Prominent New York synagogue hosts presentation on why U.S. Jews should support the ethnic cleansing of Gaza

Mondoweiss | Philip Weiss

Benjamin Anthony’s speech at New York’s influential Park Avenue Synagogue, where he argued that U.S. Jews need to support ethnic cleansing in Gaza, illustrates how the American Jewish community has embraced Israeli racism and brutality.

The American press does its best not to cover savage Israeli views of Palestinians, but a leading New York synagogue gave an honored platform to those views ten days ago. It hosted an Israeli advocate with connections in its government who argued for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza, and said American Jews need to support that operation.  

Benjamin Anthony said that all “Palestinian Arabs” in Gaza pose such a threat to Israel that the international community should use “muscular diplomacy” with Egypt so as force the population out of Gaza into an “enclave” in the Sinai peninsula. 

“I believe the international community would very handily be able to create some sort of enclave for the…Gazans in the Sinai peninsula. And then we might have the breathing room to think about long-term solutions.” 

Though those two million Gazans would likely be displaced again, into African countries, said Anthony, the leader of an Israeli think tank called the MirYam Institute. 

“I think someone like [Egyptian president] Sisi would likely move the Gazans along from the Sinai peninsula in the event that he didn’t want to build a place for them there, and you would probably see them dispersed through the continent of Africa quite quickly.”

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The US-Israeli murder of Iranian schoolchildren cannot be whitewashed

Eva Bartlett | RT

Graves being prepared for the victims, mostly children, of what Iranian officials said was an Israeli-US strike on February 28 at a girls' elementary school in Minab, Iran, March 2, 2026. ©  Iranian Foreign Media Department via AP

In Iran, under ongoing US-Israeli attacks, a mass funeral took place today for 168 Iranian schoolgirls aged 7-12, killed by an Israeli airstrike on February 28.

The strike hit the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls' primary school in Minab, southern Iran, in broad daylight, when the children were at school. Fourteen teachers were also killed in the bombing. The bombing occurred as part of US-Israeli attacks sadistically dubbed 'Operation Epic Fury', attacks which have to date targeted schools, hospitals, residential areas and other civilian infrastructure.

It was a scene all too familiar to Palestinians: grief-stricken parents collapsing sobbing at the site of their daughters' murders, clutching bloodstained backpacks, pulling out schoolbooks and personal items of their slain daughters. Children's desks covered in debris from the bombing. A child's shoe in the rubble. Death where life had flourished.

None of this is being conveyed by Western legacy media - only ghoulish gloating over the US-Israeli bombardment of Iran and the murder of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, and his young granddaughter and children.

On March 2, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posted a photo of the graves being dug on X, noting:

"These are graves being dug for more than 160 innocent young girls who were killed in the US-Israeli bombing of a primary school. Their bodies were torn to shreds. This is how "rescue" promised by Mr. Trump looks in reality. From Gaza to Minab, innocents murdered in cold blood."

At the time of this writing, 69 of the murdered girls remain unidentified.

International reaction: Silence

If the bombed school had been in Israel or Ukraine, news of it would have been plastered on front pages of Western media for days, with widespread demands for retaliation, or at least for justice and accountability. Back in 2016, Western media alleged Syria or Russian planes had injured Aleppo boy Omran Daqneesh. His photo went viral, for weeks, even years. A CNN news anchor fake-sobbed for the boy. In 2017, in his home, his father told me their home was not hit in an airstrike, but rather terrorists shelled it and used the boy in a cynical, and effective, photo op.

Footage shared on Telegram and on X clearly show horrific scenes of some of the young girls torn apart in the US-Israeli bombing of their school. But just like the untold thousands of Palestinian children killed by Israel, as well as the half a million Iraqi children killed by US sanctions, these Iranian children's lives don't merit Western media outrage. Instead, they produce cynical reports that not only lack any semblance of empathy, but suggest that Iran is either lying about or is to blame for the murders.

Take the BBC's report, which describes the massacre as a "reported" strike on a school, which "Iran has blamed the US and Israel" for. Casting doubt is standard for legacy media whitewashing the US and Israel's crimes. The US is "looking into reports." Israel is "not aware." Just one of those mysterious unknown strikes.

