name”. Two had graduated more than 60 years earlier, and one spoke of having fled the Nazis to the US as a child. Others recalled participating in Columbia protests of the past, including those that led the university to divest from apartheid South Africa.

They spoke as alumni and as Jews to condemn the university’s investments in Israel, its repression of pro-Palestinian speech, and its capitulation to the Trump administration’s assault on academic freedom in the name of fighting antisemitism on campus. They had planned to burn their Columbia diplomas in protest, but the rain got in their way, so many ripped them to pieces instead.

“As a Jewish person, I’m really appalled at the idea that they are trying to make it sound as if opposing genocide is somehow antisemitic,” said Josh Dubnau, a professor at Stony Brook University who received a PhD from Columbia in 1995 and led the protest. “There are thousands of us who don’t believe in the right of the Jewish people to ethnically cleanse Palestine. There were Jews thousands of years before Zionism, and there will be Jews when Zionism is in the dustbin of history.”

Another alumna, who graduated last year after being suspended over her participation in campus protests, wore a graduation gown and carried the photo of one of nearly 15,000 Palestinian students killed in Gaza during the current war.

“We have a particular duty to show up as Jews because we are not being actively targeted in the way that Palestinian students, Muslim students and Arab students are,” said the student, who asked to remain anonymous. “It’s our duty to weaponise our privilege as Jewish students.” New York police arrested her along with another protester after they set their Columbia diplomas on fire.

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Jewish Americans – some identifying as “anti-Zionists”, others with a range of views about Israel – have been at the forefront of the movement against the war in Gaza. Last summer, some 200 people, almost all Jewish, were arrested at a protest on Capitol Hill a day before a visit by Benjamin Netanyahu. Earlier this year, more than 350 rabbis, along with more Jewish creatives and activists, signed a New York Times ad denouncing Donald Trump’s proposal to ethnically cleanse Gaza.

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A rightwing Israeli thinktank found last year that one-third of American Jews believe Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

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But tackling complex questions – for instance, about when anti-Zionism veers into antisemitism – has become difficult in an increasingly repressive climate. “It is making it impossible to have discussions in the classroom,” said Joel Swanson, a Jewish studies professor at Sarah Lawrence College.

Swanson noted that many Jewish Americans are now mobilising against precisely the kind of repression their ancestors came to the US to escape. “The very liberal principles that have enabled Jewish thriving in the United States are being chipped away at systematically, one by one,” he said.

Many of those who identify as anti-Zionist have found a home under the umbrella of Jewish Voice for Peace, a pro-Palestinian Jewish group whose membership has doubled since the war started – to 32,000 dues-paying members – and whose student chapters were banned from several campuses during last year’s protests. In Baltimore, earlier this month, members of the group’s dozens of chapters gathered for a national convening. Over four days of workshops at the heavily secured event, participants talked about organising from campuses to religious spaces to promote a “Judaism beyond Zionism”, as the conference tagline read, as well as address authoritarianism in the US.

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Jewish faculty and students have also organised in defense of pro-Palestinian students detained by the Trump administration. Following the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian permanent resident and Columbia University graduate who has been detained for nearly three months with no charges, more than 3,400 Jewish faculty across the country signed a letter to denounce “without equivocation, anyone who invokes our name – and cynical claims of antisemitism – to harass, expel, arrest, or deport members of our campus communities”. Several Jewish students and faculty wrote letters to the court in support of Khalil. And Jewish groups and synagogues filed a court briefing in support of Rümeysa Öztürk, a Turkish Tufts University student who was detained over an op-ed critical of Israel and released earlier this month as her case continues.

“Jewish people came to America to escape generations of similar predations,” they wrote. “Yet the images of Ozturk’s arrest in twenty-first century Massachusetts evoke the oppressive tactics employed by the authoritarian regimes that many ancestors of [our] members left behind in Odessa, Kishinev, and Warsaw.”

https://www.newarab.com/news/gaza-do...his-9-children

A Palestinian doctor has died of his injuries nearly a week after an Israeli airstrike killed his nine children in southern Gaza, leaving only one surviving child.

