7/13/2003 to 4/5/2024
20 years 9 months
7572 days
Averaging 13 per day
The Madison-Rafah Sister City Project
zohar, Freedom Flotilla Coalition, April 4, 2024
Media Release
The international Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) will sail in mid April with multiple vessels, carrying 5500 tons of humanitarian aid and hundreds of international human rights observers to challenge the ongoing illegal Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip. This is an emergency mission as the situation in Gaza is dire, with famine setting in in northern Gaza, and catastrophic hunger present throughout the Gaza Strip as the result of a deliberate policy by the Israeli government to starve the Palestinian people. Time is critical as experts predict that hunger and disease could claim more lives than have been killed in the bombing.
Getting humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza is urgent, but it is not sufficient. We must end Israel’s unlawful, deadly blockade as well as Israel’s overall control of Gaza. Allowing Israel to control what and how much humanitarian aid can get to Palestinians in Gaza is like letting the fox manage the henhouse. And yet, this is what the international community of states is allowing by refusing to sanction Israel and defy its genocidal policies in order to ensure that enough aid reaches the trapped, beleaguered and bombarded civilian population.
The Cyprus maritime corridor, the U.S. floating pier project, and symbolic air drops of food are all distractions from the fact that these methods of aid delivery are insufficient, and still leave Israel in control of what aid can get to the Palestinian people, all while Israel actively prevents thousands of aid trucks from entering Gaza through the land crossings.
On January 26 the International Court of Justice ruled that, ‘the State of Israel remains bound to fully comply with its obligations under the Genocide Convention and with the said Order, including by ensuring the safety and security of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.’ On March 28, the ICJ ordered additional preliminary measures, which included requiring the Israeli forces to stop “preventing, through any action, the delivery of urgently needed humanitarian assistance” to Palestinians in Gaza.
Israel has long violated its responsibility as occupying power to ensure the health and wellbeing of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. Now, it is engaging in full scale genocidal conduct in Gaza and using starvation as a weapon of war. Israeli military and political leaders have repeatedly declared their intention to collectively punish the entire population of Gaza, including by denying them food, water and other life-sustaining aid. We therefore reject Israel’s control over the humanitarian aid that can enter Gaza and reject any Israeli inspection of our cargo.For everyone’s safety and to ensure aid is delivered to those who need it, the FFC is bringing hundreds of international humanitarian observers, from many countries and different backgrounds.
“The International Court of Justice’s preliminary measures ordered against Israel are very clear” comments Ismail Moola of South Africa’s Palestine Solidarity Alliance, part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition. “The court’s ruling requires the whole world to play their part to stop the genocide unfolding in Gaza, including unobstructed access to vital aid. While our governments fail to lead in these urgently required humanitarian responses, people of conscience and our grassroots organizations must act to take leadership. When governments fail, we sail!”
The FFC is a non-partisan international coalition of campaigns who stand for freedom and human rights. We have sailed since 2010 with the goal of breaking the blockade of Gaza, in solidarity with Palestinians cries for freedom and equality. Our non-violent direct action missions support the dignity and humanity of Palestinians, working with civil society partners, rather than any party, faction or government.
For more information or to arrange interviews, contact Freedom Flotilla media spokespeople
A statement from Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA), our partner in the Grassroots to Gaza Aid Campaign, on the killing of their colleagues from
World Central Kitchen.
We are devasted by Israel’s horrific attack that killed seven World Central Kitchen aid workers in Gaza this week. MECA had the pleasure of working side by side with many of them over the last six months to deliver food parcels to displaced families and to set up solar-powered community kitchens that provide hot, nutritious meals.
We mourn the loss of each one of them—a loss for the world and especially for the people in Gaza who relied on the food they delivered with care and respect. We will miss them and extend our sympathy to all who knew and loved them.
Israel killed these dedicated workers with airstrikes on their clearly marked cars, making it clear, once again, that no place and no one is safe in Gaza. In fact, an estimated 200 aid workers have been killed in Gaza in the last six months. All of us must continue to demand an immediate ceasefire and the unrestricted entry of aid, while we work to end the siege of Gaza and for the liberation of Palestine.
In mourning & solidarity,
All of us at MECA
Somewhere in the Israel Defense Forces’ chain of command, a decision was made to attack an international aid convoy based on a suspicion that at some point an armed man had traveled in that convoy. In the attack, missiles fired from an air force drone killed seven aid workers from the group World Central Kitchen.
It’s hard to overstate the gravity of the decision to open fire and the headache the drone operators have caused the IDF and Israel’s PR efforts. This headache wouldn’t have happened if the seven dead had been Palestinians, not Westerners, as six of them were.
After all, Israel has repeatedly claimed that Hamas hides behind civilians, so if the victims are Palestinians, it can say Hamas was responsible. Normally, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahuwouldn’t have rushed to express regret at the “tragic case of our forces unintentionally hitting innocent people in the Gaza Strip.”
Israel’s PR efforts can’t justify the attack or obscure the repercussions – not only because of the identity of the people killed, but also because of World Central Kitchen‘s importance in the process Israel has been advancing for months: hindering the work of UNRWA to the point of eradicating the refugee agency. And this is happening as malnutrition and starvation ravage Gaza – especially in the north – and as the International Court of Justice expects Israel to ensure Gazans access to humanitarian aid.
World Central Kitchen has been the main player getting aid into northern Gaza by sea. This is the route the United States has promoted for the north since Israel rejected requests from the aid groups to open the short, fast and inexpensive land route through the northern border crossings, sparing the long and dangerous trip from the Rafah and Kerem Shalom crossings in the south.
World Central Kitchen’s first, experimental shipment of aid by sea, funded by the United Arab Emirates, arrived in Gaza at the beginning of March. The second shipment, also funded by the Emirates, arrived near the Gaza City shore only this past Monday. But of the 400 tons of food and equipment for 1 million meals, only 100 tons were unloaded from the ships. Now, because of the attack and the organization’s decision to suspend its operations in Gaza, the ships are returning full to Cyprus.
Meanwhile, the humanitarian aid via the southern crossings remains below the required minimum, 500 truckloads daily. The daily average in March was only 159 trucks, as reported by the United Nations. The highest number came on March 28 – 264 trucks. The trucks have to wait many days for their turn in the Israeli security inspections.
The past few days of Israel’s war on Gaza have been hard to bear. In quick succession, the world watched Israel withdraw from the Al-Shifa hospital complex, revealing stomach-churning scenes of death and destruction; bomb Iran’s embassy in Syria, which could escalate the conflict across the Middle East; and kill seven humanitarian aid workers with World Central Kitchen (WCK) in what even some US officials said appeared to be intentional air strikes.
These actions drew varying levels of condemnation. For instance, the attack on the WCK workers, most of whom were foreign nationals, was shameless enough to elicit criticism from from President Joe Biden, who considers WCK founder José Andrés a friend—but there is no sign that his performance of anger will cause Israel to change its tactics or the United States to stop shipping billions of dollars of weapons to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
The assault on Gaza has been horrific from the start. But it is hard to shake the feeling that the near-total leeway Israel has been granted by the United States and its allies has gone to its head. Bulldozing bodies in plain sight. Bombing diplomatic facilities. Targeting aid workers from the most Washington-friendly relief organization. There is a ghoulish, ostentatious quality to these actions. It’s as if Israel is showing off, flaunting its ability to cross every known line of international humanitarian law and get away with it.
And make no mistake: Israel is getting away with it. All you have to do to understand that is to look at the aftermath of the WCK attack.
The attack on the WCK workers—which killed seven people, including a US citizen—was as obvious a crime as it is possible to commit in warfare. WCK had given Israel the coordinates of its location. The workers were traveling in a special “deconflicted” area. The WCK logo was visible on the top of its vehicles. But Israel bombed the WCK convoy anyway, striking each of its three vehicles one by one.
What’s more, WCK is not just any relief organization. Andrés is a global celebrity with ties to the international political establishment. WCK had been working closely with the Israeli government both in Gaza and in Israel proper. It would be difficult to think of a more mainstream, well-connected group.
Accordingly, the attack prompted what, by the standards of this war, was an unusual level of outraged rhetoric from Israel’s allies. Biden’s statement—in which he wrote, “Israel has not done enough to protect aid workers trying to deliver desperately needed help to civilians. Incidents like yesterday’s simply should not happen. Israel has also not done enough to protect civilians”—has been framed as a dramatic escalation in tone. CNN breathlessly reported that there was “fury and indignation inside the White House,” and that the attack “has raised the frustration for Biden and his top officials to a new level.”
Israel also expressed an unusual level of supposed contrition, with Netanyahu personally apologizing for the strikes, which he called a tragic accident.
Looking at this, it would be reasonable to assume that something—anything!—might change from either Israel or the United States. After all, Biden, we’re told, is furious. This is finally beyond the pale, right?
Wrong. A “senior administration official” told Politico on Wednesday that Biden’s public statement was “all we have planned” when it came to holding Israel accountable. And National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters, “We are still supporting their right to defend themselves, and we’re going to continue to do that.”
In other words: bombs away.
The consequences of the WCK attack were immediate. WCK suspended its Gaza operations, and other aid groups quickly followed suit, saying that the situation was simply too dangerous. A cargo ship carrying 240 tons of food to Gaza turned around and returned to Cyprus with its supplies undelivered.
Presumably, this is what the Israeli government, which has been engineering a famine in Gaza, wanted to happen. It has severely damaged the pipeline of aid into the region, and sent a stark message that nobody—not even the most benign, apolitical, high-profile organization—is off-limits. In exchange, Israel endured some light criticism from Biden, while receiving assurances that the flow of weapons will continue. Overall, Israel must count the attack as a huge success.
Israel’s backers hardly blinked at the siege of Al-Shifa—perhaps because unlike Andrés, Palestinian civilians don’t have a direct line to the White House. “We don’t condition aid to Israel,” a Defense Department spokesperson said on Monday, while images of crushed and mutilated corpses at Al-Shifa were spreading around the world.
On the one hand, there is nothing new about any of these actions. Hundreds of aid workers have been killed in Gaza since October, and Israel has destroyed nearly all of the enclave’s health infrastructure.
But watching this week’s outrages unfold one after the other—watching Israel brush off atrocities at Al-Shifa that would have caused a global meltdown if they had been committed by, say, Russia; then watching it try to incite a regional war by bombing Iran’s embassy; and then watching it go after aid workers in the most deliberate way possible—feels different somehow. All three attacks were outsize, in their heinousness or their unrepentant provocation, or both. Any one of them could be seen as a terrible milestone in wartime. Taken together, it’s as though Israel wants to remind the world of its impunity and its contempt for the idea that it is accountable for what it does.
Any country that professed to care about international law, or human decency, would recoil from such a display. Biden certainly professes to care about such things. He can probably shift the direction of this war more than any single individual outside of the Israeli government. At the very least, he can stop providing the weapons being used to commit such crimes. But instead, Biden has again shown that there are no limits to what he will accept from Israel. That is the core factor driving Israel’s peacocking criminality. It doesn’t bear thinking what new horrors await Gaza because of that reality.
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In 2021, a book titled “The Human-Machine Team: How to Create Synergy Between Human and Artificial Intelligence That Will Revolutionize Our World” was released in English under the pen name “Brigadier General Y.S.” In it, the author — a man who we confirmed to be the current commander of the elite Israeli intelligence unit 8200 — makes the case for designing a special machine that could rapidly process massive amounts of data to generate thousands of potential “targets” for military strikes in the heat of a war. Such technology, he writes, would resolve what he described as a “human bottleneck for both locating the new targets and decision-making to approve the targets.”
Such a machine, it turns out, actually exists. A new investigation by +972 Magazine and Local Call reveals that the Israeli army has developed an artificial intelligence-based program known as “Lavender,” unveiled here for the first time. According to six Israeli intelligence officers, who have all served in the army during the current war on the Gaza Strip and had first-hand involvement with the use of AI to generate targets for assassination, Lavender has played a central role in the unprecedented bombing of Palestinians, especially during the early stages of the war. In fact, according to the sources, its influence on the military’s operations was such that they essentially treated the outputs of the AI machine “as if it were a human decision.”
Formally, the Lavender system is designed to mark all suspected operatives in the military wings of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), including low-ranking ones, as potential bombing targets. The sources told +972 and Local Call that, during the first weeks of the war, the army almost completely relied on Lavender, which clocked as many as 37,000 Palestinians as suspected militants — and their homes — for possible air strikes.
During the early stages of the war, the army gave sweeping approval for officers to adopt Lavender’s kill lists, with no requirement to thoroughly check why the machine made those choices or to examine the raw intelligence data on which they were based. One source stated that human personnel often served only as a “rubber stamp” for the machine’s decisions, adding that, normally, they would personally devote only about “20 seconds” to each target before authorizing a bombing — just to make sure the Lavender-marked target is male. This was despite knowing that the system makes what are regarded as “errors” in approximately 10 percent of cases, and is known to occasionally mark individuals who have merely a loose connection to militant groups, or no connection at all.
Moreover, the Israeli army systematically attacked the targeted individuals while they were in their homes — usually at night while their whole families were present — rather than during the course of military activity. According to the sources, this was because, from what they regarded as an intelligence standpoint, it was easier to locate the individuals in their private houses. Additional automated systems, including one called “Where’s Daddy?” also revealed here for the first time, were used specifically to track the targeted individuals and carry out bombings when they had entered their family’s residences.
The result, as the sources testified, is that thousands of Palestinians — most of them women and children or people who were not involved in the fighting — were wiped out by Israeli airstrikes, especially during the first weeks of the war, because of the AI program’s decisions.
“We were not interested in killing [Hamas] operatives only when they were in a military building or engaged in a military activity,” A., an intelligence officer, told +972 and Local Call. “On the contrary, the IDF bombed them in homes without hesitation, as a first option. It’s much easier to bomb a family’s home. The system is built to look for them in these situations.”
The Lavender machine joins another AI system, “The Gospel,” about which information was revealed in a previous investigation by +972 and Local Call in November 2023, as well as in the Israeli military’s own publications. A fundamental difference between the two systems is in the definition of the target: whereas The Gospel marks buildings and structures that the army claims militants operate from, Lavender marks people — and puts them on a kill list.
In addition, according to the sources, when it came to targeting alleged junior militants marked by Lavender, the army preferred to only use unguided missiles, commonly known as “dumb” bombs (in contrast to “smart” precision bombs), which can destroy entire buildings on top of their occupants and cause significant casualties. “You don’t want to waste expensive bombs on unimportant people — it’s very expensive for the country and there’s a shortage [of those bombs],” said C., one of the intelligence officers. Another source said that they had personally authorized the bombing of “hundreds” of private homes of alleged junior operatives marked by Lavender, with many of these attacks killing civilians and entire families as “collateral damage.”
In an unprecedented move, according to two of the sources, the army also decided during the first weeks of the war that, for every junior Hamas operative that Lavender marked, it was permissible to kill up to 15 or 20 civilians; in the past, the military did not authorize any “collateral damage” during assassinations of low-ranking militants. The sources added that, in the event that the target was a senior Hamas official with the rank of battalion or brigade commander, the army on several occasions authorized the killing of more than 100 civilians in the assassination of a single commander.
The following investigation is organized according to the six chronological stages of the Israeli army’s highly automated target production in the early weeks of the Gaza war. First, we explain the Lavender machine itself, which marked tens of thousands of Palestinians using AI. Second, we reveal the “Where’s Daddy?” system, which tracked these targets and signaled to the army when they entered their family homes. Third, we describe how “dumb” bombs were chosen to strike these homes.
Fourth, we explain how the army loosened the permitted number of civilians who could be killed during the bombing of a target. Fifth, we note how automated software inaccurately calculated the amount of non-combatants in each household. And sixth, we show how on several occasions, when a home was struck, usually at night, the individual target was sometimes not inside at all, because military officers did not verify the information in real time.
In the Israeli army, the term “human target” referred in the past to a senior military operative who, according to the rules of the military’s International Law Department, can be killed in their private home even if there are civilians around. Intelligence sources told +972 and Local Call that during Israel’s previous wars, since this was an “especially brutal” way to kill someone — often by killing an entire family alongside the target — such human targets were marked very carefully and only senior military commanders were bombed in their homes, to maintain the principle of proportionality under international law.
But after October 7 — when Hamas-led militants launched a deadly assault on southern Israeli communities, killing around 1,200 people and abducting 240 — the army, the sources said, took a dramatically different approach. Under “Operation Iron Swords,” the army decided to designate all operatives of Hamas’ military wing as human targets, regardless of their rank or military importance. And that changed everything.
The new policy also posed a technical problem for Israeli intelligence. In previous wars, in order to authorize the assassination of a single human target, an officer had to go through a complex and lengthy “incrimination” process: cross-check evidence that the person was indeed a senior member of Hamas’ military wing, find out where he lived, his contact information, and finally know when he was home in real time. When the list of targets numbered only a few dozen senior operatives, intelligence personnel could individually handle the work involved in incriminating and locating them.
However, once the list was expanded to include tens of thousands of lower-ranking operatives, the Israeli army figured it had to rely on automated software and artificial intelligence. The result, the sources testify, was that the role of human personnel in incriminating Palestinians as military operatives was pushed aside, and AI did most of the work instead. According to four of the sources who spoke to +972 and Local Call, Lavender — which was developed to create human targets in the current war — has marked some 37,000 Palestinians as suspected “Hamas militants,” most of them junior, for assassination (the IDF Spokesperson denied the existence of such a kill list in a statement to +972 and Local Call).
“We didn’t know who the junior operatives were, because Israel didn’t track them routinely [before the war],” explained senior officer B. to +972 and Local Call, illuminating the reason behind the development of this particular target machine for the current war. “They wanted to allow us to attack [the junior operatives] automatically. That’s the Holy Grail. Once you go automatic, target generation goes crazy.”
The sources said that the approval to automatically adopt Lavender’s kill lists, which had previously been used only as an auxiliary tool, was granted about two weeks into the war, after intelligence personnel “manually” checked the accuracy of a random sample of several hundred targets selected by the AI system. When that sample found that Lavender’s results had reached 90 percent accuracy in identifying an individual’s affiliation with Hamas, the army authorized the sweeping use of the system. From that moment, sources said that if Lavender decided an individual was a militant in Hamas, they were essentially asked to treat that as an order, with no requirement to independently check why the machine made that choice or to examine the raw intelligence data on which it is based.
“At 5 a.m., [the air force] would come and bomb all the houses that we had marked,” B. said. “We took out thousands of people. We didn’t go through them one by one — we put everything into automated systems, and as soon as one of [the marked individuals] was at home, he immediately became a target. We bombed him and his house.”
“It was very surprising for me that we were asked to bomb a house to kill a ground soldier, whose importance in the fighting was so low,” said one source about the use of AI to mark alleged low-ranking militants. “I nicknamed those targets ‘garbage targets.’ Still, I found them more ethical than the targets that we bombed just for ‘deterrence’ — highrises that are evacuated and toppled just to cause destruction.”
The deadly results of this loosening of restrictions in the early stage of the war were staggering. According to data from the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza, on which the Israeli army has relied almost exclusivelysince the beginning of the war, Israel killed some 15,000 Palestinians — almost half of the death toll so far — in the first six weeks of the war, up until a week-long ceasefire was agreed on Nov. 24.
The Lavender software analyzes information collected on most of the 2.3 million residents of the Gaza Strip through a system of mass surveillance, then assesses and ranks the likelihood that each particular person is active in the military wing of Hamas or PIJ. According to sources, the machine gives almost every single person in Gaza a rating from 1 to 100, expressing how likely it is that they are a militant.
Lavender learns to identify characteristics of known Hamas and PIJ operatives, whose information was fed to the machine as training data, and then to locate these same characteristics — also called “features” — among the general population, the sources explained. An individual found to have several different incriminating features will reach a high rating, and thus automatically becomes a potential target for assassination.
In “The Human-Machine Team,” the book referenced at the beginning of this article, the current commander of Unit 8200 advocates for such a system without referencing Lavender by name. (The commander himself also isn’t named, but five sources in 8200 confirmed that the commander is the author, as reported also by Haaretz.) Describing human personnel as a “bottleneck” that limits the army’s capacity during a military operation, the commander laments: “We [humans] cannot process so much information. It doesn’t matter how many people you have tasked to produce targets during the war — you still cannot produce enough targets per day.”
The solution to this problem, he says, is artificial intelligence. The book offers a short guide to building a “target machine,” similar in description to Lavender, based on AI and machine-learning algorithms. Included in this guide are several examples of the “hundreds and thousands” of features that can increase an individual’s rating, such as being in a Whatsapp group with a known militant, changing cell phone every few months, and changing addresses frequently.
“The more information, and the more variety, the better,” the commander writes. “Visual information, cellular information, social media connections, battlefield information, phone contacts, photos.” While humans select these features at first, the commander continues, over time the machine will come to identify features on its own. This, he says, can enable militaries to create “tens of thousands of targets,” while the actual decision as to whether or not to attack them will remain a human one.
The book isn’t the only time a senior Israeli commander hinted at the existence of human target machines like Lavender. +972 and Local Call have obtained footage of a private lecture given by the commander of Unit 8200’s secretive Data Science and AI center, “Col. Yoav,” at Tel Aviv University’s AI week in 2023, which was reported on at the time in the Israeli media.
In the lecture, the commander speaks about a new, sophisticated target machine used by the Israeli army that detects “dangerous people” based on their likeness to existing lists of known militants on which it was trained. “Using the system, we managed to identify Hamas missile squad commanders,” “Col. Yoav” said in the lecture, referring to Israel’s May 2021 military operation in Gaza, when the machine was used for the first time.
The lecture presentation slides, also obtained by +972 and Local Call, contain illustrations of how the machine works: it is fed data about existing Hamas operatives, it learns to notice their features, and then it rates other Palestinians based on how similar they are to the militants.
“We rank the results and determine the threshold [at which to attack a target],” “Col. Yoav” said in the lecture, emphasizing that “eventually, people of flesh and blood take the decisions. In the defense realm, ethically speaking, we put a lot of emphasis on this. These tools are meant to help [intelligence officers] break their barriers.”
In practice, however, sources who have used Lavender in recent months say human agency and precision were substituted by mass target creation and lethality.
B., a senior officer who used Lavender, echoed to +972 and Local Call that in the current war, officers were not required to independently review the AI system’s assessments, in order to save time and enable the mass production of human targets without hindrances.
“Everything was statistical, everything was neat — it was very dry,” B. said. He noted that this lack of supervision was permitted despite internal checks showing that Lavender’s calculations were considered accurate only 90 percent of the time; in other words, it was known in advance that 10 percent of the human targets slated for assassination were not members of the Hamas military wing at all.
For example, sources explained that the Lavender machine sometimes mistakenly flagged individuals who had communication patterns similar to known Hamas or PIJ operatives — including police and civil defense workers, militants’ relatives, residents who happened to have a name and nickname identical to that of an operative, and Gazans who used a device that once belonged to a Hamas operative.
“How close does a person have to be to Hamas to be [considered by an AI machine to be] affiliated with the organization?” said one source critical of Lavender’s inaccuracy. “It’s a vague boundary. Is a person who doesn’t receive a salary from Hamas, but helps them with all sorts of things, a Hamas operative? Is someone who was in Hamas in the past, but is no longer there today, a Hamas operative? Each of these features — characteristics that a machine would flag as suspicious — is inaccurate.”
Similar problems exist with the ability of target machines to assess the phone used by an individual marked for assassination. “In war, Palestinians change phones all the time,” said the source. “People lose contact with their families, give their phone to a friend or a wife, maybe lose it. There is no way to rely 100 percent on the automatic mechanism that determines which [phone] number belongs to whom.”
According to the sources, the army knew that the minimal human supervision in place would not discover these faults. “There was no ‘zero-error’ policy. Mistakes were treated statistically,” said a source who used Lavender. “Because of the scope and magnitude, the protocol was that even if you don’t know for sure that the machine is right, you know that statistically it’s fine. So you go for it.”
“It has proven itself,” said B., the senior source. “There’s something about the statistical approach that sets you to a certain norm and standard. There has been an illogical amount of [bombings] in this operation. This is unparalleled, in my memory. And I have much more trust in a statistical mechanism than a soldier who lost a friend two days ago. Everyone there, including me, lost people on October 7. The machine did it coldly. And that made it easier.”
Another intelligence source, who defended the reliance on the Lavender-generated kill lists of Palestinian suspects, argued that it was worth investing an intelligence officer’s time only to verify the information if the target was a senior commander in Hamas. “But when it comes to a junior militant, you don’t want to invest manpower and time in it,” he said. “In war, there is no time to incriminate every target. So you’re willing to take the margin of error of using artificial intelligence, risking collateral damage and civilians dying, and risking attacking by mistake, and to live with it.”
B. said that the reason for this automation was a constant push to generate more targets for assassination. “In a day without targets [whose feature rating was sufficient to authorize a strike], we attacked at a lower threshold. We were constantly being pressured: ‘Bring us more targets.’ They really shouted at us. We finished [killing] our targets very quickly.”
He explained that when lowering the rating threshold of Lavender, it would mark more people as targets for strikes. “At its peak, the system managed to generate 37,000 people as potential human targets,” said B. “But the numbers changed all the time, because it depends on where you set the bar of what a Hamas operative is. There were times when a Hamas operative was defined more broadly, and then the machine started bringing us all kinds of civil defense personnel, police officers, on whom it would be a shame to waste bombs. They help the Hamas government, but they don’t really endanger soldiers.”
One source who worked with the military data science team that trained Lavender said that data collected from employees of the Hamas-run Internal Security Ministry, whom he does not consider to be militants, was also fed into the machine. “I was bothered by the fact that when Lavender was trained, they used the term ‘Hamas operative’ loosely, and included people who were civil defense workers in the training dataset,” he said.
The source added that even if one believes these people deserve to be killed, training the system based on their communication profiles made Lavender more likely to select civilians by mistake when its algorithms were applied to the general population. “Since it’s an automatic system that isn’t operated manually by humans, the meaning of this decision is dramatic: it means you’re including many people with a civilian communication profile as potential targets.”
The Israeli military flatly rejects these claims. In a statement to +972 and Local Call, the IDF Spokesperson denied using artificial intelligence to incriminate targets, saying these are merely “auxiliary tools that assist officers in the process of incrimination.” The statement went on: “In any case, an independent examination by an [intelligence] analyst is required, which verifies that the identified targets are legitimate targets for attack, in accordance with the conditions set forth in IDF directives and international law.”
However, sources said that the only human supervision protocol in place before bombing the houses of suspected “junior” militants marked by Lavender was to conduct a single check: ensuring that the AI-selected target is male rather than female. The assumption in the army was that if the target was a woman, the machine had likely made a mistake, because there are no women among the ranks of the military wings of Hamas and PIJ.
“A human being had to [verify the target] for just a few seconds,” B. said, explaining that this became the protocol after realizing the Lavender system was “getting it right” most of the time. “At first, we did checks to ensure that the machine didn’t get confused. But at some point we relied on the automatic system, and we only checked that [the target] was a man — that was enough. It doesn’t take a long time to tell if someone has a male or a female voice.”
To conduct the male/female check, B. claimed that in the current war, “I would invest 20 seconds for each target at this stage, and do dozens of them every day. I had zero added value as a human, apart from being a stamp of approval. It saved a lot of time. If [the operative] came up in the automated mechanism, and I checked that he was a man, there would be permission to bomb him, subject to an examination of collateral damage.”
In practice, sources said this meant that for civilian men marked in error by Lavender, there was no supervising mechanism in place to detect the mistake. According to B., a common error occurred “if the [Hamas] target gave [his phone] to his son, his older brother, or just a random man. That person will be bombed in his house with his family. This happened often. These were most of the mistakes caused by Lavender,” B. said.
The next stage in the Israeli army’s assassination procedure is identifying where to attack the targets that Lavender generates.
In a statement to +972 and Local Call, the IDF Spokesperson claimed in response to this article that “Hamas places its operatives and military assets in the heart of the civilian population, systematically uses the civilian population as human shields, and conducts fighting from within civilian structures, including sensitive sites such as hospitals, mosques, schools and UN facilities. The IDF is bound by and acts according to international law, directing its attacks only at military targets and military operatives.”
The six sources we spoke to echoed this to some degree, saying that Hamas’ extensive tunnel system deliberately passes under hospitals and schools; that Hamas militants use ambulances to get around; and that countless military assets have been situated near civilian buildings. The sources argued that many Israeli strikes kill civilians as a result of these tactics by Hamas — a characterization that human rights groups warn evades Israel’s onus for inflicting the casualties.
However, in contrast to the Israeli army’s official statements, the sources explained that a major reason for the unprecedented death toll from Israel’s current bombardment is the fact that the army has systematically attacked targets in their private homes, alongside their families — in part because it was easier from an intelligence standpoint to mark family houses using automated systems.
Indeed, several sources emphasized that, as opposed to numerous cases of Hamas operatives engaging in military activity from civilian areas, in the case of systematic assassination strikes, the army routinely made the active choice to bomb suspected militants when inside civilian households from which no military activity took place. This choice, they said, was a reflection of the way Israel’s system of mass surveillance in Gaza is designed.
The sources told +972 and Local Call that since everyone in Gaza had a private house with which they could be associated, the army’s surveillance systems could easily and automatically “link” individuals to family houses. In order to identify the moment operatives enter their houses in real time, various additional automatic softwares have been developed. These programs track thousands of individuals simultaneously, identify when they are at home, and send an automatic alert to the targeting officer, who then marks the house for bombing. One of several of these tracking softwares, revealed here for the first time, is called “Where’s Daddy?”
“You put hundreds [of targets] into the system and wait to see who you can kill,” said one source with knowledge of the system. “It’s called broad hunting: you copy-paste from the lists that the target system produces.”
Evidence of this policy is also clear from the data: during the first month of the war, more than half of the fatalities — 6,120 people — belonged to 1,340 families, many of which were completely wiped out while inside their homes, according to UN figures. The proportion of entire families bombed in their houses in the current war is much higher than in the 2014 Israeli operation in Gaza (which was previously Israel’s deadliest war on the Strip), further suggesting the prominence of this policy.
Another source said that each time the pace of assassinations waned, more targets were added to systems like Where’s Daddy? to locate individuals that entered their homes and could therefore be bombed. He said that the decision of who to put into the tracking systems could be made by relatively low-ranking officers in the military hierarchy.
“One day, totally of my own accord, I added something like 1,200 new targets to the [tracking] system, because the number of attacks [we were conducting] decreased,” the source said. “That made sense to me. In retrospect, it seems like a serious decision I made. And such decisions were not made at high levels.”
The sources said that in the first two weeks of the war, “several thousand” targets were initially inputted into locating programs like Where’s Daddy?. These included all the members of Hamas’ elite special forces unit the Nukhba, all of Hamas’ anti-tank operatives, and anyone who entered Israel on October 7. But before long, the kill list was drastically expanded.
“In the end it was everyone [marked by Lavender],” one source explained. “Tens of thousands. This happened a few weeks later, when the [Israeli] brigades entered Gaza, and there were already fewer uninvolved people [i.e. civilians] in the northern areas.” According to this source, even some minors were marked by Lavender as targets for bombing. “Normally, operatives are over the age of 17, but that was not a condition.”
Lavender and systems like Where’s Daddy? were thus combined with deadly effect, killing entire families, sources said. By adding a name from the Lavender-generated lists to the Where’s Daddy? home tracking system, A. explained, the marked person would be placed under ongoing surveillance, and could be attacked as soon as they set foot in their home, collapsing the house on everyone inside.
“Let’s say you calculate [that there is one] Hamas [operative] plus 10 [civilians in the house],” A. said. “Usually, these 10 will be women and children. So absurdly, it turns out that most of the people you killed were women and children.”
Once Lavender has marked a target for assassination, army personnel have verified that they are male, and tracking software has located the target in their home, the next stage is picking the munition with which to bomb them.
In December 2023, CNN reported that according to U.S. intelligence estimates, about 45 percent of the munitions used by the Israeli air force in Gaza were “dumb” bombs, which are known to cause more collateral damage than guided bombs. In response to the CNN report, an army spokesperson quoted in the article said: “As a military committed to international law and a moral code of conduct, we are devoting vast resources to minimizing harm to the civilians that Hamas has forced into the role of human shields. Our war is against Hamas, not against the people of Gaza.”
Three intelligence sources, however, told +972 and Local Call that junior operatives marked by Lavender were assassinated only with dumb bombs, in the interest of saving more expensive armaments. The implication, one source explained, was that the army would not strike a junior target if they lived in a high-rise building, because the army did not want to spend a more precise and expensive “floor bomb” (with more limited collateral effect) to kill him. But if a junior target lived in a building with only a few floors, the army was authorized to kill him and everyone in the building with a dumb bomb.
“It was like that with all the junior targets,” testified C., who used various automated programs in the current war. “The only question was, is it possible to attack the building in terms of collateral damage? Because we usually carried out the attacks with dumb bombs, and that meant literally destroying the whole house on top of its occupants. But even if an attack is averted, you don’t care — you immediately move on to the next target. Because of the system, the targets never end. You have another 36,000 waiting.”
One source said that when attacking junior operatives, including those marked by AI systems like Lavender, the number of civilians they were allowed to kill alongside each target was fixed during the initial weeks of the war at up to 20. Another source claimed the fixed number was up to 15. These “collateral damage degrees,” as the military calls them, were applied broadly to all suspected junior militants, the sources said, regardless of their rank, military importance, and age, and with no specific case-by-case examination to weigh the military advantage of assassinating them against the expected harm to civilians.
According to A., who was an officer in a target operation room in the current war, the army’s international law department has never before given such “sweeping approval” for such a high collateral damage degree. “It’s not just that you can kill any person who is a Hamas soldier, which is clearly permitted and legitimate in terms of international law,” A. said. “But they directly tell you: ‘You are allowed to kill them along with many civilians.’
“Every person who wore a Hamas uniform in the past year or two could be bombed with 20 [civilians killed as] collateral damage, even without special permission,” A. continued. “In practice, the principle of proportionality did not exist.”
According to A., this was the policy for most of the time that he served. Only later did the military lower the collateral damage degree. “In this calculation, it could also be 20 children for a junior operative … It really wasn’t like that in the past,” A. explained. Asked about the security rationale behind this policy, A. replied: “Lethality.”
The predetermined and fixed collateral damage degree helped accelerate the mass creation of targets using the Lavender machine, sources said, because it saved time. B. claimed that the number of civilians they were permitted to kill in the first week of the war per suspected junior militant marked by AI was fifteen, but that this number “went up and down” over time.
“At first we attacked almost without considering collateral damage,” B. said of the first week after October 7. “In practice, you didn’t really count people [in each house that is bombed], because you couldn’t really tell if they’re at home or not. After a week, restrictions on collateral damage began. The number dropped [from 15] to five, which made it really difficult for us to attack, because if the whole family was home, we couldn’t bomb it. Then they raised the number again.”
Sources told +972 and Local Call that now, partly due to American pressure, the Israeli army is no longer mass-generating junior human targets for bombing in civilian homes. The fact that most homes in the Gaza Strip were already destroyed or damaged, and almost the entire population has been displaced, also impaired the army’s ability to rely on intelligence databases and automated house-locating programs.
E. claimed that the massive bombardment of junior militants took place only in the first week or two of the war, and then was stopped mainly so as not to waste bombs. “There is a munitions economy,” E. said. “They were always afraid that there would be [a war] in the northern arena [with Hezbollah in Lebanon]. They don’t attack these kinds of [junior] people at all anymore.”
However, airstrikes against senior ranking Hamas commanders are still ongoing, and sources said that for these attacks, the military is authorizing the killing of “hundreds” of civilians per target — an official policy for which there is no historical precedent in Israel, or even in recent U.S. military operations.
“In the bombing of the commander of the Shuja’iya Battalion, we knew that we would kill over 100 civilians,” B. recalled of a Dec. 2 bombing that the IDF Spokesperson said was aimed at assassinating Wisam Farhat. “For me, psychologically, it was unusual. Over 100 civilians — it crosses some red line.”
Amjad Al-Sheikh, a young Palestinian from Gaza, said many of his family members were killed in that bombing. A resident of Shuja’iya, east of Gaza City, he was at a local supermarket that day when he heard five blasts that shattered the glass windows.
“I ran to my family’s house, but there were no buildings there anymore,” Al-Sheikh told +972 and Local Call. “The street was filled with screams and smoke. Entire residential blocks turned to mountains of rubble and deep pits. People began to search in the cement, using their hands, and so did I, looking for signs of my family’s house.”
Al-Sheikh’s wife and baby daughter survived — protected from the rubble by a closet that fell on top of them — but he found 11 other members of his family, among them his sisters, brothers, and their young children, dead under the rubble. According to the human rights group B’Tselem, the bombing that day destroyed dozens of buildings, killed dozens of people, and buried hundreds under the ruins of their homes.
Intelligence sources told +972 and Local Call they took part in even deadlier strikes. In order to assassinate Ayman Nofal, the commander of Hamas’ Central Gaza Brigade, a source said the army authorized the killing of approximately 300 civilians, destroying several buildings in airstrikes on Al-Bureij refugee camp on Oct. 17, based on an imprecise pinpointing of Nofal. Satellite footage and videos from the scene show the destruction of several large multi-storey apartment buildings.
“Between 16 to 18 houses were wiped out in the attack,” Amro Al-Khatib, a resident of the camp, told +972 and Local Call. “We couldn’t tell one apartment from the other — they all got mixed up in the rubble, and we found human body parts everywhere.”
In the aftermath, Al-Khatib recalled around 50 dead bodies being pulled out of the rubble, and around 200 people wounded, many of them gravely. But that was just the first day. The camp’s residents spent five days pulling the dead and injured out, he said.
Nael Al-Bahisi, a paramedic, was one of the first on the scene. He counted between 50-70 casualties on that first day. “At a certain moment, we understood the target of the strike was Hamas commander Ayman Nofal,” he told +972 and Local Call. “They killed him, and also many people who didn’t know he was there. Entire families with children were killed.”
Another intelligence source told +972 and Local Call that the army destroyed a high-rise building in Rafah in mid-December, killing “dozens of civilians,” in order to try to kill Mohammed Shabaneh, the commander of Hamas’ Rafah Brigade (it is not clear whether or not he was killed in the attack). Often, the source said, the senior commanders hide in tunnels that pass under civilian buildings, and therefore the choice to assassinate them with an airstrike necessarily kills civilians.
“Most of those injured were children,” said Wael Al-Sir, 55, who witnessed the large-scale strike believed by some Gazans to have been the assassination attempt. He told +972 and Local Call that the bombing on Dec. 20 destroyed an “entire residential block” and killed at least 10 children.
“There was a completely permissive policy regarding the casualties of [bombing] operations — so permissive that in my opinion it had an element of revenge,” D., an intelligence source, claimed. “The core of this was the assassinations of senior [Hamas and PIJ commanders] for whom they were willing to kill hundreds of civilians. We had a calculation: how many for a brigade commander, how many for a battalion commander, and so on.”