The BBC then overtly blamed the Iranian government as untrustworthy, writing:

"Deep mistrust of the Iranian regime, however, makes official reports difficult for many to accept, and some Iranians directly blamed the regime for the attack.

The BBC did similarly dishonest and deceptive journalism in 2014 in Damascus after terrorists in eastern Ghouta had shelled an elementary school, killing one child and injuring over 60. The BBC later reported: "the government is also accused of launching [mortar strikes] into neighborhoods under its control." The BBC could have easily learned about the trajectory of mortars and from where the strike in question could only have come: the terrorist "moderates" east of Damascus.

The New York Times also got the memo, likewise omitting Israel from the headline and implying Iran is lying. But when it comes to blaming Iran for its retaliation, the NYT has no problem stating whose missile strike it was. And there is no "Israel says."

CNN ran the headline "A girls' elementary school was hit in Iran. Here's what we know." Its video report not only doesn't mention the US or Israel, but insinuates Iranian blame: In an Israel-like tactic (recall Israel's claiming Gaza's Shifa hospital was a "Hamas base", and staging weapons as "proof"), CNN claims the children's school could be connected to an Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) base. But The Cradle noted that the school had operated independently as a civilian institution for over a decade, with separate entrances, playgrounds, and classrooms.

CNN's report did, at least, debunk online claims that the school was hit by a failed missile launch by Iran, noting the photo shared online as "proof" of the claim was actually taken 800 miles from Minab. But, hello? If it wasn't a failed Iranian missile there is clearly one remaining explanation: the schoolgirls were killed by US-Israeli bombing.

Most Western media cite The US military's Central Command (Centcom) as saying it was "looking into reports of the incident," and the Israeli army as saying it was "not aware of any IDF operations in the area." Ah yes, the guilty shall investigate themselves. Right.

Even if you set aside the actual culprit of the school bombing, legacy media reports are devoid of any concern for the slaughtered children: no details, no empathy, no mention that they were murdered in the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The tone would be radically different were the children Israeli, Ukrainian or American. We would see names, ages, stories about them. They would be humanized - if only they were not Iranian (or Palestinian, or Lebanese, or Syrian).

Since the February 28 Minab school massacre, US-Israeli strikes have attacked still more civilian infrastructure, killing and injuring more Iranian civilians.

One man recounted to RT how after the bombing of central Tehran's Enghelab Square he'd seen a decapitated person in front of his café. Walking around showing the destruction, RT's Tehran bureau chief Hami Hamedi pointed out residential buildings, cars, shops, damaged and destroyed in recent bombings where a police station was among those targeted.

This was the same tactic which Israel used on December 27, 2008, when it unleashed over 100 bombs nearly simultaneously on Gaza, targeting police stations, police academies, universities and more, destroying and damaging shops and residential buildings around them.

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Gaza does not need new overlords

Jehad Abusalim | Mondoweiss

The U.S. plan for Gaza is the final stage of Israel’s genocide. Bombs and bulldozers obliterated Gaza’s landscape, and now skyscrapers and data centers aim to dismantle its social fabric and capacity to resist.

Every few decades, a new group of powerful men gathers around a table to decide what to do with Gaza or with Palestinians in general. The language changes. The underlying logic does not.

The latest proposals to “govern” postwar Gaza, from Jared Kushner’s beachfront development fantasies to the so-called “Board of Peace” and various international trusteeship schemes, are presented as bold, forward-looking visions.  In reality, they are just recycling the same colonial framework that has governed Palestinian life for over a century: external actors decide what Palestinians need, what they may have, and what they must become in order to deserve it.

Gaza’s crisis was never a problem of governance or waiting for the right foreign administrator. It was, and remains, the product of a specific political structure: prolonged military occupation, a seventeen-year siege that strangled every dimension of life, and a settler-colonial project that treats Palestinian existence as an obstacle to be managed or removed. These are the roots. Everything else — the poverty, the misery, the desperation — is a symptom.

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Israeli ban on 37 aid organizations expected to have devastating impacts across Palestine

Qassam Muaddi, Tareq S. Hajja | Mondoweiss

Aid organizations say Israel's recent ban of 37 groups has dealt a severe blow to humanitarian work across Palestine. In Gaza, it means "cutting off a lifeline for over two million people," says Rahma Worldwide's Dr. Shadi Zazzah.