Dr Hamdi Al-Najjar, a specialist in internal medicine, succumbed to wounds sustained during the 23 May Israeli bombing that levelled his family home in Khan Younis.

Duplicate post (again)!

Terrible attack on a rally for hostages in Colorado

All over the news

Several badly injured

But 30 KILLED in gaza day before yesterday by an Israeli strike .......

'Why Israel deserves to be a football pariah'.

“Sportwashing” – tyrannical states using sporting events to burnish shameful human rights records – is a practice at least as old as fascism, argues Tiernan Cannon in this article published first by Splinter. Since Hitler hosted the 1936 Olympics, boycotts have been demanded, and sometimes applied, on diverse occasions to try and stop apartheid South Africa, various Gulf states and others judged to be pariahs from hosting or participating in international sporting events. Israel clearly falls into that category and is currently the target of a campaign to suspend it from world football’s governing body FIFA.

Boycotting Israeli sports teams and institutions, in particular football, has been a feature of the BDS movement for more than a decade. This editor, quoted in Tiernan’s story, was involved in campaigning against Israel hosting the UEFA Under-21s football tournament in 2013. Also part of the campaign was Gazan footballer Mahmoud Sarsak, held in Israeli detention without charge or trial for three years from 2009, and only released after three months on hunger strike and an international campaign in his support.


https://www.jewishvoiceforlabour.org...cles-for-you_1

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jon1959

'Why Israel deserves to be a football pariah'.

“Sportwashing” – tyrannical states using sporting events to burnish shameful human rights records – is a practice at least as old as fascism, argues Tiernan Cannon in this article published first by Splinter. Since Hitler hosted the 1936 Olympics, boycotts have been demanded, and sometimes applied, on diverse occasions to try and stop apartheid South Africa, various Gulf states and others judged to be pariahs from hosting or participating in international sporting events. Israel clearly falls into that category and is currently the target of a campaign to suspend it from world football’s governing body FIFA.

Boycotting Israeli sports teams and institutions, in particular football, has been a feature of the BDS movement for more than a decade. This editor, quoted in Tiernan’s story, was involved in campaigning against Israel hosting the UEFA Under-21s football tournament in 2013. Also part of the campaign was Gazan footballer Mahmoud Sarsak, held in Israeli detention without charge or trial for three years from 2009, and only released after three months on hunger strike and an international campaign in his support.


https://www.jewishvoiceforlabour.org...cles-for-you_1

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The hypocrisy from the west is astounding. I don't disagree with excluding Russia from worldwide events, but Israel are actively conducting a genocide and are actively sheltered by the US and Europe. I was clenching my ass during the World Cup qualifying draw, hoping we didn't draw Israel. They're giving special provisions to their teams in European tournaments also after that situation with Ajax last year. Beyond disgraceful, Netanyahu and his collaborators should be in the Hague.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Coyote

The hypocrisy from the west is astounding. I don't disagree with excluding Russia from worldwide events, but Israel are actively conducting a genocide and are actively sheltered by the US and Europe. I was clenching my ass during the World Cup qualifying draw, hoping we didn't draw Israel. They're giving special provisions to their teams in European tournaments also after that situation with Ajax last year. Beyond disgraceful, Netanyahu and his collaborators should be in the Hague.

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:thumbup:

What happened in the atrocity referred to in the thread title more than eighteen months sparked such a reaction from so many countries, yet the reaction to this incident, where not too many less than 40 have died, and the tens, if not hundreds of similar type, that have followed the Hamas attack is completely different because one of the worst cases of double standards of my lifetime is being applied by people who claim to be representing “civilisation”.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cvg5vyp33j1t

Quote:

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Originally Posted by the other bob wilson

What happened in the atrocity referred to in the thread title more than eighteen months sparked such a reaction from so many countries, yet the reaction to this incident, where not too many less than 40 have died, and the tens, if not hundreds of similar type, that have followed the Hamas attack is completely different because one of the worst cases of double standards of my lifetime is being applied by people who claim to be representing “civilisation”.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cvg5vyp33j1t

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Another one since the last one , 3 days ago ?