“There were regulations, but they were just very lenient,” said E., another intelligence source. “We’ve killed people with collateral damage in the high double-digits, if not low triple-digits. These are things that haven’t happened before.”
Such a high rate of “collateral damage” is exceptional not only compared to what the Israeli army previously deemed acceptable, but also compared to the wars waged by the United States in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan.
General Peter Gersten, Deputy Commander for Operations and Intelligence in the operation to fight ISIS in Iraq and Syria, told a U.S. defense magazine in 2021 that an attack with collateral damage of 15 civilians deviated from procedure; to carry it out, he had to obtain special permission from the head of the U.S. Central Command, General Lloyd Austin, who is now Secretary of Defense.
“With Osama Bin Laden, you’d have an NCV [Non-combatant Casualty Value] of 30, but if you had a low-level commander, his NCV was typically zero,” Gersten said. “We ran zero for the longest time.”
All the sources interviewed for this investigation said that Hamas’ massacres on October 7 and kidnapping of hostages greatly influenced the army’s fire policy and collateral damage degrees. “At first, the atmosphere was painful and vindictive,” said B., who was drafted into the army immediately after October 7, and served in a target operation room. “The rules were very lenient. They took down four buildings when they knew the target was in one of them. It was crazy.
“There was a dissonance: on the one hand, people here were frustrated that we were not attacking enough,” B. continued. “On the other hand, you see at the end of the day that another thousand Gazans have died, most of them civilians.”
“There was hysteria in the professional ranks,” said D., who was also drafted immediately after October 7. “They had no idea how to react at all. The only thing they knew to do was to just start bombing like madmen to try to dismantle Hamas’ capabilities.”
D. stressed that they were not explicitly told that the army’s goal was “revenge,” but expressed that “as soon as every target connected to Hamas becomes legitimate, and with almost any collateral damage being approved, it is clear to you that thousands of people are going to be killed. Even if officially every target is connected to Hamas, when the policy is so permissive, it loses all meaning.”
A. also used the word “revenge” to describe the atmosphere inside the army after October 7. “No one thought about what to do afterward, when the war is over, or how it will be possible to live in Gaza and what they will do with it,” A. said. “We were told: now we have to fuck up Hamas, no matter what the cost. Whatever you can, you bomb.”
B., the senior intelligence source, said that in retrospect, he believes this “disproportionate” policy of killing Palestinians in Gaza also endangers Israelis, and that this was one of the reasons he decided to be interviewed.
“In the short term, we are safer, because we hurt Hamas. But I think we’re less secure in the long run. I see how all the bereaved families in Gaza — which is nearly everyone — will raise the motivation for [people to join] Hamas 10 years down the line. And it will be much easier for [Hamas] to recruit them.”
In a statement to +972 and Local Call, the Israeli army denied much of what the sources told us, claiming that “each target is examined individually, while an individual assessment is made of the military advantage and collateral damage expected from the attack … The IDF does not carry out attacks when the collateral damage expected from the attack is excessive in relation to the military advantage.”
According to the intelligence sources, the Israeli army’s calculation of the number of civilians expected to be killed in each house alongside a target — a procedure examined in a previous investigation by +972 and Local Call — was conducted with the help of automatic and inaccurate tools. In previous wars, intelligence personnel would spend a lot of time verifying how many people were in a house that was set to be bombed, with the number of civilians liable to be killed listed as part of a “target file.” After October 7, however, this thorough verification was largely abandoned in favor of automation.
In October, The New York Times reported on a system operated from a special base in southern Israel, which collects information from mobile phones in the Gaza Strip and provided the military with a live estimate of the number of Palestinians who fled the northern Gaza Strip southward. Brig. General Udi Ben Muha told the Times that “It’s not a 100 percent perfect system — but it gives you the information you need to make a decision.” The system operates according to colors: red marks areas where there are many people, and green and yellow mark areas that have been relatively cleared of residents.
The sources who spoke to +972 and Local Call described a similar system for calculating collateral damage, which was used to decide whether to bomb a building in Gaza. They said that the software calculated the number of civilians residing in each home before the war — by assessing the size of the building and reviewing its list of residents — and then reduced those numbers by the proportion of residents who supposedly evacuated the neighborhood.
To illustrate, if the army estimated that half of a neighborhood’s residents had left, the program would count a house that usually had 10 residents as a house containing five people. To save time, the sources said, the army did not surveil the homes to check how many people were actually living there, as it did in previous operations, to find out if the program’s estimate was indeed accurate.
“This model was not connected to reality,” claimed one source. “There was no connection between those who were in the home now, during the war, and those who were listed as living there prior to the war. [On one occasion] we bombed a house without knowing that there were several families inside, hiding together.”
The source said that although the army knew that such errors could occur, this imprecise model was adopted nonetheless, because it was faster. As such, the source said, “the collateral damage calculation was completely automatic and statistical” — even producing figures that were not whole numbers.
The sources who spoke to +972 and Local Call explained that there was sometimes a substantial gap between the moment that tracking systems like Where’s Daddy? alerted an officer that a target had entered their house, and the bombing itself — leading to the killing of whole families even without hitting the army’s target. “It happened to me many times that we attacked a house, but the person wasn’t even home,” one source said. “The result is that you killed a family for no reason.”
Three intelligence sources told +972 and Local Call that they had witnessed an incident in which the Israeli army bombed a family’s private home, and it later turned out that the intended target of the assassination was not even inside the house, since no further verification was conducted in real time.
“Sometimes [the target] was at home earlier, and then at night he went to sleep somewhere else, say underground, and you didn’t know about it,” one of the sources said. “There are times when you double-check the location, and there are times when you just say, ‘Okay, he was in the house in the last few hours, so you can just bomb.’”
Another source described a similar incident that affected him and made him want to be interviewed for this investigation. “We understood that the target was home at 8 p.m. In the end, the air force bombed the house at 3 a.m. Then we found out [in that span of time] he had managed to move himself to another house with his family. There were two other families with children in the building we bombed.”
In previous wars in Gaza, after the assassination of human targets, Israeli intelligence would carry out bomb damage assessment (BDA) procedures — a routine post-strike check to see if the senior commander was killed and how many civilians were killed along with him. As revealed in a previous +972 and Local Call investigation, this involved listening in to phone calls of relatives who lost their loved ones. In the current war, however, at least in relation to junior militants marked using AI, sources say this procedure was abolished in order to save time. The sources said they did not know how many civilians were actually killed in each strike, and for the low-ranking suspected Hamas and PIJ operatives marked by AI, they did not even know whether the target himself was killed.
“You don’t know exactly how many you killed, and who you killed,” an intelligence source told Local Call for a previous investigation published in January. “Only when it’s senior Hamas operatives do you follow the BDA procedure. In the rest of the cases, you don’t care. You get a report from the air force about whether the building was blown up, and that’s it. You have no idea how much collateral damage there was; you immediately move on to the next target. The emphasis was to create as many targets as possible, as quickly as possible.”
But while the Israeli military may move on from each strike without dwelling on the number of casualties, Amjad Al-Sheikh, the Shuja’iya resident who lost 11 of his family members in the Dec. 2 bombardment, said that he and his neighbors are still searching for corpses.
“Until now, there are bodies under the rubble,” he said. “Fourteen residential buildings were bombed with their residents inside. Some of my relatives and neighbors are still buried.”
The U.S. calls on Israel to prevent civilian casualties while continuing to supply weapons for it
A U.N.-backed report published in mid-March found residents of Gaza are facing “high levels of acute food insecurity.” According to aid groups, the number of people in Gaza experiencing “catastrophic hunger” has doubled since December. It’s now estimated that as many as 1.1 million people in Gaza — half of the population — are experiencing “famine-like conditions.” In parts of Northern Gaza, U.S. officials believe that a full-blown famine is already underway. And, experts say that it could spread to the rest of Gaza by May.
Despite pressure from the international community, Israel, according to reports, has repeatedly blocked aid in an apparent violation of humanitarian law. Refugees International, a nonprofit advocacy group, found that “routine and arbitrary denial of legitimate humanitarian goods from entering Gaza; a highly complicated Israeli inspection and approval process without clear or consistent instructions; frequent denials of humanitarian movements within Gaza,” among other factors, have led to a “man-made humanitarian crisis” in the Gaza Strip.
This makes delivering much-needed assistance almost impossible for aid groups. In February, the World Food Programme — the largest food aid organization in the world — announced it was halting operations in Gaza because “conditions were not being met to allow for the safe distribution of aid.”
This week, Israeli airstrikes killed seven aid workers at World Central Kitchen (WCK) — the food relief group founded by chef José Andrés. Workers had been traveling in branded vehicles and had coordinated their movements with the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), yet were still targeted, WCK said. Notably, this was not the first time the IDF attacked WCK. Just days prior, WCK filed a complaint with the IDF demanding the safety of its workers after an Israeli soldier shot at a WCK staff member. Following the latest attacks, WCK said it was “immediately” pausing its relief efforts. Israel acknowledged it was responsible for the deaths of the WCK workers and said it is investigating the strike.
These deaths are just the latest aid workers to be killed by an Israeli assault. The U.N. said that over “200 humanitarian aid workers have died” since Israel launched its military campaign in Gaza. This figure, one U.N. official says, is “nearly three times as high as the death toll recorded in any other single conflict in a year.”
The WCK attack, in particular, is causing “apprehension among aid workers in the region,” Chris Skopec, executive vice president of the medical relief nonprofit Project HOPE, told the Washington Post. “The government of Israel needs to be able to give assurances that they consider aid workers legitimate actors in Gaza and that international law will be respected. We need to be able to do this critical, life-saving work safely.”
Project HOPE said Israeli military fire killed one of its workers in March. The group announced on April 2 that it was pausing its programming “for the next three days in solidarity with World Central Kitchen and to reassess the security situation.” Meanwhile, ANERA, a Washington-based aid organization, said it was suspending relief efforts in Gaza “[f]or the safety of our staff and their families” after the killing of WCK’s staffers. The organization, which also has had one of its workers killed by Israeli forces, described the decision as “unprecedented” and declared that “delivering aid safely is no longer feasible.” “[A]id distribution centers, schools and shelters run by aid groups” have also been targeted by Israel, the New York Times reported.
With critical aid groups departing or pausing their efforts, it’s likely that the crisis in Gaza will worsen. Israel previously banned UNRWA — the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees and largest aid organization in Gaza — from distributing food in the north.
So far, Israel’s military campaign in the Gaza Strip has killed more than 32,900Palestinians — most of whom are believed to be women and children. The operation comes in response to Hamas’ surprise attack on October 7, 2023, which killed around 1200 Israelis.
White House spokesman John Kirby said the administration was “outraged” about the IDF strike that killed WCK’s humanitarian workers. “This incident is emblematic of a larger problem and evidence of why distribution of aid in Gaza has been so challenging,” Kirby said. “But beyond the strike, what is clear is that the IDF must do much more to improve deconfliction processes so civilians and humanitarian aid workers are protected.”
In December, Biden criticized Israel for its “indiscriminate bombing” of Gaza, which he said was undermining international support. At the beginning of March, Vice President Kamala Harris announced the administration supported “an immediate ceasefire,” lasting at least six weeks, due to “the immense scale of suffering in Gaza.” Harris said that “our common humanity compels us to act.” On March 25, the United States abstained from the UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire and the release of all hostages, which allowed the resolution to pass.
The Israeli government has indicated that it would not comply with the demands of the United States and the international community. “The State of Israel will not cease firing,” Israel Katz, Israel’s foreign minister, said on social media. “We will destroy Hamas and continue fighting.”
While Israel has disregarded the concerns of the international community about the impact of their military operations in Gaza on civilians, the United States has continued to supply Israel with weaponry and military aid.
On March 23, Biden signed a government funding bill that included $3.8 billion in military aid for Israel and continues to call for the passage of a supplemental funding bill that would include an additional $14 billion. Just last week, the Biden administration approved the transfer of “more than 1,800 MK84 2,000-pound bombs and 500 MK82 500-pound bombs,” according to the Washington Post. The 2,000-pound bombs, in particular, “have been linked to previous mass-casualty events throughout Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.” The State Department also recently “authorized the transfer of 25 F-35A fighter jets and engines worth roughly $2.5 billion” to Israel. Since the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, the Biden administration has approved over 100 weapons transfers, many below the threshold that requires Congressional notification. Reuters reported on Monday that the Biden administration “is weighing whether to go ahead with an $18 billion arms transfer package to Israel that would include dozens of F-15 aircraft.”
United States law prohibits “the U.S. Government from using funds for assistance to units of foreign security forces where there is credible information implicating that unit in the commission of gross violations of human rights.” In February, Biden issued an executive order requiring that any recipients of military aid from the United States “facilitate and not arbitrarily deny, restrict, or otherwise impede, directly or indirectly, the transport or delivery of United States humanitarian assistance and United States Government-supported international efforts to provide humanitarian assistance.” Israel has provided a letter, required by the order, stating that it is meeting this standard. On March 25, the Biden administration said that Israel was in “compliance” with the order.
Seventeen Senators, all members of the Democratic caucus, wrote a letter to the Biden administration rejecting this assessment. The Senators said it is “abundantly clear that Netanyahu’s government is not doing nearly enough to allow aid to reach starving and otherwise desperate people in Gaza.” The Senators urged the Biden administration to enforce the order, and use it “to secure the necessary delivery of aid into and throughout Gaza.”
The Biden administration’s current policy is to call on Israel to cease its military operations in Gaza while continuing to supply them with weapons essential to the operation. The horrific attack on WCK’s humanitarian workers underscores that that position is untenable.
Yesterday, an Israeli drone strike killed seven World Central Kitchen aid workers who had been distributing vital food aid in northern Gaza. By deliberately killing the aid workers, Israel achieved its goal today: the charity suspended its operations, and a ship carrying hundreds of tons of desperately-needed food turned around and returned to Cyprus. The same day, Israeli forces withdrew from Gaza’s largest hospital, Al-Shifa, after a devastating two-week assault that destroyed the facility and killed hundreds of patients and medical staff.
Shockingly, despite these ongoing atrocities, the Biden administration is poised to approve an $18 billion sale of F-15 fighter jets to Israel, the largest U.S. arms deal since Israel started its genocide in Gaza. The administration also plans to send Israel a large new batch of precision-guided munitions.
This week’s massacres are isolated incidents, but part of Israel’s systematic campaign to destroy aid delivery in Gaza, especially in the hardest-hit northern areas. As our memo from last month explained, Israel has:
In addition, Israel has also assassinated over 70 members of Gaza’s Popular and Tribal Committees formed to help secure and distribute aid, including police officials and community leaders. Just three days ago, the committees announced they could no longer assist with food delivery due to the ongoing killings.
Israel is deliberately using starvation and aid obstruction as weapons of war in an apparent effort to force Palestinians to abandon their homes in northern Gaza — a grave violation of U.S. and international law. The UN reports over 1.1 million Palestinians in Gaza face severe food insecurity, with acute child malnutrition and multiple starvation deaths, overwhelmingly concentrated in the north. The recent Israeli assault on Al-Shifa Hospital left it severely damaged with hundreds of patients and staff killed. This attack on a protected medical facility is a grave violation of U.S. and international law and has further crippled Gaza’s already overstretched healthcare system in the face of widespread malnutrition and a public health catastrophe.
Rather than sending Israel more weapons to kill civilians and aid workers, the U.S. should demand an end to the genocide, blockade, and attacks on humanitarian efforts.
Take action today to call on President Biden to take the following steps without delay:
Thank you for your attention to this urgent matter. Gaza can’t wait.
Americans for Justice in Palestine Action
The Oglala Sioux Tribe’s tribal council on Wednesday passed a resolution in support of Palestinians in Gaza by a 14 to 1 vote.
Throughout U.S. history, Indigenous peoples were subject to decades of genocide driven by the federal government’s effort to eradicate and forcefully assimilate Native Americans.
On Monday, March 25, in a report issued by the United Nations, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, stated there are clear indications that Israel has violated three of the five acts listed under the U.N. Genocide Convention.
The resolution passed on Wednesday by the Oglala Sioux Tribe was presented by the Oglala chapter of the International Indigenous Youth Council.
Honor the Earth said in a press release on Thursday that the Oglala Lakota are known for fighting back against colonialism. The press release cites a continuation of a history between the Palestinian and Lakota peoples, including when Palestinians stood with Native Americans in solidarity at Standing Rock and Wounded Knee.
“Just as Palestinians showed up for us at the U.N., Wounded Knee and Standing Rock, they will show up for us again when we call on them. This is the essence of being a good relative in warrior society, “Krystal Two Bulls (Oglala Lakota/Northern Cheyenne), Honor the Earth Executive Director said in the press release. “This is why we as Oglalas must show up for them now!”
In addition to passing the resolution, the Tribal President was asked to advance similar resolutions to the Great Plains Tribal Chairman’s Association, the Coalition of Large Tribes, the National Congress of American Indians and the U.S. Congress and House of Representatives.
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Rep. Peltola Gets Alaska’s Statewide Transportation Improvement Program Back on Track
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The devastating news from Washington this week was that in spite of lip service against Israel’s war on the people of Gaza, the Biden administration “quietly” approved the transfer of more massive bombs to Israel.
Biden is sending along more than 2000 one-ton bombs and 500-pound bombs, the Washington Post reported (per Common Dreams).
“This is cowardly,” Yousef Munayyer wrote. “If you are going to be full backers of genocide, own it. We see you and history sees you as well.”
“This is obscene,” Bernie Sanders wrote. “We must end our complicity: No more bombs to Israel. The U.S. cannot beg Netanyahu to stop bombing civilians one day and the next send him thousands more 2,000 lb. bombs that can level entire city blocks.”
We can only imagine how horrifying such armaments are here in the West. Gazans don’t have to imagine. These instruments of annihilation have generated a neverending nightmare. Even the Washington Post says these bombs “are almost never used any more by Western militaries in densely populated locations due to the risk of civilian casualties.” But Israel has used them extensively.
Which is why more than 31,000 Palestinians have been killed, the vast majority women and children. Israel justifies the slaughter of civilians by arguing that a majority of Palestinians approve of Hamas’s attack of last October. So, collective punishment is policy.
At least Biden’s hypocrisy is being reported in the Washington Post. And we are seeing a broad movement in progressive circles to end Israel’s immunity to international law.
Harvard Law School’s student government voted for the university to divest from Israel. The global activist network Avaaz has got half a million signatures calling for a cutoff of U.S. aid to Israel.
America is Israel’s biggest arms dealer. You are giving American weapons to a government that is blocking life-saving aid and violating international law. This will only stop when you demand it stops.“
Public opinion is also horrified. A Gallup poll finds that 55 percent of Americans oppose Israel’s months-long military campaign (while 36 percent approve). “A mere 18% of Democratic voters approve of Israel’s effort.” And 75 percent disapprove.
Once again, Biden is going with the Israel lobby, and the big donors. But quietly.
Biden is not only defying his base. The liberal political establishment has now turned against Israel’s war. The head of the Democratic party thinktank, the Center for American Progress, called for a cutoff of aid.
The United States, by its own imposed standards, cannot heedlessly deliver offensive weapons as the Israeli government continues to bombard and starve innocents on a mass scale. These actions have nothing to do with self defense; they are clearly intended as collective punishment and are resulting in the complete devastation of Palestinians as a people.
The former top State Department human rights officer told NPR that it is time to apply the same rules to Israel as other countries. Charles Blaha:
[T]he State Department has said publicly that the same policy applies to Israel as apply to every other country. In practice, Israel gets special treatment…. You may recall the Biden administration suspended items that could be used in offensive air-to-ground operations for Saudi Arabia because they were causing civilian casualties. Those civilian casualties are nowhere near the civilian casualties that Israeli air-to-ground operations have caused so far. Yet unconditional transfers of air-to-ground munitions continue.
Joe Rogan called it “genocide” and a “holocaust” this week. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Israel was going too far. Atlantic Editor Jeffrey Goldberg, trying to run from his own past, ran a piece saying, “U.S. Support for Israel’s War Has Become Indefensible.”
And at the Stimson Center this week, when Barbara Slavin said it’s not genocide because it’s not equivalent to the Hutus and the Tutsis in Rwanda or the Nazis killing 6 million Jews, Lara Friedman of the Foundation for Middle East Peace shot down that defense.
The definition of genocide under international law does not require it to meet that bar… It does not have to rise to, Trying to kill every member of a race in the world [to be a genocide. The idea that] ‘it can’t be genocide if it doesn’t kill everybody.’ That isn’t what it means under international law.
So the genocide is having consequences, even in the cowardly seat of empire.
David Hearst, Middle East Eye, Mar 20, 2024
David Hearst, editor-in-chief of Middle East Eye, discusses how Israel’s war on Gaza is forcing its Western backers to confront the atrocities being committed in a campaign they had described as “just” five months ago. He argues that the ongoing genocide cases at the International Court of Justice, erosion of the Jewish consensus, and the increasing nervousness among Israel’s backers collectively indicate a strategic defeat for Israel. Hearst said: “A rubicon has been crossed. With this war, Israel has entered the elite rank of pariah states. It is now the ugliest of the ugly. It’s impossible to forgive. It cannot be justified, nor can it be put into context. The entire operation in Gaza is an atrocity.”
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“I was surprised to see the intensity on the issue of Gaza coming not from a student voice out of Madison, but older voters in more rural parts of the district,” Rep. Mark Pocan said
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is traveling to Wisconsin to announce details of a new plan to ease student loan debt for millions, a trip that comes a week after primary voting in the Midwest battleground highlighted weaknesses for the Democratic president and Donald Trump, his Republican challenger.
Biden was making the announcement Monday in Madison, the state’s liberal capital and home of the University of Wisconsin’s flagship campus.
The new federal rule paving the way for student debt relief is not expected to be issued by the time the president speaks, but Biden will highlight a plan the Department of Education started working on after the U.S. Supreme Court last year foiled his first attempt to forgive hundreds of billions of dollars in student loan debt.
Immediately after the court said Biden needed Congress to approve his original plan, the president said the decision was a “mistake” and “wrong” and announced that Education Secretary Miguel Cardona would undertake a new process using his authority under the Higher Education Act to waive or compromise student loan debt in specific cases.
A fresh announcement on student loan relief, an important issue for younger voters, could help energize parts of Biden’s political coalition that have become disillusioned by his job performance. These are people whose support the president will need to defeat Trump in November.
In Wisconsin’s primary elections on April 2, nearly 119,000 Republicans voted for a GOP candidate other than Trump, the party’s presumptive nominee. And more than 48,000 Democratic voters chose “uninstructed” instead of Biden, more than double Biden’s narrow margin of victory in Wisconsin in 2020.
Nearly 15% of Democrats in Dane County, home to the University of Wisconsin and Madison, voted “uninstructed.” That is nearly double the statewide total of 8%.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, who represents Madison in Congress, said he was struck that concerns about Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza were top of mind among voters at five town halls over the past two weeks in more rural parts of his district.
“I was surprised to see the intensity on the issue of Gaza coming not from a student voice out of Madison, but older voters in more rural parts of the district,” Pocan said.
Pocan said the number of “uninstructed” votes shows the concern in Wisconsin and that Biden needs to address it. He said he planned to talk directly with Biden about it on Monday.
“I just want to make sure he knows that if we’re going to have a problem, that could be the problem in Wisconsin,” Pocan said.
Biden’s new plan would expand federal student loan relief to new yet-targeted categories of borrowers through the Higher Education Act, which administration officials believe puts it on a stronger legal footing than the sweeping proposal that was killed by a 6-3 court majority last year.
The plan is expected to be smaller and more targeted than his original plan, which would have canceled up to $20,000 in loans for more than 40 million borrowers.
The proposal is expected to cancel some or all federal student loans for more than 30 million Americans, the White House said. The Education Department plans to issue a formal proposal in the coming months, with plans to start implementing parts of the plan as early as this fall.
“President Biden will use every tool available to cancel student loan debt for as many borrowers as possible, no matter how many times Republican elected officials try to stand in his way,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a call with reporters.
Details released by the White House on Monday largely mirror a plan drafted by the Education Department over the past several months through a federal rulemaking process. It lays out five categories of borrowers who would be eligible to get at least some of their federal student loans canceled if the rule is approved.
The plan’s widest-reaching benefit would cancel up to $20,000 in interest for borrowers who have seen their balance grow beyond its original amount because of unpaid interest. Borrowers could get the entirety of their interest erased, with no limit, if they are enrolled in an income-driven repayment plan and have annual incomes of less than $120,000 or couples making less than $240,000.
That part of the plan would forgive at least some unpaid interest for an estimated 25 million borrowers, with 23 million getting all their interest erased, according to the White House.
An additional 2 million borrowers would get their loans canceled because they’re eligible for other forgiveness programs but have not applied. The Education Department would identify borrowers who are eligible but haven’t applied to programs such as Public Service Loan Forgiveness.
Borrowers who have been repaying their undergraduate student loans for 20 years or more would be eligible to get any remaining debt canceled, along with those repaying their graduate school loans for 25 years or more.
The plan would forgive debt for those who were in college programs deemed to have “low financial value.” It’s meant to help those who were in programs that ended up losing eligibility to receive federal student aid or programs found to have cheated students.
A final category would cancel debt for borrowers facing hardships that prevent them from repaying their student loans. The White House says millions of borrowers could get forgiveness if they’re at high risk of defaulting on their student loans or are burdened with medical debt or child care, among other criteria.
“This administration will begin to cancel up to $20,000 in interest for millions of borrowers, and full loan forgiveness for millions more this fall,” Cardona said in a call with reporters. “That’s on top of the $146 billion in student loan debt relief for 4 million Americans that we’ve already approved, more than any other administration in our country’s history.”
A series of hearings to craft the rule wrapped up in February, and the draft is now under review. Before it can be finalized, the Education Department will need to issue a formal proposal and open it to a public comment period.
The latest attempt at cancellation joins other targeted initiatives, including those aimed at public service workers and low-income borrowers. Through those efforts, the Biden administration says it has canceled $144 billion in student loans for almost 4 million Americans.
Biden was stopping in Chicago for a campaign event before returning to the White House late Monday.
Sponsored by Jewish Voice for Peace — Madison, Students for Justice in Palestine — UW-Madison, and World Beyond War Madison Chapter.
Madison College News: President Biden to visit Madison College Truax campus on April 8
This story was updated as of 2 pm CST on April 7.
Madison College Truax campus will serve as the host site for the U.S. President Joe Biden and select community guests on Monday, April 8.
The event will not impact classes, and will have minimal disruption to students, faculty, and staff. Streets, bus routes, and other Madison College transportation services will be adjusted during the event at the Truax campus. Students, faculty, staff, and community members accessing services should allow extra travel time if coming to the Truax campus on Monday.
Closure and parking map
See campus map (below) that illustrates all street and parking access.
Wright Street access:
The section of Wright Street situated directly between the main Truax building and the Health Sciences building will be closed to vehicle traffic. You will be able to cross Wright Street on foot from the main parking lots, but vehicle access to Wright Street from Anderson Street will be restricted.
Truax’s Early Learning Campus on Wright Street will be accessible for childcare drop-offs and pick-ups with normal hours of operation. However, you can only access the center via Kinsman Boulevard to south Wright Street.
Event route in red where students, faculty and staff will have restricted access 11 a.m. – 2 p.m.
Employee parking access:
From 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. (approximately), there will be no entry allowed to the employee parking lot on the north side of the main Truax building. For the rest of the day the lot will be accessible on Wright Street via Kinsman Boulevard only.
Administrative lot access:
From 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. (approximately), there will be no entry allowed to the parking lot, loop near the administration offices, and drop-off. If you anticipate needing to leave campus from this location, please plan to do so before 11 a.m. or after 2 p.m. to avoid delays.
Student parking access:
Students will have access to Truax’s main student parking lot via Pearson Street, Hoffman Street and Kinsman Boulevard until 11 a.m. and after (approximately) 2 p.m. From approximately 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., access to this lot will be restricted, and will only be accessible via Kinsman Boulevard from Highway 51/North Stoughton Road and via Pearson and Hoffman from the west. The Madison Police Department, Madison College Public Safety, and event volunteers will be present to guide traffic as needed.
Throughout the day, students and employees will have full access (entry and exit) to the parking lots on Straubel Street. This lot can be accessed via North Fair Oaks Avenue from East Washington Street.
Shuttle services:
The campus-to-campus shuttle will run on its normal schedule between Truax and Goodman South. The Truax drop-off and pick-up site will not be where it usually is outside the Gateway entrance; it will be inside the Straubel Street parking lot. There will be signs and personnel in the Truax main building entrance directing you to this location.
City bus services:
Madison Metro will alter drop-off and pick-up locations along Anderson Street and Wright Street on Monday. It is anticipated that Madison Metro will ensure the temporary moved drop-off and pick-up locations will be near current locations.
Helpful reminders to ensure a smooth experience for you as you navigate campus on Monday:
• Be patient and allow extra time: Leave earlier than usual to allow for potential delays. Patience on Monday will be key.
• Follow traffic regulations: City of Madison law enforcement will direct traffic and regulations during the event.
• Be mindful of pedestrian traffic: Watch out for increased pedestrian traffic around campus and follow crosswalk signals for everyone’s safety.
Madison College’s state-of-the-art facilities host hundreds of private and public events throughout the year, such as this one.
Madison College is not the event’s point of contact and will not respond to media or press inquiries.
Updates of the impact of Monday’s event to the Madison College community and its campus services will be posted on this Madison College news page.
Rodlyn-mae Banting, Madison 365, Apr 6, 2024
Madison community members gathered on the 300 block of W Mifflin St. on Friday in front of U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin’s office and hung lines of baby clothes, serving as a vigil for the children who’ve been killed in Israel’s most recent attack on Gaza. April 5 was Palestinian Children’s Day, which typically celebrates the children living in occupied Palestine.
This year, because of Israel’s ongoing aggression on Gaza and the West Bank, the Defense for Children International – Palestine launched a campaign called, “Marking Palestinian Children’s Day as International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian Child.” According to the humanitarian organization Save the Children, over 13,800 Palestinian children have been killed by Israel’s ongoing genocide.
Typically held on the last Friday in the holy month of Ramadan, the vigil also falls on Al Quds Day, “an annual, international day to express support for Palestine and oppose the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories,” according to al-Jazeera.
Organized by the Madison-Rafah Sister City Project (MRSCP), a local volunteer-run organization advocating for Palestinian rights, the demonstration honors and grieves the young lives lost in Gaza and the West Bank, and aims to increase pressure on Sen. Baldwin to call for a permanent ceasefire. The displayed clothes were repurposed from donations MRSCP received for an installation at UW-Madison’s Library Mall in January, meant to symbolize the 500 children under two years old who’d been killed by the Israeli military at the time.
MRSCP member Amy Atalla-Hill, who confronted Sen. Baldwin at an election fundraiser this past winter, reiterated her desire for the senator to call for a permanent ceasefire. “[People] are for a permanent ceasefire. And if she represents me, and she represents all these people calling and emailing, what’s the disconnect here?” she asked.
In December of 2023 Sen. Baldwin expressed her support for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” in Gaza, and joined a group of senators pushing President Joe Biden to facilitate the “restoration of a mutual ceasefire agreement in Gaza” in mid-February of this year.
In a March 20 letter to President Joe Biden from Baldwin and 18 other Senate Democrats, they said that by providing a “roadmap for U.S. recognition of a Palestinian state, the United States can set a path to finally realizing a two-state solution and reinvigorate conversations towards a comprehensive regional peace plan.” Such reforms will only be possible, they added, following a ceasefire in Gaza.
While Baldwin said in an interview with CBS 58 last week that she hopes Israeli and Hamas “could agree to a permanent ceasefire,” her constituents are asking her to take a firmer stance.
“I need her to be brave,” Atalla-Hill said. “It takes a lot to stand up to the powers that have taken over our country. So it’s not a small thing to call for a permanent ceasefire. But what that means is saving lives.”
Volunteers wrote messages in chalk on the sidewalk and on the pavement directly in front of Sen. Baldwin’s office building, which read, “Blood on your hands!,” “Tammy, how many more?,” and “How many dead children are enough?” which passersby eyed as they made their way around the square, occasionally taking flyers from MRSCP.
Community members came out and showed their support, bringing their young children with them. Parent Sol Kelly-Jones emphasized her disappointment in Sen. Baldwin, especially since she has historically supported children’s rights.
“She’s come out with some positive things [about] wanting children to have aid, but then she’s also supported funding packages to continue more military aid to Israel,” Kelly-Jones explained. “And I think as an advocate for children, as someone we respect in her record on human rights, we want her to be a stronger advocate for peace and justice, and a stronger advocate for ending our complicity.”
As a parent of a two-year-old, Kelly-Jones highlighted the importance of her family being in solidarity with families worldwide. “Part of what we talked about in our family is every dollar we spend destroying another child’s house on the other side of the world should be put here to housing, kids, and families here and really investing in livable futures for all of us,” she said.
The vigil comes ahead of President Joe Biden’s visit to Madison on Monday, April 8. His local appearance comes less than a week after 48,000 Democratic Wisconsin voters cast “uninstructed” ballots during the state’s primary election. These votes were intended to send a “resounding warning sign” to the president about how Israel’s genocide in Gaza will impact the possibility of his re-election this upcoming November, according to a Listen to Wisconsin social media post.
“I would say to Biden, we need an immediate ceasefire, and there’s lots of actions he can take,” Kelly-Jones said. “I’m glad he’s voicing now wanting a ceasefire. But if you want a ceasefire, we stop sending bombs, we stop arming Israel, we start vetoing UN resolutions, [and] we stand for accountability.”
“We stand for justice, we open aid routes in, and we stop standing in the way of real efforts for justice and peace.”
Rodlyn-mae Banting
Rodlyn-mae Banting is a writer and educator currently pursuing a master’s degree in Gender & Women’s Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
April 5th is Palestinian Children’s Day! Bring signs and wear your kuffiyas to commemorate Palestinian children killed by Israel. Call on your representatives to stop this war on children.
Event by Madison-Rafah Sister City Project
As a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization the Madison-Rafah Sister City Project cannot support or oppose specific political parties or candidates.
Organizers with Listen to Wisconsin, the group driving the state’s “Uninstructed” campaign, say next week’s primary will send President Joe Biden the “final, unequivocal message from the Midwest” that if he wants to beat Trump, he must act immediately to end the genocide in Gaza.
Wisconsin may be the most pivotal swing state in the country, and Biden only beat Trump by the narrowest of margins there in 2020 — a little more than 20,000 votes, or just over 0.6%. And according to some recent polls, the incumbent is currently trailing (by anywhere from 2% to 6%) as he is losing support from voters — including younger voters — who care about the mass killings.
“We demand an end to this genocide, an immediate cease-fire and an end to military funding [of Israel],” says Reema Ahmad, a Palestinian organizer leading the Uninstructed campaign in Wisconsin. “We’re using our votes to voice this protest.”
“We demand an end to this genocide, an immediate cease-fire and an end to military funding [of Israel],” says Reema Ahmad, a Palestinian organizer leading the Uninstructed campaign in Wisconsin. “We’re using our votes to voice this protest.”
Wisconsin has been one of the most anticipated stops of the Uncommitted national movement, an effort that has galvanized a surprising number of voters in a slew of states since it was launched in Michigan in late February when some 100,000voters filled in “Uncommitted” on their primary ballots.
Organizers in Wisconsin are rallying voters fill in the “Uninstructed delegation” option on the Democratic presidential primary section of the ballot on April 2.
“The pathway to the presidency is going to run through Wisconsin,” Ahmad says. “We are very likely to be the tipping point state again.”
“The pathway to the presidency is going to run through Wisconsin,” Ahmad says. “We are very likely to be the tipping point state again.”
The campaign released a letter on Sunday signed by 20 elected officials of various positions throughout Wisconsin endorsing the Uninstructed campaign, and in a press release called on others to add their names and “support voters’ demands for an immediate, unconditional and lasting cease-fire and serious steps toward lasting peace in Gaza.” At least four more officials have signed.
The letter was written by State Rep. Francesca Hong (D-Wisc.) and states that elected officials “have an undeniable responsibility to stand with the Palestinian people in loving solidarity and demand an end to military aid to Israel and ensure the taxpayers are no longer complicit in a genocide that is funded by our government.”
Turnout is going to be key for Biden in 2024 and his campaign will need grassroots organizers like Ahmad to help get voters to the polls. Her message to his campaign is simple: “The ball is in Biden’s court.”
“Meet the demands of the majority of Americans today,” she says, “If you care about democracy.”
To better understand the motivations behind the letter and the campaign, Riley Roliff of In These Times interviewed Hong and another elected official who signed the letter, Milwaukee County Supervisor and State Rep. Ryan Clancy, as well as organizer Kyle Johnson, political director of the Milwaukee-based organization Black Leaders Organizing for Communities (BLOC) who has also been organizing with Listen to Wisconsin and the Uninstructed campaign.
One of the most poignant parts of the interview was when Johnson, in a sentiment echoed by others, framed the Uninstructed campaign as “a movement of hope.”
“This is a movement of hope. This is a movement of motivation. This is a movement of pulling people into the process who otherwise would stay home,” Johnson told Roliff.
“This is us telling Biden, sending a message to the Democratic Party, sending a message to the White House, that one, we’re trying to save the conscience of this nation, we’re trying to save the conscience of a party. But two, you’re not going to win if you continue to take these actions.”
“This is a movement of hope. This is a movement of motivation. This is a movement of pulling people into the process who otherwise would stay home,” says organizer Kyle Johnson.
Wisconsin’s April 2 primary also coincides with primaries in Rhode Island and Connecticut, where the Connecticut Palestine Solidarity Coalition (including the state chapters of Jewish Voice for Peace Action and the Democratic Socialists of America) are urging voters to choose “Uncommitted.”
Following the primaries on April 2, there are other options for voters to join the Uncommitted national movement — in Alaska on April 6, Wyoming on April 13, Maryland on May 14, Kentucky on May 21, Idaho on May 23, Montana (called “No Preference”) and New Jersey and New Mexico on June 4, and the Virgin Islands on June 8.
The interview below has been edited for length and clarity.
Riley Roliff: Why have you endorsed the Uninstructed campaign in Wisconsin? Why is the campaign so important?
Francesca Hong: I’ve been hearing a lot in the last four years that democracy is a verb. And for me, the Uninstructed campaign is the strongest way to show that our democracy is an action (a verb) and that democracy can actually be by the people and for the people.
It starts with folks feeling empowered that their vote and the urgency of their vote can lead to action. And not only do we hold elected officials accountable with this vote, but we’re coming together around a campaign that has broad support from folks of all different backgrounds, all different beliefs. I think that is the best way we show that our democracy is healthy and strong — when we actually come together for a cause and that no matter what your zip code is, it matters to you.
Ryan Clancy: I’m likely going to vote Uninstructed. I am normally a huge fan of early voting, but in this case, I am waiting until the very last minute because I fervently hope that Biden will make a significant policy change and not just call for a cease-fire, but make a cease-fire happen. President Biden could end this with a phone call, any American president in recent memory could, by simply saying that we will stop the aid and stop the political cover.