Israel's decision to cancel the registration of 37 international aid organizations at the beginning of the year has dealt a severe blow to the international presence in Palestine. Beyond that, it has delivered a serious blow to Palestinian society itself. The banning of dozens of international NGOs threatens many social assistance and development programs, many of which are Palestinian-run and crucial to sustaining essential services in communities across Palestine.

The ban followed a new set of registration conditions imposed by Israel on international organizations earlier in December, including a requirement to provide Israeli authorities with the personal data of Palestinian staff. Israel said the 37 organizations failed to comply with this requirement, with Israeli Diaspora Affairs Minister, Amichai Chikli, saying the decision aimed to prevent the "exploitation of humanitarian aid for terrorism," although Israel has never provided evidence of such links.

The decision includes several prominent international humanitarian organizations, such as Oxfam, Doctors Without Borders, the Norwegian Refugee Council, and even the Catholic Relief Services (Caritas), all of which were notified to cease operations in the Palestinian territories by March. The ban does not apply to any UN body.

The impact of the ban is expected to be felt most acutely in the Gaza Strip, where all two million Palestinians depend partly or entirely on humanitarian aid. Aid deliveries remain restricted following months of near-total shutdown prior to the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that came into effect in October 2025.

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Gazans are taking matters into their own hands by launching community reconstruction efforts

Noor Alyacoubi | Mondoweiss

With limited resources, Palestinians in Gaza and in exile are funding community reconstruction efforts amid the absence of international aid. “We have to keep trying to help Gaza rise again,” an organizer with the Sameer Project tells Mondoweiss.

Abu Ahmad, a displaced resident of northern Gaza, thought he would be living with some sort of roof over his head by now. Instead, he and his family remain exposed to the cold and the rain with only a threadbare tent for shelter. He told Mondoweiss:

"When the ceasefire was announced, I believed I would finally be able to rebuild my home, or at least get a caravan to survive the winter. Instead, we only hear about plans and conferences. Nothing has actually changed."

Abu Ahmad's home now lies beyond the so-called Yellow Line, which cuts Gaza in half and has been progressively expanded by the Israeli army to cover larger swathes of land to fall under its control.

Almost two months into the ceasefire, international conferences on Gaza's reconstruction and frequent promises to rebuild have so far amounted to little. According to UN estimates, 25 hospitals are out of service, nearly 70% of housing units have been partially or completely destroyed, 85% of water and sewage facilities have been damaged, and 95% of schools are reduced to rubble.

Amid these conditions, humanitarian aid and reconstruction materials have entered at rates far below the agreed-upon amounts as part of the ceasefire deal. Gazans have characterized the present humanitarian situation as a "new form of genocide."

U.S. President Donald Trump has envisioned turning Gaza into a Middle East "Riviera," while his 20-point "peace" plan would see Gaza run by a foreign "Board of Peace" that amounts to a Mandate-like form of colonial rule over the Strip.

Meanwhile, Egypt plans to host an international conference on Gaza's reconstruction, estimating that $70 billion would be required to rebuild it. Qatar and other countries have also pledged support. On the ground, however, no tangible reconstruction efforts have begun, widening the gap between political statements and lived reality.

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Buildings collapse on Gaza families as rain floods tents

Nora Barrows-Friedman | Electronic Intifada

Israel continues to kill and injure Palestinians across the Gaza Strip while shelling areas east of the so-called yellow line.

It is also still preventing the entry of shelters and basic supplies during relentless storms which have been collapsing tents and partially-destroyed buildings on top of people.

Israel has killed 394 Palestinians and injured nearly 1,100 since the 10 October alleged ceasefire, according to the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza.

On Wednesday, the ministry reported that at least one Palestinian was killed and another was injured in Israeli attacks. [...]

Mahmoud Basal, spokesperson for the civil defense, gathered pieces of shrapnel in the aftermath of an Israeli attack on the center of Gaza City on Wednesday. Eleven people were injured in the explosion.

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Palestinians in Gaza are dying as the Israeli siege turns harsh winter weather deadly

Tareq S. Hajjaj | Mondoweiss

Severe weather conditions in Gaza have claimed the lives of 13 people, including babies who froze to death, as Israel continues to block the entry of aid that could provide shelter to 1.5 million Palestinians living in worn-out tents.