Appalling

Quote:

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Originally Posted by the other bob wilson

What happened in the atrocity referred to in the thread title more than eighteen months sparked such a reaction from so many countries, yet the reaction to this incident, where not too many less than 40 have died, and the tens, if not hundreds of similar type, that have followed the Hamas attack is completely different because one of the worst cases of double standards of my lifetime is being applied by people who claim to be representing “civilisation”.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cvg5vyp33j1t

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by SLUDGE FACTORY

Another one since the last one , 3 days ago ?

Appalling

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All these atrocities follow a similar pattern, with the IDF denying, then claiming to investigate, then saying 'yes but Hamas' (often in relation to some claimed low level operative somewhere near the target site, then agreeing they did it but by then they have done it many times more - following the same script - and hope the world has moved on and is as bored with the mass murder of Palestinian children as they are!

The two recent changes appear to be (from Israeli sources speaking to the western media) that they are now setting out to kill even more civilians than last month - partly a 'collateral damage' (sick expression) acceptable non-combatant deaths reset and partly to accelerate the despair and destruction to speed up the ethnic cleansing.

At the same time they now have their client US/Israeli 'aid distribution' outfit to echo and repeat the IDF claims - whilst helping to enable the latest civilian carnage. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is funnelling people into kill zones for the IDF by the way it works with very small amounts of aid, a requirement for people who can to walk to pre-distribution points and their private army to keep people in place until the tanks, drones and the 'most moral army in the world' gets involved!

Public support for Israel in Western Europe now at its lowest point ever according to YouGov.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...ecorded-yougov

The same thing is happening in North America. The people ahead of the politicians again.

'How exactly has Britain supported Israel’s military assault on Gaza? The public has a right to know.' (Jeremy Corbyn)

https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...abour-iraq-war

https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...al-law-illegal

Each of the 22 illegal settlements approved by Israel last week is another nail in the coffin of the peace process, hammered in by the complicity of western governments and corporations. Israeli settlements are not benign civilian neighbourhoods – they are primary instruments of dispossession, control and apartheid. Settlements are closed militarised zones on Palestinians’ stolen land, cutting off our access to our resources, our farms, our schools, our jobs and each other. Palestinian lands rapidly shrink, our livelihoods are devastated, our rights are systematically violated and our identity is undermined.

Western lawmakers look on, expressing commitment to peace through a two-state solution but choosing to do nothing to achieve this goal. Instead, their policies and inaction enable yet further settlement activity.

In the West Bank we live in an obvious two-tier system, yet most lawmakers continue to shun the word “apartheid” despite Palestinian, Israeli and international human rights organisations concurring on its accuracy and the international court of justice (ICJ) reaffirming it last July. The Settlers, the BBC documentary by Louis Theroux, helped expose this reality, showing me being prevented from even walking on the same streets as Israelis in the neighbourhood of Hebron, where I was born.

In response to the documentary, Israeli settlers and soldiers broke into my yard, vandalised it and assaulted me. Soldiers made no arrests but instead threatened to arrest me if I filed a complaint. Then one morning at 4am, young settlers made a bonfire on private Palestinian land outside my home and chanted that they hoped to see me killed. One individual showed up right in front of my house in army fatigues and with a semi-automatic rifle to intimidate me.

Clive Lewis MP to Kier Starmer:

https://labouroutlook.org/2025/06/02...r-gaza-policy/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cnv18gp4rdzo

Aid distribution centres in Gaza will be closed for a day on Wednesday, as the Israeli military warned roads leading to the sites will be considered "combat zones".

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Overnight on Tuesday, at least 27 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire close to a distribution centre, according to the Hamas-run Civil Defence Agency.

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It was the third deadly incident in as many days to occur on a route to a GHF site.

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It comes as humanitarian organisations continue to warn that Palestinians in Gaza do not have sufficient access to food, water and other supplies.

The GHF aims to replace the UN-led aid distribution network in Gaza following repeated claims from Israel that it did not prevent supplies being hijacked by Hamas, which the UN denies.