I don’t want another four years of Donald Trump, that would be an incredibly terrible prospect. I don’t even need to go into the many ways that would be bad for many people. And I know that in speaking to so many folks both on the Left and under 30, that many people that I’m close to are throwing up their hands and saying that they’re not going to vote in November and that they’re out, they’re not engaging in this political process. The Uninstructed movement really is a way to re-engage folks and, I think, represents Biden’s best chance at a victory and making sure that we don’t have another four years of Trump.
“The Uninstructed movement really is a way to re-engage folks and, I think, represents Biden’s best chance at a victory and making sure that we don’t have another four years of Trump.”—Ryan Clancy
Kyle Johnson: There’s two layers for me. One is just from a relational perspective. I know quite a few Palestinian-Americans. And just as a friend, to hear what they’re going through, to hear that they’re worried about family over there, to hear that they’ve lost family, it hits you on a human level that nothing else can. So even outside of this being the morally right thing to do, and being in this work and putting your line in the sand, having that human connection with folks who are going through so much pain and suffering and pain and loss, that’s the first and foremost reason why I’m a part of this movement.
But secondly, as someone who does this work politically, civically, and someone who has gotten Joe Biden elected, and as an American taxpayer, there’s those levels, too. There’s a lot of tie-ins as far as drawing direct lines from the 2020 Black Lives Matter movement to what we’re going through right now. And we can’t miss out on the fact that there was such a wide range of Palestinian American support for that movement, Muslim support, Arab American support for us. So we have to show up for them in these times, too. That’s what solidarity is about. That’s what this country is about.
“So BLOC is part of this call, because at the end of the day, we have to stop the destruction of human life. We believe in the sanctity of human life, we believe that war is wrong. And that’s the intersection of all these issues, that our money as taxpayers are being used to end human life. And we can’t stand for that.”—Kyle Johnson
But what it really comes down to is that Americans, myself included, are tired of the military industrial complex and the war machine constantly churning and constantly driving. Almost $4 billion a year goes to Israel to provide weapons of war. And our calls are simple. We know that money can be used to foster and develop human life and not end it, whether that’s in America, or in Gaza, or in the West Bank.
So BLOC is part of this call, because at the end of the day, we have to stop the destruction of human life. We believe in the sanctity of human life, we believe that war is wrong. And that’s the intersection of all these issues, that our money as taxpayers are being used to end human life. And we can’t stand for that.
Roliff: Wisconsin is obviously such a critical battleground state. How do you respond to the critics who are saying that the Uninstructed campaign hurts Biden’s chance of winning the presidency and in turn helps Trump?
Johnson: I’ve been having these conversations quite a bit over the past couple of weeks. And it’s all about the framing. And I know a lot of people are worried about democracy and worried about Trump getting back in and those are valid concerns. This is a movement of hope. This is a movement of motivation. This is a movement of pulling people into the process who otherwise would stay home. Sometimes you gotta help people help themselves. This is us telling Biden, sending a message to the Democratic Party, sending a message to the White House, that one, we’re trying to save the conscience of this nation, we’re trying to save the conscience of a party. But two, you’re not going to win if you continue to take these actions.
“We want to come out and vote for you at the ballot box in November. But at the end of the day, we can’t overlook a genocide in order to do so.”—Kyle Johnson
We have a wide coalition of people across class, race, ethnicity, gender, religion, who are saying we put in blood, sweat and tears and voted for you in 2020 because of ideals that you stood for and that you spoke on. That’s not matching right now. We want to come out and vote for you at the ballot box in November. But at the end of the day, we can’t overlook a genocide in order to do so. When it comes to genocide, there’s no lesser of two evils there. And I’m never going to put myself in the position of overlooking genocide in the endeavor of lesser of two evils. We are infusing a lot of strength and a lot of energy into this campaign, but we need Joe Biden to stop the genocide. We need him to make a very simple phone call and to continue to work to get Netanyahu to stop the death. Otherwise, we’re ready to line up on you.
Hong: A word I’ve been thinking a lot about is energy. People are not robots. People are people. We have this shared humanity because we have emotions. And those emotions are often dictated by energy. And right now, where there is not energy, where there is immense disillusion and a lot of fear, is particularly in our communities of color and our young people. And those are two key voting blocs that this administration is going to need to ensure that we don’t end up in a fascist hellhole. And I think when we have a campaign like Uninstructed, that is driven by hope, that is bringing people together because we know that a collective future, a shared future, is possible when we have a vision of hope and a better world, we have to fuel that. And this campaign does it because it is a display of solidarity, it is centering humanity, it is knowing that democracy is strongest when we value human rights and we honor human rights.
“Right now, where there is not energy, where there is immense disillusion and a lot of fear, is particularly in our communities of color and our young people. And those are two key voting blocs that this administration is going to need to ensure that we don’t end up in a fascist hellhole.”—Francesca Hong
Responding to this moment is about creating a movement and bringing energy to those voters who feel most disillusioned right now. And those are our Muslim and Arab, Jewish communities and our young people. And this administration not only won’t win without them, but I think American politics is going to continue to be in despair without these very key demographics. They deserve to be listened to. They deserve to have their opinions and thoughts validated. And I think as an elected official, I hold a deep responsibility and a duty to listen and care.
Clancy: I’m just one of many people who cannot bring themselves to vote for somebody who is enabling genocide, and who cannot go back to his neighbors or constituents and look them in the eye and say, “I know that you’ve lost somebody in the West Bank or Gaza,” or, “I know that this is an issue that’s incredibly important to you, but that’s not good enough anymore.” And I think taking people for granted, taking voters for granted, has to end.
Roliff: Kyle, as political director of BLOC, can you talk about your organizing around the campaign and the 2024 election? Has Palestine and the genocide in Gaza been present in those conversations you’re having?
Johnson: It’s present in all our conversations. It’s not the starting point, but when we knock doors as BLOC, we have a team of 50 folks that go out and they go out and have conversations, and the first thing they ask is, “What does it look like for your community to thrive?” And the conversation can go anywhere. “We need a stop sign at the end of the street.” “We need better approaches to public safety here in our community.” “There’s a dilapidated house that’s lowering my tax value.” And we go through the processes of, “Alright, who’s responsible for this? Who can you reach out to? Is it Ryan Clancy or Francesca Hong? Is it an Alderperson? Is it a county board supervisor?” But what the sentiment behind the conversation often comes to is that our money is not being used in the right places and for the right things, whether that’s at the local level, state level, county level or federal level. And that comes back to things like $3.8 billion a year being sent to Israel for military operations, when that money can be used here at home to build schools, to build better roads, to build libraries.
“This is a part of that effort with Uninstructed, it’s about saying, ‘Don’t just stay home because you’re dissatisfied with Joe Biden. Go to the polls, you have an option, vote Uninstructed, and then vote in all these other races because these matter, too.’”—Kyle Johnson
So it always comes back to a conversation of how we’re investing our money and what our money is being used for, and when people hear what the money is being used for, that it’s not going to making their kids’ lives better, or anybody else’s lives better around the world, it’s being used to foster death, that pisses people off. It pisses people off when they go to their library and it has horrible hours, or they go to the DMV, or they go to whatever service that could be better, but our money as taxpayers is being used to kill. So it does come up in our conversations. We’re doing text messages, we’re doing door conversations, phone calls. And we don’t center, exactly, talking about Palestine because we want to center what folks care about, but it’s always a part of the education. We’re always educating people. You can’t organize an uneducated mass of people. So once people have that education, they see where our money is going and they do want to get involved. They do realize that this is ethically and morally wrong, and that our money shouldn’t be used for these operations or these efforts.
Our approach right now is widespread. And we want to make sure people are showing up April 2 to vote for a lot of offices that are important and are going to have a much larger impact on their life than, let’s say, a President, or the Senate. And this is a part of that effort with Uninstructed, it’s about saying, “Don’t just stay home because you’re dissatisfied with Joe Biden. Go to the polls, you have an option, vote Uninstructed, and then vote in all these other races because these matter, too.”
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RILEY ROLIFF is an editorial intern at In These Times. Her work has appeared in The Nation, The Buckeye Flame and more.
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Playgrounds for Palestine Madison has received a delivery of the Premium Blend 500 mL Bottle AIDA Palestinian Olive Oil, organic and Fair Trade olive oil from small farms in the West Bank of Palestine. You can order online.
Read about Playgrounds for Palestine aid to Gaza’s children:
“Playgrounds for Palestine is doing all in its power for the families and children in Gaza facing the unimaginable. All donations and proceeds from the sale of oil, za’atar, and soap are currently going to Gaza relief.
In the shadow of an ongoing genocide, displacement, hunger, thirst, lack of adequate shelter, injuries, infections, and profound trauma, Palestinians are doing their best to care for one another, and we have been doing our best to help them.
Our initiatives, though modest, continue to uplift young lives. This is a snapshot of what we’ve done in the past few months.
Some of these activities were begun by our founder Susan Abulhawa in Gaza, and she can attest to the important and positive impact on children and their families.”
With love from all of us at Playgrounds for Palestine
Aid to Gaza’s Children by Playgrounds for Palestine
1. Storytime, Art & Facepainting
First aid by a local psychologist and childhood trauma specialist.
2. Kitchen & Meal Distribution
Hundreds of meals daily with Al Najat Association.
3. Kite Flying
in Al Mawasi, Rafah, and Khan Younis.
4. Fun Days & Toy Distribution
Activities, toys, and games in five tent camps with Al Najat Association.
5. Hospital Hakawatis (Storytellers)
Hakawatis and art for children with broken bones, bullet wounds, burns, and amputations.
6. Financial Assistance for New Mothers
Envelopes with $100, a stuffed toy for each newborn, and hygiene supplies.
7. Supplies to Hospitalized Children
Reusable diapers, wipes, chocolates.
8. Food & Supplies Distribution
Bags for 500 families with flour, rice, beans, canned goods, dried milk, spices, salt & pepper.
9. Medicines, Diapers, Hearing Aid Batteries, Chocolates
Pain relievers, anti-hypertensives, bronchodilators, antibiotics, feminine products, toothbrushes & paste.
10. Women’s Clinic
At a tent camp run by a local organization. The names are withheld to protect their safety.
In December Israel bombed and torched the building of the Atfaluna Society for Deaf Children in Gaza City, one of MECA’s long-time partners. About sixteen soldiers posed for a photo in front of the burning building as if they were a group of proud graduates in front of their high school. They shared the photo on social media. (We won’t share it here.)
Atfaluna’s Inclusive Community Kitchen employs 17 people with hearing disabilities and serves hot meals for more than 1,000 people a day in the Gaza Strip.
Please support this critical work by making a special contribution now.
While the building is gone, the Atfaluna staff, volunteers, students, and alumni have not stopped working. With MECA’s support, Atfaluna is hiring deaf and hard of hearing people to prepare hot meals for displaced families in central Gaza.
As soon as the kitchen was up and running, they hired Naela (pictured below) as one of the chefs and recently shared her story with MECA:
After graduating from the Atfaluna Society for Deaf Children’s culinary arts training program, Naela was able to establish a small food catering project that provided her with a source of income and a sense of pride in her work.
However, because of the war in Gaza, Naela was forced to flee her home and abandon her business. But she remained determined to find a way to support herself and contribute to her community.
That’s when she was hired at Atfaluna’s Inclusive Community Kitchen. The kitchen not only provides Naela with a steady income, but also allows her to use her culinary skills to help others in need.
“It is important to create jobs for people with disabilities during these difficult times,” Naela says. “I am happy that I have a source of income that can help me manage my life in dignity.”
Atfaluna’s kitchen employs 17 deaf and hard of hearing people and serves hot meals for more than 1,000 people a day in Gaza.
Naela and her colleagues are able to support themselves financially and demonstrate the importance of including people with disabilities in emergency response efforts.
People with disabilities in Gaza are especially vulnerable now. They also have important contributions to make to their communities. With your support, the Atfaluna Inclusive Community Kitchen will continue to employ and feed many more people.
Please send the most generous contribution you can now so MECA can continue to support this and other critical projects for children and families in Gaza.
In solidarity,
All of us at MECA
P.S. Your donation will provide more hot meals and Atfaluna’s other critical work like speech therapy for traumatized children, psychological and social support for adolescent girls, joyful games and arts activities, and more for the disability community and others. Please give what you can today.
SOUND THE ALARM!
Over 32,000 Palestinian people have been killed by the Israeli military and over 2 million Palestinian people trapped in Gaza under the heaviest bombardment yet. WE ARE WITNESSING GENOCIDE.
We are not helpless in this moment. We need everyone to TAKE ACTION.
CALL ON CONGRESS
TEXT A FRIEND
FIND A PROTEST
The people of Gaza have a number one demand: KEEP UP THE PRESSURE & CALL FOR A CEASEFIRE NOW. Use your power and influence to hold our U.S. government accountable.
Visit http://bit.ly/StopGazaGenocide
Middle East Children’s Alliance
1101 8th Street
Suite 100
Berkeley, CA 94710
United States
BRETT WILKINS, COMMON DREAMS, MARCH 25, 2024
The United Nations Human Rights Council on Monday published a draft report that found “reasonable grounds to believe” that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, a move that came on the same day as the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire in the ongoing war.
The advance unedited version of the report—entitled Anatomy of a Genocide—concludes that Israel’s far-right government and military “have intentionally distorted jus in bello principles, subverting their protective functions, in an attempt to legitimize genocidal violence against the Palestinian people.”
“The overwhelming nature and scale of Israel’s assault on Gaza and the destructive conditions of life it has inflicted reveal an intent to physically destroy Palestinians as a group,” the draft report states, enumerating Israeli actions that violate Article II of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide: “Killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to group members; and deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”
“Israel has de facto treated an entire protected group and its life-sustaining infrastructure as ‘terrorist’ or ‘terrorist-supporting,’ thus transforming everything and everyone into either a target or collateral damage, hence killable or destroyable,” the paper continues. “In this way, no Palestinian in Gaza is safe by definition. This has had devastating, intentional effects, costing the lives of tens of thousands of Palestinians, destroying the fabric of life in Gaza, and causing irreparable harm to its entire population.”
As the UNSC finally passed a resolution calling for a ceasefire in #Gaza, the UN special rapporteur @FranceskAlbs's sobering new report lands:
"There are reasonable grounds to believe that the threshold indicating Israel’s commission of #genocide is met." pic.twitter.com/eX6sHq1990
— Rohan Talbot (@rohantalbot) March 25, 2024
Israel rejected the report as “an obscene inversion of reality.”
According to Palestinian and international humanitarian officials, Israel’s 171-day Gaza onslaught has killed at least 32,333 Palestinians, most of them women and children, while wounding nearly 75,000 others and displacing around 90% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people. Thousands more Palestinians are missing and believed to be dead and buried beneath the rubble of bombed buildings. Disease and deadly starvation caused and exacerbated by Israel’s siege and blockade of Gaza are spreading rapidly.
“Israel’s genocide on the Palestinians in Gaza is an escalatory stage of a long-standing settler-colonial process of erasure,” the draft report asserts. “For over seven decades this process has suffocated the Palestinian people as a group—demographically, culturally, economically, and politically—seeking to displace it and expropriate and control its land and resources.”
Referring to the flight and ethnic cleansing of more than 750,000 Arabs from Palestine during the foundation of the modern state of Israel in 1948, the paper contends that “the ongoing Nakba must be stopped and remedied once and for all. This is an imperative owed to the victims of this highly preventable tragedy, and to future generations in that land.”
“The ongoing Nakba must be stopped and remedied once and for all.”
The draft report urges U.N. member states to “enforce the prohibition of genocide in accordance with their… obligations” under international law. In January, the U.N.’s International Court of Justice (ICJ) found that Israel was “plausibly” perpetrating genocide in Gaza and ordered the country’s government to “take all measures within its power” to prevent genocidal acts. Human rights defenders say Israel has ignored the order.
“Israel and those states that have been complicit in what can be reasonably concluded to constitute genocide must be held accountable and deliver reparations commensurate with the destruction, death, and harm inflicted on the Palestinian people,” the publication argues.
The draft report recommends measures including:
Israel on Monday informed the U.N. that it will no longer allow UNRWA convoys carrying food aid into northern Gaza, even as the Palestinians are starving to death, a move that one humanitarian campaigner called a “death sentence.”
BRETT WILKINS
Brett Wilkins is a staff writer for Common Dreams.
ARVIND DILAWAR, TONE MADISON, MARCH 25, 2024
On January 29, the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights opened an investigation into allegations that UW-Madison students were facing discrimination due to their “shared ancestry.” Although the DOE does not comment on pending investigations, UW-Madison’s assistant vice chancellor of university communications, John Lucas, explained in a statement that the investigation related specifically to alleged anti-Semitism and was triggered by a complaint from an off-campus group.
That same day, The Daily Cardinal reported that hundreds of UW-Madison faculty, staff and students had signed an open letter condemning the conflation of anti-Semitism with anti-Zionism, or opposition to Jewish nationalism, especially in light of Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza. Despite their appeal, such on-campus critics of Israel are now under the scrutiny of the DOE, which threatens to have a chilling effect on dissent.
“The complaints filed serve two primary purposes,” student organizers with the Wisconsin Coalition for Justice in Palestine (WCJP) write in a statement to Tone Madison, “to curb Palestinian activism on college campuses and to cultivate an atmosphere of fear.”
(Fearing reprisal, organizers at WCJP and Students for Justice in Palestine UW-Madison declined to share their names with Tone Madison.)
Since October 7, the DOE has opened at least 54 investigations into alleged “discrimination involving shared ancestry,” also known as Title VI investigations. In a press release, the department describes these investigations as covering both anti-Semitic and Islamophobic incidents, but further suggests that the former outnumbers the latter more than two to one.
The DOE investigation into UW-Madison was triggered by a complaint filed by Zachary Marschall, editor of Campus Reform, a self-described “conservative watchdog” of higher education. Marschall admits to having no connection to UW-Madison, but claims to be acting in defense of Jewish students “who are too afraid to speak out.” In addition to UW-Madison, Marschall’s complaints appear to have triggered DOE investigations at Arizona State, Binghamton, Brown, Indiana University, John Hopkins, Northwestern, and Temple.
“I have filed 21 Title VI complaints against universities with the Office for Civil Rights,” says Marschall, “because I feel a moral obligation to do anything I can to combat anti-Semitism.”
Despite Marschall’s allegations of ant-Semitism, Campus Reform describes the complaintagainst UW-Madison as relating to expressions of solidarity with Palestinians, rather than attacks on Jewish students. Campus Reform also makes no mention of a neo-Nazi group that staged a march in Madison in November, stopping at the State Capitol and a historic synagogue along the way. UW-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin denounced the march, as did several other state and local officials.
The Madison Police Department and UW-Madison Police Departments both said they monitored the Nazi march but essentially claimed they were helpless to do anything about it. MPD spokesperson Stephanie Fryer described it as a lawful exercise of First Amendment rights, but later cited it as justification for a new hate crimes task force.
Regardless of the provenance of the complaint to the DOE, the department’s investigation threatens to have an impact on on-campus opposition to the Israeli genocide in Gaza.
“The university will cooperate fully with the Department of Education’s investigation,” wrote Lucas in the aforementioned statement.
(Contacted by Tone Madison, Lucas declined to comment further.)
Investigations are just that—inquiries in which wrongdoing has yet to be determined—but the DOE has already been having an impact on campuses across the United States. In the wake of the department opening cases, university administrations have responded with everything from attempts at managing criticism of Israel to silencing it altogether. In particular, chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and campus branches of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) have been targeted for condemnation and even suspension—most prominently at Columbia University, which is currently being sued by the New York Civil Liberties Union for suspending on-campus chapters of both groups.
“Since the complaint, we’ve seen a greater scrutiny on the operations of organizations speaking up for Palestine,” say organizers with SJP UW-Madison, which is affiliated with WCJP. “There’s been an overarching assumption of anti-Semitism, despite no evidence provided that SJP has been anti-Semitic.”
“On the other end of the spectrum, however, we see events such as a soldier participating in the genocide justifying the deaths of thousands,” they continue, referring to a recent off-campus talk featuring a member of the Israeli military, “and the only response from the university is defense.”
Beyond the implications for freedom of speech for students, faculty, and staff, the DOE investigations may also have material consequences. Inspired by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, which advocates nonviolent opposition to the ongoing Israeli occupation of Palestine, students are often the first to point out how their respective universities further warfare.
“Universities have always been a hot spot for activism—UW-Madison is no exception to this,” writes WCJP. “Time and again at UW, we’ve seen a reckoning amongst the students with their institution’s complicity in colonialism and dedicated activism with aims to end the university’s complicity. In 1967 we saw the Dow chemical riot, where students protested against the presence of manufacturers of napalm. In the ‘70s, we saw student organizers push for divestment from South Africa, a battle they eventually won. Today, we fight those same battles and that understanding of the university’s involvement remains unchanged—as does the university’s complicity.”
The University of Wisconsin System’s endowment is valued at nearly $3.5 billion, per its most recently published financial report—and faculty and students have been pushing the university to divest that endowment from Israel since at least 2004, according to Al Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition. More recently, The Daily Cardinal reported activists disrupted an on-campus career fair featuring BAE Systems, Caterpillar and General Dynamics—all of which are profiting from the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza, according the American Friends Service Committee, an anti-war nonprofit. UWPD officers at the event attacked at least two activists, one in the course of an arrest, according to The Daily Cardinal.
Despite UWPD repression and DOE investigations, on-campus anti-Zionist organizing will continue, according to WCJP.
“Although the university has made attempts to slow organizing, and to create hurdles for Palestinian voices to speak,” writes WCJP, “we’ve seen the continual building of stronger movements on campus.”
Help us create fiercely independent politics coverage that tracks power and policy across Wisconsin and the Madison area.
March 27, 2024
WASHINGTON – In a new letter released during Holy Week ahead of Easter, more than 140 Bishops and executive leaders from churches, denominations, and church-based organizations in the US and around the world call for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, urge the US and other world powers to halt additional arms sales to Israel, and make clear that Israel, the US, and all countries must abide by Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
The letters’ signers include a US Catholic Bishop, a Catholic Cardinal, the presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the presiding bishop and primate of the Episcopal Church, an Anglican Dean, and many other notable figures from a wide range of churches, including Catholic, Lutheran, Mennonite, Quaker, and Evangelical leaders.
The Christian leaders write that “the global church—and world—cannot be silent as people continue to die in Gaza by military assault, lack of adequate medical care, hunger, and disease” and warn that “World leaders have responded with empty rhetoric and political volleying about addressing the ‘humanitarian crisis’ in Gaza while ignoring the direct causes of the catastrophe.” They note that the US, UK, Israel, and other countries “must uphold their responsibility as signatories to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.”
The signers call for “a permanent and comprehensive ceasefire” and the release of all hostages, and call on the US and other world powers to “halt additional military support and arms to Israel and not be complicit in the ongoing military campaign” that is having a devastating impact on the civilian population of Gaza.
The letter was organized by Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP), a coalition of more than 30 national church communions and organizations working to encourage U.S. policies that actively promote just, lasting, and comprehensive resolutions to conflicts in the Middle East.
CMEP has forwarded the critical letter directly to President Biden and his team.
“Christian leaders in the US and around the world are imploring our governments to end complicity in the ongoing violence and, instead, do everything in their power to prevent the potential genocide against Palestinians in Gaza,” said Rev. Dr. Mae Elise Cannon, executive director of Churches for Middle East Peace. “The US decision to abstain from, instead of vetoing, the recent UN Security Council Resolution supporting an immediate ceasefire is a small step but still not sufficient. President Biden and other world leaders must use every tool at their disposal to protect the Palestinian people and ensure that the Israeli government stops blocking their access to life-saving humanitarian aid.”
The full letter and list of signers
CMEP’s cover note to President Biden
Formed in 1984, Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP) is a coalition of more than 30 national church communions and organizations, including Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, and Evangelical traditions that works to encourage US policies that actively promote a comprehensive resolution to conflicts in the Middle East with a focus on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. CMEP works to mobilize US Christians to embrace a holistic perspective and to be advocates of equality, human rights, security, and justice for Israelis, Palestinians, and all people of the Middle East.
Contact Us
Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP)
110 Maryland Ave NE, Suite 505
Washington, District of Columbia 20002
(202) 543-1222 info@cmep.org
First Recognize Palestinian Humanity
Dr. James J. Zogby
President, Arab American Institute
Guys in white shirts and ties in Washington and their counterparts in Israel are sitting around tables making plans for what they want to see after Israel ends its genocidal assault on Gaza (if they ever end it). From what I’ve read, their plans are either cruelly insensitive or downright delusional because they fail to consider that at issue here isn’t who runs what and how it will be run. What must be understood is that the wounds inflicted by this war will last and will define reality for a generation or more.
These are the personal, not the political, consequences of this war. The loss and trauma inflicted in so many ways on millions of Palestinian victims are never factored into the calculations by the Israelis or their enablers in Washington. To them Palestinians have always been mere pawns on a chessboard, objects to be moved or cast off, at will.
In a real sense, herein lies the root of the entire conflict. From the beginning, neither the British nor the early Zionist leaders saw the indigenous Arab population as full human beings. When learning of the British plans to secure a Mandate and turn it over to the Zionist movement for a Jewish colony in Palestine, the Americans sent a team to survey the opinions of the Arabs. What they found was a near total Arab rejection of both the Mandate and the Zionist enterprise. On hearing of the results, the British Lord Balfour was quoted saying, “In Palestine, we do not propose…consulting the wishes of the present inhabitants of the country…Zionism, be it right or wrong, good or bad, is…of far profounder import than the desires and prejudices of the 700,000 Arabs who now inhabit that ancient land.”
The founders of the Zionist movement shared this sentiment. At first, they said they sought “a land without a people…for a people without a land.” When they found natives there, Herzl wrote that they would be used to clear the area exterminating any dangerous animals, and then evacuated to other lands.
These early Zionists wrote that the Jewish people were “more industrious and more able than the average European, not to speak at all of the inert Asiatic and African.” And they believed that the colony they would build would be a “rampart of Europe against Asia, an outpost of civilization as opposed to barbarism.”
This deeply racist mindset found its best expression in the 1960 film “The Exodus” that transposed the American “cowboys and Indians” storyline onto the Israeli-Palestinian conflict—with Israelis as pioneers seeking freedom for themselves and their families, facing hordes of savages who sought only to kill them. The conflict was thus reduced to “Israeli humanity versus the Palestinian problem.” And what was needed was a way to defeat, subdue, or solve the “problem” so that Israeli humanity could realize their dreams.
This remains the thinking of too many policymakers in Washington. As they grieved with the Israelis over the trauma of October 7th, they could see the Israelis as real people with whom they identified and for whom they mourned, while Palestinians remained an abstraction receiving little sympathy. This is why it has taken months for any real expressions of compassion for tens of thousands of Palestinians dead and the attendant devastation of Palestinian homes and cities.
Early in this war, I spoke with a senior White House official. After he expressed his pain at the horrors of October 7th, I told him that I understood and asked him to also consider Palestinian trauma. He angrily dismissed my appeal as “whataboutism,” suggesting that my intent was to justify or diminish the suffering of Israelis. I reminded him that it wasn’t either Palestinian suffering or Israeli suffering. It was both.
Five months later, with 32,000 dead Palestinians and Gaza on the brink of famine, attention is finally being paid by the administration. But it’s too little and too late.
Despite the White House focus on the humanitarian crisis—lack of food, water, medicine, and housing—there is still no appreciation for the deeper toll inflicted on Palestinian lives. If they recognized the true toll, they wouldn’t be dropping boxed lunches from the sky or building a pier, nor thinking that a reformed Palestinian Authority doing Israel’s dirty work was an acceptable “day after” scenario.
If they saw Palestinians as equal human beings, they would tell the Israelis to stop bombing. They would remove the block on UNWRA. They would support a UN resolution that would send international forces into Gaza and the West Bank, ending the illegal Israeli occupation of both. And they would set up an international relief and reconstruction effort not only to rebuild Gaza, but also to send in teams of doctors to address the physical and psychological wounds of this war. They would, in other words, demonstrate the sense of urgency, compassion, and care that human beings deserve.
My recommendation to the guys in the white shirts and ties sitting around the tables in the White House is: “Before you start, think of how you would want your families treated if they have been subjected to the horrors of the past five months. Think of what they would need so that their wounds can heal and not fester. The losses they’ve endured can’t be forgotten, nor can the trauma they’ve experienced be erased. How would you want your families to be treated? If you are able to do that, then proceed. If you can’t, then step aside and find someone who can.”
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Arab American Institute. The Arab American Institute is a non-profit, nonpartisan national leadership organization that does not endorse candidates.
Note: To discuss this column with me, please register here for my next ‘Coffee And A Column’ event Wednesday via Zoom.
We wanted to give you an update on our Grassroots to Gaza campaign for emergency Gaza relief via the Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA). The latest from MECA on hunger in Gaza follows.
First of all, a huge thank you to the many, many people who have already donated to this campaign.
Our campaign of online donations and old-fashioned checks has just exceeded its third goal of $15,000. As of March 22, we have raised and sent $15,890 to MECA.
Donate online for our new goal of $20,000!
If you prefer to send a check, make it out to MECA and send it to:
The Valentine’s Day to Leap Year Silent Auction raised approximately $7,000 in winning bids and donations. We are now planning a Silent Art Auction, and are looking for donations from artists and artisans. Please spread this call widely:
We are looking for one or two volunteers who would like to help us make this auction a success, especially by contacting potential donors/producers active in the local arts & crafts scenes. If this interests you, please contact RafahSisterCity@yahoo.com.
March 22, 2024
Just six months ago, at fifteen kindergartens in Gaza, children started school for the first time and were delighted to get fresh, warm homemade lunches. They were periodically evaluated for malnutrition and undernutrition and referred to special clinic if necessary.
MECA started the PaliRoots Meal Program five years ago to fight malnutrition in children, in response to the deprivation caused by the Israeli blockade on Gaza.
Today, in North Gaza, one in three children below the age of two is now acutely malnourished or “wasted”. This means they are dangerously thin for their height, which puts them at risk of death.
More than a million people are facing the worst possible level of starvation, the highest number ever recorded.
These figures come from to a new report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) which also warns full-scale famine could occur any day.
We all have to keep working, protesting, advocating for a ceasefire and aid. But, right now we also have to provide food to people before they die. Your contributions now will support solar-powered kitchens, delivery of fresh produce from farmers, distribution of food parcels and anything else our staff, partners and volunteers can buy in Gaza.
The only thing that can stop famine at this point is an immediate ceasefire and the entry of massive amounts of food.
The people of Gaza have no one to count on but us and others around the world who see what Israel is doing and are trying to stop it. Please, demonstrate your solidarity today by taking action and making a contribution to MECA so people in Gaza can eat.
In solidarity,
All of us at MECA
P.S. On Saturday, 26 trucks of aid entered Gaza, when a minimum of 500 a day are needed. Israel is using starvation as a weapon on war and the US government could force Israel to let more aid in but it won’t. We hope you will give whatever you can so MECA can get whatever food is available to as many people as possible. Thank you.
Report on Israel’s Crimes and Violations of Palestinians’ Rights in the West Bank in January and February 2024
♦️Since the beginning of 2024, the Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF) and Israeli settlers have escalated their violence against Palestinians and their properties in the… pic.twitter.com/R5rTZoL7Fk
— Palestinian Centre for Human Rights – PCHR (@pchrgaza) March 22, 2024
Radha Surya, Znet, March 22, 2024
All changed, changed utterly: A terrible beauty is born.
— William Butler Yeats, “Easter, 1916”
His utterance was matter of fact, almost devoid of passion. He was walking rapidly toward the Israeli Embassy in Washington DC at the time, and it’s not surprising he sounded as if he was somewhat out of breath. He would have rehearsed the words in advance. Every aspect of his planning was impeccable–from informing news sources in advance of the protest that was to take place to live streaming both his statement and the culminating action of setting himself on fire. With moral courage of the kind that is all but impossible even to conceive, all but impossible to replicate, he did everything in his power to maximize the impact of his self-immolation and to ensure his message Free Palestine blazed strong and clear across the world. And so having set the stage for the concluding act of his life, twenty-five-year-old Aaron Bushnell perished in the most excruciating manner possible. You would be justified in saying US President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and others who operate behind the scenes—the defense contractors, the weapons manufacturers, the Wall Street and oil and gas titans decreed his death. It was as though they too were present at the gates of the Israeli Embassy and had provided the fuel that was needed. The young man identified the perpetrators—the ruling class–as he declared “This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal” and live streamed his last moments.
Aaron Bushnell was of course referring to the savage genocide that Israel has been carrying out in the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023. Unrelenting bombardment has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians. Unknown numbers perished when they were buried alive in the rubble of their homes. There has been systematic targeting and elimination of the people who are foundational to a civil and functioning society. Scholars, poets, intellectuals, professors, teachers, doctors, journalists, engineers, IT professionals have been done away with. To speak of all this is merely to start to describe the human toll taken by the genocide. In cities whole neighborhoods have been obliterated. Much of Gaza has been reduced to rubble. Hospitals have been attacked and destroyed. Their staff has been killed, taken captive and tortured by the Israeli military. Basic infrastructure–water pipes, water tanks and saline water treatment plants, sewage systems, solar panels etc.–has been deliberately sabotaged. Universities and schools, mosques and churches lie in ruins. By the end of January Israel had destroyed more than two hundred ancient and archaeological sites out of three hundred and twenty-five that were registered. The centuries old cultural and historical heritage of the Gaza strip has been wiped out. Palestinians have been robbed of their past, present and future. In leveling the cultural monuments of Gaza to the ground Israel has simultaneously carried out an onslaught on the historical heritage of the human race In this respect there is little difference between the state of Israel and entities condemned across the globe–the Taliban and the terrorist group ISIS.
This staggering, this monstrous devastation has been accomplished by Israel in less than five months. It is a calculated and systematic genocide. The people of the world have protested in vain. Massive demonstrations condemning the genocide as well as smaller ones have been and continue to be held. The UN Secretary General and heads of humanitarian UN agencies have condemned the suffering inflicted on the besieged and bombarded population of Gaza and issued repeated calls for a cessation of hostilities. Through all of this Israel has remained remorseless, obdurate and intransigent. As an appalled world was propelled inexorably toward the sixth month of the genocide in Gaza and in Palestine, 25-year-old Aaron Bushnell sacrificed his life in an act of protest whose memory and whose meaning must never be allowed to vanish from the public realm. Plainly said he was responding to the breaching of the utmost limits of human toleration by the kind of evil that defies human comprehension.
What do we know about Aaron Bushnell? What was his moral and political journey? There are a few things we can piece together from commercial as well as uncompromised media coverage that followed his tragic death on the 25th of February, 2024. We know about his concern for the plight of the homeless and that he worked with local groups to distribute food and clothing to the homeless population in San Antonio, Texas. He continued his dedicated work when he moved to Akron, Ohio. After his death became national and international news there were contemptible attempts to diminish the significance of his sacrifice and to smear him as a mentally unsound person. It’s easy to refute the allegations. Aaron Bushnell’s preparations for his final hours were meticulous. Nothing was left to chance. He had prepared a will: “He took all the steps he needed to make sure that everything he had would be cared for, like his cat, he designated that to his neighbor,” Lupe Barboza of the Care Collective, told Texas Public Radio after he viewed the will. “So yeah, that to me is all the sense of someone who was measured and knew what he was doing.”
By and large the mainstream media has shunned the inconvenient testimonies of the young man’s friends. For that reason it is up to the uncompromised media to ensure their statements remain in the public realm. The independent journalist Talia Jane has compiled some of these testimonies. One of these is from Errico who met Bushnell in 2022: “Aaron is the kindest, gentlest, silliest little kid in the Air Force.” He also said: “He’s always trying to think about how we can actually achieve liberation for all with a smile on his face.” Xylem who worked with Bushnell to support the homeless in San Antonio said: “He is one of the most principled comrades I’ve ever known.” And there are the words of Bushnell’s friend Levi Pierpont: “He was the sweetest guy you’d ever meet.” It’s impossible not to notice that none of his friends viewed Aaron Bushnell as unhinged in some way. Surely the encomiums of those who knew him best must outweigh anything that has been insinuated about Bushnell by the cheerleaders for the genocide in Gaza.
Young Aaron Bushnell was in love with life. We know this because we have seen the picture from the karaoke party that his friends threw when he left San Antonio, Texas. At the party, according to the Washington Post: “He belted out song after song, many of which were from “Les Misérables,” which he was known to love. And one was Mandy Moore’s “Wind in My Hair” from the TV series based on the movie “Tangled.” “I got a smile on my face,” Bushnell sang, “and I’m walking on air.” Indeed, he has a smile on his face in the widely circulated party photo. A lovely and infectious smile. We will never learn anything about the inner agony he underwent as he prepared to die a self-inflicted death in an extreme act of protest (his words) against the so far unstoppable, months long genocide in Gaza. We can only attempt to imagine the terrible struggle that took place as he conceived and prepared for his final hours.
In the aftermath of February 25 the uncompromised media has foregrounded the history of self-immolation as a form of protest. The young man may have studied that history in whole or in part. It’s known that many human beings have been burned alive in accidents, in acts of private vendetta, in pogroms like the ones in India where Hindu extremists turn against helpless Muslims. In Aaron Bushnell’s case the young man made the deliberate choice of inflicting on himself the terrible pain of death by fire. He was pitiless—with himself. Attachment to life is ingrained in living beings. In the George Orwell essay A Hanging the condemned man who is being led to his execution steps aside to avoid a puddle. He has not grasped the imminence of his death. The instinctive impulse to cling to life is strongest in those who are in love with life and have great expectations. At the age of 25, Aaron Bushnell was in the flower of his youth. His Linked In profile says he graduated top of flight and top of class. Only the irredeemably obtuse would fail to recognize he was a bright young man. A promising life lay ahead of him. He turned his back on all of this when he resolved that after February 25 there would be no more tomorrows for him. It would be easier to come to terms with his untimely death if for instance there was reason to think he was suicidal. And that his premature death was inevitable.
But why blame the ruling class? Or Israel for that matter? Didn’t it all start with Hamas? With the military offensive of October 7? Doesn’t Israel have the right to defend itself? Even if the right to self-defense entails the genocide of the designated enemy, the Palestinian people? To address these questions it is necessary to recognize that in contrast to the representations of Israel, Western leaders and the compromised media, history did not begin on the 7th of October 2024. It is possible to attribute different dates to the origin of the Israel-Palestine conflict. To simplify matters one can say the conflict began when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were driven from their homeland by Zionist militias at the time of the founding of the state of Israel in 1948. Subsequent decades saw the emergence of a brutal Israeli military occupation and progressive appropriation by the Israeli state of enormous tracts of the unjustly truncated territory that was assigned to Palestine by the UN Partition plan of 1947. Hamas only emerged in 1987–decades after the Israeli occupation had taken its toll on Palestinian lives and land.