The parents of 8-month-old Rahaf Abu Jazar woke up on Thursday morning to find their baby blue in the lips and with cold and stiff limbs. She had frozen to death after heavy rainfall seeped through the tent while everyone was asleep, soaking through Rahaf’s clothes.

Hajar Abu Jazar, 32, says her daughter was a healthy baby and did not suffer from any illness or preexisting condition. Hajar lives with her husband and seven of their children in a tent encampment in the Mawasi area of Khan Younis in southern Gaza. Hajar says that she is afraid that Rahaf won’t be the only one of her children who freezes to death or suffers harm from the severe weather conditions. 

“Yesterday, she was playing with her siblings and had no complaints,” she told Mondoweiss. “We went to bed and woke up the next day and found that her clothes were soaked through. She froze to death in her sleep.”

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How the world can resist the UN Security Council’s rogue colonial mandate in Gaza

Craig Mokhiber | Mondoweiss.net

The UN Security Council resolution backing the Trump plan for Gaza is clearly illegitimate, but there are several ways that states and individuals worldwide can challenge its illegality.

n a now infamous moment in television history, former US President Richard Nixon, three years after leaving office in scandal, was asked by interviewer David Frost if the US President could commit illegal acts. Nixon replied: “If the President does it, that means that it is not illegal.” 

With those twelve words, Nixon dismissed the core idea of republican government and the very essence of the rule of law. For Nixon (and far too many today), some people and some institutions are simply above the law. And not only are they not bound by the law that binds the rest of us, but we must follow their orders. Afterall, this is the divine right of kings. 

Almost a half century later, Nixonian ideology is alive and well. 

In the wake of the Security Council adoption of resolution 2803 last month (a resolution that shocked legal analysts and human rights defenders around the globe for its blatantly colonial content, and about which I have written previously) even critics of the resolution have thrown up their hands to declare “oh well, the Security Council adopted it, so now its law.” In other words, to paraphrase Nixon, “if the Security Council does it, that means it is not illegal.” 

Nonsense. 

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Israeli Forces Accused Of Executing Unarmed Palestinians After They Surrendered

Zero Hedge

Members of the Israeli border police have been accused of executing two unarmed Palestinian men after they surrendered in the West Bank town of Jenin.

In the incident from Thursday caught on camera, two men can be seen emerging from a doorway of what appears to be a warehouse, lifting their shirts, before they were shot dead by the Israelis. 

The IDF says that the incident is under "review" - but claims that the two men were terrorists who had attacked them earlier. After gathering their bodies, the IDF says that the men were identified as Mahmoud Qassem Abdallah, 26, and Youssef Asasa, 37, and were "wanted individuals who had carried out terror activities, including hurling explosives and firing at security forces." 

"The forces entered the area, enclosed the structure in which the suspects were located and initiated a surrender procedure that lasted several hours," an IDF spokesman told the Telegraph. "Following the use of engineering tools on the structure, the two suspects exited.

"Following their exit, fire was directed toward the suspects. The incident is under review by the commanders on the ground and will be transferred to the relevant professional bodies."

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Israel is killing Gazans trying to return to their homes beyond the ‘yellow line’

Tareq S. Hajjaj | Monodweiss.net

As part of the ceasefire, Gaza has been split in half by the so-called ‘yellow line,’ where Israel’s military controls just over 50% of the Strip. Palestinians are being killed for trying to cross or even get close to the line. 

There is an invisible line dividing Gaza, and any Palestinian who attempts to cross it, or even get close to it, is killed. 

That is what happened to Ibrahim and Mazen al-Najjar, two men from the same family,  on November 5th. Displaced in the al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis, they attempted to go to their home in the eastern part of Khan Younis, to attempt to retrieve some belongings. It was a simple enough task. The only problem was, their home lies behind the ‘yellow line’, which is the area of Gaza under full Israeli military control since the ceasefire on October 10. Ibrahim and Mazen never made it to their home, and returned to their displacement camp in body bags. They were shot and killed by Israeli soldiers while attempting to cross the line.

The al-Najjars are only a few of some 250 Palestinians who have been killed by Israel since the ceasefire began.

Many of those Palestinians have been killed in similar circumstances, while trying to return home. While the ceasefire agreement stipulates a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza in the second phase, that has not yet begun. The ‘yellow line’ marks the area that Israel now controls in Gaza during this initial ceasefire period. 