Under the new distribution system, Gazans are required to collect supplies from a small number of centres in areas under Israeli military control and staffed by armed American contractors.

Critics say the model has left people needing to walk long distances to the sites and transport boxes weighing 20kg back to their homes or shelters.

The UN and other humanitarian organisations have accused the GHF of failing to uphold humanitarian principles.

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Also on Tuesday, Reverend Dr Johnnie Moore - a Christian evangelical pastor and prominent supporter of US President Donald Trump - was announced as the new head of GHF.

He was appointed to replace its first chief Jake Wood, a former US marine who stood down and criticised the GHF model.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/c62v52z73vdo

Norway's Labour Party refuses to disinvest from the Occupied Territories and - through Norway's Sovereign Wealth Fund - remains the biggest investor in illegal settlements:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...an-territories

The UK's Labour Party refuses to end arms supplies to Israel:

https://www.theguardian.com/politics...nd-intolerable

More weasel words and hypocrisy!

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...curity-council

The USA backs Israel again in the UN Security Council and vetoes another ceasefire resolution. Every other country (including all the other permanent members) vote for the resolution.

Keeping in lock-step with Trump no longer appears to be the first consideration.

Small steps but significant.

Latest reply from my MP (not a Starmer groupie):

Dear....

Thank you for contacting me about the devastating events ongoing in Gaza and the West Bank. I understand and share your despair over the abhorrent loss of life that has taken place over the last 20 months.

Further to my last letter, I welcome the Government’s suspension of trade talks with Israel and the sanctioning of Israeli settlers involved in violence, as well as the Prime Minister’s joint statement with other world leaders condemning Israel’s actions and calling for a ceasefire. Given the severity of the situation, it remains my opinion that we must go further; impose sanctions on Israeli ministers, and enact a full arms embargo.

In the last month I have joined colleagues in writing to the Foreign Secretary to highlight the role of F-35s in the destruction of Gaza, urging the Foreign Secretary to halt all arms sales to Israel and ensuring we are not complicit in their action. I have recently joined colleagues in writing to the Prime Minister to urge the UK to recognise Palestine as an independent state.

The World Health Organization has said that two million people are being starved in Gaza while tonnes of food are being blocked at the border by Israel. This is intolerable. In Parliament, I asked the Foreign Secretary what is being done to ensure this situation does not continue. You can watch my question here

I will continue to advocate for a just and lasting peace in Israel and Palestine, and for the British government to use all diplomatic and political means at its disposal to help achieve it. I continue to believe that a just and lasting peace must uphold the equal rights, dignity, and security of Palestinians and Israelis. Such a peace cannot be achieved without an immediate and permanent ceasefire, the release of all hostages held by Hamas, and the release of Palestinian political prisoners held without charge or trial under Israel’s policy of administrative detention. Accountability for violations of international law must apply, and there must be a renewed commitment to diplomacy, human rights, and justice. Only through an end to the occupation, the dismantling of apartheid structures, and the recognition of our shared humanity can we build a future in which both peoples live in freedom and safety.

Thank you once again for taking the time to write to me. Please be assured that your correspondence makes an impact.

Kind regards,
Olivia Blake MP

Following on from a discussion up this thread, this is the argument for reversal of Pritti Patel's proscription of the political wing of Hamas in 2021 - to help achieve peace in Gaza/Palestine not just through back door negotiations by the USA - almost 2 decades after the military wing was proscribed and after successive governments refused to take that step.

Given the sensitivities and the legal position, the article and the argument is clearly caveated - as it should be. Nothing in it represents support for Hamas.

But it is an important and interesting piece from the Jewish Voice for Labour - and part of a live legal challenge to the government's (originally Tory, but inherited and amplified by Labour) stance.

https://www.jewishvoiceforlabour.org...cles-for-you_1

https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2025/0...arian-aid-Gaza

In an effort to prevent humanitarian aid from entering Gaza and fight the Islamic resistance movement, Israel has reportedly partnered with the Daesh-linked "Abu Shabab" group based in Gaza.