As human beings who are opposed to the toll taken on civilians by military conflict we should deplore the deaths of Israeli civilians on October 7. Equally we should challenge the exploitation of and capitalization on these deaths to carry through a program of genocide and ethnic cleansing. The ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people is unlike any other that has taken place in history. With the willing collusion of the US and the Western powers, the genocide is being carried out by Israel in full view of the world’s cameras. It is relayed to us on a daily basis on television, on the internet, and on social media timelines. The world has been witnessing depravity of a staggering kind—the storming of hospitals by the IDF, the severing of power supply to incubators with babies who are then left to decompose, the rounding up of civilians who are humiliated by being forced to strip. They shiver in the cold as they wait to be interrogated and tortured by the IDF. At the same time widely credited and influential reports published by the commercial media on the worst atrocities supposedly carried out by Hamas on October 7 have been effectively debunked. The heroic efforts of the uncompromised media and independent journalists—The Electronic Intifada, The Grayzone, The Intercept and others—have exposed the lies propagated by Israel with the willing collusion of Western political leaders and leading Western news sources. Despite the electrifying nature of these revelations they have been disregarded for the most part. One consequence is Israeli genocide has remained unstoppable to date.
We look on in utter disbelief. Forced as we are to bear witness to an ever-intensifying genocide we react with impotent fury, with outrage and anguish. We watch as the suffering in the Gaza strip escalates, as starvation and famine take hold. On March 18 EU foreign chief Josep Borrell declared that Gaza is now in a state of famine and that the famine is man made. Like the genocide this is a famine that has no counterpart in human history. Just beyond the Rafah crossing hundreds of trucks loaded with food supplies have been waiting for months. They are blocked by Israel—deliberately and mercilessly–from entering Gaza. Has there ever been an instance in history when food was stockpiled just a few miles from a captive territory with a displaced population that has been subjected to months long food shortage and now famine? All while they are being bombarded, invaded and killed?
In the last week of February 2024 social media timelines started to carry the images of babies who had died of starvation in Gaza. It was around the same time that young Aaron Bushnell was living the last hours of his short life. Since then we have discovered that worse atrocities—if this were possible—lay ahead. As of now Israel has normalized the killing of famished Palestinians waiting for aid. The massacres are carried out by artillery shelling and firing from helicopters. Swift—and unheeded–denunciations followed the flour bag massacre. Israel wears an invincible armor of impunity. In the US and the UK anti-Zionist Jewish groups have played an exemplary role in condemning the genocide in Gaza and organizing protests. But the constituency that matters most is effectively pro-genocide. Polls show that among Israeli Jews two thirds are opposed to the supply of humanitarian aid to the incessantly bombarded, many times displaced, famished population of the Gaza Strip. In view of what one is witnessing, it is necessary to make extraordinary efforts to hold on to sanity. In the midst of darkness, the moral clarity of Aaron Bushnell is life-giving. The words uttered by the young man with his dying breath are unfading ones. They will be remembered long after the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian homeland has ended. Minutes before taking out his lighter the young man declared his extreme act of protest was not extreme at all compared to what people in Palestine have been experiencing at the hands of their colonizers.
We mourned the killing of Refaat Alareer, Palestinian poet and scholar who has been immortalized by his last poem “If I must die, you must live, to tell my story.” We grieved when the Palestinian nephrologist Dr. Hammam Alloh died. In November Israel issued expulsion orders to those who resided in northern Gaza. Asked by Amy Goodman, host of the news program Democracy Now, why didn’t he flee with his family to the putative safety of south Gaza, the dedicated and undaunted specialist replied: You think I went to medical school and for my postgraduate degrees for a total of 14 years, so I think only about my life and not my patients. Two weeks later Dr. Hammam Alloh was killed in an airstrike that destroyed the home where he was sheltering with family members. His body was found in the rubble. And a few days ago we mourned the killing of Mohammed Barakat, ace football player and Palestinian icon. Just before the missile (US made in all probability) struck his home, he recorded his final prayers and took leave of those he loved. His last words were spoken with indescribable fortitude and dignity. There have been so many others. The losses come fast and thick. Aaron Bushnell’s last message was Free Palestine. As the flames consumed his body, he cried Free Palestine. Over and over until he collapsed. He was memorialized by his friend Levi Pierpont in the following words: I want people to remember that his death is not in vain, that he died to spotlight this message. I don’t want anybody else to die this way. If he had asked me about this, I would have begged him not to. I would have done anything I could to stop him. But, obviously, we can’t get him back. And we have to honor the message that he left.
Radha Surya
Radha Surya writes on issues in Indian and international politics. Her articles have appeared on Znet and Countercurrents. She lives and works in the United States in Bloomington, Indiana.
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As a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization the Madison-Rafah Sister City Project cannot support or oppose specific political parties or candidates.
Land Day commemorates the general strike and marches by Palestinians in 1976 from the Galilee to the Negev in protest of the Israeli government’s expropriation of land.
Sponsored by Wisconsin Coalition for Justice in Palestine, Students for Justice in Palestine—UW Madison, Democratic Socialists of America—Madison, and Young Democratic Socialists of America—UW-Madison
Madison Central Library, Room 301
6-9 pm
The Madison-Rafah Sister City Project (MRSCP) hosted a Read Palestine! Book Project storytime hour on March 24 for 5-9-year-olds with the book “These Olives Trees” by Aya Ghanameh at A Room of One’s Own. This event, which was the final one in Read Palestine!’s three-part series, was led by MRSCP volunteer Lisa Masri.
The Madison-Rafah Sister City Project is a volunteer-run organization that has been working in Madison for more than 20 years, with a specific focus on Palestinian rights and the city of Rafah. About six months ago, prior to Israel’s most recent attack on Gaza, MRSCP decided to launch a pilot program with an emphasis on kids and young adult literature.
MRSCP has hosted read-alouds for Palestinian children in the Madison school district and has donated books to their classroom libraries so that they can feel represented in those spaces. Now, with the heightened attention on Israeli’s occupation of Palestine, these storytimes have widened their reach, and strive to tell stories about “regular Palestinians doing regular things” in the face of systematic, dehumanizing rhetoric.
“More people have their eyes on Palestine and want to know more,” Masri said. “I think it’s become such a widespread issue that people are even willing to think of it as not just something we read about on the news.”
She continued: “It’s a social justice and human rights issue that affects us, especially [those of us] living in the U.S., since our government is so supportive of it. So I think people are willing to have their kids be educated about what Palestine is and who Palestinians are.”
Masri and her family moved to Madison two years ago. Prior to this, she lived in Nablus, Palestine for 15 years, where she taught and conducted research related to development and humanitarian aid. She quickly joined the Madison-Rafah Sister City Project upon moving to Madison, and also serves as a research administrator at UW’s Institute for Research on Poverty.
Masri began her storytime by having everyone introduce themselves in Arabic and showing attendees where Palestine should be labeled on a globe, but where Israel currently sits. She then explained the 1948 Nakba (during which the Israeli government orchestrated a mass exodus of at least 750,000 Palestinians from their homeland) in an age-appropriate way, emphasizing the unfairness of being pushed out of one’s home.
“These Olive Trees” tells the story of a young girl named Oraib, who is born and grows up in a refugee camp after her parents were displaced from Nablus, the same city where Masri lived in Palestine. Oraib cares for the olive trees in the camp, which Masri explained are a symbol of the “strength and steadfastness of the Palestinian people.”
Because of the 1967 Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Oraib and her family are forced to move yet again, abandoning the olive trees that she’d been tending to and had grown to love in the refugee camp.
Jay Lowe, a bookseller at Room, emphasized the importance of “These Olive Trees” being told from a child’s perspective. “I think it has a very human element of seeing conflict,” he said. “It’s being presented to the children from a children’s gaze. I think that’s important for them. It’s just very humanizing.”
“Books in general, for any cause or any movement work, [are] a great entry point, both in terms of education and a knowledge base, and also understanding perspectives or experiences other than your own,” Room bookseller Mira Braneck added. “It’s a great on ramp.”
The story concluded on a hopeful note, with Oraib planting an olive pit in the refugee camp before she leaves, telling it to wait for her.
Attendees were then encouraged to try green olives and were given biodegradable cups to plant seeds and beans in, in an effort to send hope to Oraib’s character and those in Palestine right now. While they packed their seeds and beans in with dirt, Masri gave children the option of having their names written in Arabic on their cups.
In the coming months, the Madison-Rafah Sister City Project is also looking forward to hosting book clubs featuring Palestinian literature for 4th-12th graders. For those looking to get involved, Masri suggests subscribing to their weekly emails.
“It’s a great way [to get involved], especially for people who feel overwhelmed by what to read, what to look at, and what to do,” she said. “We list all the events that are going on in Madison, online events that people can attend, and articles to read and good resources that are out there.”
Room bookseller G. Romero-Johnson observed that there is a desire in the Madison community to continuously get involved with efforts to support Gaza and educate themselves about the ongoing genocide.
“We want to shed light on [Pro-Palestine events] and hold space for that,” she said. “I think as the months go on, a lot of media has been dying down and it’s important to make sure that locally, we can make sure that it’s still very much in the conversation and being talked about, even with the kids,” she said.
Braneck emphasized: “We are a bookstore, we are an overtly political space, but we function really well as a third space where people can come and do this work, and we are thrilled to host this work.”
Below is a list of books that the Madison-Rafah Sister City Project recommends for those looking to learn more about Palestine:
For Adults:
For Children:
Room of One’s Own Bookstore
2717 Atwood Avenue, Madison
1 pm
Join MRSCP and Students for Justice in Palestine this Thursday on Palestinian Mother’s Day to commemorate the mothers and children martyred in Gaza.
We will have art installations at Library Mall, handout flyers, and a vigil at 3pm.
We are in great need of volunteers, especially for the 2-4pm mobile installation slot, so please consider signing up to help.
The Madison-Rafah Sister City Project, as a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization, cannot support or oppose specific political parties or candidates.
Sandra Whitehead, Wisconsin Muslim Journal, Mar 19, 2024
An anti-war protest vote campaign to bring a ceasefire in Gaza launches today in Wisconsin. On the first day of early voting, citizens are urged to vote “uninstructed” in the primary election.
Voting “uninstructed” (meaning basically “for no one”) sends a message to the Biden administration that its support of the Israeli military’s “genocide in Gaza is unacceptable,” explained Halah Ahmad, who is managing communications for Listen to Wisconsin, the grassroots group promoting the Wisconsin Uninstructed campaign.
(“Uninstructed” is the term used in Wisconsin; some states use the term “uncommitted.” And not all states have this option on their ballots.)
Wisconsin’s late presidential primary means President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump have already secured enough delegates to be their parties’ nominees in November. However, the primary election is an ideal time “to show that we’re really serious about the White House taking action now to stop the violence in Gaza,” Ahmad told the Wisconsin Muslim Journal in an interview Friday.
“We are one of the states that often determines the presidential election, and by a narrow margin,” she said. “A majority of Americans have been calling for a ceasefire for months and haven’t been heard. This campaign is driven by people who are using democracy to make their demands heard. People feel encouraged to have that option.
“We are focused on immediate policy impact. We want the White House to take action right now to stop the violence in Gaza,” Ahmad said. However, how people vote in November may depend on what the Biden administration does between now and then. “Our hope is that by pressuring Biden in the primary, we can change his position on the war to align with the vast majority of voters who want a ceasefire.”
At a press conference this morning in front of Milwaukee’s City Hall, Listen to Wisconsin community leaders listed their demands:
They were joined by the lead organizer from Minnesota, where they secured 45,000 uncommitted votes in its primary. Also attending were Janan Najeeb of the Wisconsin Coalition for Justice in Palestine and Wisconsin Rep. Ryan Clancy (D-Milwaukee) an outspoken critic of the Israeli military’s bombardment of Gaza.
Adding her voice, Wisconsin State Representative Francesa Hong said in a press release, “The truth is, many of my constituents have felt appalled and betrayed by our government and the Democratic Party on the issue of Gaza. For most Americans, a permanent ceasefire now is an uncontroversial demand and is a matter of humanity. Additionally, ending military aid to Israel is required by law through the Foreign Assistance Act as Israel continues to impede vital aid shipments, including our own, to a starving population in Gaza that has lost over 30,000 people, primarily women and children.
“We as electeds have an obligation to listen to voters, not the other way around,” Hong continued. “I support voters’ efforts to make their policy demands on Gaza heard by voting Uninstructed in the Democratic Presidential Primary. As a proud American who celebrates our democracy, I stand behind Wisconsinites who want to use the democratic process to protest this ongoing genocide.”
Early in-person voting in Wisconsin begins today and runs through March 31, but could end earlier in some communities. Hours and locations also vary by community.
The 11 a.m. press conference was live-streamed on Wisconsin Coalition for Justice in Paletstine Instagram. A recording is available on the account.
Listen to Wisconsin campaign strategy
Listen to Wisconsin “calls for an end to the ongoing genocide” that has killed over 31,000 Palestinians in Gaza, “aided and abetted by the Biden administration,” a press release stated. To do so, the multi-faith, multi-generational movement aims to persuade 20,000 discontented voters to fill in the “Uninstructed Delegation” bubble on the Democratic Presidential Primary. “That equals roughly the same number of votes by which President Biden won in the last election,” it continued.
“We are pushing for ‘Uninstructed’ votes in the primary because we have to do whatever it takes to stop this genocide and tell our elected leadership that this injustice does not represent the will of the people—and it may cost them the election in November if they don’t change course,” said volunteer Heba Mohammad, who was the 2020 Wisconsin Digital Organizing Director who helped secure Biden’s election victory in Wisconsin.
Supporters of the Uninstructed Campaign protested at President Biden’s visit to Milwaukee last week, bringing a 20-foot banner promoting the “Uninstructed Vote.” They also distributed flyers that explained their goals and how to vote in the Democratic Presidential Primary. They joined about 400 protestors who rallied at Dontre Hamilton Park Wednesday and marched by a stop on President Biden’s Wisconsin visit.
“We had hundreds of protestors show up at the last minute to meet President Biden with our demands for an end to this genocide in Gaza—even though the location of the event was kept confidential until a short time before it took place,” said volunteer organizer Yaseen Najeeb of Milwaukee. “I think that’s very telling. People are here to call attention to the “Uninstructed” vote as a real threat to Biden’s campaign if he won’t impose a permanent ceasefire now.”
Wisconsin’s protest vote joins national movement
Following an example set in Michigan, followed by Minnesota and Washington, the Wisconsin Uninstructed Campaign urges voters to vote “uninstructed” in the Democratic primary.
In Michigan’s February primary, the “uncommitted” vote secured more than 100,000 voters, winning two delegates, Ahmad noted.
“There are conversations all over the country among people who work in electoral politics and care a lot about what is happening politically but also about what’s happening in Gaza,” she said. “The numbers of people, especially children, killed in Gaza are far beyond the worst we could imagine.”
After Michigan’s success, participants in the Wisconsin for Justice in Palestine Coalition, which includes representatives of 64 diverse organizations, began discussing what actions could be taken in Wisconsin. Several member organizations, including the Wisconsin Muslim Civic Alliance, as well as individuals decided to work on the Wisconsin Uninstructed campaign.
Leaders of Michigan’s campaign announced an “Uncommitted National Movement” yesterday. It aims to expand on the growing movement in several states to create a national united network. In remarks on the National Uncommitted Movement launch, Mohammad said, “Wisconsin is not only important for electoral reasons—our state represents the heartbeat of the country. As people of conscience, and pro-democracy, pro-justice voters, we’re going to use the primary to call for an end to the genocide now. We cannot bypass this opportunity.”
Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors to vote on ceasefire resolution Thursday
In another effort to stop bloodshed in Gaza, a resolution calling for an “immediate and permanent ceasefire” in Israel’s War on Gaza will go before the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors Thursday morning. If passed, Milwaukee County will join about 100 U.S. municipalities and counties calling for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.
The Wisconsin Coalition for Justice in Palestine, which includes 64 diverse organizations, as well as individuals and otherorganizations calling for a ceasefire in Gaza have been collaborating to set up meetings between Milwaukee County supervisors and their constituents, said volunteer Heba Mohammad, a member of Milwaukee for Palestine, in an interview with Wisconsin Muslim Journal.
“We’ve been hitting roadblocks with some supervisors who either ignore us or reject our requests,” but some have been willing to schedule meetings, Mohammad said. “It’s exhausting but every day I remember the privilege we have here to advocate.”
The volunteers promoting the ceasefire persevere because “the scale of the ongoing genocide in Gaza has reached a level we can’t ignore.” As a swing state in the national election, Milwaukee County’s endorsement of this resolution would “send a strong message to the Biden administration,” she said.
Sandra Whitehead is an educator, nationally award-winning journalist and author of Lebanese Americans, published by Marshall Cavendish. She is blessed with a loving family–her husband Abdulaziz Aleiou and three children, Ali, Aisha and Adam.
The Madison-Rafah Sister City Project, as a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization, cannot support or oppose specific political parties or candidates.
SUSAN ABULHAWA, THE ELECTRONIC INTIFADA, 18 MARCH 2024
A literal holocaust is being perpetrated against Palestinians.
Israel is burying people alive en masse in their homes, terrorizing them beyond imagination, bombing indiscriminately, denigrating, demeaning, humiliating, starving, torturing, raping and robbing Palestinians.
Israel is forcing Palestinians from their homes into abject filth and fear, their whole lives, their histories, memories and hopes for a future blown up and filmed for Israeli public entertainment. Soldiers and civilians alike cheer and set music to the ineffable suffering of Palestinians, then post them on TikTok for fun.
Israeli media air snuff videos featuring the torture of Palestinian hostages. It is a human abattoir on a massive scale inside a ghetto of degradation, filth and fear, livestreamed and sponsored by the Biden administration with US tax dollars.
Simultaneously, the Israeli and American architects of this horror pay lip service to “humanitarian aid” and perform acts of absurd political theater and deceit designed to assuage mounting public outcry while steering their genocidal project to its profitable colonial conclusion – vast gas fields and prime coastal real estate devoid of her native people.
Demeaning and incompetent “humanitarian airdrops” of meager food, often falling into the ocean, were little more than publicity stunts. The most recent attempts deployed aid boxes with failed parachutes that fell like missiles onto hungry Palestinians, killing them instantly, effectively becoming “aid bombs.”
Now this unholy genocidal alliance wants to build a “temporary aid pier,” ostensibly to open a maritime corridor for US aid deliveries. Construction is expected to take approximately two months.
They’ve not commented on what Gaza’s already starving population is meant to do during those two months. Nor have they responded to the obvious question: Why not send aid through existing land corridors?
All the US has to do is drive its aid trucks through the Rafah crossing. It’s actually that simple.
Other aid trucks aren’t getting in because Israel bombs them. Are we to believe the US is afraid its own aid trucks would suffer the same fate?
The absurdity, hypocrisy and frank dishonesty is not lost on most of us. Whatever the reason for this pier, it has nothing to do with getting aid to Palestinians.
If the US wanted to prevent Israel’s engineered starvation campaign in Gaza, it could do so in the proverbial heartbeat.
It must be said that our public rage is what underpins the change in political rhetoric and political slights of hand. It is the collective force we display in the streets and on the ballots.
The ruling elite feels our growing unity and power in every speech we disrupt, every banner drop, every direct action and every instance where we confront the miserable status quo that a small group has created for the majority of humanity. In fact, it is our moral duty to inconvenience, disrupt and expose Zionists and their supporters everywhere.
The information gatekeepers have deployed all the usual mechanisms to control public discourse. Mainstream media fell in line with every Zionist lie, even after they were exposed as lies.
They’ve failed to challenge Israeli propaganda, no matter how mythical or incoherent. Their headlines and opinion pieces continue to paint Israel as a victim by manipulating language or printing outright fabrications.
The so-called “free press” speaks and writes the same verbiage, as if they all share a singular colonial brain.
Social media giants have tweaked their algorithms to censor Palestinian content and ban popular accounts.
Congress is bearing down on free speech under the guise of confronting anti-Semitism, effectively joining forces with ruthless Zionist organizations like the Anti-Defamation League and the Jewish Federations of North America to doxx, harass and destroy the lives of activists who dare to speak up against Israeli apartheid and genocide. At this moment in history when we bear witness to a new holocaust, our politicians are holding hearings against a Palestinian literature festival and university campuses across the country that do not actively engage in the Zionist agenda of silencing popular dissent.
At a moment when the president of the United States is circumventing Congress to send billions of our tax dollars in weaponry, cash and other gifts to Israel while it commits genocide, Congress is concentrating on banning TikTok because young people know and share too much truth.
The ruling class believes it can quell the global public’s moral impulse with these usual mechanisms of suppression and gatekeeping. The Democratic Party is counting on its base to fall in line with the threat of another Trump era.
Ultimately, we have the power to free our imprisoned minds from their propaganda; from the shackles of a two-party system; from a most undemocratic government that answers to a wealthy minority, not the masses, the overwhelming majority of whom want a ceasefire; and from the convenient divisions they impose upon us.
We have the power to create the world we want, one where our government serves the welfare of the nation, not the greedy ambitions of the few.
We have the power to choose morality instead of allowing ourselves once again to be cornered into the binary of Joe Biden and Donald Trump, two white-man flavors of oppression, with the former being outright genocide.
Allowing Biden to serve another term will signal the moral destitution and tragic helplessness of the American people to register a minimal objection to an ongoing holocaust. A second term for Biden will make it clear that the ruling class can do anything it wants to us and to the world, no matter how vile or destructive, and we will remain slaves to the choices it engineers for us each election.
This is our world, and we can take back the reigns of our collective destiny. We can choose life.
We can choose to tread gently on our tortured planet; to reject their endless wars; to divert our public dollars away from the top 1 percent into our collective wellbeing and quality of life; to empower our young people, create community and have faith in each other; to dismantle the infrastructures that keep us ignorant and divided.
The world we want is possible, and it begins by acting now for the long-term future, even if it means short-term pain for the next four years. Ensuring that moral dissent prevails means a definitive loss for the Democratic Party, no matter the alternative.
Bolstering of third-party alternatives would be the most welcome side effect in electoral politics.
susan abulhawa is a writer and activist. She is a founder and director of the Palestine Writes Literature Festival.
I came of political age animated by the quip, “Two Jews, three opinions.” I was around people who argued, weighed pros and cons, and hashed out differences no matter how intense the disagreements. Sometimes no common ground could be found. But as rough as these debates could be, they were rooted in fact. Today though, the Zionist catchphrase should now be “a million Jews, no opinions.” Too many Zionists will brook no disagreement with Israel’s war on Gaza and are willing to distort the truth to defend it.
The director Jonathan Glazer is finding that out this morning. His speech at the Oscars, after winning Best International Feature Film for The Zone of Interest, explained the way his faith and the memory of the Holocaust have been weaponized to support the Israeli occupation of Palestine as well as the current carnage. It was beautiful and brave. His exact words were, “Right now we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many innocent people. Whether the victims of October the 7th in Israel, or the ongoing attack on Gaza, all the victims, this dehumanization, how do we resist?”
The response of the right wing has not been debate and discussion. It’s been lies, obfuscation, and vulgarity. There’s the editor of Commentary, John Podhoretz, who tweeted, “By saying he refutes his Jewishness [my emphasis] on the biggest stage in the world five months after the attack on Israel, Jonathan Glazer has instantly made himself into one of Judaism’s historical villains.”
Others parroted this line. Batya Ungar-Sargon, the opinion editor at the right-wing infomercial formerly known as Newsweek, tweeted, “I simply cannot fathom the moral rot in someone’s soul that leads them to win an award for a movie about the Holocaust and with the platform given to them, to accept that award by saying, ‘We stand here as men who refute their Jewishness…’” This was mimicked by all kinds of media bottom feeders. The common thread with all of them is that, rather than reckon with Glazer’s argument that his “Jewishness and the Holocaust [are] being hijacked by an occupation,” they only—and shamelessly—use part of the quote as a way to make it sound like Glazer is rejecting his religion and culture, when the opposite is obviously the case. He is actually reclaiming his culture from the pampered pro-Israel media prizefighters who argue that Judaism and Zionism are one and the same: that a 5,500 year old religion and culture must exist only as the support system for a 76-year-old colonial ethno-state. To call out this lie is a daring and dangerous act, and Glazer should be commended for standing in the tradition of debate—not of calumny and lies.
This is especially fitting given Glazer’s film: a chilling and shattering look at Nazism in the form of an idyllic Nazi officer’s home right outside Auschwitz. There is nothing “banal” about the evil on display in this film; a family frolics in a stream as bones and body parts float past them. It would be easy to read the film as a remembrance of the horror perpetrating on the Jewish people. But Glazer, as he has been collecting awards, has made perfectly clear: The phrase “never again” is not a Jewish slogan but something that must be raised every time a people are subject to genocide. He also said at the Oscars, “All our choices are made to reflect and confront us in the present. Not to say, ‘Look what they did then,’ rather ‘Look what we do now.’… Our film shows where dehumanization leads at its worst. It’s shaped all of our past and present.”
Glazer was the only Oscar winner to say anything about Gaza—rather shocking, given the stereotype of Hollywood, as George Clooney claimed in his unctuous speech a decade ago, that this is a bastion of liberalism. Hollywood is more of a PEP squad: progressive except for Palestine. Yet, if Glazer’s voice was the only one from the podium to acknowledge that these horrors were taking place while people were sitting snugly in their Vera Wangs, he was far from alone. The ceremony was delayed as solidarity protests blocked roads around the venue. It was a reminder that people are trying to stop the violence and win a permanent cease-fire in every corner, every college campus, every cultural arena in the country. That is, except for the Oscars, where the call for justice and peace were on mute. As Jews, our tradition of debate could not be more rich. It says so much about the Podhoretzes of the world—and how alien they truly are to Jewish tradition—that they want to take this tradition of debate and put a stake in its heart.
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As a Palestinian American, I witness a new horror that Israel commits against my people, with my tax dollars, livestreamed online every day.
The only choice for all of us who live here in the belly of the beast—in the U.S. colonial empire that was built on the genocide of Indigenous peoples—is to resist. We must put up the fight of our lives to stop our government from funding genocide.
Barb, you and I know there is nothing normal about living in a country that sponsors massacres. As Israel invades Al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza, killing or kidnapping Palestinian patients, journalists, and medical workers, the U.S. House of Representatives is considering sending $14 BILLION MORE in weapons to fuel this bloodshed.
Disrupt now, and keep disrupting our politicians in power for every day that this genocide goes on.
JOIN OUR PHONE ZAP
On the Phone Zap, you’ll learn how to disrupt a politician’s campaign event based on a real-life example. Then I’ll walk you through ways you can take action to raise your demands for justice.
Together on the Zoom call, we’ll flood the phone lines in Congress and the White House to demand they call for a PERMANENT CEASEFIRE NOW and stop arming Israel.
We must defend Al-Shifa Hospital, and all the Palestinian journalists and medical workers who are risking their lives as they’re systematically targeted by Israel.
Spread the word now. See you on Wednesday, and keep disrupting everywhere you go.
Onward to liberation,
CELINE QUSSINY
National Field Organizer
P.S. Defend Al-Shifa Hospital and all of Palestine now! Send an email to your members of Congress and keep protesting.
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“Malnutrition among children is spreading fast and reaching devastating and unprecedented levels in the Gaza Strip due to the wide-reaching impacts of the war and ongoing restrictions on aid delivery,” UNICEF said.
OLIVIA ROSANE, COMMON DREAMS, MARCH 16, 2024
Around one-third of children under two in northern Gaza are now suffering from acute malnutrition, the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund announced on Friday.
That’s double the percentage of children under two who suffered from acute malnutrition in January, as the rate jumped from 15.6-31% in one month.
“The speed at which this catastrophic child malnutrition crisis in Gaza has unfolded is shocking, especially when desperately needed assistance has been at the ready just a few miles away,” UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said in a statement.
“The situation is beyond catastrophic.”
The UNICEF data came from screenings it conducted with its partners in February. While the rates of malnutrition are higher in the north, no part of Gaza remains untouched. As a whole, the agency concluded that “malnutrition among children is spreading fast and reaching devastating and unprecedented levels in the Gaza Strip due to the wide-reaching impacts of the war and ongoing restrictions on aid delivery.”
A full 28% of children in Khan Younis in central Gaza have acute malnutrition, while in Rafah, around 10% suffered from acute malnutrition by the end of February. That was also double the 5% who suffered from acute malnutrition in January in the southern city. In the north, as many as 25% of children under five also suffer from acute malnutrition, up from 13%. The new figures come as humanitarian groups and U.N. agencies have been warning about potential famine in the Gaza Strip for months.
UNICEF also found in February that 4.5% of children in shelters and health centers in northern Gaza suffer from severe wasting, the most serious and potentially fatal form of malnutrition, for which the necessary treatment is not on hand. In Khan Younis, more than 10% of the malnourished children have severe wasting. Even in Rafah, the number of children under two with severe wasting more than quadrupled from 1% to over 4% between January and the end of February.
In total, at least 23 children have died from starvation or dehydration in northern Gaza in the last few weeks alone, UNICEF said. Israel’s bombardment and invasion of Gaza has been particularly devastating for children as a whole, killing around 13,450 out of a total death toll of more than 31,000, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
“We’ve been sounding the alarm that children will die due to malnutrition and disease since the beginning of the war,” Save the Children UK said on social media on Saturday. “Our worst fears have now come true. These man-made conditions continue to deteriorate toward famine and will continue to take innocent children’s lives.”
We've been sounding the alarm that children will die due to malnutrition and disease since the beginning of the war
Our worst fears have now come true.
These man-made conditions continue to deteriorate towards famine and will continue to take innocent children's lives. #Gaza pic.twitter.com/xxDUOm2luS
— Save the Children UK (@savechildrenuk) March 16, 2024
Lucia Elmi, UNICEF’s special representative in the Palestinian territories, toldThe New York Times that children were declining at such alarming rates because the available water, bread, and flour was not enough to provide the nutrition they need.
“They need protein, they need vitamins, they need fresh products, and they need micronutrients, and all of this has been completely missing,” Elmi said last week. “That’s why the deterioration has been so fast, so rapid, and at this scale.”
Dominic Allen, the United Nations Population Fund representative for Palestine, told reporters on Friday that everyone he spoke to Gaza was “gaunt, emaciated, hungry.”
“The situation is beyond catastrophic,” he said.
Russell said that UNICEF had not been able to acquire the supplies it needed to properly treat malnourished children. Humanitarian groups have criticized Israel for making aid deliveries more difficult by searching every truck that enters the strip and rejecting whole shipments because they contained items like children’s scissors or wooden instead of cardboard boxes for toys. In multiple instances, the Israeli military has fired on on aid convoys and on people gathering to receive aid, killing scores.
“We have repeatedly attempted to deliver additional aid and we have repeatedly called for the access challenges we have faced for months to be addressed. Instead, the situation for children is getting worse by each passing day. Our efforts in providing life-saving aid are being hampered by unnecessary restrictions, and those are costing children their lives,” Russell said.
Ultimately, Russell continued, the only way to properly feed and treat Gaza’s children is for Israel to stop its attack on the strip.
“An immediate humanitarian cease-fire continues to provide the only chance to save children’s lives and end their suffering,” Russell concluded. “We also need multiple land border crossings that allow aid to be reliably delivered at scale, including to northern Gaza, along with the security assurances and unimpeded passage needed to distribute that aid, without delays or access impediments.”
A Wall Street Journal investigation found that since Oct. 7, Israeli settlers have been rapidly building illegal roads and outposts across the West Bank. This work is sometimes done under armed guard with funding from the Israeli government.
Chapters:
0:00 WSJ’s findings: a surge in illegal construction
1:24 How roads become borders
2:35 Farkha: a new road threatens the village
4:41 Wadi al Seeq: a Bedouin village violently expelled
6:53 Government support for illegal farming outposts
8:35 Alonei Shilo: An illegal road 10 years in the making
9:29 Will Gaza be settled next?
WSJ video investigations use visual evidence to reveal the truth behind the most important stories of the day.
The Madison-Rafah Sister City Project, as a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization, cannot support or oppose specific political parties or candidates.
I don’t know what will come of the effort to encourage Wisconsin voters to vote “uninstructed”in our April 2 Democratic presidential primary, after more than 100,000 Michigan voterschose the equivalent “uncommitted” option in that state’s primary. Call it just a protest vote campaign, but I’m curious to see what it says about the conscience of voters here, and about their willingness to demand something better. Like Michigan, Wisconsin has open primaries, so you don’t have to be a registered Democrat or Republican to vote, though you can only vote in one. Thank god for small mercies.
Numerically, the “uncommitted”/”uninstructed” campaign isn’t threatening Joe Biden’s coast to the nomination as an incumbent. The greater threat may be that these disaffected voters will also abandon Biden in the general election, especially given that Wisconsin specializes in razor-thin electoral margins. What matters is that it is wrong for the United States to enable Israel’s slaughter of 31,000 people and counting in Gaza, and that a decent-sized chunk of the Democratic electorate—including those who are engaged enough to vote in primaries—is willing to take a stand. Whether or not they come around and hold their noses to vote Biden in November, it’s worth putting real pressure on Biden to support a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and do more to reign in Israel’s belligerent regime.
It would be hard to get any momentum behind a movement like this if Democrats understood or respected what drives a lot of us, let’s say… “ugh yeah fine I’ll vote Dem by default again” voters. For a long time, I’ve felt ambivalent about leftists who sit out elections. I’m starting to understand them a lot better. No, I don’t want Donald Trump back in office. If I had my way, the Republican Party would be outlawed and busted up, along with a host of right-wing civil-society organizations that have tried to help it seize power through violence and legal trickery. It’s also disturbingly clear how much certain Dems relish the threat of Trump as a bargaining chip, and how much they still share Republicans’ commitments to capital and empire.
Trump would likely help Israel do even more gruesome things in Gaza, Biden’s defenders often remind the pro-Palestinian crowd, as if we should be grateful for the restraint Biden is showing. I’m reminded of conservatives who respond to our critique of the American justice system by going off about how “well, in such-and-such country, they’d just chop off your hands or throw you off a building!” This is a very messed-up way to talk about the world’s problems. If you want to draw a real contrast with Trump’s GOP or such-and-such country’s hand-chopping practices, you should aim to do way better, not just a little better. Take some responsibility for what you can do. Or if you’re the Democratic Party, reflect on all the choices over time that leave you depending on a blood-soaked creep like Biden.
This is our newsletter-first column, Microtones. It runs on the site on Fridays, but you can get it in your inbox on Thursdays by signing up for our email newsletter.
Of course, if you’re deploying the argument that Biden’s leftist critics are just helping the Republicans… you’re doing that in defense of a guy who knows a lot about helping Republicans: supporting the Iraq War, supporting mass incarceration, stopping short of voting for Clarence Thomas’ confirmation but still doing a real bad job with all that.
How willing are we to at least send a message to President Joe Biden, and to Wisconsin’s Congressional delegation, including Senator Tammy Baldwin, that enabling Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza is unacceptable? How many voters will Democrats accuse of “just helping Trump,” as the Democratic leaders of Wisconsin’s biggest, most diverse city roll out the red carpet for Trump’s white-supremacist party?
Given that Republicans tried to stage a coup and have become even more explicit in their embrace of vigilante violence (for instance, making a folk hero out of a guy who went around shooting people in Kenosha), we’ll just be lucky if the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee doesn’t turn out to be a nightmare for a city full of people Republicans hate. (Anyways it’s actually really great and smart because conventioners will stay in hotels, and stuff.) This is not simply an opposition party that plays by the rules and can be reasoned with. These are people who, if you keep enabling them, will keep working very hard to erode your rights and quite possibly just kill you.
So, as Democrats continue to tell us how urgent it is to beat the Republicans in elections and save democracy, they’re maybe not really that icked out. They’ve perhaps not outgrown the blithe arrogance and calculated tepidness that cost them Michigan and Wisconsin in 2016.
Let’s look at just a few recent things elected Democrats have done with the power they have, and whether they are the actions of people serious about stopping fascism. People serious about stopping fascism would not humiliate themselves to try passing immigration legislation that panders to the right. They would not throw around terms like “illegals” in the same speech where they congratulate themselves for supposedly not demonizing immigrants. They would not send National Guard troops to harass people in the New York City subways. They would not openly enable the Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu, a man every bit as corrupt and authoritarian as Trump. They would maybe stop short of smooching the far-right prime minister of Italy. (I’m sorry, truly… it’s so embarrassing that we have to think about this kind of shit. Our precious Dark Brandon is just so tactile!) They would not cross the aisle in Congress to pass a pointless, racist resolution attacking a Palestinian member of their own caucus. Granted, that last one was a minority of House Democrats, but even so, it’s never any of these folks with actual power who get perversely blamed for helping Trump, the march of fascism, or whatever.
The Teamsters, supposedly a cornerstone of the Democratic coalition, made a hefty donation to the Republican National Committee in February. Liberal commentators in recent years have routinely argued that it’s practical to downplay “culture war” issues like trans rights, notwithstanding the self-evident practicality of making sure people whose vote you seek aren’t killed or persecuted. Democratic elected officials and liberal politicos who should be encouraging a more open debate about Israel are instead aiding ridiculous smear campaigns, like the effort to convince people that the phrase “from the river to the sea” is an anti-Semitic call for genocide. Dress these examples up in all the campaign consultant-speak you want—they’re major capitulations.
When all this is going on, it’s selective and disingenuous to dismiss the pro-Palestine movement as petulant and unrealistic saboteurs. “Uncommitted” or “uninstructed” voters are people the Democratic Party has taken for granted and failed to properly engage. If you’re asking voters to line up behind Biden without question and lay aside any political leverage they might have, you’re asking them for a level of discipline the Dems can’t even get from their own elected members.
Some of us formed our politics in the wake of 9/11, watching our country treat the threat of terrorism as a blank check for bloodshed abroad and surveillance at home. Speaking for myself, I’m a “yeah just not a Republican” voter because I think American belligerence sucks, blind belief sucks, patriotic gibberish sucks, the reflexive demonization of all things Arab or Muslim sucks, and contempt for mass movements sucks. I think moderates give the whole game away by failing to fight for something better. I think this country is basically a huge wealth-management office draped with human entrails, and I’ll believe differently when we achieve something different.
All these years later, we still find ourselves asked to be part of an uneasy coalition with a lot of people who refuse to understand the glaring lessons of the post-9/11 era, and who will respond to concerns about actual war-crimes with an insufferable horse-race mentality. (If you’re in my agéd-millennial age bracket and you still dance to the “because terrorism” tune in any variety… what the hell is wrong with you?) A lot of the people we’re arguing with these days don’t seem to understand that debate within a political party/faction/movement is a good thing, and so is demanding accountability from the very people you’ve voted for. Defending the people you vote for with simplistic excuses and wishful thinking is… not behavior worthy of free people. This is getting so old.