This line divides the inner neighborhoods of the Strip into two halves: one where residents are allowed to be present, and another that is forbidden to them. According to Palestinians, anyone who approaches those areas is dealt with by intense force.

The yellow line is a new reality, as it divides the Gaza Strip into two parts, with the eastern part under Israeli army control. According to estimates, there are around 37 Israeli military points and positions within these areas, starting from Rafah to Beit Hanoun. The yellow line passes through the middle of large, densely populated neighborhoods such as Shuja’iyya in eastern Gaza City, Jabalia in the north, and Khan Younis and Rafah in the south, covering about 50% of the total area of the Strip.

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Israel wants to implement the death penalty for Palestinian prisoners. Here's what you need to know

Comment: I guess the Zio-Nazis feel they haven't genocided enough Palestinians so they need to leverage the killing machine that bit further... What can you expect from a surfeit of psychopaths?

 

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Qassam Muaddi | Mondoweiss

 

Israel is advancing a dangerous bill to impose the death penalty on Palestinian prisoners. Right-wing leaders want to go even further and use the bill to give Israeli forces the authority to carry out extrajudicial killings.

Israel is one step closer to passing a law that would allow Israeli courts to sentence Palestinian prisoners to death. On Monday, the Israeli Knesset passed the bill in a first reading with a majority of 39 votes in favor against 16 in opposition. The bill was presented as "exceptional" law, under a special status that allows it to be passed only with the majority of votes cast, and not the majority of the Knesset members, which is why absentees and abstentions were not counted. It still needs to pass two more readings before entering into force.

The law applies to individuals who are convicted for acts that led to the death of Israelis, if the acts were motivated by "racism or hostility towards the public" and "committed with the objective of harming the state of Israel or the rebirth of the Jewish people," making it applicable exclusively to Palestinians. It was introduced by Knesset member Limor Son Har-Melech from the ultra-nationalist "Jewish Power" party with a strong support base by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, like Har-Melech herself.

The party is led by Itamar Ben-Gvir, a key ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government coalition. The death penalty for Palestinian prisoners has been a main political demand of Ben-Gvir, who has been behind the worsening of detention conditions of Palestinian prisoners in recent years.

Israel does have the death penalty in its law, but has only been considered applicable in rare situations of grave crimes, like genocide, and was applied once in 1962 against former Nazi officer Adolf Eichmann. The new law introduces three new stipulations which indicate the intention is to use the death penalty on Palestinians.

First, the bill's wording allows the death penalty on individuals convicted of killing Israelis on "nationalistic or racist" grounds. This limits its application to non-Israelis and employs the euphamism of "nationalistic" crimes which is commonly used to describe Palestinian attacks against Israelis.

Second, since it applies to Palestinians in the occupied territory, it gives Israeli military courts, who are the ones who issue penal sentences against Palestinians under occupation the power to put Palestinians to death.

Third, it allows the death sentence to be given with a simple majority of judges, and not by consensus.

Even still, Ben-Gvir continues to push to loosen the law's application even more to give Israeli forces the authority to execute Palestinians in the field.

 

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YouTube erases hundreds of videos of alleged Israeli war crimes

RT 

The hosting platform has cited US sanctions against NGOs that investigated the abuses as the reason.

YouTube has removed hundreds of videos documenting alleged human rights violations by Israel in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, including eyewitness accounts, investigative reports, and humanitarian footage, according to the American non-profit news outlet The Intercept.

Since October, the video hosting platform has reportedly deleted more than 700 videos and suspended the accounts of prominent Palestinian human-rights groups Al-Haq, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights. The deleted materials reportedly included an investigation into the killing of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh by Israeli forces, footage of home demolitions in the West Bank, and a documentary about mothers who survived Israeli attacks in Gaza.

The Intercept described the removals as part of a broader US-backed effort to suppress documentation of alleged Israeli war crimes. The same Palestinian organizations targeted by YouTube were sanctioned by Washington in September for submitting evidence to the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. The ICC issued arrest warrants for both officials in 2024 over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

A YouTube spokesperson, Boot Bullwinkle, told The Intercept that the platform's owner Google "is committed to compliance with applicable sanctions."