Former Israeli war minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Thursday that the regime has armed “criminal and ISIS-linked gangs” in the Gaza Strip on Netanyahu’s orders.

“Under the prime minister’s orders, Israel is transferring weapons to criminals in Gaza who are affiliated with the Daesh terrorist group, as a counterbalance to Hamas,” Lieberman said.

“As far as I can tell, this wasn’t approved by the cabinet, and I’m not sure the IDF chief of staff even knows about it."

In response, Netanyahu's office said, “Israel is working to defeat Hamas in various ways, on the recommendation of all heads of the security establishment.”

Hamas also reacted to the revelation, saying "Lieberman’s words reveal a dangerous truth: the Israeli army is arming criminal gangs in the Gaza Strip to create security and social chaos, advancing the occupation’s plans for systematic starvation and theft of humanitarian aid."

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/i...nal-gangs-gaza

Israeli opposition leader Avigdor Lieberman has accused Israeli forces, under the approval of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, of arming “crime families” in Gaza.

The accusations add weight to the claim that Israel has used Palestinian gangs to disrupt the distribution of aid in the besieged enclave.

"Israel has provided assault rifles and light weapons to crime families in Gaza, on Netanyahu's orders," Lieberman, the head of the Yisrael Beiteinu party and a former finance minister and deputy prime minister, told Israeli public broadcaster Kan on Thursday.

"The weapons are being transferred to criminals and offenders and are being directed at Israel.

"In my opinion, it did not pass cabinet approval. The head of the Shin Bet knows, I'm not sure the chief of staff knows. We're talking about the equivalent of Isis in Gaza," he added, referencing the Islamic State group.


Story also carried by The Times of Israel and western print media.

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Originally Posted by jon1959

https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2025/0...arian-aid-Gaza

In an effort to prevent humanitarian aid from entering Gaza and fight the Islamic resistance movement, Israel has reportedly partnered with the Daesh-linked "Abu Shabab" group based in Gaza.

Former Israeli war minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Thursday that the regime has armed “criminal and ISIS-linked gangs” in the Gaza Strip on Netanyahu’s orders.

“Under the prime minister’s orders, Israel is transferring weapons to criminals in Gaza who are affiliated with the Daesh terrorist group, as a counterbalance to Hamas,” Lieberman said.

“As far as I can tell, this wasn’t approved by the cabinet, and I’m not sure the IDF chief of staff even knows about it."

In response, Netanyahu's office said, “Israel is working to defeat Hamas in various ways, on the recommendation of all heads of the security establishment.”

Hamas also reacted to the revelation, saying "Lieberman’s words reveal a dangerous truth: the Israeli army is arming criminal gangs in the Gaza Strip to create security and social chaos, advancing the occupation’s plans for systematic starvation and theft of humanitarian aid."

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/i...nal-gangs-gaza

Israeli opposition leader Avigdor Lieberman has accused Israeli forces, under the approval of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, of arming “crime families” in Gaza.

The accusations add weight to the claim that Israel has used Palestinian gangs to disrupt the distribution of aid in the besieged enclave.

"Israel has provided assault rifles and light weapons to crime families in Gaza, on Netanyahu's orders," Lieberman, the head of the Yisrael Beiteinu party and a former finance minister and deputy prime minister, told Israeli public broadcaster Kan on Thursday.

"The weapons are being transferred to criminals and offenders and are being directed at Israel.

"In my opinion, it did not pass cabinet approval. The head of the Shin Bet knows, I'm not sure the chief of staff knows. We're talking about the equivalent of Isis in Gaza," he added, referencing the Islamic State group.


Story also carried by The Times of Israel and western print media.

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Interesting sources, although as you correctly say, the story was also carried by more reputable news services. Netanyahu has made some questionable decisions, but this appears to be right up there with the stupidest of them. The main man they are working with appears to be on borrowed time mind, his own family released a statement asking for those around him to 'liquidate' him.

More evidence of BBC bias in language and reporting, censorship and servility to a political agenda:

https://www.jewishvoiceforlabour.org...cles-for-you_1

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Originally Posted by jon1959

More evidence of BBC bias in language and reporting, censorship and servility to a political agenda:

https://www.jewishvoiceforlabour.org...cles-for-you_1

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Surely you don't think the BBC is part of some international conspiracy?