Let’s keep in mind that voters delivered major upsets for Democrats in 2020. Six states that went to Trump in 2016 flipped to Biden in 2020. Voters delivered Georgia’s electoral votes—and both its Senate seats, which required them to come out twice in tough runoff elections. All of this during an absolutely horrible, exhausting year, and in spite of the fact that no one in their right mind was thrilled about Biden, exactly. If you are a reasonable person and convinced yourself that you were thrilled about Biden, well… we all have our moments.
Between 2021 and 2023, what we needed was for Democrats to deliver, as swiftly as possible, to treat their two years in control of both the White House and both houses of Congress like they treat every election—as an emergency. Sure, they got some meaningful things done. Still, priorities like codifying abortion rights and filibuster reform fell prey to the same “well you see it’s the art of the possible” fiddle-dickery Democrats have been stuck on for ages. (Yes yes, I’m sure we’ll keep hearing the pleas that Democrats were helpless to discipline Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin, two politicians who have turned out to be not long for public office. Isn’t the whole point of electing Biden that he’s a creature of the Senate and can maybe work out these sorts of things?)
In 2022, Democrats lost the House but kept the Senate, avoiding the bloodbath that often awaits the party holding the Presidency during midterm elections. That’s in part because voters came through for candidates like Pennsylvania’s John Fetterman. After years of progressive posturing, Fetterman turned around and declared he wasn’t so progressive after all. Fetterman has taught the nation a lesson that we in Wisconsin, especially Madison, know all too well: “Progressive” has become a weasel word, divorced from specific historical moments and movements. Everyone can hide behind it, and no one can be held to it. The bait-and-switch will continue until faith in the process improves.
Who has power and what are they doing with it?
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The Palestinian Environmental NGOs Network — Friends of Earth Palestine (PENGON — FoE Palestine) is a coordinating body for Palestinian environmental NGOs in both the West Bank and Gaza Strip. PENGON looks to resist and highlight Israel’s violations of Palestine’s environment and its control of Palestinian natural resources. PENGON sees international advocacy as fundamental in stopping Israel.
From Craig Corrie – 21 Years Later
Gaza Crushed With Our Tax Dollars
On March 16, 2003, our daughter Rachel Corrie was killed as she stood to protect the home of a Palestinian family in Rafah in Gaza. Rachel was crushed to death by the Israeli military under a militarized, Caterpillar, Inc. D9R bulldozer, supplied by our United States government, paid for by our tax dollars. Now, twenty-one years later, we are witnessing the entire Gaza population being crushed by the Israeli military, using planes, bombs, shells, tanks and, yes, even bulldozers supplied by the United States. Genocide. Paid for by our tax dollars.
In some ways you could see this coming: soldiers never held accountable for their war crimes, human rights violations by the army of a country feeling entitled to the land of another people. We know this story, and we have seen this genocide. Ask any native American.
Our family worked for almost two decades to secure accountability in Rachel’s case, first through diplomatic means, and when that failed, through a civil lawsuit in Israeli courts. Some of the court testimony is particularly telling. An IDF Colonel responsible for training stated that there are no civilians in war zones, and the officer responsible for the military police investigation into Rachel’s killing testified that he thought Israel was at war with everyone in Gaza, including the peace activists. And all the time, the Israeli defense team referred to the people of Gaza – Rachel’s friends, our friends – as “the terrorists.” Even the Israeli high court said that international law did not apply to the actions of Israel in Gaza. How telling.
Repeatedly, the U.S. supplies weapons to Israel that are used in ways giving probable cause of human rights violations. But when the U.S. asks for investigation, Israel replies with reports that are far from the result of the thorough, credible, and transparent investigation required of, or in Rachel’s case promised by, Israel. Citing that violations cannot be proven, the U.S. continues military aid – rather than withholding more funding until our questions are properly answered, as allowed by U.S. law and dictated by common sense. The U.S. routinely rewards IDF war crimes with increased military aid, rather than sanctions. When that aid is abetting genocide, as it has since October 7, 2023, the aid itself is a war crime.
The time to avert the massacre of October 7 and the genocide that has followed was during all the prior years of the Israeli occupation. Repeatedly, Palestinians, often joined by Jewish Israelis, have protested nonviolently to have their rights respected. Cindy and I have joined them for Friday afternoon protests in the olive groves west of Bil’in in the West Bank and have been met by teargas and small arms fire from the IDF, even though we never left Bil’in land. I remember stumbling up the hillside while an Israeli friend helped Cindy to medical aid for gas inhalation.
We have watched a landowner weeping as her olive trees were being uprooted to make way for a great wall to divide her forever from her crops. We watched from afar the Great March of Return in Gaza, again met by gunfire – often targeted at medics, journalists, and even children. Had Israel and the U.S. been moved by any of these nonviolent protests to respect the rights of Palestinians, then the violence of October 7, 2023, and the more than five months of carnage and destruction in Gaza thereafter might have been avoided. To have peace, there must be justice, and there is nothing peaceful about the daily injustice of the occupation.
On a larger, even more depressing scale, I remember in grade school wondering how it was possible that any nation could ever let the Holocaust happen. It was personal. Linda, the girl I shared a desk with, was Jewish. Now, as I watch in horror at the atrocities perpetrated in Gaza and rationalized in Washington DC, I see how genocide happens: by nations making excuses and looking the other way.
That is where we come in – by refusing to look the other way. And an amazing number of us around the world have done so. Activists on the street corners, in city council meetings, in front of the White House, on state capitol steps, many for the first time in their lives, refusing to hear the excuses, refusing to look the other way. We are heartened by each one of you and by the visible, constructive actions you are taking. You have joined with Rachel, who wrote to her mother more than two decades ago, “This has to stop. I think it is a good idea for us all to drop everything and devote our lives to making this stop.”
Craig Corrie (Rachel’s dad)
March 16, 2024
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The Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization. Donations by check can be mailed to the Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace & Justice, 203 East 4th Ave, Suite 402, Olympia, WA 98501.
Above: One of the best teaching tools to convey succinctly what has happened to the Palestinian people, this postcard-size Loss of Land map card (sometimes called “Shrinking Palestine”) can be ordered online with several options for information on the back of the card. To order them, see FOSNA’s website.
Above: A more detailed Loss of Land series of maps, with some brief information on the events leading to each change of borders. See a larger view here.
Above: Click here to see a larger view of this map which also includes a brief history of the changing borders in Palestine.
Above: Many people have noted the similarities between the ethnic cleansing that American Indians were subjected to during the colonization of North America and the events in Palestine over the last century. Today there is growing solidarity in action between American Indians and Palestinians. See the video and statement at a demonstration during the United Methodist General Conference 2016 and Palestinian actions for and with those protecting land and water at Standing Rock in North Dakota.
Above: Many comparisons also have been made between the bantustans to which black South Africans were confined during that country’s apartheid era and the fragmented communities that Palestinians have now in the West Bank, similarly created by systemic colonialism and racism – a system of apartheid.
Clearly such fragmentation of their land and of their communities was not intended – then or now – to facilitate a cohesive, viable homeland for either peoples; rather it is a method of controlling an oppressed people and fully exploiting/colonizing the territories to which they have lost access.
The South Africans understand too well what is happening to the Palestinian people and South African leaders have testified to what they have identified as apartheid – worse than they experienced in South Africa – on their visits to occupied Palestinian territory. In 2009, the South African government commissioned a study by an international team of legal analysts to determine if the Israeli occupation regime met the legal criteria for the crime of apartheid under international law: The International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid, which was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1973. See the results of that study here.
All Map Pages:
• Maps “home page” includes map of The Middle East
• Ottoman Empire through 1949
• 1967 to the present
• Jerusalem
• Bethlehem (coming soon)
• Area C/ Jordan Valley (coming soon)
• Loss of Land
See also the collection of maps in the Palestine Teaching Trunk.
February 26, 2024
Aaron Bushnell just couldn’t take any more.
He couldn’t bear to see any more people eviscerated and incinerated by American bombs dropped by Israelis on innocent Palestinians.
So, in his Air Force uniform, he walked determinedly to the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C. and set himself on fire.
What can we say about a young man who would do that to protest his government’s acts of cruelty and genocide?
It is important we say nothing before quoting his own calmly spoken, final words to the world.
“I am an active-duty member of the United States Air Force and I will no longer be complicit in genocide. I am about to engage in an extreme act of protest. But compared to what people have been experiencing in Palestine at the hands of their colonizers, it’s not extreme at all. This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal. Free Palestine!”
You can see Aaron’s last minute of life in this video, blurred out after he strikes the match.
In it, he shouts, “Free Palestine” six times. The last five are combined with screams of agony before he falls silent.
A voice off-camera, shouts repeatedly, “Get him on the ground…on the ground,” which is the correct thing to do when someone is on fire.
People frantically rush in with a fire extinguisher. A police officer or uniformed guard appears and points a gun in Aaron’s direction. Someone calls out “I need a fire extinguisher…a fire extinguisher…another one…I don’t need guns; I need a fire extinguisher.”
Why would Aaron do something this extreme?
More of the “why” may come to light. But what he said in that video is sufficient. He could “no longer be complicit in genocide.”
Aaron’s motivation is strikingly similar to that of Norman Morrison, a 35-year-old, Quaker activist who set himself ablaze in the Pentagon parking lot below Secretary of War McNamara’s office, November 2, 1965.
In a letter to his wife, Morrison had written, “Dearest Anne, For weeks, even months, I have been praying only that I be shown what I must do. This morning with no warning, I was shown … Know that I love thee but must act for the children in the Priest’s village,” in reference to an article he had read in which a Catholic priest described Vietnamese “women and children blown to bits” from U.S. bombing and napalm.
Too many of us in VFP have seen the suffering war creates and it never leaves our memories. All of us agonize over our government’s aiding and abetting the slaughter of innocents.
We prod ourselves, “what is the most, the very best thing, I can do?”
That question moves some to learn the history of Palestine that they’ve too long ignored; some to contact elected officials; some to join a public protest; some to go on fasts; some to block roads or congressional offices and go to jail. But it never feels like enough.
Some may perceive fasting to the death or self-immolation as crazy and extreme beyond measure. Others see it as entirely appropriate because the horror protested is itself insane and extreme beyond measure.
Few who care deeply will have the courage to fast to the death or do what Aaron Bushnell did. But in addition to whatever inadequate things we already do, we can, we must, do two more things.
The first is to consciously let people who are pained and grieving at what our government does know that they are not alone. We should not assume our colleagues and comrades know we are aware of their anguish.
Secondly, we can resolve that we will move beyond simply reacting to bestial policies.
We could call our policymakers “madmen arsonists” because they go around the globe setting fires much faster than we can extinguish them.
These policymakers, swaddled in privilege, take their orders from those who profit from death and suffering. We know who they are: the people who run Boeing, Raytheon, General Dynamics and their fellow merchants of death, and the people who finance what the merchants do.
These madmen arsonists operate on a grand scale internationally but also on a singular, small scale as in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C. They as much as lit the match for Aaron Bushnell. The fire that killed Airman Bushnell was simply the “collateral damage,” as it’s so callously called, of the ongoing conflagration in Palestine.
Our firefighting will never keep up with arsonists who operate on a global scale. We are long overdue to learn the fire prevention skills needed to halt them.
Fire prevention in this context means prohibiting the lobbying, advertising, vote buying, campaign funding and actual legislation writing that corporations do behind constitutional shields given them by the Supreme Court, like free speech and protection.
Until we strip corporations of their shields, they will continue to amass economic and political power to govern us, to set fires large and small, while we run frantically for fire extinguishers until we are exhausted, penniless and gone.
Veterans For Peace is learning the necessary fire prevention skills we need as we continue fighting fires set by the madmen arsonists. It is simply our responsibility to do both at the same time.
CALL Pocan’s offices and insist on a pledge not to vote for any further military aid. He’s still not done that. Here is the link to the Democratic discharge petition.
Right now, the Israeli military is preparing to invade Rafah, where over 1.7 million Palestinians are sheltering and starving from months of brutal bombardment.
Yesterday, AIPAC was on Capitol Hill lobbying members of Congress to give billions in unconditional weapons funding to Israel — directly enabling the attack on Rafah.
Now, Democratic leadership is using a procedure called a discharge petition to try to force a vote through and fund Israel’s assault on Gaza this week.1
We put this easy tool together for you — all you have to do is fill in your information and press the button!
Here’s why this is urgent: The discharge petition only needs 218 signatures to bring a vote to the floor — and at least 169 Democrats have already signed on.
That means we need to take action today to urge our representatives to refuse to sign or withdraw their signatures — and make it clear that they oppose billions in unconditional weapons funding for Israel.
The Israeli government has made its intention to invade Rafah very clear. Sending $14 billion in military funding would only enable Israel’s ongoing assault on Gaza, which has already killed over 31,000 Palestinians.
On Monday, we joined a broad coalition of nearly two dozen progressive organizations calling on the Democratic Party to reject AIPAC.2
Moments like this are exactly why we organize — and exactly why we need people like you in our movement.
When you send a letter to Congress, you’ll be joining thousands of people across the country who are saying NO to AIPAC’s agenda and NO to Israel’s massacre of Palestinians.
In solidarity,
The IfNotNow team
Sources:
1. Axios, House Democrats’ foreign aid discharge petition goes live
2. ABC News, Progressive groups launch ‘Reject AIPAC’ effort as Democratic divides over Israel deepen
We continue to put all our resources into actions to respond to this moment. Please contribute if you can.
IfNotNow Movement
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United States
Wisconsin Coalition for Justice in Palestine
Wisconsin Bail Out the People Movement
Posted on March 13, 2024
End all U.S. Aid to Apartheid Israel!
Money for People’s Needs not Endless U.S. Wars!
Reparations for Palestine!
MARCH 12, 2024
Palestinians in Gaza marked the first day of Ramadan on Monday amid rising hunger and desperation, with Israel continuing to restrict aid shipments into the besieged territory. United Nations officials have complained that even basic items like medical scissors have resulted in trucks being stopped by Israeli forces at the border. This comes as countries such as the United States conduct dangerous airdrops of essential supplies and have announced plans to build a pier off the coast of Gaza to deliver aid. “It’s going to be more simple, more realistic and more efficient if the United States has pushed the Israelis to allow the aid truck to go into the north of Gaza and Gaza City,” says Yousef Hammash, advocacy officer with the Norwegian Refugee Council, speaking to us from Rafah. “The only issue that we are facing on delivering the aid on the ground is the restrictions the Israelis put on it.” Hammash also describes “living day by day” amid “madness, violence [and] bombardment.”
The report lays out the catastrophic conditions facing pregnant women in the Gaza Strip, one of the most vulnerable categories and in need of lifesaving preventive and curative nutrition interventions. Estimates show that there are 50,000 pregnant women in shelters with no access to adequate food and proper healthcare, and 15% of them are likely to experience pregnancy or birth-related complications and need additional medical care that is not available.
Respectively, the report highlights Israel’s measures intended to prevent birth within the Gaza Strip amid lack of protection from military attacks. They are under direct attacks, resulting in killings, injuries, toxic gas inhalations and causing serious psychological and physical harm amid heightened feelings of fear and anxiety and lack of special protection. All of this combined will lead to preventing births and have serious consequences on reproductive health, including a rise in pregnancy pains, miscarriages, stillbirths and premature births.
The report then reviews Israeli violations resulting in provision of poor health services to pregnant women with no safe access. This has forced a lot of pregnant women to give birth in houses or shelters, worsening the birth-related complications, increasing their suffering and leaving them with unprecedented levels of stress. Pregnant women unable to have safe access to health services are facing a double nightmare as if they need healthcare, they have to walk for a long distance or sometimes feel reluctant to ask for adequate healthcare.
The report also monitors Israel’s imposition of dire living conditions that increase pregnancy complications. Due to the ongoing aggression, a lot of women became the caretaker of their families because their husbands were killed, injured, arrested or etc. Therefore, women bear greater responsibilities towards their children and families. Meanwhile, the aggression has led to forced mass displacement of civilians in light of the outbreak of epidemics and dire living conditions in shelters along with lack of electricity and water supplies. All of this combined has increased pregnant and postpartum women’s suffering and health risks during pregnancy and after childbirth.
The report emphasizes that the Israeli serious human rights violations against pregnant women in the Gaza Strip amount to genocidal acts, in particular imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group. It calls upon the international community to exert pressure on Israel to cease all genocidal acts, including imposing measures intended to prevent births within the Gaza Strip; comply with the legally-binding provisional measures order lately issued by the International Court of Justice to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance; and fulfill its obligations as an occupying power in terms of its duty to transfer pregnant women to safe areas.
From 350 Wisconsin:
Since long before 1953, when Line 5 was constructed without the consent of Tribal Nations in its path, the Bad River Band has been fighting for their rights, culture, land, water, sovereignty, and so much more. This is a battle that we at 350 Wisconsin continue to witness every day, led by the Tribe in the most courageous and selfless way possible – for future generations.
The 70-year-old Line 5 pipeline, on the verge of a catastrophic rupture, plows its way through the Bad River reservation in northern Wisconsin putting the Great Lakes, and so much more, at risk. Now, the Tribe is up against Enbridge, a multi-billion dollar multinational oil corporation, to protect Lake Superior, the largest freshwater resource in North America, and all that depends on it.
A new documentary, Bad River, shines a light on the Band’s story of struggle from the beginning and through to current generations. Mary Mazzio, director of the film, says that the Tribe’s resistance against Line 5 is “the newest chapter of a very old story”, a story that is largely unknown to the public.
Starting this Friday, March 15th, through March 20th, the film will be in select theaters around the country, including here in Wisconsin. Showings are selling out fast – be sure to reserve your seats soon so you don’t miss out on this amazing opportunity. Fifty percent of all profits will be donated to the Bad River Band.
More Information
AMC Fitchburg Click the calendar icon above for different dates
“The humanitarian situation in Gaza is devastating and the needs are acute,” Johan Forssell, Sweden’s international development minster, said in a statement Saturday. “We will monitor closely to ensure UNRWA follows through on what it has promised.”
Canada also announced it would be lifting its “temporary pause on funding” to UNRWA, stating Friday that it was “deeply concerned by the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza that is worsening by the hour.”
Earlier this week, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini warned that the agency was “at a breaking point” after several countries, including the United States, suspended funding. The agency also reported Friday that 162 staff members have been killed since the war in Gaza began, calling it the highest number of U.N. team members ever killed in any conflict or natural disaster.
U.N. officials have warned that more than a quarter of Gaza’s population is on the brink of famine, and several countries, including the United States, have resorted to air dropping aid into the besieged enclave. The Biden administration has also announced plans to build a temporary pier off Gaza’s coastline to enable scaled-up aid deliveries by sea.
The U.S. military conducted another airdrop of aid into northern Gaza on Saturday, Central Command said in a statement, adding that C-130 aircraft delivered more than 41,000 ready-to-eat meals and 23,000 bottles of water.
The delivery came as Gaza’s Health Ministry said the death toll from malnutrition and dehydration in the territory had risen to 25. At least 30,960 people have been killed and 72,524 injured in Gaza since the war began, according to the ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Israel on Saturday said that the head of its Mossad intelligence agency, David Barnea, met with CIA Director William J. Burns the day before to discuss a potential hostage deal that would also see at least a temporary cease-fire.
In a statement, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the talks are ongoing but blamed Hamas for recent delays, saying the militant group that once controlled Gaza is “not interested” in a deal ahead of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
“It’s looking tough,” President Biden said Friday when asked by a reporter if there would be a cease-fire by Ramadan, which begins Sunday.
“Gaza is being strangled and it seems that the world right now has lost its humanity,” the agency’s commissioner general said. The Israeli siegeof the enclave has sapped its essential resources, Lazzarini said, adding that “not one drop of water, not one grain of wheat, not a liter of fuel” has been allowed into the Gaza Strip for more than a week. Without those supplies, the agency cannot continue its operations, he said.
Almost 2,700 people have been killed in Gaza, and about 9,600 have been injured in Israeli strikes, following the deadly Oct. 7 rampage by Hamas that killed more than 1,400 people in Israel. In Gaza, nearly a million have been displaced — with 400,000 sheltering in overwhelmed and ill-equipped UNRWA school buildings, the agency said.
Here is what you should know about the U.N. agency vital to Gaza:
“The situation is catastrophic, catastrophic, catastrophic”
The humanitarian crisis in #Gaza is dire.
Our @UNRWA colleague Rawya reports the desperate need for food, water, and medicine for the people fleeing their homes who are now dying without these supplies available. pic.twitter.com/eZlkL7xQYk
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) October 15, 2023
Officially titled the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, UNRWA was established in 1949 by a U.N. resolution to carry out direct relief for Palestinian refugees following the Arab-Israeli War of 1948.
The agency is unique “in terms of its long-standing commitment to one group of refugees,” it notes on its website.
It provides education, health care, social services and other humanitarian aid to “registered” Palestinian refugees. It also runs schools for more than half a million students.
The agency has specific eligibility guidelines for who can register: A person whose “normal place of residence was Palestine during the period 1 June 1946 to 15 May 1948, and who lost both home and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 conflict.”
The descendants of male Palestinian refugees are also eligible, according to the agency’s website, which says about 5.9 million Palestinians are eligible for its services. UNRWA aid and services are available in the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan and Lebanon. There are about 2 million people in the Gaza Strip and 3 million in the West Bank, according to a 2022 U.S. estimate.
Most of the funding for UNRWA comes from “voluntary contributions” from U.N. member states, with a small portion of its financing coming from the U.N.’s regular budget. Its mandate has been repeatedly renewed “in the absence of a solution to the Palestine refugee problem,” it says. The U.N. renewed the mandate in December until June 2026.
Some 1.7 million people received lifesaving humanitarian assistance in 2021, the agency said.
UNRWA operates 706 schools in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. Around 543,000 Palestinian refugee children were enrolled in UNRWA schools for the 2021-22 year.
The U.N. schools provide Palestinian refugees with free basic education that follows the host authorities’ curriculums and textbooks supplemented with UNRWA-materials on human rights, the agency sayson its website.
The schools aim to ensure students become “confident, innovative, questioning, thoughtful, and open-minded, to uphold human values and tolerance, proud of their Palestinian identity and contributing positively to the development of society and the global community,” the agency says.
The schools also provide mental health and psychosocial support to students in Gaza who are “who are directly exposed to life atrocities” in the area, it said.
Since the conflict broke out, at least 400,000 displaced people in Gaza are now sheltering in UNRWA schools and buildings, Lazzarini said in a statement Sunday, adding that the buildings are not equipped as emergency shelters. “We have reports in our logistics base, for example, where hundreds of people are just sharing one toilet,” he said.
On Oct. 8, the UNRWA reported that one of its schools sheltering displaced families was directly hit by a strike.
Giving an update to “raise the alarm” on his agency’s inability to fulfill its mission on Sunday, Lazzarini said, “an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding under our eyes.”
The way the siege in Gaza is being imposed by Israel is “nothing else than collective punishment,” he said, criticizing the bombing of civilian infrastructure in densely populated areas and the lack of access to essential resources such as fuel, food, electricity and water in Gaza.
Unless essential supplies can move into Gaza, aid workers will not be able to continue humanitarian operations, Lazzarini said.
The agency said in a Saturday statement that its shelters in Gaza were “no longer safe.” It called on Israel to “protect all civilians sheltering in UNRWA premises across the Gaza Strip,” including in northern Gaza, where Israel’s military has told more than a million Palestinians to evacuate south — though doing so has proved difficult and dangerous for many.
UNRWA said that many Gazans “will not be able to flee the area,” particularly women, children, and the elderly and disabled. “They have no choice and must be protected at all times,” it added.
“Wars have rules,” the agency said. “Civilians, hospitals, schools, clinics and United Nations premises cannot be a target.”
Lazzarini said that the agency has lost 14 staff members in the conflict, including teachers, engineers, guards, psychologists, an engineer and a gynecologist. More than 13,000 staff members were displaced, and the team relocated to Rafah, in southern Gaza, after the evacuation directive.
He called for a suspension of hostilities for humanitarian reasons “without any delay” to spare the loss of more lives.
“I beg you, save Gaza. It’s dying. … There are children, elderly and adults for whom I cannot provide,” Rawya Halas, a UNRWA staff member, said in a video released by the agency Sunday. “I am UNRWA. I’m the head of this shelter, and I can’t offer them anything.”
Tectonic shifts in Israeli broadcasting have played a key role in shaping the country’s nationalist and militaristic discourse, with Oct. 7 marking their apex.
For the last few months, people around the world have been closely following the ongoing brutality of the war in Gaza. Pictures of Palestinians fleeing south and looking for relatives under the rubble, videos of children searching for food and water — these and more have been circulating on social media and news networks every day since October 7.
But these images are practically nowhere to be found in the Israeli media. Most Israeli news outlets rarely even update the number of Palestinian casualties — which has surpassed 30,000 — nor do they inform their viewers that approximately 70 percent of the victims of the Israeli offensive are women and children.
The meta-narrative presented by the Israeli media defines Hamas’ attack on southern Israel as the genesis and the heart of the current geopolitical crisis. Every day there is a new angle on the events of October 7: new footage of the Hamas raids on the kibbutzim, testimonies of soldiers who participated in the battles, or interviews with survivors. Moreover, Israeli journalists cover current events in Gaza almost entirely through the single lens of October 7 and its ripple effects.
This is a conscious decision by the Israeli media. In an interview for The New Yorker, Ilana Dayan, one of Israel’s most highly-regarded journalists, explained, “We interview people about October 7 — we are stuck on October 7.” Oren Persico, a staff writer at The Seventh Eye, an independent investigative magazine focused on freedom of speech in Israel, told +972, “There is a cycle where the news outlets refrain from confronting the public with the uncomfortable truth, and as a result, the public does not ask for it.”
This cycle is understandable, to a certain extent. The October 7 attack was perhaps the greatest calamity in Israel’s history. On the deadliest day for the Jewish people since 1945, more than 1,200 Israelis were killed, and 243 were taken as hostages to Gaza, most of them civilians. For the first time in the state’s history, an enemy temporarily conquered Israeli-controlled territory. Jewish Israelis are continuing to process this national trauma and have, as a result, yet to regain their sense of security. News outlets, therefore, not only feed the public with a particular narrative but also objectively reflect the public sentiment.
Still, in the past five months, the Israeli media has done much more than merely reflect Israeli society back to itself. The media, and TV news in particular, has taken active steps to position itself as the embodiment of Israeli patriotism. It is defining what is in the public interest, drawing the boundaries of legitimate political discourse, and presenting only a certain truth to Israeli citizens. This position serves both their own commercial interests and the national interests stated by the government and the military. In so doing, TV news broadcasts are constantly walking a thin line between propaganda and journalism.
To understand why the Israeli media covers the Gaza war in this fashion, it is crucial to comprehend the historical trends in the media and its role in shifting Israeli public opinion to the right. The media became an indelible part of a cycle in which Israelis become increasingly nationalistic and militaristic, which makes them hungry for news that celebrates the war and obscures or even omits coverage of its costs. The public receives only this celebratory narrative, and the cycle continues.
To unpack this reality, the following analysis focuses primarily on TV news — which is the predominant medium through which Israelis consume news. But the same pattern is manifested in all other forms of media, making the cycle pervasive.
Until the 2000s, mainstream TV news was considered a stronghold of the secular liberal Zionist elite. This elite controlled the government-funded public broadcasts, which had monopoly on broadcasting until the 1990s, and then later privately owned Channel 12 and Channel 13.
All of these channels generally targeted a centrist, mainstream audience, and generally speaking, they rarely challenged the Israeli occupation, the settler movement, or the wrongdoings of security forces. They had much stronger teeth when reporting on other liberal issues like government corruption, gender equality, and in recent years LGBTQ+ rights. Similar attitudes existed in written media, with the notable exception of the left-wing newspaper Haaretz, which publishes more rigorous journalism about Palestinian issues. Yet it is worth noting that despite the high name recognition that Haaretz enjoys abroad, it has a relatively small Israeli audience — roughly 5 percent of local newspaper readers.
In the past two decades the news scene in Israel has undergone tectonic shifts. It has transformed from a largely centrist institution into a polarized field: one pole is an overtly right-wing machine, and the other is apologetically centrist, fearing to be perceived as too leftist.
Since Benjamin Netanyahu’s first term as prime minister in the late 1990s, he has been a fierce critic of mainstream media, calling it a far-left and untrustworthy source of information. (This obsession with the media underlies the corruption charges he is facing, all of which relate to his attempts to influence Israeli media to obtain flattering coverage.) After his first ouster, in the 1999 elections, Netanyahu determined that reshaping Israeli media was imperative in order for him to return to power.
He accomplished this goal by creating an independent amplifier for himself and his views that bypassed mainstream media outlets. In 2007, Netanyahu allegedly convinced Sheldon Adelson to establish the free daily newspaper, Israel Hayom, which gradually became the most widely-read newspaper in Israel. Until Adelson’s death a few years ago and subsequent changes to its editorial staff, the paper was unfailingly sympathetic to Netanyahu.
The prime minister has also been keen to reshape the TV news ecosystem because of its consequential role in influencing public sentiment. Under the control of his Likud party, the Ministry of Communications promoted regulatory changes that allowed Channel 14 to transform itself from a “heritage channel” (licensed to broadcast programs about Judaism) to a full-blown news channel providing hours of coverage a day, making it an Israeli version of Fox News. Amid the political polarization over Netanyahu and the judicial overhaul, Channel 14’s popularity grew, especially among Netanyahu supporters, making it second only to Channel 12 in viewership.
These structural changes coincided with a change in the composition of journalists in Israel. As Israeli society has become more right wing over the past 20 years, especially on the Palestinian issue, there has also been an increasing number of journalists who are right-wing religious Zionists, many of them settlers.
Persico, of The Seventh Eye, said that these changes “create two parallel universes with parallel fundamental presumptions, divided between Bibist and just-not-Bibist.” But even on mainstream channels, he continued, “inciting statements that were once heard only in religious Zionist synagogues’ weekly pamphlets can now be heard by prominent editors and journalists.” For example, on Channel 12, only some correspondents and guests advocate for reestablishing settlements in Gaza, whereas on Channel 14, they do so more explicitly and extensively.
After the 2014 Gaza War — in which 68 Israelis and over 2,200 Palestinians were killed — Dana Weiss, a leading correspondent for Channel 12, lamented that one of the lessons from the coverage of the war is that Israeli media should do more to highlight the voices of Palestinians in the Strip. “The inclination of Israelis to listen to the hard questions is fading away,” she warned.
But in the nationalist climate created in the aftermath of October 7, coverage of the devastation Israel is unleashing in Gaza is nowhere to be found. Some journalists even cast doubt on whether the media should publish stories that might damage national morale.
From the very beginning of the war, TV news channels have spearheaded the hasbara effort in Israel. Hasbara — which means “explaining” in Hebrew — is used to describe pro-Israel advocacy, but is essentially doublespeak for propaganda. Elements of hasbara appear in every TV news channel. For example, since October 7, each channel’s logo has been modified to now include the Israeli flag and the government slogan “Yachad Nenatzeach” (“Together we shall win”).
As part of this hasbara, all mainstream news networks portray Israel as the ultimate victim, and the Hamas attacks as having demonstrated unparalleled brutality. This victimhood is an exclusive status: it leaves little to no room for the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza, nor the level of the humanitarian crisis they are facing. Israeli mainstream TV news rarely shows any documentation of the rubble in Gaza or the magnitude of displacement and destruction there. When it does, the responsibility for these losses is laid at Hamas’ feet.
Anyone who challenges this narrative is targeted. For example, when UN Secretary-General António Guterres explicitly condemned Hamas’ October 7 attack but said that it “did not happen in a vacuum” — referring to Israel’s 56-year-long occupation as crucial context — the Israeli media pounced.
Instead of providing an honest explanation of his internationally mainstream position, Israeli journalists competed with one another to most harshly criticize Guterres. Almog Boker, one of the most popular correspondents on Channel 13, claimed that the UN chief was “justifying Hamas’ atrocities.” A headline in Ynet read, “Why Does the UN Secretary-General António Guterres Dislike Israel So Much?” Even Channel 12 described his statements as “outrageous.”
The close interaction between the Israeli media and the military, unsurprisingly, creates several critical blind spots in covering the reality in Gaza. The presence of international media was practically non-existent for the first weeks of the war, and most international journalists left Gaza for their own safety. The Israeli bombardment, and the intermittent electricity and communications blackouts, have hindered the ability of local Palestinian journalists to report.
As the ground invasion progressed, the Israeli army allowed some journalists — both Israeli and international — to enter Gaza, but only if they were accompanied by the military. Such tours are usually directed by the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, meaning the journalists are unable to interview Palestinians directly or to independently access ruined sites. They can see merely what is presented to them.
The military’s influence goes far beyond controlling access to information. For the first three months of the war, the head of the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, Daniel Hagari, conducted daily press conferences that were broadcast live on every channel during primetime. These press conferences included updates on the state of the war, but only sporadically contained instructions for the public or genuinely newsworthy information. Although Hagari was broadly viewed by the Israeli public as a reliable source of information, especially relative to the lack of public trust in the government, his unnecessary but constant presence gave the army control over the narrative in the news.
Furthermore, military correspondents, who largely rely on the Israeli army as their main source, are constantly praising the military. This is not a new trend. Even before the war, military correspondents often published IDF statements verbatim, and without mentioning that the military was the sole source of information. They also fiercely amplify the supposed successes Israeli forces have made in Gaza and advocate for continuing the operation.
The same is true of many other journalists and the media establishment as a whole. This is in part a byproduct of receiving their journalistic education through the Israeli military itself. The standard training for many journalists in Israel is at Galatz, the Israeli army radio, not at universities or local newspapers. Indeed, Galatz selects dozens of newly-conscripted Israeli soldiers to work at the station as part of their mandatory service. These soldiers receive unparalleled and highly-valued training and experience, which makes them particularly appealing for later occupational recruitment when they finish their service.
Persico emphasized the importance of this background, arguing that “generations of Israeli journalists were raised [professionally] under this military supervision, which trained them to think that there are things they cannot publish.” As a result, this education has over time shattered the fundamental conception of journalistic independence in Israel.
In addition to omitting crucial coverage of Palestinian lives, Israeli media also plays an active role in creating outright false perceptions of the war and Palestinian public opinion.
A major difference between international and Israeli coverage of the war, for example, is the issue of Hamas’ legitimacy among Palestinians, which has become a recurring fixation of the mainstream media in Israel. There is certainly criticism of Hamas among Gazans for failing to guarantee security or to provide humanitarian assistance during the war. But the Israeli media portrays Hamas as on the cusp of losing all its standing among Palestinians.
On Channel 12, Ohad Hemo and Ehud Yaari, the leading Arab and Palestinian affairs correspondents in Israel, reported that tensionsbetween Gazan civilians and Hamas are intensifying. According to them, Gazans have said that “instead of ‘hello,’ the most common phrase on the street between people is ‘may God take revenge against Hamas.”
A few weeks ago, Israeli TV channels circulated a clip of thousands of Palestinians fleeing Khan Younis through a humanitarian corridor chanting, “The people want to take down Hamas.” None of them mentioned, as revealed by +972, that they were forced to do so by Israeli soldiers in order to be let through. Even if the media was unaware of this, any decent journalist should have questioned the chanting’s significance as an indicator of Hamas’ legitimacy, especially given that the videos were taken by soldiers and that the Palestinians were at the mercy of the Israeli military.
The narrative of Hamas’ supposedly imminent collapse was reinforced by other footage, such as videos of Palestinians in northern Gaza surrendering their weapons to Israel. Initially, news channels quickly amplified that “hundreds of Hamas militants are surrendering in northern Gaza.” A few days later, however, national security officials estimated that out of those hundreds, only 10 to 15 percent were actually Hamas militants. The rest were ordinary civilians who had not fled south, as the army had ordered them to.
Another example is the notion that the Israeli military is closing in on Yahya Sinwar, the head of Hamas’ Gaza branch and one of the masterminds behind the October 7 attack. These types of pieces have been running for months now. In December, in a video that sparked much mockery, Adva Dadon, a journalist with Channel 12, aired a story titled “In the house of Sinwar,” documenting an Israeli raid on what was said to be one of his homes. She even lifted a pair of shoes from the rubble and claimed it belonged to Sinwar — a statement that was quickly debunked.
Most disturbingly, Israeli TV news takes an active role in dehumanizing Palestinians. Channel 14 has consistently promoted abominable views — such as calling for the annihilation of Gaza, and describing all Gazans as terrorists and legitimate targets — which are parroted by leading anchors and correspondents. Because of these recurring statements, Channel 14 was even cited several times in South Africa’s complaint to the International Court of Justice that accuses Israel of committing genocide in Gaza. These types of statements are not the exception, and in fact appeared on mainstream TV news as well.
Moreover, mainstream news refuses to report the number of Palestinian casualties, claiming that the numbers of the “Hamas-run” Health Ministry cannot be trusted — even though they were historically accurate and the Israeli army itself relies on them. Channel 14 used the numbers released by the Health Ministry, but defined all the thousands of Palestinians killed as “terrorists.”
To some extent, the undercurrents we see in Israeli media coverage of the war also appear on social media — a central method of news consumption, especially among the younger population. On social media, algorithms are designed to create an echo chamber with a parallel universe, and its personalized nature exacerbates the isolation of Israelis both from each other and from the rest of the world. For instance, even when Israelis on social media are exposed to non-Israeli coverage of the war, it would likely be through pro-Israeli mediating agents explaining it is merely enemy propaganda.
Israeli mainstream media creates another echo chamber for Israelis that amplifies government talking points and bears little resemblance to the information landscape of the rest of the world. Unlike Israeli news, international media is currently much more focused on the magnitude of the devastation in Gaza and its connection to the long-term oppression of the Palestinians. At the same time, there is much doubt globally if Israel’s war objectives are even feasible — but this doubt is hardly aired in Israel.
Thus, while Israeli TV channels have not been forced to boost the government’s line of thought, doing so has certainly served their own interests in maintaining high ratings. This strategy worked: a Hebrew University poll found that since the beginning of the war, mainstream media news consumption has more than doubled, and exposure to all major news networks has increased. Among the Jewish population, the popularity of Channel 12 has skyrocketed, especially among viewers affiliated with the anti-Netanyahu bloc.
These shifts are not a deviation from the norm. They are the apex of historical transformations that have fundamentally changed Israeli media and TV news, combined with outlets’ ad-hoc decision to display and prove their patriotism. Unfortunately, if coverage of the Gaza war is any indication, these trends are likely to continue, aggravating the ever-propelled cycle that pushes the Israeli media and the Israeli public to be more right-wing, conformist, militaristic, and nationalistic.
Israeli forces have struck one of the largest residential towers in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, residents said, stepping up pressure on the last area of the enclave it has not yet invaded and where more than a million displaced Palestinians are sheltering.
The 12-floor Burj al-Masri building, located some 500 metres (1,640 feet) from the border with Egypt, was damaged in the air raid early on Saturday morning.
Dozens of families were made homeless though no casualties were reported, according to residents. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the incident.
One of the tower’s 300 residents told the Reuters news agency that Israel gave them a 30-minute warning to flee the building at night.