Washington's influence over tech companies became a national controversy during the Joe Biden presidency. In the Murthy v. Missouri case, federal agencies were accused of pressuring Meta, Twitter, and YouTube to suppress disfavored opinions under the pretext of combating misinformation. The Supreme Court dismissed the case in 2024 on procedural grounds, leaving unresolved whether such government-platform coordination violates the constitutional right to freedom of speech.

The removals come amid Washington's military and diplomatic support for Israel during the Gaza conflict. The US has provided additional arms to Israel and repeatedly blocked UN resolutions calling for ceasefires and condemning civilian casualties. Critics argue that such moves shielded Israel from accountability and weakened international efforts to end the violence.

The latest violence started when Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages. According to the Hamas-controlled Gaza health authorities, over 68,000 Palestinians have been killed since.

Comment: It's more probably hundreds of thousands. And no mention of how many Silicon Valley companies are controlled by the Zionist Establishment.

YouTube: A Digital Form of Occupation Designed to Silence Palestinian Voices

21st Century Wire

For years, with a net increase since Oct 7, YouTube has quietly engaged in what digital rights groups are calling a systematic erasure of Palestinian voices. Videos documenting Israeli war crimes in Gaza and the West Bank, footage of airstrikes, home demolitions, and civilian casualties, have been vanishing from the platform. Entire channels belonging to Palestinian human rights organisations such as Al-Haq, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights were suspended, along with their archives and hundreds of videos that once served as vital evidence for international investigators.

YouTube has defended these removals by citing sanctions and trade compliance laws. The company claims that it must adhere to U.S. restrictions imposed during the Trump administration, which targeted several Palestinian organisations for cooperating with the International Criminal Court’s investigation into alleged Israeli war crimes. In other words, videos documenting potential atrocities were taken down not for violating YouTube’s community guidelines, but because of political designations rooted in Washington’s foreign policy.

Critics say this marks a chilling intersection of geopolitics and algorithmic power. A platform built on the promise of open expression is now intentionally enforcing the narratives of powerful states. Under pressure from both U.S. and Israeli officials, YouTube and other major tech companies have shown a willing readiness to remove content deemed critical of Israel, even when that content is factual, documentary, or journalistic in nature.

The result is a double standard that runs deep. Pro-Israel content, including inflammatory material and obvious propaganda, often remains online with minimal scrutiny. Hebrew-language videos glorifying military campaigns or mocking Palestinian suffering circulate freely, while Arabic and English-language uploads depicting the human cost of war are swiftly flagged, restricted, or deleted. One notorious example, an Israeli rap video containing explicit calls to violence, was allowed to stay up; YouTube argued it targeted “terrorists,” not Palestinians as a people. Meanwhile, Palestinian groups uploading evidence of civilian humiliation and deaths were accused of spreading “graphic violence” or “terrorist propaganda.”

This asymmetry reveals more than inconsistent moderation; it exposes a structural bias built into the very fabric of Silicon Valley’s global platforms. Algorithms designed in English, guided by Western definitions of “harm,” and informed by U.S. geopolitical priorities, inevitably weigh some lives, and some stories, more heavily than others. What is presented as a neutral enforcement of policy often amounts to a digital form of occupation: the silencing of a people’s testimony at the moment they most need to be heard.

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Israel Arrests Ex-Army Lawyer Over Leaked Video Showing Palestinian’s Abuse

Al Jazeera

Israeli police have arrested a former military prosecutor after she leaked a video appearing to show soldiers abusing a Palestinian detainee.

Major General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi was detained overnight on Monday, according to the country’s national security minister, following a scandal that erupted after she leaked a video, resigned and then disappeared.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called the leaking of the video perhaps the most “severe public relations attack” on Israel since its founding.

Reporting from Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh said the arrest of Tomer-Yerushalmi has created “a political and legal storm in Israel”, noting the spotlight on the leaker has overshadowed attention to the original crime.

“There is so much focus on the fact that this video was leaked, at the expense of discussing how this crime actually happened – and the fact that the UN says that these kinds of crimes are being committed in a systematic manner,” Odeh said.

“In one way, it’s a way to shift attention from the fact that these crimes are happening, by focusing on this woman and the fact that she leaked the video.”

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Top IDF lawyer quits over video leak of detainee sexual abuse

Comment: Even among their own, their pathology is beginning fracture the collective...