**** Israel, **** Iran, **** all of the zealots in the Middle East.

Pay countries with lots of land to resettle the warring factions on opposite sides of the planet then turn what’s left to glass.

Make sure that the innocent animals there get the most comfortable travel out of there!

Israel is rogue, Islam in general is very ****ing rogue.
Hamas protesters and Zionists can both suck my balls.
Get rid of them all.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Wash DC Blue

**** Israel, **** Iran, **** all of the zealots in the Middle East.

Pay countries with lots of land to resettle the warring factions on opposite sides of the planet then turn what’s left to glass.

Make sure that the innocent animals there get the most comfortable travel out of there!

Israel is rogue, Islam in general is very ****ing rogue.
Hamas protesters and Zionists can both suck my balls.
Get rid of them all.

---

Resettle the warring factions, save the animals and then turn the millions of civilians in the middle that are just trying to live their lives into glass?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by delmbox

Resettle the warring factions, save the animals and then turn the millions of civilians in the middle that are just trying to live their lives into glass?

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I had a little too much gin last night and posted within 20 minutes of learning about the US involvement, which really saddened me.

To reduce it down…the UN or whoever has the clout to offer a sizable part of a country with plenty of land could be paid or have their debts cleared to allow Israelis (and other Jews) to rebuild.

Another does the same for Palestinians.
(It seems like a better deal than their Middle Eastern Brethren would do).

A 12 month period with financial assistance to go for everyone.

Then it becomes unlivable, if they don’t won’t to move…tough, it should be bombed regularly and people moved out when they have enough.

A stupid analogy as I’m sure you will agree..

And yes, I do care more about the wildlife than the human consequence.

I have a bird box on my deck and about a month ago I started watching a pair of small thrushes build a nest.
They hatched chicks and I watched the parents fly in and out to feed their babies.
One morning when all was seemingly good, the nest hole was covered up by scales.

A snake got in there and killed those birds and it broke my heart.
We got someone in to get and release the snake who was resting in the bird box trying to digest those birds.

We let him go into the wilderness as snakes are gonna snake…I still hate that ****er.

After reading you posts with a small break over the years, it’s quite clear to me that I care more about that snakes welfare than I ever will for yours.

I think you’re a snide c***.
Do yourself a favour and ignore my posts.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Wash DC Blue

I had a little too much gin last night and posted within 20 minutes of learning about the US involvement, which really saddened me.

To reduce it down…the UN or whoever has the clout to offer a sizable part of a country with plenty of land could be paid or have their debts cleared to allow Israelis (and other Jews) to rebuild.

Another does the same for Palestinians.
(It seems like a better deal than their Middle Eastern Brethren would do).

A 12 month period with financial assistance to go for everyone.

Then it becomes unlivable, if they don’t won’t to move…tough, it should be bombed regularly and people moved out when they have enough.

A stupid analogy as I’m sure you will agree..

And yes, I do care more about the wildlife than the human consequence.

I have a bird box on my deck and about a month ago I started watching a pair of small thrushes build a nest.
They hatched chicks and I watched the parents fly in and out to feed their babies.
One morning when all was seemingly good, the nest hole was covered up by scales.

A snake got in there and killed those birds and it broke my heart.
We got someone in to get and release the snake who was resting in the bird box trying to digest those birds.

We let him go into the wilderness as snakes are gonna snake…I still hate that ****er.

After reading you posts with a small break over the years, it’s quite clear to me that I care more about that snakes welfare than I ever will for yours.

I think you’re a snide c***.
Do yourself a favour and ignore my posts.

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I think I'm nearly with you on this one. The perilous situation of the animals appalls me. All the animals are innocent. But the majority of the poor Gazans are innocents too so my heart cries out for them as well. I'm sure you have an idea of my disgust, anger and hatred for all those evil people who are the instigators of this awful tragedy visited up on all the innocents, be the sufferers animal or human.