“People were startled, running down the stairs, some fell, it was chaos. People left their belongings and money,” said Mohammad al-Nabrees, adding that among those who tripped down the stairs during the panicked evacuation was a friend’s pregnant wife.
A Rafah-based official with the Fatah party, which dominates the Palestinian Authority that has limited self-rule in the occupied West Bank, said he feared that hitting the Rafah tower was a sign of an imminent Israeli invasion.
Five months into Israel’s unrelenting air and ground assault on Gaza, health authorities say nearly 31,000 Palestinians have been killed, more than 72,500 wounded and thousands more are likely under rubble.
The offensive has plunged the Palestinian territory, already reeling from a 17-year Israel-led blockade, into a humanitarian catastrophe. Much of it has been reduced to rubble and most of the 2.3 million population have been displaced, with the United Nations warning of disease and starvation.
We suffer from violence, from sadness, from injustice, from humiliation, from the hardest forms of torture at the hands of the occupation. … My wish on International Women’s Day is for this war not to get repeated.
— Aya, refugee camp, Rafah, Gaza, Palestine
Women in Gaza living and dying under Israel’s genocidal attacks are on our minds and in our hearts today, and every day.
・・・
Palestinian liberation is a reproductive justice issue, a gender justice issue, and a human rights issue. On International Women’s Day on March 8th, we bring attention to the intersecting oppressions that Palestinian women face in Gaza. Israel has ruthlessly killed more than 9,000 Palestinian women since October, and continues to expose 1 million women and girls to unbearable life conditions. Swipe through to hear from them.
We call on feminists and human rights activists around the world to stand in solidarity with Palestinian women, and take action to stop the genocide.
Image: Visualizing Palestine
SOUND THE ALARM!
Over 30,000 Palestinian people have been killed by the Israeli military and over 2 million Palestinian people trapped in Gaza under the heaviest bombardment yet. WE ARE WITNESSING GENOCIDE.
We are not helpless in this moment. We need everyone to TAKE ACTION.
The people of Gaza have a number one demand: KEEP UP THE PRESSURE & CALL FOR A CEASEFIRE NOW. Use your power and influence to hold our U.S. government accountable. Visit http://bit.ly/StopGazaGenocide
The US President and the Democratic party are betting voters are dumb enough to fall for this charade. Please don’t prove them right.
A few observations on President Biden’s building of a “temporary pier” – or what his officials are grandly calling a “port” – to get aid into Gaza:
1. Though no one is mentioning it, Biden is actually violating Israel’s 17-year blockade of Gaza with his plan. Gaza doesn’t have a sea port, or an airport, because Israel, its occupier, has long banned it from having either.
Israel barred anything getting into Gaza that didn’t come through the land crossings it controls. Israel stopped international aid flotillas, often violently, from reaching Gaza to bring in medicine. The blockade also created a captive market for Israel’s own poor-quality goods, like damaged fruit and veg, and allowed Israel to skim off money at the land crossings that should have gone to the Palestinians in fees and duties.
2. It will take many weeks for the US to build this pier off-shore and get it up and running. Why the delay? Because every western capital, including the United States, has supported the blockade for the past 17 years.
The siege of Gaza caused gradual malnutrition among the enclave’s children, rather the the current rapid starvation. By helping Israel inflict collective punishment on Gaza for all those years, the US and Europe were complicit in a gross and enduring violation of international law, even before the current genocide.
With his pier, Biden isn’t reversing that long-standing collusion in a crime against humanity. He has stressed it will be temporary. In other words, it will be back to business in Gaza as usual afterwards: any children who survive will once again be allowed to starve in slow-motion, at a rate that doesn’t register with the establishment media and put pressure on Washington to be seen to be doing something.
3. Biden could get aid into Gaza much faster than by building a pier, if he wanted to. He could simply insist that Israel let aid trucks through the land crossings, and threaten it with serious repercussions should it fail to comply. He could threaten to withhold the US bombs he is sending to kill more children in Gaza. Or he could threaten to cut off the billions in military aid Washington sends to Israel every year. Or he could threaten to refuse to cast a US veto to protect Israel from diplomatic fallout at the United Nations. He could do any of that and more, but he chooses not to.
4. Even after Biden buys Israel a few more weeks to further aggressively starve Palestinians in Gaza, while we wait for his temporary pier to be completed, nothing may actually change in practice. Israel will still get to carry out the same checks it currently does at the land crossings but instead in Lanarca, Cyprus, where the aid will be loaded on to ships. In other words, Israel will still be able to create the same interminable hold-ups using “security concerns” as the pretext.
5. Biden isn’t changing course – temporarily – because he suddenly cares about the people, or even the children, of Gaza. They have been suffering in their open-air prison, to varying degrees, for decades. If he had cared, he would have done something to end that suffering after he became president. If he had done something then, October 7 might never have happened, and all those lives lost on both sides – lives continuing to be lost on the Palestinian side every few minutes – might have been saved.
And if he really cared, he wouldn’t have helped Israel in its efforts to destroy UNRWA, the UN relief agency for Palestinians and a vital lifeline for Gaza, by freezing its funding, based on unevidenced claims against the agency by Israel.
No, Biden doesn’t care about Palestinian suffering, or about the fact that, while he’s been busy eating ice cream, many, many tens of thousands of children have been murdered, maimed or orphaned – and the rest starved. He cares about the polls. His timetable for helping Palestinians is being strictly dictated by the schedule of the presidential election. He needs to look like Gaza’s saviour when Democrats are deciding who they are voting for.
He and the Democratic party are betting voters are dumb enough to fall for this charade. Please don’t prove them right.
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For more than a decade, the AFRICaide organization has been bringing together women and girls from all backgrounds to celebrate International Women’s Day here in Madison. 2024 marks the 10th year of the collaboration between AFRICaide and 4W (Women & Wellbeing in Wisconsin & the World) Initiative to partner to host the event, which features morning engagement sessions, hands-on activities, lunch and networking, and music and movement. Attendees will have the opportunity to participate in discussions with community members engaged in improving conditions for women locally, nationally, and internationally.Both MRSCP and Palestine Partners will be participating in the All-Day Global Marketplace, and lunch will be provided by a group of fantastic Cameroonian caterers. Dr. Linda Vakunta will deliver the keynote address and organizers will present six trailblazer awards that acknowledge the achievements that women have made from the Madison area to the global sphere. The afternoon portion of the program will be live-streamed online.
Optional donations benefit AFRICaide programs
More information at Madison365
We speak with Palestinian novelist, poet and activist Susan Abulhawa, who is in Cairo and just returned from two weeks in Gaza. “What’s happening to people isn’t just this death and dismemberment and hunger. It is a total denigration of their personhood, of their whole society,” says Abulhawa. “What I witnessed personally in Rafah and some of the middle areas is incomprehensible, and I will call it a holocaust — and I don’t use that word lightly. But it is absolutely that.”
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.
A U.N. convoy of food trucks trying to bring 200 tons of food into northern Gaza was turned back by the Israeli military today. A convoy of 14 trucks waited for three hours at the Wadi Gaza checkpoint in central Gaza before it was turned away by the Israeli military and later stopped by a large crowd of desperate people who, quote, “looted the food,” according to the World Food Programme. This comes as Israeli forces have repeatedly opened fire on Palestinians seeking to get aid in northern Gaza, killing at least 119 people in the most deadly attack February 29th.
Hunger has reached catastrophic levels in Gaza. The Palestinian Health Ministry said today the death toll from malnutrition and dehydration has risen to 18, adding, quote, “The famine is deepening and will claim thousands of lives if the aggression is not halted and humanitarian and medical aid is not immediately brought in,” unquote. Children, pregnant women, those with chronic illnesses are most vulnerable.
Meanwhile, the Israeli bombardment continues, with shelling and airstrikes today in cities across the Gaza Strip, including in Rafah, Khan Younis, Deir al-Balah and elsewhere. At least 30,700 Palestinians have been killed, over 72,000 wounded in Gaza over the past five months. Nearly the entire population has been displaced from their homes.
For more, we go to Cairo, Egypt, where we’re joined by Susan Abulhawa, a Palestinian novelist, poet and activist, author of several books, best known for her debut novel, Mornings in Jenin, an international best-seller translated into 32 languages, considered a classic in Palestinian literature. She’s the founder and co-director of Playgrounds for Palestine, a children’s organization, and the executive director of Palestine Writes Literature Festival. She just returned from Gaza after spending two weeks there, is now in Cairo.
Susan, welcome to Democracy Now! If you can talk about what you saw? You have written, “Some are eating stray cats and dogs, which are themselves starving and sometimes feeding on human remains that litter streets where Israeli snipers picked off people who dared to venture within the sight of their scopes. The old and weak have already died of hunger and thirst.” Describe your trip.
SUSAN ABULHAWA: So, that part of the essay is in the northern region, where nobody really is allowed to go. Trying to venture into the north is a suicide mission. There are tanks and snipers positioned, and anyone trying to get there is basically killed. As you just mentioned, aid trucks are not getting in, either. They are intentionally stopped. And it’s an intentional starvation, basically. I was primarily in the south, in Rafah. I was able to go to Khan Younis and to Nuseirat and a few other places in the middle region, but that became increasingly more dangerous.
I want to say that the reality on the ground is infinitely worse than the worst videos and photos that we’re seeing in the West. There is a — you know, beyond people being buried alive en masse in their homes, their bodies being shredded to pieces, these kinds of videos and images that people are seeing — beyond that, there is this daily massive degradation of life. It is a total denigration of a whole society, that was once high-functioning and proud and has basically been reduced to the most primal of ambitions, you know, being able to get enough water for the day or flour to bake bread. And this is even in Rafah.
And the people in Rafah will tell you that they feel privileged because they’re not starving to death, while their families in the north, the ones that they can reach, because Israel has basically cut off 99% of communication — what remains are basically communications by people who have, you know, set up some ingenious ways to keep internet in the north. But most people in the north have no idea what’s happening. As a matter of fact, at one point — I’m sure you all know Bisan Owda, who is on Facebook. She explained to me she often goes up to the border between Khan Younis and the middle area in the north where you can’t go beyond, and she explained to me that an aid truck, that sort of pushed its way through but was eventually fired on, had — people came up and ran up, thinking that the war was over and people were returning to the north. So, most people in the north are in total darkness and hunger and really have no way of communicating, no way of figuring out where to get food.
And, you know, what we’re hearing on the ground is surreal. It’s dystopic. What I witnessed personally in Rafah and in some of the middle areas is incomprehensible. And I will call it a holocaust — and I don’t use that word lightly. But it is absolutely that.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Susan Abulhawa, I want —
SUSAN ABULHAWA: The stories I heard from people are — sorry, go ahead.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Yeah, no, Susan, I wanted to ask you — you write in your article, “At some point, the indignity of filth is inescapable. At some point, you just wait for death, even as you also wait for a ceasefire. But people don’t know what they will do after a ceasefire.” Could you talk about that, even if there is a ceasefire —
SUSAN ABULHAWA: Yeah.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: — the level of destruction that the people face now in terms of being able to rebuild their country?
SUSAN ABULHAWA: I mean, that’s how much people have been reduced. I mean, the ceiling of their hope at this point is for the bombs to stop. And, you know, everybody wants to go back. They talk about pitching a tent on their homes and figuring things out. But a lot of people are trying to leave. There is a brain drain, basically. Those who can afford it, those who can raise the money, those who are able to get jobs elsewhere, who have professional skills, are trying to leave. They have children. All the schools have been destroyed. College students have nowhere to go.
You know, what’s happening to people isn’t just this death and dismemberment and hunger. It’s a total denigration of their personhood, of their whole society. There are no universities left. Israel intentionally bombed schools and blew them up, presumably to ensure that rebuilding could not take place, that reestablishing a society cannot take place without the infrastructure of education, of healthcare, and, basically, foundational structures for buildings.
AMY GOODMAN: Susan, I wanted to follow up on what you said about a holocaust. And you also used the term “genocide.” And you say, “Genocide isn’t just mass murder. It is intentional erasure.” Can you take that from there?
SUSAN ABULHAWA: Exactly. I mean, one of the — like I said, one of the things that Israel has been keen to do in Gaza is to erase remnants of people’s lives. So you have, on an individual level, homes, complete with memories and photos and all the things of living. And I’m sure you know Palestinians typically live in multigenerational homes. We’re not a mobile society. And so, these homes have several generations of the same family completely wiped out. On a societal level, you have — Israel has targeted places of worship — mosques, ancient churches, ancient mosques. They have targeted the museums, cultural centers, any place that — libraries. Any place that has records of people’s lives, has remnants and traces of their roots in the land, have been intentionally wiped away.
You know, it’s really frustrating for us to read Western media talk about, you know, Israel is targeting Hamas and whatnot. They’re not. This has always — and when you’re on the ground, you understand this has always been about displacing Palestinians, taking their place and wiping them off the map. That has been Israel’s stated goal, I mean, even in this instance and before, in 1948. It has always been their aim, to destroy us, remove us, kill us and take our place. And that’s what’s happening now in Gaza. It’s what happened in 1948, in 1967. And every new Nakba, every new escalation, is greater than the one before. And here we now arrive at a moment of genocide and holocaust, because the world has allowed Israel to act with such barbarity with impunity.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Yeah, I wanted to ask you also — you mentioned the world reaction. More people have died in Gaza in less than five months than have — civilians — than have died in Ukraine in over two years, in the war in Ukraine, and Ukraine has 40 times the population of Gaza. I’m wondering your sense of the failure of the — especially of the Western nations, of Europe and the United States, to act?
SUSAN ABULHAWA: The Western world has lost any semblance of moral authority, if they ever had any. Or, you know, I think that maybe there was an illusion of moral authority previously, but I think — you know, what we have always known is that we are dealing with genocidal colonizers. But I think that is more apparent to the rest of the world at this hour. And I think what’s also happening is that Americans are coming to understand, increasingly, though not nearly enough, that they’re being lied to.
AMY GOODMAN: And we’re going to take up that issue in Part 2 of our discussion, which we’ll post at democracynow.org. Susan Abulhawa, Palestinian novelist, thanks so much.
Palestinian novelist, poet and activist Susan Abulhawa joins us for Part 2 of her interview from Cairo after two weeks in Gaza. She discusses the impact of “unlimited weaponry” supplied by the United States for Israel to bomb and starve civilians there. “Language is really inadequate and insufficient to capture the enormity of this moment,” says Abulhawa. “What I’ve seen is really a fraction of the totality of this horror.” She is the founder and co-director of Playgrounds for Palestine, a children’s organization, and the executive director of Palestine Writes Literature Festival.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González, as we continue with our conversation about what’s happening in Gaza.
The World Food Programme has accused the Israeli military of blocking the agency from delivering crucial aid needed to avert a famine in northern Gaza. Health officials there say at least 18 children have died from starvation in recent days. The Biden administration is defending its decision to keep sending arms to Israel even though it’s blocking aid deliveries. National security communications adviser John Kirby was questioned at the White House on Tuesday by journalist Andrew Feinberg, a correspondent for the British newspaper The Independent.
ANDREW FEINBERG: What is preventing the president from communicating to the Israeli government that if they don’t allow aid, we will not continue supplying weapons? Why is that not a fair trade: no aid, no bombs?
JOHN KIRBY: Because the president still believes that it’s important for Israel to have what it needs to defend itself against a still viable Hamas threat. Maybe some people have forgotten what happened on the 7th of October, but President Biden has not.
AMY GOODMAN: For more, we’re joined by Susan Abulhawa, Palestinian novelist, poet, activist, author of several books, best known for her debut novel, Mornings in Jenin, an international best-seller translated into 32 languages, considered a classic in Palestinian literature. She’s founder and co-director of Playgrounds for Palestine, a children’s organization, and the executive director of Palestine Writes Literature Festival, just out of Gaza Tuesday after spending two weeks there. And she’s joining us for Part 2 of our conversation from Cairo, Egypt.
Susan, as you listen to this, you’re not in the United States right now. That’s the conversation that just took place. The question: Why is the U.S. providing Israel with weapons as it blocks food aid to a starving population? Continue to describe what you’re seeing on the ground and what you feel that people outside are not seeing, and, particularly because the U.S. is facilitating this, and you usually live here, how the American people understand what’s taking place, and should understand.
SUSAN ABULHAWA: I think the absurdity of the United States trying to airdrop — or, rather, it’s a theater, to airdropping a handful of boxes of aid to people who are starving because a key American ally, to whom we have been providing unlimited weaponry and financial aid, is actually doing the starving and doing the bombing, I hope will become, or if it’s not already, apparent to the American people.
I mean, I think, you know, hearing that clip, people still talking about Israel defending itself is — it’s difficult for any sane person to, or any person with a conscience or, you know — to understand how this language is still being spoken in public discourse. Gaza is a principally defenseless civilian population in the most densely populated place in the world. They have been imprisoned in what is tantamount to a concentration camp for over — for nearly 20 years. They have been occupied. They have been bombed repeatedly by the most powerful military in the region. And we’re still talking about this nuclear power defending itself from civilians. How do they — how is this even spoken with a straight face is beyond me.
Now, this absurdity is apparent to most people in the Global South, who have been victims of Western colonialism. But for some reason, it still seems to be an effective claim among Western societies, although less so particularly with younger generations who are more sophisticated when it comes to acquisition of information. Despite the pervasive censorship from social media platforms, people are still able to get some information from the ground, and, you know — and then we see acts, selfless acts and extreme acts, like what Aaron Bushnell did.
And, you know, I, frankly, don’t pay much attention to what I feel is political theater, when it comes to official spokespeople and electoral politics. I’m more interested in where change actually is cultivated and where it comes from, which is from the bottom up. I’m interested in the protests that still happen on college campuses despite the doxxing, despite the targeting of students and faculty alike. I’m interested in people who continue to pour into the streets all over the world into capitals by the hundreds of thousands. I’m interested in people in the movements to boycott Israel. I think this is where my focus is. This is where my interest is. Nothing is going to come from a ruling elite, that seems, frankly, hell-bent on accomplishing this genocide with — and at the same time trying to pay lip service to assuage public opinion that is increasingly oppositional.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Susan, I wanted to ask you — you’ve been co-director of Playgrounds for Palestine, a children’s organization. If you can talk about that group, why you founded it? And also, if you could talk about the — it must be incomprehensible, the level of trauma that the children in Palestine have been going through over the last five months, and the need that they will have for counseling and for repair of their psyches after this conflict is over.
SUSAN ABULHAWA: So, Playgrounds for Palestine, actually, while I was there, I facilitated a lot of children’s activities as a kind of psychological first aid for children. The trauma is immeasurable, frankly, not just for children, but for everybody.
I spoke with a lot of women, in particular, who were recovering in a hospital or were there — or, you know, being with their children who were recovering. The stories they told me are just — are out of like a Hollywood horror film. I mean, there are — I have photos of the backs of men where Israeli soldiers carved pictures, smiley faces, Stars of David, etc., in their skin. These women narrated stories to me of, you know, Israeli soldiers laying them — laying hundreds of women on the ground and then taking their guns with the laser and laughing, and then wherever the laser landed, they shoot.
I spoke with a woman whose 3-year-old daughter had both of her legs shattered, and she was in the hospital recovering. It was an intentional — she was intentionally shot by a soldier. And this happened to her daughter after they killed her son, shot him through the head, in what she described as tank fire toying with them for about 30 minutes before they finally delivered the final blow that took her son.
People being forced to walk from hospitals, severe injuries, people being forced to walk for hours to get to safety. Children and people, you know, who were fleeing their homes, trying to get to the south, having to walk with their hands up, with their IDs, and if anybody dares to look down or pick anything up, they’re picked off. They’re literally shot by snipers.
The scenes that they narrated to me — I spoke with a little girl who was about 8 years old, whose face was badly burned, but her injuries were the least in the whole family. The entire family had third-degree burns all over their bodies. And what she explained to me, again, you know, I don’t know how a child survives that.
I spent time in a hospital, in a maternity ward, where there were newborns who had either — who were unknown or who were known but whose family was just absent and no longer there, or nobody knows what happened to them. These newborns are spending 24/7, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in incubators without any human touch, really, except when they come to feed them, because the nurses and the doctors are so exhausted and so overworked. People are being discharged from hospitals with wounds and going into tents where they don’t have running water and proper hygiene, and they’re getting horrible infections and dying from sepsis.
You know, life on the beach, you know, the beach is where Palestinians used to go for fun, to love, to be with family. And it’s torture now, because a lot of tents are pitched in the sand, and the sand is in everything. People’s skin is scorched. I mean, children walk around with cracked cheeks from the sun and sand. The sand gets in every bite of food.
The food that does come in, into Rafah, is primarily canned food. And most of it — and I think you hinted at this earlier, and I’ve seen it and tasted it myself — it is stuff that has clearly been sitting on shelves for decades. And all you can taste, really, is the rancidity, metallic taste of the can.
You know, this is — people schedule their days, they plan their days around trying to get to a single shared bathroom that’s shared by hundreds of other families. They try to do their best with hygiene, but it’s impossible. And when you have — when people succumb to living in filth, people — you know, I think maybe people in the West sort of have this impulse thought that most Black and Brown people sort of live like this. So it’s a little humiliating to have to explain that we don’t actually live in filth. And it’s degrading, beyond anything you can imagine, to be forced to live like this months on end, to have no way to protect your children, no way to give them hope, no way to calm their fears.
You know, there’s no privacy in the tents, because, you know, there’s not enough tents for families. So families are actually separated, with, you know, dozens of women in one tent and dozens in another. So spouses cannot even hold each other at night when they need that care the most. It’s these details that are traumatizing en masse for children, for parents, for elderly.
People don’t have medicines. People are dying from lack of insulin, which, by the way, Israel has banned from coming into Gaza. And they’re dying from diarrhea, because they’re drinking polluted water, and Israel has also banned water treatment, water filtration systems, even handheld ones, simple personal water filtration systems that, you know, Americans use when they go camping.
The degradation is total, Amy. And on top of that, they’re bombed, day in and out, even in Rafah. When I was there, there was not a single night that we didn’t hear bombs, and at least once was close enough that the building I was in shook, and we thought our building had actually been hit. But it was the one — it was one over from where I was. And there was another moment, too, when a tent by a hospital, where we had just been, was bombed. They bombed a tent. And it actually happened to be the tent that is adjacent to the tent that Bisan Owda was in. And they were sitting, eating. They were sitting on the ground eating, and shrapnel just came above their heads.
You know, this is a daily — this is a daily life, and everybody is expecting to die, expecting to lose the people they love. And they are. And I think, you know, there is something that I’ve noticed that happens. There’s a kind of detachment when people tell you what’s happening to them or what has happened. There’s a kind of numbing, that must be, I suppose, some kind of a defense mechanism. So, when they have a chance to breathe, I think these demons, this horror, this trauma is going to be another layer of catastrophe, generations just lost.
AMY GOODMAN: Susan Abulhawa, you talk about already Rafah is being bombed. Sunday, Ramadan begins. There are supposedly ceasefire talks going on, but the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is continuing to threaten an all-out ground invasion of Rafah. What would this mean for the situation there?
SUSAN ABULHAWA: What you would expect, Amy. I mean, imagine — imagine them rolling in in a ground incursion where 1.4 million human beings are crammed into a tiny area — I think has been likened to the size of Heathrow Airport. When you walk out into the streets in Gaza, it’s crammed. I mean, it’s like being at a, you know, like — it’s the kind of crowd you would see at concerts in the United States. It’s 24/7. People have no place to walk barely. You know, to go from — if there’s a car and it’s driving a block, it will take you, I don’t know, 20 minutes to go a block, because a car has to contend with foot traffic, donkey traffic, horse traffic. It’s every — it’s just crammed. It’s completely crammed.
And another thing is that, you know, people — there are some apartments that might be available for rent, but people are terrified to rent apartments. They’d rather stay in a tent, because they don’t know — they’re worried — you know, it’s more probable that buildings are going to be bombed than tents, even though tents are being bombed, as well. But, you know, these are the choices that people are making.
Yeah, I don’t know — I don’t know how else to draw a picture for you, but it is a holocaust. It is unlike anything I have ever seen. I was in Jenin in 2002 when Israel committed a massacre there, and I thought that was the worst thing I had ever seen. This is infinitely worse than anything I’ve ever seen either personally or even in a Hollywood horror film.
Just walking, just when you — when you walk outside, you feel — like, first of all, there is one color. It’s gray. It’s just this miserable gray. And it’s painted on people’s faces, because they can’t wash themselves. They don’t have gasoline anymore, so they resort to one of two options. One is called solaar [phon.], which is, you know, a mixture of dirty gasoline. And the other is called searage [phon.], which is basically cooking oil. And searage is the cheapest of the two, and that’s what people who do have cars use. It creates this grotesque odor. It coats everything. It also — it’s being breathed in by people, and it’s a substance that sticks to the lungs. And so, there’s going to be, you know, in the future, massive lung disease from this searage. There’s this sort of constant haze of dust and rubble from the destruction that just doesn’t settle, and you breathe that in, as well. And you kind of — you walk through the street, and you feel the weight of the air is heavy. And I don’t know how else to describe it, but it’s hard to breathe. And I say that literally, and figuratively, as well. And then, you know, you go to the — you go to the ocean to get a little bit of a breeze, but the misery is also there.
AMY GOODMAN: You have said that it’s grassroots activism that most interests you, what people are doing on the ground to resist, whether around the world or here in the United States. And I wanted to ask you about the University of Pennsylvania President Elizabeth Magill, announced her resignation December following intense Republican-led backlash over questions regarding antisemitism and the contentious testimony before Congress. Major donors to UPenn had demanded Magill’s resignation since September, after she refused to cancel the Palestine Writes Literature Festival on campus. You’re the executive director of that festival. She was forced to resign. The UPenn Board of Trustees, who announced her resignation, then resigned himself. Can you talk about all of this controversy? And this had happened beginning before October 7th.
SUSAN ABULHAWA: Right. I mean, imagine that, that they were so up in arms about a literature festival. It was — frankly, it was such a beautiful moment of agency for us Palestinians. It was the first time that artists and writers from our diaspora, from every part of Palestine, from ’48, ’67, Gaza, Jerusalem, from the camps in Lebanon, from Jordan, other parts of the Arab world, from the United States — it was the first time we were able to gather in a single place since the Nakba. It was an exceedingly joyous moment for all of us. People cried. They had never seen anything like it. They had never experienced it.
There were — you know, we talked about everything, from tatreez to queer literature. We had interviews with writers and talking about their books. We had children’s programming. We had — we talked about food, culinary heritage. It was just — there was this amazing photography and art exhibit, photographs from our lives and of our ancestors in Palestine, going back to the beginnings of photography. It was just — it was a really incredible moment for all of us. And there was immense love within the walls of the building at UPenn.
But we also knew that outside there was extraordinary hate that had been directed at us for weeks prior. And during the festival, there was a billboard, a digital billboard, that was roaming campus, the campus, with photos of many of our speakers, myself included, you know, in these sort of demonic colors and calling us jihadis and Nazis and other defamatory words.
And then, after the festival, Marc Rowan, who was one of the trustees, and he was the most vocal of the trustees calling for Liz Magill’s resignation — he’s a billionaire. And from what I understand from journalists who write — who write, you know, business journalism, call him the Antichrist of the business world. But in any event, this man went on national television shows and wrote op-eds lying about the festival. I mean, at one point, he said that we called for the genocide of Jews. Now, we all knew that they had people recording inside. That’s not hard to — that’s not hard to expect. I mean, Malcolm X taught us that. And I even mentioned it in my opening speech. You know, I welcomed all the people coming to surveil us. But yet he has never produced anything resembling such a claim, because it’s a lie.
But, you know, they go on and they say this stuff, and nobody challenges them, and it becomes fact. And Marc Rowan even went so far as to try and tie the festival to October 7th. I mean, it’s disgusting. It’s disgusting, the way that — but this is Zionist propaganda. I mean, you know, we saw its continuation with the lie of the 40 beheaded babies and then, you know, this claim of mass rape, that’s thankfully getting dismantled by, you know, people who are paying attention. I mean, it’s just — it doesn’t stop, and it doesn’t get challenged, not really. I do have hope in this younger generation that’s questioning things. And they’re not buying the lies in the ways that older generations continue to do.
AMY GOODMAN: When you went into Gaza, you brought suitcases. Talk about what you brought in. And also you held a writing workshop, Susan. Can you talk about the stories that people told?
SUSAN ABULHAWA: I brought in a lot of things, ranging from medication to diapers, menstrual pads, just sanitary wipes, just body wipes, soap, shampoo, hearing aid batteries for the deaf community, that has been devastated by the lack of batteries, particularly children who are learning to communicate and who depend on a functioning hearing aid, and who are now regressing because of that. We brought in coffee. That was such a huge gift. I mean, people couldn’t — people haven’t had coffee in months. And it was like I just gave them, you know, a box of gold. You know, I brought in everything I could possibly bring, and I actually left Gaza with just the clothes on my back, because I gave everything away, because that is how deep the need is. People literally fled their homes with just what they were wearing. And even people who packed suitcases, they left them on the side of the road, because it got too heavy or because soldiers made them drop them.
You know, we talk so much about the physical needs, because it’s immense — you know, water, food, shelter. But there’s the psychological, the intellectual needs. I mean, we’re not just — you know, we’re not just, you know, these physical beings. People in Gaza want to reach their potential. I mean, you know, despite Israel’s best efforts to reduce Gaza to this point previously — I mean, they said it before. You know, the siege that’s currently in Gaza was about reducing Palestinians. And they talked about putting Palestinians on a diet, etc. But despite all of these restrictions, despite the bombings, Palestinians still figured out ways to build, to go to university, to learn, to establish businesses and jobs. And I think Israel hates that. I think they hate it. And I think that was — you know, that’s one of the things that is pushing this kind of — it’s part of this hatred. It’s part of this glee that the whole society seems to have at Palestinian suffering.
We held the writing workshop with a group of young people. All of them are creatives in one way or another. The stories they told are harrowing. And being in their presence, frankly, was humbling. And I said this in one of the articles. You know, you feel small in front of these people who have endured the unendurable, and who still managed to be generous and kind. I’m wearing this necklace and these pieces, these pieces of handmade jewelry, from people who insisted I take them, people who have nothing, who have lost everything, but who somehow keep their dignity and their generosity and their habits of hospitality. It’s extraordinarily humbling.
The writing workshop was a two-day event, was four hours each day. The first day was sort of working, doing writing exercises, talking about the craft. And the second day was when we developed the stories. And I was pleasantly surprised at the level of their writing. And I’m really looking forward to editing a collection, because I think the people of Gaza who have lived this moment should be the ones to narrate this moment. It shouldn’t be anybody else, not even other Palestinians like me. And my goal is to give them the tools that I have acquired in my life to narrate this moment for the rest of the world, and I’m looking forward to producing this book with them.
AMY GOODMAN: And finally, Susan, can you talk about the medical community, the health workers — I mean, you are a renowned novelist, but your background is also in medicine and science — and the effect of the bombardment of the hospitals, of the ambulances, on the medical workers, the doctors, the nurses, the medics themselves?
SUSAN ABULHAWA: They are bearing the brunt of a lot of what’s happening. Individually, I want to say also, a lot of the doctors and administrators themselves have been forced into tents. So, you know, nobody is — there are no bubbles for people to live in, except, you know, some of the NGOs who are able to secure safety and running water, etc., mostly for foreigners who come into Gaza as aid workers. But Gaza’s doctors and nurses, a lot of them haven’t been paid in months, but they still show up for work. They are exhausted. They are demoralized. Every single one of them has lost family members or friends and neighbors. The vast majority of them are displaced, and most of them have lost their homes. They are all bewildered in one way or another, trying to just function through this moment and praying for a ceasefire.
Even, you know, like I said, the ceasefire seems to be the ceiling of people’s ambitions at this moment. And it’s particularly acute now with Ramadan around the corner. The idea that Israel will still be bombing during Ramadan is — you know, I want to say “unimaginable,” but we already crossed that threshold a long time ago. Language really is inadequate and insufficient to capture the enormity of this moment. And I want to emphasize that what I’ve seen is really a fraction of the totality of this horror,
AMY GOODMAN: Susan Abulhawa, Palestinian novelist, poet, activist, author of a number of books, including her debut novel, Mornings in Jenin, an international best-seller translated into 32 languages, considered a classic in Palestinian literature. She’s founder and co-director of Playgrounds for Palestine, a children’s organization, and executive director of Palestine Writes Literature Festival. She just left Gaza after spending two weeks there, was speaking to us from Cairo, Egypt. To see Part 1 of our discussion, go to democracy now.org. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González. Thanks so much for joining us.
Good Shepherd Collective Weekly Report
Since October 7, Israel has killed at least 31,043 people in Gaza, wounding 76,666. The death toll is widely understood to be a massive underestimate, as thousands remain under the rubble or on streets, with family members unable to rescue or retrieve them. The state’s targeted destruction of entire Palestinian neighborhoods has killed 13,536 children, 8,900 women, and 8,607 men. Israeli attacks on hospitals, ambulances, and emergency responders have claimed the lives of 364 medical workers and 48 emergency personnel. To suppress Palestinians from narrating the Israeli genocide in Gaza, Israel has killed 132 journalists as well as many of their family members. Israel’s prolonged aggression against Palestinians in Gaza, the vast majority of whom are refugees from other parts of Palestine, is one of the deadliest in history.
Israel’s indigenous displacement and erasure is not contained to the Gaza Strip but also extends across the West Bank, Jerusalem, and the lands occupied since 1948. Since October 7, Israeli forces have increased violent incursions into Palestinian refugee camps across the West Bank, in particular, raiding communities, destroying essential infrastructure, carrying out mass arrest campaigns, and killing and injuring many Palestinians.
On March 2, Israeli forces fatally shot a 13-year-old Mohammad Khaled Zaid and injured another at the entrance to Al Jalazone refugee camp in Ramallah. Israeli troops left Mohammad to bleed for an hour before allowing emergency responders to reach him. That same day, 16-year-old Mohammad al-Deek was killed by Israeli forces during an incursion into Kafr Ni’ma village, Ramallah.
On March 4, Israeli forces killed a 16-year-old resident of Qalandiya refugee camp, Mustafa Abu Shalbak, and injured two others in the Al Amari refugee camp in Ramallah. The same day, Israeli forces murdered a 10-year-old Amr Muhammad Najjar in Burin, south of Nablus. He was shot in the head while with his father. It was reported that another Palestinian approached Amr after he was wounded and was also shot in the chest by Israeli forces.
Since October 7, 2023, Israeli forces have killed 412 Palestinians, including 106 children, across the West Bank alone. They have inflicted injuries on 4,623 Palestinians in the West Bank during this time, with 710 being children.
The Israeli authorities demolished 18 structures in the Jericho area on February 29, citing a lack of Israel-issued building permits. This action displaced seven people, including three children. The demolitions mainly affected residential buildings, external kitchens, bathrooms, agricultural structures, and solar panels. Since October 7, 2023, 599 individuals, including 285 children, have faced displacement in Area C and East Jerusalem due to such demolitions.
Additionally, on January 24, Israeli authorities punitively sealed a house in Beit Hanina, East Jerusalem, displacing four people. This house was linked to a Palestinian who had injured two soldiers in a shooting incident before being killed by Israeli forces. In total, 23 homes have been punitively demolished, and two sealed off since October 7, displacing 121 Palestinians, including 51 children. Punitive demolitions such as these amount to collective punishment, as demolishing homes impacts entire families.
OCHA has documented 607 attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians since October 7, 2023, resulting in murder, injury, property damage, or a combination. The vast majority of these attacks go unprosecuted. By allowing settler citizens, rather than the state, to use violence to displace Palestinians, the Israeli state creates a narrative of “a few bad apples” or “fringe extremists.” In reality, Israeli forces are very often present to protect settlers during violent attacks. Financed by the Israeli state and the US nonprofit system, Israeli settler violence has been the single most significant contributing factor in Palestinian displacement across the West Bank since October 7.
Between October 7, 2023, and January 21, 2024, Israeli state-sanctioned settler violence displaced some 198 Palestinian households, impacting 1,208 individuals, including 586 children.
The affected households come from at least 15 herding and Bedouin communities. A significant portion of these displacements, more than half, occurred on three specific dates: October 12th, 15th, and 28th, impacting seven communities and affecting a total of 1,539 people, including 756 children.
Madison! Join us at the Capitol Wednesday to send the following message to the Biden administration:
#FreePalestine #GazaGenocide #RafahUnderAttack #GenocideJoeBiden #UNRWA
Communication Madison
2645 Milwaukee Street
Madison [Map]
10 am – 12:30 pm: Screen-printing and art making with local artist Lesley Ann Numbers. Donations will help a family leave Gaza.
1:00 – 2:00 pm: Read Palestine!
Join us for story time and activities about Palestine. Best for ages 5-9 but everyone is welcome. Learn some Arabic too! Sponsored by the “Read Palestine” project and MRSCP.
‘Flour Massacre’: Impunity Persists as Israeli Forces Open Fire On Starving Palestinians Seeking Vital Aid
The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), @AlMezanCenter , and @alhaq_org condemn in the strongest terms the “flour massacre” committed by the #Israeli… pic.twitter.com/fvXWYUYqqz
— Palestinian Centre for Human Rights – PCHR (@pchrgaza) March 1, 2024
This week, after witnessing the Flour Massacre in which over 100 Palestinians were killed at the site of a food aid shipment and over 750 more starving Palestinians were injured, the Biden Administration has announced its intention to conduct air drops of humanitarian aid to Gaza. This act is too little too late and an effort to evade holding Israel accountable to its duties before both U.S. and international law as a recipient of billions in taxpayer dollars.
This cosmetic change in the Biden Administration’s approach suggests that the President and U.S. government have lost complete control over any actions of the Israeli government. In the face of what experts have called the fastest-ever onset of famine since WWII—imposed by Israel on the Palestinian people in Gaza—the Biden administration’s actions show a crass dismissal of Palestinian suffering directly aided and abetted by both U.S. weapons and military aid. The administration must drastically change course as its current approach has indisputably failed while giving Israel license since October 7th to exact deadly collective punishment on the Palestinian people in Gaza—with full U.S. financial and political coverage.
The humanitarian catastrophe wrought by the Israeli campaign in Gaza is the disastrous next phase in Israel’s genocide. In addition to over 30,000 Palestinians killed by Israel including over 13,000 children, over 70% of homes have been destroyed, at least 10 children have died from hunger, and over a million Palestinian civilians face starvation and indefinite displacement. The Biden Administration pleading with Israel for the entry of limited humanitarian aid and a temporary ceasefire has failed. The United States provided cover for Israel through vetoes of a ceasefire at the UN Security Council even as most of our allies voted for ceasefire.
Israel has completely ignored the demands of the International Court of Justice which found genocide “plausible” in Gaza if Israel took no action to allow the free entry of humanitarian aid, to avoid continued killing of Palestinian civilians, and to prevent conditions “calculated to bring about [Palestinians’] physical destruction in whole or in part.” Alongside the U.S. federal court’s finding regarding genocide in Gaza, these acts implicate the United States as complicit in genocide. Dropping aid from the sky does not change this reality and indeed, Israel may still obstruct or bomb such aid given the precedent of the past few weeks.