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RT

The footage reportedly shows Israeli soldiers at a military base assaulting a Palestinian prisoner.

The Israel Defense Force's (IDF) top military lawyer has quit after admitting she approved the leak of a video allegedly showing Israeli soldiers abusing a Palestinian prisoner at a military base.

Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi announced her resignation on Friday, saying she had authorized the release of surveillance footage from Sde Teiman near the Gaza border, which also serves as a detention site. The video, filmed in early July 2024, showed soldiers taking aside a detainee lying face down, then surrounding him with riot shields to block visibility as they allegedly carried out the abuse. The man was later taken for treatment for severe injuries. The leaked clip was aired by Israel's Channel 12 news that August.

In her resignation letter published by The Times of Israel on Friday, Tomer-Yerushalmi said she approved the release "in an attempt to counter the false propaganda directed against the military law enforcement authorities."

She wrote that while those detained at Sde Teiman "are terrorists and terror operatives of the worst kind," that does not diminish the duty to investigate when there is "reasonable suspicion of violence against a detainee."

Commenting on her resignation, Defense Minister Israel Katz said, "Anyone who spreads blood libels against IDF soldiers is not worthy of wearing the IDF uniform."

Following the Sde Teiman incident, five reservists were charged with aggravated abuse and causing serious bodily harm to a detainee, which they have denied. The case sparked outrage among coalition politicians and right-wing activists. Dozens of protesters stormed the military base in an attempt to block the arrests.

The facility, partially converted into a detention camp for Palestinians suspected of militant activity, has faced allegations of widespread torture and abuse. Over 1,000 detainees from Gaza have reportedly passed through the base, including men accused of taking part in Hamas' October 7 attack, which left some 1,200 people dead and 251 taken hostage. According to the Hamas-controlled Gaza health authorities, Israeli military action has killed over 68,000 Palestinians since.

The resignation adds to growing scrutiny of Israel's conduct in Gaza, as both sides say they remain committed to a US-brokered truce.  

See also: Israel's Undeniable War Crimes in Gaza

IDF's top lawyer quits; says she approved leak of detainee abuse video

International Court of Justice Delivers Opinion on Israel’s Obligations

Voltairenet.org

At the request of the UN General Assembly, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the internal court of the United Nations, issued an advisory opinion on 22 October on the "Obligations of Israel with regard to the presence and activities of the United Nations, other international organizations and third States in and in connection with the Occupied Palestinian Territory". 

The Court is of the opinion that the State of Israel, as the occupying power, must fulfil its obligations under international humanitarian law. These obligations include:

 ensuring that the population of the Occupied Palestinian Territory has access to the essentials of daily life, including water, food, clothing, sleeping materials, shelter and fuel, as well as medical items and services; 

 accepting and facilitating to the fullest extent possible relief actions for the population of the Occupied Palestinian Territory as long as they are inadequately supplied, as has been observed in the Gaza Strip, including relief actions by the United Nations and its entities, in particular the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, and by international organizations and third States, and not to prevent such actions; 

 respecting and protecting all emergency and medical personnel, as well as their premises; 

 respecting the prohibition of forcible transfer and deportation to the Occupied Palestinian Territory;... 

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Gaza Cease-fire Agreement Furthers Ongoing Age of Imperialism

Jeremy Kazmurov | Covert Action Magazine 

In October 9, Israel and Hamas announced the adoption of a cease-fire agreement involving the release of all hostages held by Hamas.

Israel, in exchange, agreed to allow for the entry of humanitarian aid, to release Palestinian prisoners, and to withdraw its forces to a so-called “yellow line” from which they will still control all land crossings into Gaza.

The U.S. additionally agreed to send 200 more troops to Israel to monitor and oversee the agreement.

New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman gushed that President Donald Trump deserved a Nobel Peace Prize for helping to broker the agreement. However, the World Socialist Web Site reported that the October 9 “peace” deal inscribes a return to the open colonial domination of the Middle East that prevailed in the 19^th century.

Gaza is now to be governed by a “Board of Peace” headed and chaired by Donald Trump and which will include former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair.

The International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) noted that the “peace agreement” was “steeped in colonial rhetoric” and that its “inclusion of an international ‘Board of Peace’…ensures the exclusion of Palestinian voices from the decision-making of Palestinian futures.”

