Witnessing Israel’s ethnic cleansing in the West Bank

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Written by Dave Knieter Dave Knieter

Published: 18 May 2025 18 May 2025

I was one of two volunteers from the human rights organisation International Solidarity Movement arrested in the Palestinian occupied territories in January this year. The charge: Disrupting the Israeli military and police from stealing Palestinian land from the Abu Na’eem family on the rural outskirts of the village al-Mughayyir, about 27 kilometres north-east of Ramallah.

Handcuffed, I was forced to sit in the back of a military truck, surrounded by soldiers pointing rifles at me. Staring out the back window I watched the Israeli flag unfurl against the Bedouin encampment as the village vanished from view.

I was suddenly alone and powerless in an undemocratic, rogue state.

Read the full article with images and videos at greenleft.org.au

For more information about the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) see: https://palsolidarity.org/about/faq/

To my newborn son: I am absent not out of apathy, but conviction

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Written by Mahmoud Khalil Mahmoud Khalil

Published: 13 May 2025 13 May 2025

Yaba Deen,* it has been two weeks since you were born, and these are my first words to you.

In the early hours of 21 April, I waited on the other end of a phone as your mother labored to bring you into this world. I listened to her pained breaths and tried to speak comforting words into her ear over the crackling line. During your first moments, I buried my face in my arms and kept my voice low so that the 70 other men sleeping in this concrete room would not see my cloudy eyes or hear my voice catch. I feel suffocated by my rage and the cruelty of a system that deprived your mother and me of sharing this experience. Why do faceless politicians have the power to strip human beings of their divine moments?

Since that morning, I have come to recognize the look in the eyes of every father in this detention center. I sit here contemplating the immensity of your birth and wonder how many more firsts will be sacrificed to the whims of the US government, which denied me even the chance of furlough to attend your birth. How is it that the same politicians who preach “family values” are the ones tearing families apart?

Read the full piece on The Guardian

Who killed Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh – and why?

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Written by Dion Nissenbaum Dion Nissenbaum

Published: 08 May 2025 08 May 2025

Our reporting also reveals that an initial American assessment determined that the Israeli soldier intentionally shot Shireen – and that he should have been able to tell that she was a journalist because she was wearing the blue body armor marked “press”.

A key Biden administration official familiar with the examination told us that the soldier who had killed Shireen probably could have been convicted of murder in an American courtroom. But the initial finding was rejected. Instead, the Biden administration did a 180. The US concluded that it found no reason to believe her killing was intentional and blamed it on “tragic circumstances”.

Read more on The Guardian

Devastation, bombing and starvation: Israel is destroying life in Gaza

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Written by B'tselem B'tselem

Published: 05 May 2025 05 May 2025

For two months now, Israel has been blocking the entry of food and humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, deliberately starving over two million people, including more than one million children. On 16 April, Defense Minister Katz declared Israel would continue to block the entry of food and aid into Gaza, effectively admitting it is using starvation as a method of warfare. On 25 April, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) announced that its food warehouses in Gaza were now empty.

This deadly siege is enabled by the international community in an abdication of its responsibility to protect human lives. The Israeli government and other decision-makers continue to deliberately and openly order the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity that exacerbate the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza. They must be held accountable for their actions and face justice.

On 18 March, Israel renewed its campaign of killing and destruction in Gaza. Since then, it has claimed the lives of over 2,200 Palestinians in indiscriminate bombings, shelling and gunfire. Since the start of the war, Israel has killed more than 52,000 Palestinians in Gaza, including over 1,500 medical, defense and aid personnel. The number of deaths caused by hunger, lack of drinking water and the spread of disease is unknown but expected to rise as Israel’s lethal campaign continues.

Read more at B'Tselem