The U.S. must cut military aid to Israel, thereby compelling an immediate and permanent ceasefire. Compel Israel to withdraw from Gaza. Recognize Palestinians’ full human and political rights, and pressure Israel and Egypt to immediately allow the full flow of humanitarian trucks into Gaza without restriction. This is the only strategy that can emerge from a commitment to doing what is right and humane—in addition to what is in the U.S.’s best interest for its standing before the world.
Political expediency and election prospects are only secondary considerations amidst an unmitigated genocide enabled by this administration. Speeches of sympathy with Palestinians are directly at odds with current policy. The Flour Massacre must compel the U.S. to reckon with Israel’s intent and our complicity: the Biden administration must act decisively to stop genocide.
Sincerely,
Dr. Osama Abu Irshaid
Executive Director
More protests in Wisconsin calling for a ceasefire in the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict drew out the largest crowd yet in the state for a “Day of Action for Palestine” in Milwaukee March 2.
Over 1,000 people came out to the Islamic Society of Milwaukee, 4707 S. 13th St., to continue protesting for a ceasefire in Gaza organized by the Wisconsin Coalition for Justice in Palestine. The Day of Action for Palestine drew out the largest crowd yet for any ceasefire protest in Wisconsin, more than doubling Madison’s biggest protest in Dec. 2023.
“We have to stand for the people of Gaza because, unfortunately, most people, most governments around the world are not standing up for anyone, and they’re allowing a genocide to take place before their eyes,” said Othman Atta, executive director of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee. “So we are going to be the conscience of the world because we want a free Palestine.”
Atta drew attention to failures to prevent the ongoing massacre of Palestinians in Gaza. He parallels the current conflict to the Nakba in 1948 calling it “Nakba two.” During the Nakba of 1948, the estimated death toll of Palestinians was 15,000 over the course of multiple massacres.
The current conflict in Gaza, which has been ongoing since Oct. 7, 2023, has surpassed 30,000 deaths according to the Gaza Ministry of Health’s latest figure from Feb. 29.
The protest started with roughly 600 people at the Islamic Society of Milwaukee. When the march started down West Layton Avenue, more protesters steadily flocked to the group to make it over 1,000 strong.
“I think it’s reflective with how many people are asking for an end to this genocide,” said Janan Najeeb with the Wisconsin Coalition for Justice in Palestine. “Most normal people are not okay with genocide, especially when it’s involving women and children and I think that to just see the massive diversity of the people that are here shows that this is not a Palestinian issue. This is not a Muslim issue … this is a human issue.”
Protestors marched for a bit under a mile between the Islamic Society of Milwaukee and its community center at 815 W. Layton Ave. where Day of Action for Palestine capped off with an International Women’s Day Celebration.
Israel is making it clear to Palestinians in Gaza: We will starve you to death or we will kill you when you try to get food.
At dawn this morning, as hundreds of desperately hungry people gathered in Gaza City in hopes of getting a sack of flour from the few aid trucks that Israel has allowed in, Israeli forces opened fire killing 112 and injuring more than 700 others.
I have been waiting since yesterday. At about 4:30 this morning, trucks started to come through. Once we approached the aid trucks, the Israeli tanks and warplanes started firing at us, as if it was a trap.
The number of dead will no doubt rise, as nearby hospitals are barely functioning because of Israeli attacks and the blockade of Gaza. While blood filled the ground where people were waiting for food, hospitals do not have blood supplies to treat the wounded.
Stop the Genocide in Gaza!
Shocking but not surprising, the Israeli military first blamed the violence on the starving people themselves, saying that people were crushed in the crowd.
Only a ceasefire will stop the slaughter and starvation. And it is up to make that happen. Take action today, tomorrow, and as often as possible. Share this message. Ask friends and family to join you.
Stop the genocide!
In outrage and solidarity,
All of us at MECA
P.S. Read more coverage of the massacre from the Palestine Chronicle.
This week, we’re featuring a conversation with Mohammad Hureini (twitter / instagram), a young activist from Masafer Yatta, an area in the hills south of Hebron in the occupied West Bank in Palestine. Mohammad is a member of a non-violent group called Youth of Sumud that struggles to hold on to the sites and lives of Palestinian villages despite displacement by the Israeli military occupation as well as the illegal zionist settlements (like the neighboring Havat Ma’on) and their routine violence and impunity. For the hour, Mohammad speaks about the work of Youth of Sumud, their recent report co-published with The Good Shepherd on increased settler violence entitled Indigenous Erasure: How the zionist movement is using state sanctioned violence to eliminate the Palestinian communities of the West Bank, the South African genocide case against Israel in the International Court of Justice and other topics. A transcript of this interview will be available soon.
Al-Addameer’s recent publication on prisons and repression of Palestinians since October 7th, 2023: https://addameer.org/media/5262
Organizations Mohammad names doing on the ground support:
– Defund Racism (https://defundracism.org/): follows NGO connections to settler projects recently published a report on Regavim, a pro-settler organization that pulls funding from the US, Canada and elsewhere to displace Palestinians
– Operation Dove /Operazione Colomba from Italy (https://www.operazionecolomba.it/)
– International Solidarity Movement (https://palsolidarity.org/) Community Peacemaker Teams (https://cpt.org/)
Biden’s 2020 margin over Trump in Michigan was 150,000 votes. The Uncommitted vote in the Democratic Presidential Primary was 13% of the total. Michigan’s Arab-American population is 2%.
Dearborn, MI | www.adc.org | February 28, 2024 – Over 100,000 people voted for uncommitted in the Michigan Democratic Presidential Primary yesterday. This record breaking total for the uncommitted option sent a loud and clear message to the Democratic Party and the Biden Campaign – it is time to take action to end the genocide in Gaza. Over 100,000 people voted for uncommitted in the Michigan Democratic Presidential Primary. Uncommitted voters represent diverse demographics, including young voters, progressive voters, and a significant number of voters from ally communities.
ADC National Executive Director Abed Ayoub said, “We want to thank the Listen 2 Michigan campaign and coalition, including the Truth Project. These results would not have been possible without the commitment from our partners. Yesterday our community reclaimed its electoral power in Michigan. The majority of Americans do not support the continued US complicity in the active genocide of Palestinians, and this will be reflective at the ballot box on election day. It is time for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire, stopping of military aid to Israel, and an immediate measure to provide much needed humanitarian aid to those in Gaza.
In early February, ADC, partnering with the Truth Project, launched efforts alongside Listen to Michigan to educate voters about the campaign. In under three weeks those efforts led to the activation of over 500,000 voters across southeast Michigan, resulting in what we saw tonight. This impressive showing is a result of a disciplined approach to voter engagement and a testament to the deep opposition to the Biden Administration’s complicity in genocide.
ADC efforts are funded by the community, and for the community. Your support is crucial in continuing this work and ensuring the organization has the resources needed to continue this important work in other states. Take a moment and make a contribution to ADC by clicking here.
We are forming a Kuffiyeh Contingent
Meet at 10:30 am
State Street Entrance steps
All Day Actions in Madison March 1, 2024. Photos below from banner drops at morning rush hour.
12 Noon, 89.9 FM or listen live online
Host Esty Dinur will interview two guests on Gaza:
Shafiq Kassees of UW Students for Justice in Palestine will talk about the recent lecture by an Israeli soldier in UW Chabad in which he admitted that the Israeli military kills babies and called Palestinians “the devil.”
Thaer Ahmad, MD, a board certified emergency medicine physician at Advocate Christ Medical Center who also serves as that center’s Assistant Program Director for the Emergency Medicine Residency Program and the Global Health Director for the emergency department. An Assistant Clinical Professor at the University of Illinois, and board member of MedGlobal, a medical humanitarian NGO that works in Gaza, Dr. Ahmad has been to Gaza, Syria, Jordan, Turkey, Kenya, and Greece on projects to strengthen local healthcare capacity.
The sounds of destruction carried through the valley. It was October 28th, and I was standing on a rocky slope in the West Bank with Bashar Ma’amar, a Palestinian who records the aggressions of Israeli settlers. Ma’amar pointed a camera at a group ransacking a house below us. A couple of days before, the settlers had set fire to it; the house’s owner had gone to the police, but they had not intervened. As we watched, one settler kicked at the front door, and another tried to penetrate the charred walls with a board. Others tore a hole in the roof and slipped inside. On the hillside opposite us, three Israeli soldiers and a man with a rifle stood watching. Eventually, the settlers joined the soldiers to walk back to Eli, their settlement, where mothers pushed strollers down tree-lined blocks of red-roofed houses, people played tennis on courts with views of Palestinian farmland, and men and women carrying M16s and Uzis shopped in strip malls.
“Now is the time for them to implement their objectives,” Ma’amar told me. “All the attention is on Gaza.” Ma’amar is forty-one, tall and lanky. He drove his dilapidated car to Qaryut, his village of three thousand people, with winding alleys and olive groves that stretch in every direction. Qaryut, twenty miles north of Ramallah, is in the fertile central highlands of the West Bank, the twenty-two-hundred-square-mile territory that has been occupied by Israel since 1967. After Israel won the Six-Day War, fought against Egypt, Jordan, and Syria, it took territory that included the West Bank, which most Israelis refer to as Judea and Samaria. Today, there are roughly half a million settlers in the West Bank, one for every six Palestinians. The Palestinian Authority, which nominally governs the territory, controls security—often with Israeli assistance—only in the urban centers. In the remaining eighty-two per cent of the territory, Israel is in charge. In Qaryut, Ma’amar operates a branch of the Red Crescent and administers message groups that monitor the actions of settlers and of the Israel Defense Forces. He is also a volunteer with B’tselem, an Israeli human-rights group.
One day when I visited Ma’amar, he piled up a dozen cameras on his desk—old mini-D.V. camcorders, point-and-shoot 35-mm.s—some broken by settlers. It was a collection built up during nearly twenty years of documenting settler violence and encroachment onto Palestinian land. “My cameras are my weapons,” he said. “I’m probably the person in Qaryut who has filed the most complaints to the police, to the Supreme Court.” There had been some moments of success. He’d helped a man get back half of the hundred and seventy acres that settlers had seized from him. Mostly, though, his cases went nowhere. “The Israeli legal system doesn’t work for the benefit of Palestinians,” he said.
His obsession with documentation was inherited from his grandfather Ahmed Odeh, who served for some thirty years as mayor of Qaryut. Ma’amar keeps century-old land deeds and tattered administrative maps, which show that the surrounding settlements were built on private land.
When Ma’amar was born, in 1982, his village was next to only one settlement, Shilo, established on land seized from his grandfather. Eli was founded when Ma’amar was five, taking more land from Qaryut. Eli and Shilo, which each has nearly five thousand residents, subsumed three of Qaryut’s five springs. The village had to buy its water from Mekorot, Israel’s national water company.
The first time that Ma’amar witnessed settler violence was in 1996. It was in the wake of the first election to Prime Minister of Benjamin Netanyahu, who was intent on blocking any progress toward a two-state solution. Shilo took even more land from Qaryut, to make a vineyard. The village staged a protest, which Ma’amar filmed. The Army and settlers rushed in, firing shots into the air, and settlers beat people and tried to take cameras from anyone documenting the scene. An Israeli court ruled that the land should be returned to Qaryut, but Ma’amar said that settlers continued to attack people who approached, so the land was effectively lost.
In the years that followed, settlers put up tents, then mobile homes, on hilltops. Settlements are mostly considered illegal under international law, but these outposts were illegal even under Israeli law. Still, the government did little to dissuade the hilltop settlers, who viewed themselves as pioneers. The outposts were quickly connected to larger settlements by water systems, power lines, and paved roads. In time, a corridor of settlement took shape, slicing across the West Bank until the map looked more and more like the one envisioned by many settlers and political leaders, in which Palestinians would live in small and disconnected territories within an expanded Israel. Qaryut sat right in the corridor’s path; there were now eight official settlements and at least eleven smaller outposts in a five-mile radius of the village. “Without international and legal pressure on the Israelis, Qaryut will disappear,” Ma’amar said.
In November, 2022, Netanyahu won reëlection for the sixth time. To form a governing coalition, he allied with leaders of far-right parties, including Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, who advocate for annexing the West Bank. Since then, the situation there has grown dramatically worse. In the first nine months of 2023, Ma’amar filed about seventy police reports of settler violence. In February, while he was driving an ambulance to pick up people injured in an attack, settlers smashed his windows and tried to burn the vehicle. In June, Palestinian gunmen killed four settlers near Eli; the next day, hundreds of settlers descended on Turmus Aya, a nearby village, shooting residents and burning cars and houses, some with people inside. By September, 2023, the United Nations was documenting around three settler-related incidents each day, the highest since it had started tracking the trend, in 2006, and eleven hundred Palestinians in the West Bank had been displaced.
Since October 7th, when Hamas-led fighters broke through the fence on Gaza’s border with Israel and killed some twelve hundred people and took some two hundred and fifty hostages, attacks near Qaryut have become routine. Settlers have burned cars and houses, blockaded roads, damaged electricity networks, seized farmland, severed irrigation lines, attacked people in their fields and olive groves, and killed, all without repercussion. Ma’amar told me that a thousand acres had been cut off from Qaryut. The U.N. has recorded five hundred and seventy-three attacks by settlers in the West Bank since the war began, with Israeli forces accompanying them half the time. At least nine people have been killed by settlers, and three hundred and eighty-two have been killed by Israeli forces. Five Israelis have been killed in the West Bank, at least one of whom was a civilian.
On October 9th, settlers sent a picture on Facebook to people in Qusra, a few miles from Qaryut, of masked men holding axes, clubs, a gas can, and a chainsaw, with text that read, “To all the rats in the sewers of Qusra village, we are waiting for you and we will not feel sorry for you. The day of revenge is coming.” Two days later, at the edge of the village, settlers lit utility poles on fire and tried to break into a house. For a half hour, a family huddled inside; then young men from the village arrived and threw rocks at the Israelis. Ma’amar drove over in his ambulance. At that point, the settlers started shooting. A man handed Ma’amar a six-year-old girl who had been shot. As the man walked away, he was shot and killed. When Ma’amar sped off, he said, settlers fired on his ambulance. Three Palestinians were killed, one of them the son of a man who had been killed by settlers in 2017. Then the Israeli Army stormed the village and killed a thirteen-year-old boy.
The next day, Hani Odeh, the mayor of Qusra, arranged for a procession to transport the bodies from the hospital to the village. Ma’amar took one of them in his ambulance. The I.D.F. dictated the route, then directed mourners to change course to avoid settlers. But dozens of settlers blocked the road and stoned the procession anyway. “I got out and talked to the Israeli commander, begging him to make the settlers leave,” Odeh said. “He told me to turn around.” The settlers killed a sixty-two-year-old man and his twenty-five-year-old son.
“They can’t just continue to unleash the settlers on us like that,” Odeh told me. “My generation has always tried to reason with our youth, but they can no longer take it, so what am I to do? People like me, who advocated for peace their whole lives—we are not respected anymore. They say what did Abu Mazen”—Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority—“ever do for us? And they’re right. He keeps asking people to protest peacefully. Peacefully? There’s nothing peaceful about the situation we’re in.”
On October 29th, settlers showed up at one of Qaryut’s two remaining springs. They hung an Israeli flag and, with soldiers present, demolished one of the large concrete water basins that villagers had been using for irrigation for generations. Then the Army closed Qaryut’s access road to the spring. The road separated Shilo and Eli, and Ma’amar guessed that the aim of the settlers and the Army was to connect the two settlements.
For the next couple of weeks, settlers came to the spring frequently, accompanied by soldiers. Some wore shirts with the logo of Artzenu (“Our Land”), a subsidiary of a government-funded organization which is dedicated to farming land in the West Bank before “non-Jewish entities” do. (A spokesperson for Artzenu said, “Not everyone who wears the shirt in their free time represents the organization’s values.”) One day, Ma’amar filmed two soldiers in sniper costumes on the hillside above the spring and young settlers burning tires on the access road. One soldier, lying prone with his rifle balanced on a tripod, aimed straight at Ma’amar.
That day, I went down to the spring with Ariel Elmaliach, the mayor of Eli. Around ten young men and boys were working to turn one of the concrete basins into a swimming pool. “Come in another week with shorts and you can enjoy,” Elmaliach told me.
He asked the group why they were doing this work.
“To take more room around the settlement,” a boy of about fifteen said.
“For our homeland,” Nadav Levy, a bearded man in his early twenties, said. He added that he didn’t understand why people in Qaryut were upset about their project: “From my perspective, all of this is our land.”
Ory Shimon, twenty, said he felt that Israel was being unfairly scrutinized: “America came with ships and killed all the Indians and made them slaves. It’s terrible, but now America doesn’t say, ‘We’re sorry, take the land back.’ ”
Elmaliach told me I was not allowed to take pictures, but then reconsidered. “Let’s do a deal,” he said. “If you write in your media that the Jews always take a place and they make it better, I give you permission to take a picture.” He picked up a couple of discarded bottles. “See, this is Arabs,” he said.
The spring, Elmaliach said, belonged to them, not to Qaryut. I showed him a map from the Civil Administration, Israel’s governing body in the West Bank, showing that the spring was well outside settlement boundaries. Eventually, he said, “I will give you a real answer. If you are coming to a new land, and you are now the owner of that land, then you put in that land the rules that you want.”
In February, 2023, Netanyahu appointed Smotrich, the finance minister and the head of the Religious Zionist Party, to a governmental position that granted him sweeping powers over West Bank settlements. In 2005, Smotrich had been arrested as part of a small group in possession of seven hundred litres of fuel. The former deputy head of Shin Bet, the Israeli internal security agency, accused him of plotting to blow up cars on a highway to protest Israel’s withdrawal from settlements in Gaza. (Smotrich denied the allegation and wasn’t charged with a crime.) Now Smotrich had the authority to legalize unauthorized outposts, to prevent enforcement against illegal Jewish construction, to thwart Palestinian development projects, and to allocate land to settlers.
Around the time of Smotrich’s appointment, a Palestinian gunman shot and killed two settlers. Smotrich said that the Army should “strike the cities of terror and its instigators without mercy, with tanks and helicopters.” Israel, he added, should act “in a way that conveys that the master of the house has gone crazy.” While the Army stood by, hundreds of settlers rampaged through Hawara, a village south of Nablus, killing one person and injuring about a hundred, and burning some thirty homes and a hundred cars. It was the worst outbreak of settler violence in decades. (The I.D.F. did not respond to a request for comment.)
Smotrich, who lives in a settlement, has become one of the most prominent settler ideologists. In 2017, he published his “Decisive Plan” for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The first step, he wrote, was to make the “ambition for a Jewish State from the river to the sea . . . an accomplished fact” by “establishing new cities and settlements deep inside the territory and bringing hundreds of thousands of additional settlers to live there.” Once “victory by settlement” was accomplished, Smotrich continued, Palestinians would have two options: stay in Israel, without the right to vote in national elections, or emigrate. “Zionism,” he wrote, “was built based on population exchange e.g. the mass Aliyah of Jews from Arab countries and Europe to the Land of Israel, willingly or not, and the exit of masses of Arabs who lived here, willingly or not, to the surrounding Arab areas. This historic pattern seems to require culmination.”
Plans for expulsion go back to 1937, when Britain proposed the partition of Palestine into two states and the transfer of about two hundred thousand Arabs out of territory slated for the Jewish state. Zionist pioneers attempted to expand their territory by building settlements outside the proposed boundary. David Ben-Gurion, the future Prime Minister of Israel, wrote, in a letter to his sixteen-year-old son about settling the Negev Desert, “We must expel the Arabs and take their place.” In the end, Ben-Gurion agreed to a U.N. partition plan that did not call for the expulsion of Arabs from Gaza and the West Bank, but he immediately began taking tactical steps toward expanding the territory. He and other leaders devised a military strategy called Plan Dalet, which aimed to “gain control of the areas of the Hebrew state” and “the areas of Jewish settlement . . . located outside the borders” through “operations against enemy population centers,” “control of frontline enemy positions,” and the “destruction of villages.” Should resistance be met, “the armed force must be destroyed and the population must be expelled outside the borders of the state.” The Haganah (the predecessor to the I.D.F.), destroyed Palestinian villages and carried out massacres. Three hundred thousand Arabs were expelled or fled before the British withdrew, in May, 1948. Then Israel declared independence, Egypt and Syria invaded the territory, and another four hundred thousand Arabs were driven out. By 1949, about eighty per cent of the Arab population had been removed from the territory claimed by Israel, now larger than what the U.N. partition plan—which was never implemented—had outlined, and hundreds of villages had been erased. Palestinians remember this as the Nakba, or “catastrophe.”
Smotrich’s desire to claim all of Palestine for Israel was held by many people in 1948, but his belief that such colonization is a divine commandment was marginal. Zionism was largely a secular movement, and most Orthodox Jews considered it a rebellion against God: if he had exiled the Israelites, then only he could determine when the punishment should end. Smotrich, like a third of West Bank settlers today, follows the teachings of a rabbi named Tzvi Yehuda Kook, who preached that Jews should play an active role in bringing about God’s forgiveness by gaining possession of the entirety of the Biblical Land of Israel. By establishing a state, secular Jews—“good sinners,” he called them—had unwittingly created a stepping stone to the “foundation of the throne of God in the world.” When Israel occupied the West Bank, in 1967, Kook’s devotees believed that it was a miracle.
Government officials disagreed about what to do with the West Bank. Maximalists, like Yigal Allon, a former special-forces commander, had been stopped short of taking the territory before borders were established, in 1949, and wanted to finish the job; other officials worried that incorporating nine hundred thousand Palestinians into Israel would upend the country’s Jewish majority. Levi Eshkol, the Prime Minister at the time, said, “We got a lovely dowry. The trouble is that the dowry comes with the wife.” Allon proposed a compromise: annex the least populated regions—a third of the territory—and give the rest back to Jordan. He proposed establishing settlements until the annexation was complete.
The difficulty was finding people to live in them: the younger generation of secular Israelis didn’t have the nostalgia for pioneering that older Zionists did. But Kook’s followers were more eager. As the government deliberated, Kookists announced that they were settling in Hebron. Allon, a one-time socialist, made common cause with the right-wing settlers, immediately guaranteeing them jobs and trying to procure weapons for them. Then he persuaded the Cabinet to grant permission for a settlement.
The Kookists learned an important lesson: if they took direct action and found sympathetic officials, the state would follow. They formed a movement, Gush Emunim, which tried to establish settlements on the densely populated mountain ridge south of Nablus, where Qaryut is situated. Yet the government, which, in accordance with Allon’s plan, had begun building settlements in less populated areas, repeatedly evicted them.
In 1977, the Labor Party, which had held power since the founding of the state, was defeated by the Likud Party. Like Gush Emunim, Likud advocated for complete Israeli sovereignty “between the Sea and the Jordan.” The government started building settlements throughout the West Bank, and put them under the management of Gush Emunim, which it funded. The state encouraged Israelis to move in, offering housing subsidies, lower income tax, and state grants for businesses. By the early nineties, there were some hundred thousand Israelis living in a hundred and twenty settlements in the West Bank.
On October 28, 2023, Bilal Saleh woke early to prepare for the olive harvest in the village of al-Sawiya. He knew it was risky. A couple of days earlier, farmers had returned from their olive groves in the nearby village of Deir Istiya to find flyers on their cars that read, “You wanted war, now wait for the great Nakba. . . . This is your last chance to escape to Jordan in an orderly fashion before we forcibly expel you from our holy lands, which were given to us by God.” Since October 7th, messages in settler chat groups had portrayed olive pickers as undercover Hamas operatives and as Nazis. Elmaliach, the mayor of Eli, which is a mile and a half from al-Sawiya, sent around a sign-up sheet calling for the “full mobilization” of his residents “to stand up to the Arabs who try to harvest around our settlements.”
Saleh, who was forty, kept his opinions to himself and avoided protests. But the land had been in his family for generations. He’d recently left his job at a hotel in Tel Aviv and had been selling herbs on the streets of Ramallah. Without the olive harvest, he’d be stretched thin. He and his friends and relatives chose a Saturday to pick olives, because it was the Jewish Sabbath, a day when the Orthodox settlers were likely to be in synagogue or resting.
Saleh loaded up his family’s donkey and walked with his wife and kids through their village, across from the road where Israelis-only buses took settlers to their jobs, and down to their plot of trees. The settlement of Rehelim looked down on them from less than half a mile away. They put a tarp down under a tree and started picking.
At around 10:30 a.m., Saleh’s friend Sami Kafineh was driving back to al-Sawiya from Nablus. Just before he reached the village, he noticed four men, dressed in white, walking from Rehelim toward the olive grove. He pulled over and shouted that settlers were approaching.
People who were in the grove told me that, as soon as Bilal Saleh realized that the settlers were coming, he hurried his wife and children to safety, leaving their belongings behind. As they walked to the road, Saleh, realizing he’d left his phone behind, turned back. He returned to the plot, picked up his phone, and was shot.
Kafineh was still on the road above. As soon as he heard the rifle crack, he started filming. The four settlers were in a clearing; one had an M16 and was walking along the edge of the terraced grove of olive trees. The settler fired again, and walked away. A video shows Saleh lying in the dirt, his chest and mouth bloody.
Then settlers rewrote the story. In a statement, Yossi Dagan, the head of the settlers’ regional council whose area of authority includes Rehelim, said that a combat soldier on leave had been “attacked by tens of Hamasniks.” The harvest around Israeli settlements had to be stopped, he said, because it was “being used as a platform for terrorism.” Settlers later shared an image from Saleh’s funeral, in which his brother, Hisham, is waving a Hamas flag. Shortly afterward, Israeli police arrested Hisham. Polls show that support for Hamas in the West Bank, where dissatisfaction with the Palestinian Authority is widespread, has risen from twelve per cent to forty-four per cent in recent months. Seventy-two per cent of Palestinians polled also said that they thought the October 7th attack was “correct.” (Ninety-four per cent of Israelis think that the I.D.F. is using either an appropriate or an insufficient amount of force in Gaza.)
“We don’t have any hope,” Bilal’s cousin Hazem Saleh told me. He pointed toward some new houses in the village. Their owners didn’t intend for them “to be demolished or bombed,” he said. “They are not calling for fighting, or killing, or war. But when they are afraid to go out, when they don’t have the minimum standard of living, when they are pressured, their reaction will be the same as the action.”
Hisham Saleh spent three months in jail, without charges, for waving the Hamas flag. The settler who shot Bilal was arrested, and released a few days later. “We are happy that the court decided from the beginning that that was self-defense,” his lawyer, Nati Rom, told me. The judge had cited the events of October 7th, writing, “The vigilance to which we are commanded by the blood of our brothers and sisters who fell for the sanctity of the land and the defense of the homeland is a real obligation.”
Rom said that, to his knowledge, no other settlers had faced charges since October 7th. Settler violence was “fake news,” he said.
Saleh’s shooter was back in the Army, so I visited one of his neighbors, a forty-six-year-old woman named Reuma Harari. At the gate of Rehelim, soldiers took my passport, then security escorted me to Harari’s house. Her back yard was a suburban idyll: a swing set on an AstroTurf lawn, an oak tree, a small dog; Tel Aviv was only forty minutes away, if the traffic was light. She offered me a seat under an olive tree. “Ironic,” she said, chuckling.
Harari was eager to tell me about the origin of her settlement. “It’s not a victim story,” she said. “It’s just the opposite.” In 1991, settlers were on a bus to Tel Aviv to protest peace talks taking place in Madrid. Palestinians attacked the bus, killing the driver and a settler from Shilo named Rachel Drouk. After Drouk’s funeral, twenty-five women set up a mourning tent on the spot of the killing. After three weeks, they issued their Feminist Manifesto. “We remain at this site demanding to found a settlement, for this is the only Zionist response to this criminal murder,” it read. Under Army protection, the settlers seized land belonging to Saleh’s village, and installed mobile homes on it.
Two years later, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat, the leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization, agreed on the first stage of the Oslo Accords. Israel and the P.L.O. recognized each other, and the Palestinians gained limited autonomy in Gaza and some of the West Bank, under the administration of the newly created Palestinian Authority. But major issues—the future of Jerusalem, the ability of Palestinian refugees to return, the settlements, and the border—were left for a final agreement to be made in five years’ time. That agreement never came to pass, and the hope for a two-state solution has steadily vanished.
Under international pressure, the government mostly stopped building new settlements, but in 1998, ahead of the final status talks for Oslo, Ariel Sharon, then the foreign minister, urged settlers to occupy territory themselves. On the radio, he said they should “run, grab more hills, expand the territory. Everything that’s grabbed will be in our hands. Everything we don’t grab will be in their hands.” In the next nine years, roughly a hundred illegal outposts were created.
In 2001, during the second intifada, a popular Palestinian uprising against the occupation, Harari and her family decided to move from Jerusalem to Rehelim. She had asked herself, “What can I do for this country?” She knew that, wherever settlers go, “the Army will come,” she said. “Zionism for me is dreaming and doing.” Four years later, a government report revealed that the World Zionist Organization and a number of ministries had been secretly diverting millions of dollars to settler outposts with the active collusion of the military and the police. “It seems that the lawbreaking has become institutionalized,” the report said. The government declared that such outposts would be evacuated, but in the twenty-tens Netanyahu retroactively legalized many of them, including Rehelim.
Harari said that Rehelim’s stance toward its Palestinian neighbors had always been “If you live peace and quiet, we will live peace and quiet.”
When I mentioned the various attacks perpetrated by inhabitants of her settlement through the years, Harari responded with examples of settlers killed in other parts of the West Bank, or by discussing October 7th. “My neighbors, if they have the ability, will come and butcher me in my bed,” she said. She likened the Hamas attacks to Auschwitz, but she also said that they brought her a “shred of joy,” because “now we earned back our unity. Now it’s like ’48 again.”
Harari could understand why Palestinians might resent settlers. “Israel is an occupied territory from the river to the sea,” she said. If she were Palestinian, she went on, she “would probably think we are not supposed to be here and we should go.” She sometimes asked herself, “Is it worthwhile? Are the kids suffering? Is it normal?” Then she recovered. “We are not going anywhere,” she said. “ ‘Homeland’ is not a figure of speech.”
Ten miles east of Rehelim, the olive groves and crowded settlements and Palestinian villages give way to the caramel-colored expanse of the Jordan Valley. The valley stretches six miles wide, from the Jordan River to the hills of the central highlands, and fifty miles long, from the Dead Sea to the Israeli city of Beit She’an. Israel has eyed the region for annexation since Allon’s plan of 1967. Sparsely populated, it makes up about a quarter of the West Bank’s landmass. Since 2012, Israel has been building what Dror Etkes, a longtime authority on settlements, called its “biggest and most expensive infrastructure project” in the West Bank, piping water from Jerusalem to settlers’ date plantations throughout the valley. “They are building a project that costs a fortune,” Etkes said. “From their point of view, they are going to be here forever.” Any Jewish family that moves to the Jordan Valley is granted twenty acres of agricultural land.
The residents of the valley’s more than twenty settlements are a mix of Orthodox Jews and the secular descendants of early Labor Party settlers. In the “eco settlement” of Rotem, businesses offer acupuncture, natural cosmetics, and “holistic therapy.” People live in yurts, buildings made from hemp, and converted vehicles. One day, I sat under a thatched roof at a café where barefoot waitresses served vegan meals. Yet, as in other parts of the West Bank, violence is woven into the fabric of life. A family posed for a photograph looking over the valley, the man raising an M16 in the air. A small Palestinian sheepherding community sat on the valley floor. Rotem settlers had recently been showing up in the night, demanding that the Palestinians evacuate.
Many of the sixty-five thousand Palestinians in the Jordan Valley are the descendants of Bedouins who fled what is now Israel in 1948. Israel has long restricted their access to water and demolished their buildings. In the five months before October 7th, hundreds of Palestinians, the residents of three communities, left. Their exodus was prompted by a relatively new type of settler—the Orthodox Jewish shepherd.
In the northern part of the valley, I visited Moshe and Moriah Sharvit, whose sheep farm doubled as a bed-and-breakfast, with offerings including air-conditioned Bedouin-style tents and talks about “Zionism and the importance of settling on farms and the seizure of land.”
Moriah, who is twenty-eight, wore a daisy-print dress and a dark-green head scarf, and had a blond infant strapped to her back. Mountains rose in the west, and on the eastern horizon, beyond Palestinian villages, the Jordan Highlands were outlined faintly. All this, she believed, was given to her by God.
Moriah was born in New Jersey and grew up in West Bank settlements. After she and Moshe married, at nineteen, they wanted a different life. The settlements, with their fences, cameras, and security, were like “ghettos,” Moriah said. She invited me into their mobile home. A couple of M16s sat on a woodstove. Moshe, an olive-skinned man with a short black beard, ate in the kitchen. I recognized him. Israeli anti-occupation activists had documented him dispersing Palestinians’ sheep with his A.T.V., sending his dogs after them, and following with a drone.
Moshe had had a vineyard and an olive grove, Moriah told me, but that didn’t allow for the control of much land, so he turned to sheepherding. “When you have sheep, you go here, you go there, wherever there is food to graze,” she said. “You can protect more land.”
Moriah and Moshe set up the outpost in 2020. “It’s not like we bought the land from someone,” she said. “It doesn’t belong to us.” Yet she described their mission as preventing land theft. She pointed through a window toward some Palestinian farmhouses a half mile away. “All those houses that you see over there are Arabs who came from A land to C land and stole the land,” she said. “If we weren’t here right now, they would be here.”
The Oslo Accords sorted the West Bank into three areas, A, B, and C. Palestinian cities were designated Area A and put under the full control of the Palestinian Authority. The main villages—Area B—were left under Palestinian civilian administration, with Israel in charge of security. Together, Areas A and B make up forty per cent of the West Bank, but they are broken into a hundred and sixty-five islands. The sea they float in—Area C—remains under full Israeli control and includes not only settlements but also most of the West Bank’s agricultural land. The accords said that Area C, now home to half a million settlers and some three hundred thousand Palestinians, was to be “gradually transferred to Palestinian jurisdiction,” but Israel has increasingly treated it as its own.
Israel requires Palestinians to obtain permits for any new construction in Area C, but it has rejected ninety-eight per cent of applications. Unpermitted structures are regularly demolished by the military—yet settlers believe that the government doesn’t do enough. Regavim, an organization co-founded by Bezalel Smotrich, takes aerial photographs of the West Bank twice a year in order to identify unpermitted structures, and it sues the government if it doesn’t demolish them. Naomi Kahn, Regavim’s international director, told me, “Area C should be annexed.” A poll from 2020 showed that half of Israelis supported this idea.
The sheepherding strategy started to take hold around 2018, pioneered by a settler organization called Amana. At a 2021 conference titled “The Battle for State Lands,” Amana’s secretary-general, Ze’ev Hever, a convicted member of the Jewish Underground terrorist organization, explained that traditional settlements had been an inefficient way to seize land. “It took us more than fifty years to get a hundred square kilometres,” he said. Sheep farms, on the other hand, control “more than double the area of built-up settlements.”
Avi Naim, the former director general of the Ministry of Settlement Affairs, said that herding outposts were helping “prevent Palestinian invasions” of Area C: “You take people who believe in that goal as a pioneering mission, and let them spearhead the work to keep control of land reserves.” By Dror Etkes’s count, there are now about ninety herding outposts in the West Bank. He estimated that together they control some hundred and thirty-five square miles, about ten per cent of Area C.
All such outposts are considered illegal under Israeli law, but Moriah said that she and Moshe had received a great deal of assistance from the state. They had “a gazillion meetings,” she said, with the Civil Administration, the Army, the Jordan Valley regional council, and other government bodies. Amana connected them to running water.
“Moriah!” Moshe shouted from the kitchen. He told her to be careful what she said.
Before the 2019 elections, Netanyahu announced a plan to annex twenty-two per cent of the West Bank, most of it in Area C, including the majority of the Jordan Valley. The Sharvits established their outpost inside the area slated for annexation, which has not yet occurred.
“I believe that everything is ours—but there is the law,” Moriah said. “We go by the law and what we’re allowed and what we’re not allowed.” Buildings on their outpost had been under demolition orders for two years, but Moriah said that no one had pressured them to leave: “Israel understands—either we’re here or the land’s gonna be taken away.”
On the living-room wall, a monitor displayed live footage from cameras that surveilled the surrounding area. Their farm acted as “eyes” for the Army, Moriah told me. “We could report on illegal buildings, on illegal hunting. . . . We work together.” On the screen, the angle of one of the cameras changed; Moriah said that it, like cameras at other outposts in the valley, was controlled by a soldier at a command center.
After October 7th, an Army unit stayed at their outpost for a month. Moriah said the Army told them that each herding outpost needed at least three long rifles, so it gave her an M16. “They are giving them out like crazy,” she said. The Army has distributed around seven thousand weapons to settlers since October 7th, on top of the ten thousand that the Ministry of National Security ordered be handed out to Jews across Israel and the West Bank. Like some fifty-five hundred other settlers, Moshe and his brother David were drafted into the Army’s “regional defense” battalions, the ranks of which have increased fivefold since the war began.
Moriah said that their issue wasn’t just with Hamas but with Palestinians in general. They weren’t “regular people,” she said. Violence was in “their DNA.” The October 7th attacks happened because Israelis “were too nice,” she said. “I think we need to do what we need to do to make this stop. I think we need to give an alternative to the Arabs who live here. . . . There’s Jordan, there’s Egypt, there’s Syria.”
Moriah drove me down a dirt road to the land below the outpost, where Palestinians grew wheat and potatoes. She pointed to some houses. “This over here—all on C land,” she said. (According to Civil Administration maps, most of the houses were in Area B.) Shortly after October 7th, she said, a curious thing had happened: “We saw everyone just leaving.” She continued driving down the dirt road. “They left,” she said. “They all left.”
Five days later, I visited David Elhayani, the governor of the Jordan Valley regional council. There are six such elected councils in the West Bank that provide services to settlers. Despite being outside Israel, they fall under the authority of the Ministry of the Interior.
Elhayani thought that Netanyahu had not been decisive enough in annexing territory. “We don’t have leadership anymore in this country,” Elhayani told me. If annexation went for a vote, he said, he was confident that two-thirds of the Knesset would approve it.
In the meantime, he was grateful that settler shepherds like Moshe Sharvit were “taking care of the area.” When I asked why the demolition orders on the Sharvits’ property hadn’t been carried out, he replied, “It’s not my job.”
Elhayani said that, if he could claim territory for Israel, he would do it, “even if it’s not legal.” He added, “The fight of 1948 is the same fight [today] in all of Judea and Samaria”—the fight over land. “You know what homa u’migdal is?” he asked.