A hidden U.S.-Israeli agenda has long been to control oil and gas fields off the Gaza coast that are estimated to be worth more than $500 billion.

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Hundreds of prominent Jews call for sanctions on Israel

Comment: It only took over 70 years....

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RT

Hundreds of prominent Jewish figures across the world have called on the UN and global leaders to impose sanctions on Israel over what they describe as "unconscionable" actions in Gaza that they say amount to genocide.

An open letter urging governments to hold Israel accountable for alleged violations of international law in Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem garnered more than 450 signatories, including former Israeli officials, intellectuals, and artists. The letter coincides with reports that EU leaders may abandon plans to introduce sanctions against Israel during a summit in Brussels on Thursday.

The signatories wrote:

"We have not forgotten that so many of the laws, charters, and conventions established to safeguard and protect all human life were created in response to the Holocaust. Those safeguards have been relentlessly violated by Israel."

The appeal includes former Knesset speaker Avraham Burg, Israeli peace negotiator Daniel Levy, authors Michael Rosen and Naomi Klein, Oscar-winning filmmaker Jonathan Glazer, actors Wallace Shawn and Ilana Glazer, and philosopher Omri Boehm.

The group has urged world leaders to enforce International Court of Justice and International Criminal Court rulings, halt arms sales, and impose targeted sanctions on Israeli officials and entities complicit in alleged crimes.

The petition follows a shift in public opinion among American Jews and voters more broadly. A recent poll by the Washington Post found that 61% of US Jews believe Israel has committed war crimes in Gaza, and 39% say it is committing genocide. A separate Quinnipiac survey in August found that half of US voters hold the same view.

Israel launched its military operation in Gaza in response to the Hamas attack in which 1,200 people were killed and 250 others were taken hostage in October 2023. The scale of the Israeli response has elicited widespread condemnation and has prompted a wave of support for the Palestinian people.

Gaza's Health Ministry has reported at least 68,000 Palestinians killed and more than 170,000 injured over the past two years. The UN has estimated that around 90% of Gaza's residents have been internally displaced. 

Israel Flipped Out And Killed 45 Palestinians After Running Over Their Own Bomb

Caitlin Johnston | Caitlin's Newsletter

In today’s news, Israel’s stupid fucking genocidal rapists ran over an unexploded ordnance from their own evil carpet bombing campaign, blamed Hamas for the explosion, started bombing the fuck out of Gaza again, killed scores of civilians, said they were once again cutting off aid to the enclave, and then quietly backed down on urging from Washington.

Rather than report that Israel violated the ceasefire agreement as blatantly as any agreement could possibly be violated, the western press have been referring to this as a “test” of the ceasefire. Killing Palestinians is so normalized and accepted as a baseline expectation in the western press that CNN called it the “first major test” of the ceasefire after Israel killed people in Gaza every single day since the ceasefire agreement was signed.

I hope the “WHY AREN’T YOU CELEBRATING?” crowd have gotten their answer by now. We weren’t celebrating because we know more than you. We’ve actually been paying attention, so we know Israel is going to seek out every excuse to kill Palestinians and torch this fake “ceasefire”.

The Israeli government keeps issuing statements making it explicitly clear that Israel will not consider the “war” over until Hamas is fully disarmed and Gaza is fully demilitarized, terms that the Palestinian resistance has explicitly refused. These mutually contradictory positions place Gaza on a collision course toward full-scale reignition of the genocide.

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Scores of Palestinians dead, regular arrests: Israel's ceasefire violations in Gaza so far

Mera Aladam | Middle East Eye

Since the truce came into effect on 11 October, Israeli forces have committed over 80 violations of the agreement 

As Israeli continues its attacks on Palestinians in Gaza, the viability of the US-brokered ceasefire is coming into question.

On Sunday, Israel unleashed a deadly wave of bombings on targets in the besieged territory after it alleged that Hamas violated the terms of the truce deal.

The Israeli military said the attacks were in response to an alleged "attack" by Palestinians on its troops in southern Rafah, which involved rocket-propelled grenade and sniper fire.

However, the armed wing of Hamas, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, denied any knowledge of the event, or connections to it, and affirmed it remains committed to the ceasefire. 

Since the ceasefire agreement came into effect on 11 October, Israeli forces have committed over 80 violations of its terms.  

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