It means “wall and tower.” During British rule, the government restricted the establishment of Jewish settlements, but during the 1936-39 Arab revolt more than fifty of them were founded, in order to claim territory for a future state. The British let them stand, given an Ottoman law that said authorities could not demolish a structure once a roof had been constructed. The Zionists “came at night, made a wall, a tower, and said, ‘We are here,’ ” Elhayani said. The herding outposts, he noted, “are the same.”
I told Elhayani that I had gone with some Palestinians to their now empty houses, near the Sharvits’ outpost. An elderly man told me that, a few days after October 7th, Moshe had beaten him, ransacked his home, and told him to leave. Others said he’d threatened to kill them. (Moriah Sharvit said, “Nobody on this farm has committed any offense.”) Twelve families had evacuated.
“They are lying,” Elhayani said.
“I can take you right now,” I said.
“I don’t believe you.”
“I’ll show you.”
“I don’t want you to show me.”
The next day, the photographer Tanya Habjouqa and I went to Wadi al-Seeq, a recently depopulated community in the hills above the Jordan Valley. The sun slowly sank, lighting up the skeletons of shacks clustered in the shallow valley. Forty-odd families had lived here since the nineties, but the last of them had fled a month before. Inside a school, overturned desks lay on the floor; lessons remained on the whiteboards.
As we drove down a gravel road, a pickup truck blocked our path. A suntanned man with a long ginger-brown beard and sidelocks stepped out. It was Neria Ben-Pazi, a settler shepherd who presided over a handful of outposts and had organized the expulsion of the Palestinian families. I had tried multiple times to interview Ben-Pazi, but he never responded. When settler shepherds appear, their friends are often close behind, so I turned the car around and we left.
Ben-Pazi grew up in Kohav HaShahar, six miles north of Wadi al-Seeq. By 2015, he had founded a rugged outpost called Baladim nearby. Shin Bet considered it a center of terrorism; some of its residents were dedicated to bringing down the state of Israel and replacing it with the Kingdom of Judea. At least two of them have been convicted of arson-related hate crimes, including the firebombing of a Palestinian home, in 2015, which killed an eighteen-month-old baby and his parents. After that attack, Baladim was evacuated by the Army. Ben-Pazi was arrested for establishing the outpost in a military zone, but he was soon released. Then the encampment was reëstablished.
In 2019, after Netanyahu announced his plan to annex part of the West Bank, Ben-Pazi’s relationship with the government changed. Within weeks, he established a new herding outpost outside Rimonim, a secular settlement that likely fell within the area targeted for annexation. A Civil Administration document shows that Ben-Pazi was allocated a hundred-and-thirty-five-acre plot. He was also given funds by the Ministry of Agriculture to pay for people to guard the outpost. Before long, Ben-Pazi and his men had taken over two square miles of Palestinian land. According to a settler publication, senior I.D.F. officers and political figures, including Yoav Gallant, the defense minister, regularly visited his farm.
One of the managers of Rimonim, a tattooed, motorcycle-riding secular man named Oz Shraibom, told me, “Those fanatic religious people are crazy. They come to fight.” Since October 7th, “there are people who think this is the time to make everything happen.” But, he added, “they are keeping the Arabs away. It’s really convenient for me.”
Ben-Pazi had established his Wadi al-Seeq outpost in February, 2023, just after Netanyahu gave Smotrich jurisdiction over the Civil Administration and the West Bank settlers. Almost immediately, young settlers started to graze their livestock on Palestinian fields. Before long, nearly all of Wadi al-Seeq’s wells were in the hands of the settlers, so the Palestinians had to truck in water. Unable to access their farmland safely, they stopped planting. They could no longer graze their animals in most of the surrounding hills, so they had to buy feed. A few families left.
A man I’ll call Suheil, whose home was just a few hundred yards from the outpost, told me that settlers had started to come by his house at night. One appeared in his doorway early one morning, and stared at him and his family as they slept. In August, settlers near the village tried to steal the sheep of two young men. Men from the village ran out to defend them, and a fight ensued. Dozens of police officers and soldiers arrived, confiscating three cars and arresting three Palestinians.
That day, a video circulated on social media showing Suheil pleading with Ben-Pazi. A settler WhatsApp channel reposted the video, calling it the “last gasp” of the Palestinian community and referring cryptically to “the Deir Yassin effect.” (Deir Yassin was the site of the most notorious massacre of Palestinians in 1948; for many people, it represents the use of violence to instigate a broader exodus.) Arabs in Wadi al-Seeq, the WhatsApp channel said, were being “forced to leave their encampments because they cannot hold out against the Jews.”
The families remaining in Wadi al-Seeq asked Israeli activists to stay in the village, hoping that their presence might deter the settlers. The Palestinian Authority’s Wall and Settlements Resistance Commission organized Palestinian volunteers to stay as well. In charge was Mohammed Matar, better known as Abu Hassan, a forty-six-year-old activist turned official with a long history of civil disobedience against the occupation forces.
After October 7th, settlers started to drive through Wadi al-Seeq more often, now dressed in uniform and carrying assault rifles. They set up impromptu checkpoints at the entrance to the village, beat people, stole their phones, and visited families in their houses at night.
Most of the villagers decided that they couldn’t stay. On October 12th, they started piling onto trucks mattresses, sheep troughs, and the tin roofs of their homes. That morning, six pickup trucks of settlers arrived. Abu Hassan, his colleague Mohammed Khaled, five Israeli activists, and a number of villagers stayed behind; they called the Army to ask for help. The settlers tied up Abu Hassan and Khaled and started beating them. At one point, the two men recalled, a Civil Administration officer arrived. After talking to the settlers, he started to leave.
“Where are you going?” Abu Hassan asked.
“These men are Army,” the officer said, pointing to the men who had been beating them.
Three Israeli activists were hiding with a Palestinian family in a partially dismantled shack. They saw Ben-Pazi talking urgently on his phone; then an Army van arrived. Soldiers from the Desert Frontier unit emerged, largely youths recruited from shepherd outposts.
After the activists emerged, a soldier punched one of them in the face; they were zip-tied, and their phones and cameras were taken away. “Why aren’t you in Gaza!” another soldier shouted. “You are under arrest for helping the enemy during war.” The soldiers left them in another shack, guarded by settlers, and drove over to where Abu Hassan and Mohammed Khaled were being held.
While Abu Hassan was lying face down, one of the settlers pulled him up by the hair. “Do you remember me?” he asked. “I’m the shepherd from Biddya, near Salfit. A couple of months ago, you staged a protest there.”
“That wasn’t me,” Abu Hassan said.
He later identified the man as Eden Levi, who was establishing a chain of herding outposts with the aim, he told a settler publication last summer, of “creating an important territorial continuity in the entire region of Western Samaria.” Last February, Arabic media published a photograph of Levi, reporting that residents near his outposts said that he had shot and killed a twenty-seven-year-old Palestinian. (Levi could not be reached for comment.) According to Haaretz, the Israeli police had interviewed no witnesses.
Abu Hassan and Khaled said they were tortured for hours—beaten with poles, burned with cigarettes, sexually assaulted, urinated on, forced to eat sheep dung. Someone took a picture of them, stripped to their underwear, which was posted on Facebook. “Terrorists tried to infiltrate the Ben-Pazi farm near Kochav Hashachar,” the post read. “Our forces seized the terrorists.” They spent two days in the hospital.
Shortly after Wadi al-Seeq was depopulated, a new gravel road to Ben-Pazi’s outpost was laid down. The Israeli police have not interviewed any of the Palestinians or Israeli activists who were there. Eden Levi has since led another raid near his outpost, in which settlers burned cars and shot Palestinians, killing one.
On December 5th, the U.S. State Department announced that it was imposing visa restrictions on “extremist settlers” who have committed acts of violence or have restricted civilians’ access to basic necessities. The I.D.F. issued a restraining order barring Ben-Pazi from the West Bank, with the exception of the Ariel settlement, for three months. In an appeal, his lawyer, Nati Rom, wrote that Ben-Pazi’s “extensive ties with the security forces are the best evidence that there is no place for the order to be issued.”
In apparent defiance of the order, Ben-Pazi hosted senior rabbis and hundreds of worshippers at his Wadi al-Seeq outpost for Hanukkah. Amichai Eliyahu, the minister of heritage, who a month earlier had said that the government should consider dropping a nuclear bomb on Gaza, spent the night at the outpost. (He later claimed that the comment was “metaphorical.”) Ben-Pazi, Eliyahu tweeted, was “the first line of defense against the enemy.”
On February 1st, President Biden ordered financial sanctions against four Israeli settlers. Abu Hassan said that the political pressure was important, but that sanctions should “include the political and financial institutions that support [the settlers], as well as the police chiefs and Army officers that conspire with them.”
In late December, Moshe Feiglin, the chairman of the far-right Zehut party, visited Ben-Pazi’s farm. “So you are the violent monster that managed to drive away the multitude of Arabs?” he asked. Feiglin looked around, taking in the landscape. “You are sitting here on an area that is three times the municipal area of Tel Aviv.”
“In the end, it’s the connection to the earth,” Ben-Pazi said. “If we want the land, we will get it.” ♦
Following Washington’s lead, key US allies have cut funding for the United Nations Relief Works Agency for Palestine—making them all complicit in genocide.
When the 17 judges of the International Court of Justice issued their near-unanimous ruling on January 26, making clear that Israel’s actions in Gaza plausibly constituted genocide, they asserted the legitimacy of the world’s most influential judicial body to hold Israel provisionally accountable for those violations.
Israel was having none of it.
Just hours after the court’s decision was announced in The Hague, Israel went public with an unsubstantiated allegation that 12 Gazan employees of the UN’s Relief Works Agency, the primary body responsible for providing humanitarian support to Palestine refugees, supposedly were tied to Hamas and may have played some role in the attack on Israel on October 7. (In fact, the names of all UNRWA employees had been provided to Israel earlier in the year for Tel Aviv’s vetting—and Israel made no complaints.) Despite the lack of evidence, UNRWA—presumably in an effort to avoid a dangerous collective punishment by Israel’s allies—immediately announced that it was firing the named employees (two were confirmed dead) and the UN launched two separate investigations.
Not wanting to wait a moment, however, Washington announced on the same day that it was cutting its entire aid allocation to UNRWA, despite the agency’s irreplaceable role in getting desperately needed aid into Gaza. A few hours later, key US allies announced that they were joining Washington in cutting aid: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and new NATO-member Finland. The United States provides by far the largest annual donation available to the UN agency (although, at just over $300 million, it’s a pittance compared to the almost $4 billion the US sends to the Israeli military every year). And combined with the at least 15 countries that eventually joined the US cuts, the impact on UNRWA’s ability to provide even the most minimal of basic services is enormous. With those services destroyed by Israel’s war, this US role in further undermining Palestinians’ access to water, food, medicine, shelter, and fuel makes Washington—again —directly complicit in Israel’s genocide.
Then things got worse. Two weeks later, on February 9, Israel launched another PR attack on UNRWA, this time claiming that a tunnel under the agency’s headquarters in Gaza City had been used by Hamas—variously identified as a communications center, a command center or a data center. Again no evidence was made public, but, among other responses, the US Senate bill authorizing $14 billion for unconditional aid to the Israeli military stated explicitly that none of the bill’s separate humanitarian aid (for conflict zones around the world) could go to UNRWA. US officials themselves had argued earlier that UNRWA was “the only game in town” in terms of getting any significant aid into Gaza, but the bill still imposed a permanent ban on US funding. (If passed by the House, it would even prevent UNRWA from receiving a tiny $300,000 grant that had already been approved.)
The impact of the aid cuts on the already threatened lives of 2.3 million displaced Gazans, as well as millions more Palestinian refugees in the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria, can hardly be overstated. US officials who suggested redirection of UNRWA funds to UNICEF and the World Food Program only showed their ignorance of conditions on the ground, and the capacities of aid organizations. UNICEF and WFP together have less than 70 staff on the ground in Gaza; UNRWA has over 13,000 providing, for more than half a century, all the services that ordinarily would be provided by a government civil service. Most of Gaza’s doctors, nurses, teachers, engineers, street sweepers are UNRWA employees. Without UNRWA, all the UN agencies and NGOs would be unable to carry out their crucial work. Thousands, probably tens of thousands more civilians—especially babies, children, pregnant women, and the elderly—will die.
And there is another price to be paid as well. Along with its critical role in lifesaving humanitarian assistance, UNRWA remains the only international agency in the UN system whose mandate includes protection of the rights of Palestinians as refugees. The work of UNRWA, from its creation in 1949, was designed to continue until Palestinian refugees achieved “a just and durable solution to their plight” on the basis of all the human rights and refugee rights to which they are entitled.
That means that UNRWA’s work is unfinished until the Palestinian refugees’ right to return to their homes, guaranteed by international law, is made real. Refugees—dispossessed in 1948 of their homes and land from what is now southern Israel—make up 70 percent of Gaza’s population. Without UNRWA, their right of return, indeed the very existence of Palestinians as a refugee community, is threatened with erasure. And that—creating conditions that make the survival of all or part of a threatened group as a group impossible—is part of the very definition of genocide.
No wonder Israel is so eager to get rid of UNRWA. And for the same reason, no wonder the defense of UNRWA remains such a critical factor in our continuing work for an immediate cease-fire and Palestinian access to unhindered humanitarian assistance in Gaza.
In five minutes, the video sounds the alarm on laws intended to take away Americans’ First Amendment right to boycott Israel. As masses throughout the US and around the world rally for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and an end to the Israeli assault and siege, many are recognizing boycotts and divestment as some of the most powerful tools available to bring about social change. But in dozens of US states (including Wisconsin), legislators have been trying to stand in their way, passing dangerous laws curtailing free speech. Anti-boycott laws have already cost people their jobs and contracts. From Texas to Arkansas to Arizona and beyond, citizens are fighting back. Watch the film and help spread the word.
“This short and powerful film makes it clear that support for the right to boycott Israel is a fight for First Amendment rights vital to all social justice movements, and worthy of their support.”
— Rashid Khalidi, Columbia University, Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies
Nora Barrows-Friedman, 14 February 2024
Israel is starving Gaza.
Children “are going without food for days, as aid convoys are increasingly denied permits to enter,” reported the BBC on 10 February.
The United Nations estimates that nearly one in every 10 Palestinian children in Gaza under 5 years old is now acutely malnourished.
Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told reporters on 2 February that the agency’s partners have indicated a “sharp rise in acute malnutrition” across the population in Gaza, “with a 12-fold increase compared to the rate recorded before the hostilities.”
There are only 70-100 trucks entering Gaza per day “in the best case scenario,” with only “two of those trucks going to the northern governorates,” according to estimates by the Geneva-based Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor.
Before Israel’s attacks began in October, approximately 500 trucks entered Gaza each day.
“What enters the Strip does not meet the minimum level of the population’s needs in light of the severe, continuous and accumulated deprivation of food, drinking water and medicine supplies [amid its] growing need due to the ongoing siege and genocide,” stated Lima Bustami, legal department director at Euro-Med.
“The situation is getting more complicated because the people living in the Gaza Strip are under siege from all sides, making it impossible for them to produce the food they need locally or get it from other sources,” Bustami added.
Last month, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Israel to prevent acts of genocide. The order was among a number of provisional measures issued by the court in a case which South Africa is taking against Israel.
Israel is supposed to inform the court within one month what steps it was taking to comply with the 26 January order. A full examination of South Africa’s case by the ICJ will take place at a later stage.
Declaring a state of famine “may find its way before the International Court of Justice,” said Bustami.
Such a declaration “could either lead to the request of an amendment [to the provisional measures issued on 26 January]… or as additional evidence that the court will weigh during its consideration of the merits of the case and issuing its final ruling,” Euro-Med stated.
A recent report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) says that between 8 December and 7 February, the entire population of the Gaza Strip, approximately 2.3 million people, has been classified as in “crisis or worse.”
“This is the highest share of people facing high levels of acute food insecurity that the IPC initiative has ever classified for any given area or country,” the IPC states.
Moreover, the IPC states that about half of the population is in a food emergency and “at least one in four households (more than half a million people) is facing catastrophic conditions” – characterized by an “extreme lack of food, starvation and exhaustion of coping capacities.”
According to the IPC, “even though the levels of acute malnutrition and non-trauma related mortality might not have yet crossed famine thresholds, these are typically the outcomes of prolonged and extreme food consumption gaps.”
The group notes the “increased nutritional vulnerability of children, pregnant and breastfeeding women and the elderly is a particular source of concern.”
Citing financial restrictions against UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestine refugees, the Israeli government is holding up more than 1,000 shipping containers of vital food items at the Ashdod port, just 20 miles north of the Gaza boundary.
The shipments, which contain rice, flour, chickpeas, sugar and cooking oil, are enough to feed more than 1 million people for one month.
Last month, Israel said it would allow flour to enter Gaza through Ashdod, a major commercial port north of the Gaza boundary after international aid agencies warned of starvation in the northern areas and urged Israel to allow the use of Ashdod.
On 19 January, the White House issued a boastful statement saying that President Joe Biden “welcomed” Israel’s decision to “permit the shipment of flour for the Palestinian people directly through Ashdod port while our teams separately work on options for more direct maritime delivery of assistance into Gaza.”
But that flour has been sitting at the port for weeks.
Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s finance minister, has admitted that he blocked the shipments in coordination with Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister.
Axios reported on Tuesday that Smotrich “blocked the transfer of the flour after he was notified that it was destined for UNRWA, the primary aid group in Gaza.”
“He ordered the Israeli customs service not to release the shipment as long as UNRWA is the recipient,” Axiosadded.
In response, US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller referred to discussions with Israel aimed at allowing the aid to be delivered.
“We had a commitment from the government of Israel to let that flour go through, and we expect them to deliver on that commitment,” Miller said on Tuesday.
Last week, Israeli naval forces attacked a food aid convoy that was reportedly heading to northern Gaza.
Along with blocking or attacking aid trucks, Israeli forces are also shooting at fishers attempting to provide food for their hungry families.
On 8 February, the bodies of two fishers “were recovered after their boat was reportedly struck by Israeli forces in western Rafah” the day before, reported the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
“The port of Gaza has been severely damaged, and most of the fishing boats have been destroyed,” the UN added.
Israel is systematically destroying farms as well.
In December, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization used satellite imaging to assess and analyze damage to Gaza’s arable land.
The agency reported that more than 27 percent of all cropland in Gaza was damaged, as was more than 20 percent of all greenhouses. Nearly 500 irrigation wells were damaged as well, the UN noted.
At the end of January, however, the UN Satellite Centre “showed damage to 34 percent of arable land,” UN OCHA reported.
“Most of the infrastructure of the agrifood sector was damaged, ranging from commercial facilities (livestock farms, stores for products and inputs, etc.) to household facilities, such as home barns and animal shelters.”
“Everyone in Gaza is hungry. Many are starving,” stated the World Health Organization on 8 February.
“Infectious diseases are spreading. Hunger is weakening people’s ability to fight off disease. Without enough food, more people will become sick and die,” the agency warned.
Phillippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, stated last week that half of the agency’s humanitarian aid mission requests to areas in northern Gaza “were denied” since the beginning of the year.
The UN, he said, “has identified deep pockets of starvation and hunger in northern Gaza where people are believed to be on the verge of famine. At least 300,000 people living in the area depend on our assistance for their survival.”
Israel’s accusations that a handful of UNRWA staff participated in the 7 October attacks led by Hamas has prompted 16 countries to suspend their funding of the agency.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces have allowed – or encouraged – Israeli settlers to block and disrupt humanitarian aid convoys from entering Gaza through the southern Kerem Shalom crossing over recent weeks.
The area has been designated as a closed military zone since last month. “But there are no checkpoints at night, making it easier to bring in busloads of protesters,” according to The Washington Post.
Israelis have been holding dance parties while celebrating the military’s destruction in Gaza and the starvation of Palestinians.
“The army is with us, the police is with us,” a young Israeli taking part in the blocking of humanitarian aid told The Washington Post.
“They don’t want us to be here, but they get it. They let us. We are talking with them, we are having fun with them, we are offering them everything they need,” the Israeli said.
In October, Israeli lawmaker Tally Gotliv advocated for using starvation as a weapon against Palestinians in Gaza, which is a war crime.
“Without hunger and thirst among the Gazan population, we will not be able to recruit collaborators, we will not be able to recruit intelligence, we will not be able to bribe people, with food, drink, medicine, in order to obtain intelligence,” Gotliv said.
Palestinian human rights groups say that this kind of genocidal rhetoric by Israeli leaders is not an aberration. Rather, it is policy.
“The starvation policy pursued by the Israeli authorities is an example of the collective punishment policies that Israel has been inflicting on the civilian population of Gaza, which have intensified since 7 October 2023,” said the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, Al-Haq and Al Mezan in a joint statement earlier this month.
The groups added that “Israel’s use of starvation as a method of war is prohibited by international humanitarian law and amounts to a war crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.”
“The most brutal militaries in history have used deliberate starvation as a tactic; the criminalization of such a tactic is a keystone of international law,” stated the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee.
The decision by 16 countries to pause their funding of UNRWA and thereby collectively punish the 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza, especially after the International Court of Justice found that Israel is plausibly committing genocide, “represents a shift by several countries from potential complicity in genocide to direct involvement in engineered famine,” warned the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention.
The institute – named after Raphael Lemkin, the Polish lawyer who coined the term “genocide” in 1944 – added that the decision by the 16 governments “is an attack on what remains of personal security, liberty, health and dignity in Palestine.”
NORA BARROWS-FRIEDMAN
Nora Barrows-Friedman is a staff writer and associate editor at The Electronic Intifada, and is the author of In Our Power: US Students Organize for Justice in Palestine (Just World Books, 2014).
Mads Gilbert is an anesthesiologist, head of emergency medicine at the University Hospital of North Norway, and Professor of emergency medicine at the University of Tromsø. He visited Madison in 2012 to speak on Gaza.
Feb 16, 2024
For 30 years, Norwegian doctor Mads Gilbert has risked his life to give medical care to Palestinians, performing surgeries, training medical students, and supporting their renowned healthcare system. But in their most recent assault, Israel banned Dr. Gilbert from entering Gaza.
“This is the politics of elimination,” Dr. Gilbert tells us. “Israel is the only nation on Earth who has a military strategy to attack, to kill, and to dismantle civilian hospitals.”
Forced to watch the unfolding tragedy from afar, Gilbert struggles to believe the horrors he’s seeing. “It is such an avalanche of human suffering that it is almost incomprehensible. And it’s all done with full will, planning, dedication. It is a 100% man-made disaster, designed to achieve exactly the goals that they have achieved: to maim and destroy Palestinian society.”
What should have led to a huge uproar has instead been tolerated and even encouraged by Western politicians and media outlets, who have laundered false claims about militant hideouts at Palestinian hospitals.
But while the genocide of Palestinians has only just broken through to mainstream consciousness, Dr. Gilbert explains that none of this is new.
“Israel is going against absolutely every international law aimed at protecting civilian hospitals. This is unprecedented, but I’d like to add that for us who have been working with the Palestinians and their healthcare for many years, it’s not a new feature. The Israelis have always been attacking healthcare. In last year’s report from WHO, they reported 600 attacks on healthcare in the last two years.”
And in the latest assault on Gaza, there have been “hundreds and hundreds” more. “We’ve seen attacks in the West Bank where they even dress up as doctors and kill patients in their beds.”
Gilbert gives his scathing post-mortem: “This is a historical low point in human history. This enormous collapse of western morality and principles. We’re back to the jungle.”
Hear the full, unpaywalled interview with Mads Gilbert, and listen to the end for his message on how to help. “We can all do our part: write a poem, sing a song, participate in a demonstration, write a letter to your politician. Take part in history because we need to change history now.”
He finishes, solemnly: “What you are doing now, or what you are not doing now, is what you would have done, or not done, during the Holocaust.”
20:57 Dr. Mads Gilbert interview
22:13 Israel warns of new hospital attack
27:35 Stories of killed doctors
40:34 Israeli doctors sign letter to BOMB MORE HOSPITALS
55:13 Israeli protesters block humanitarian aid
1:00:58 Israel shuts of water
1:09:13 Answering Israeli arguments
1:23:40 Rafah update
1:29:01 HOW TO HELP
“They got guns, batons, and pepper spray, but I’m dangerous.”
On February 13th, police officers brutally suppressed a protest at a career fair that hosted BAE, Caterpillar, and General Dynamics at the Engineering building on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. At least… pic.twitter.com/PPbE89J6fN
— MintPress News (@MintPressNews) February 15, 2024
On February 13 a UW student was subjected to a violent arrest while protesting against companies that supply the Israeli military that had representatives at a campus recruiting event.
From an article published by the Daily Cardinal on February 20th:
Three companies at the fair — BAE Systems, Caterpillar and General Dynamics — all have alleged ties to the Israeli military.”
The full text of the Daily Cardinal article is below.
We believe that the arrest of the student was done with undue violence and aggression. There is never any excuse for police violence against non-violent protesters.
The student was issued a citation by the UW Police Department and the University is pursuing additional disciplinary measures against the student.
The student has asked not to be named publicly, but is asking for support from those who stand in solidarity with Palestine to publicize the video, and contact the UW to explicitly demand that the University of Wisconsin:
The UW Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards can be reached by email at conduct@studentaffairs.wisc.edu or by phone at 608.263.5701.
Pro-Palestine groups protest arms manufacturers at UW-Madison engineering career fair
University of Wisconsin-Madison Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and other pro-Palestine student groups protested the presence of weapons manufacturing companies at an engineering career fair on Feb. 13.
Three companies at the fair — BAE Systems, Caterpillar and General Dynamics — all have alleged ties to the Israeli military.
“The university shouldn’t be allowing a company that actively participates in war crimes or actively helps an apartheid state to recruit students,” said a protester who asked to remain anonymous. “It is saying that they do not actually value the lives of Palestinian students.”
BAE Systems has been accused of providing Israel with white phosphorus, a dangerous chemical restricted under international law, according to The Defense Post. Caterpillar and General Dynamics have been accused of supplying weapons and vehicles to the Israeli military.
UW-Madison said it cannot “prohibit participation of employers that meet the criteria for [the] career fair” because it is a public institution.
An employer must be “actively hiring for engineering majors that the university offers” in order to participate in the career fair, UW-Madison Media Relations and Strategic Communications Director Kelly Tyrell said in an email to the Cardinal. According to the university’s recruiting policy, a company can only have their privilege to recruit revoked if they withhold information about the job, mishandle student data or act unprofessional.
Career Services posted attendance guidelines before the protest, according to an image from UW-Madison Anticolonial Scientists.
UWPD arrests one protester, shoves another
Two UW Police Department officers were asked to provide security at the fair because “several protesters attempted to disrupt the event and enter the building with items that are not permitted in university buildings,” according to UWPD spokesman Marc Lovicott. He also said university police “made multiple requests for the group to leave.”
Video footage by Latine student organization Mecha de UW-Madison shows an officer shoving a protester to the ground during the protest. Footage provided by SJP also showed the officer handcuffing a separate protester and pushing them against a wall.
Lovicott said the protester in the Mecha de UW-Madison video was “physically blocked by a UWPD officer, causing them to be brought to the ground.” UWPD is currently investigating the altercation, according to Lovicott.
The detained protester was later issued a citation and released.
Campus reactions
Some students have criticized UWPD since the protest. Graffiti in the sixth-floor women’s bathroom of the Mosse Humanities building criticized the incident, calling the actions of the UWPD an attack on free speech.
“I’ve been feeling horrified ever since,” one anonymous eyewitness to the protest, who asked to remain anonymous, said. “If [UWPD] can assault people just for having a megaphone, it makes me feel really unsafe at this school.”
Several student organizations released statements denouncing UWPD’s actions.
UW-Madison Anticolonial Scientists, an organization that promotes diversity and anticolonialism in scientific study, said in a statement the university’s response was anti-free speech and an endorsement of genocide against Gazans.
SJP said in a statement that the university must “take action and accountability regarding the lack of protection towards protesters.”
Tyrell said the university “strongly values free speech and provides support for protest activities that take place on campus.” UW-Madison follows protest response procedures in the events of demonstrations that “disrupt the academic mission” of the university or “threaten campus or personal safety.”
Student-led pro-Palestinian protests have occurred across the nation since the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks against Israel.
At Columbia University, student protesters were sprayed with an Israeli-developed “skunk” chemical, according to Al Jazeera. And at the University of Michigan, campus police arrested forty protesters in November for refusing to leave the office of university President Santa Ono.
UW-Madison Anticolonial Scientists said students should continue advocating for the exclusion of weapons manufacturing companies at campus career fairs.
“Do your part to become informed, talk to everyone you know, organize to get weapons manufacturers banned from future career fairs and show the university that the current protest rules are unreasonable,” UW-Madison Anticolonial Scientists told the Cardinal.
Anticolonial Scientists held another protest at Engineering Hall on Feb. 19.
Online Auction to Benefit Gaza Relief closes February 29
Plus, an online donation campaign update from MECA
Don’t miss your chance to bid on these great donated items. (If you have already bid, you might want to check your preferred item(s) to see where you stand.)
Among the choices are lots of great gift certificates for food, spices, services, and more donated by generous local businesses; some great original artwork, jewelry, homemade wine, magazine subscriptions, books, calendars, tutoring, a photo shoot, and even a tattoo session.
As of today, the auction has raised over $5,000 but we need to raise much more for the catastrophic situation in Rafah and all of Gaza. So bid away!
AND… a NEW GOAL for our Emergency Direct Donation Campaign
As of today, this campaign has raised over $6,700 from all sources, surpassing our initial goal of $5000. So our new goal will be $10,000. This money goes immediately to MECA to be put to use in Rafah and elsewhere in Gaza. A current update from MECA is below.< You can donate to this campaign here.
As the situation keeps deteriorating in Gaza including the spread of hunger, malnutrition and actual starvation, campaigns like there are critically important to undertake, even as we do everything else in our power to stop this genocidal crime against humanity.
As always, thanks for your support!
and Her Family by an Israeli Airstrike on Rafah
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) condemns in the strongest terms the killing of our dear colleague, Nour Naser Abu Al-Nour and seven of her family members, including her two-years-old daughter, by an Israeli airstrike on her family house in Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip. The killing of Nour along with seven of her family members, comes as the latest example of the genocide that Israel is committing against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and a reminder that all Palestinians, including human rights defenders, are a target for the Israeli government and army. This heinous crime also constitutes further evidence of the lack of safe space for Palestinians in the Strip and an example of what the Palestinians in the Strip have been subjected to for the last 137 days of ongoing Israeli aggression. Nour and her family are among of tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians, the majority of whom are women and children, unjustly, illegally and cruelly killed as result of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip since 7 October 2023, which members of the international community have not only failed to bring to an end, but have been complicit by providing Israel with the necessary political, diplomatic and military support.
Our dear colleague Nour worked in the Women’s Rights Unit at PCHR since 2019. She holds a master’s degree in law and worked with distinction, perseverance and dedication until the last days, documenting the violations committed by the Israeli occupation, particularly against women and children, providing legal consultations, and trying to provide self-care to the women victims in shelters despite the difficult conditions. Several weeks ago, Nour was forced to move to her family’s house after Israeli war planes targeted a neighboring house, causing significant damage to her house.
According to information collected by PCHR, last night, 20 February 2024, at approximately 10:00 pm, Israeli war planes directly targeted without any prior warning the house of Nour’s Father, Professor Nasser Abu Al-Nour, Dean of the Faculty of Nursing at the Islamic University in Gaza, located in Al-Jeneina neighborhood in Rafah, on top of its residents. The targeting resulted in the killing of our dear colleague Nour Abu Al-Nour (30), who works as a lawyer in the Women’s Rights Unit, her child, Kenzi Jumaa (2), her father, Professor Nasser Abu Al-Nour (60), her mother, Mjida Farid Abu Al-Noor (55), three of her sisters, Amal Nasser Abu Al Nour (35), Mona Nasser Abu Al Nour (24), and Ayat Naser Abu Al-Nour (19), and her brother, Abdulrahman Nasser Abu Al Nour (23), and the wounding of dozens others.
The crimes committed by the Israeli occupation have not spared anyone, including human rights defenders, who have become themselves, along with their families, actual victims of the aggression by being subjected to targeting, starvation, torture and forced displacement as part of the ongoing genocide against the Palestinians in the Strip.
PCHR extends its deepest condolences to the remaining members of Nour’s family and to the Palestinian human rights community and calls upon the international community to abide by their moral and legal obligations and act promptly to end the Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people. With every day that passes, more civilians are targeted and killed. Despite this heinous crime and the challenging working environment, PCHR reiterates its commitment and dedication to documenting and exposing the crimes committed by the Israeli occupation against Palestinian civilians to ensure justice and dignity for the victims.
Our thoughts and prayers are with her loved ones. May the soul of our beloved Nour and her family rest in peace.
As the conflict in Gaza enters its 20th week, an unprecedentedly rapid rise in malnutrition is threatening the lives of children and pregnant and breastfeeding women in the Gaza Strip.
Amid ongoing hostilities following the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, as UNICEF continues to call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and the safe return of all hostages, food and safe water are scarce in the Gaza Strip and children are experiencing a sharp increase in malnutrition, according to a comprehensive new analysis released by the Global Nutrition Cluster, a group of UN and non-UN humanitarian organizations including UNICEF, the World Food Program (WFP) and the World Health Organization (WHO).
Such a steep decline in a population’s nutritional status in just three months is unprecedented, globally.
The situation is particularly extreme in northern Gaza, which has been almost completely cut off from aid for weeks. Nutrition screenings conducted at shelters and health centers in the north in January found that 1 in 6 children under age 2 — 15.6 percent — are acutely malnourished. Of these, almost 3 percent suffer from severe wasting, the most life-threatening form of malnutrition, which puts children at highest risk of medical complications and death unless they receive urgent treatment. The total number of acutely malnourished children is expected to have risen even higher in the days and weeks since the screenings occurred.
Similar screenings for children between the ages of 6 months and age 5 in Rafah governorate in southern Gaza, where aid has been more available, found that 5 percent of children under 2 are acutely malnourished — a clear indication that access to humanitarian aid is urgently needed and can help prevent the worst outcomes.
“The Gaza Strip is poised to witness an explosion in preventable child deaths which would compound the already unbearable level of child deaths in Gaza,” said UNICEF Deputy Executive Director for Humanitarian Action and Supply Operations Ted Chaiban. “We’ve been warning for weeks that the Gaza Strip is on the brink of a nutrition crisis. If the conflict doesn’t end now, children’s nutrition will continue to plummet, leading to preventable deaths or health issues which will affect the children of Gaza for the rest of their lives and have potential intergenerational consequences.”
Before the recent months’ hostilities, wasting in the Gaza Strip was rare, with just .08 percent of children under 5 acutely malnourished. The rate of 15.6 percent wasting among children under 2 in northern Gaza suggests a serious and rapid decline.
Over 600,000 Palestinian children and their families, displaced from other parts of Gaza, have crowded into Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, pushing available resources to their limit. Rasha, a pregnant 26-year-old mother of three now sheltering in Khan Younis, recently described how her family survived on one meal a day, relying on cans of lentils and beans. “With just one container of formula remaining, I resorted to adding a single spoon to the entire bottle for my youngest child, allowing my kid to catch the smell of the milk before drinking it,” she explained.
There is a high risk that malnutrition will continue across the Gaza Strip, due to the alarming lack of food, safe water and health and nutrition services, the report found:
Inadequate safe drinking water, along with sufficient water for cooking and hygiene purposes, are making a bad situation worse. Hungry, thirsty and weak, Gazans are becoming sick. The report finds that at least 90 percent of children under 5 are affected by at least one infectious disease. Seventy percent had diarrhea in the past two weeks, 23 times higher than the 2022 baseline.
“Hunger and disease are a deadly combination,” said Dr. Mike Ryan, Executive Director’s of the WHO’s Health Emergencies Program. “Hungry, weakened and deeply traumatized children are more likely to get sick, and children who are sick, especially with diarrhea, cannot absorb nutrients well. It’s dangerous and tragic, and it’s happening before our eyes.”
Without more humanitarian assistance, the nutritional situation is likely to deteriorate across the Gaza Strip. UNICEF and colleagues are calling for safe, unimpeded and sustained access to urgently deliver multi-sectoral humanitarian assistance throughout Gaza, including the delivery of nutritious foods, nutrition supplies and essential services for malnourished and at-risk children and women, particularly infants and children under 5.
Your donation can make a difference in a child’s life.
Learn more about what it’s like to be a child in Gaza right now.
RAFAH, Gaza Strip/CAIRO/JERUSALEM (Reuters) — Israel will send negotiators on Friday to truce talks in Paris, Israeli media said, as Gazans hoped for a ceasefire that could hold off a full-blown Israeli assault on Rafah, after it endured one of its worst bombardments of the conflict.
Israel’s Channel 12 television reported on Thursday that the war cabinet approved sending negotiators, led by the head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence service, to Paris for talks on a potential deal to free more than 100 hostages whom Palestinian militant group Hamas is believed to be holding.
The head of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, has been in Egypt this week in the strongest sign in weeks that negotiations remain alive.
Earlier Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said in a statement, “We will expand the authority given to our hostage negotiators” while preparing to continue intense ground operations.
In the night to Thursday, Israeli bombing flattened a mosque and destroyed homes in Rafah in a fierce surge of violence in the city where over half of the Gaza’s 2.3 million people are huddled, mostly in tents.
In Khan Younis, the territory’s principal battlefield since Israel launched an assault on the city last month, Israeli forces raided Nasser Medical Complex, shortly after withdrawing from it, the Palestinian enclave’s health ministry said.
The World Health Organization had said earlier it aimed to evacuate some of the roughly 140 patients stranded there, where Palestinian officials said bodies of dead patients had begun to decompose amid power cuts and fighting.
Israel gave no immediate comment.
In Rafah, mourners wept over at least seven corpses in body bags, laid on cobbles outside a morgue.
“They took the people I love, they took a piece of my heart,” wailed Dina al-Shaer, whose brother and his family were killed in an overnight strike.
Gaza health authorities said 97 people were confirmed killed and 130 wounded in the last 24 hours of Israeli assaults, but many more victims were still under rubble.
They later said a bombardment in the central Gaza Strip killed a further 23 people.
Rafah’s al-Farouk mosque was flattened into slabs of concrete, and the facades of adjacent buildings were blasted away. Authorities said four houses had been struck in the south of the city and three in the centre.
Residents said the bombing was the heaviest since an Israeli raid on the city 10 days ago that freed two hostages and killed scores of civilians.
“We couldn’t sleep, the sounds of explosions and planes roaring overhead didn’t stop,” said Jehad Abuemad, 34, who lives with his family in a tent. “We could hear children crying in nearby tents, people here are desperate and defenceless.”
The head of Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) told the United Nations Security Council in New York that children who survive the war will not only bear the visible wounds of traumatic injuries, but the invisible ones too.
“These psychological injuries have led children as young as five to tell us that they would prefer to die,” said Christopher Lockyear.
Israel launched its campaign in Gaza after Hamas militants who control the territory stormed through Israeli towns on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and seizing 253 hostages according to Israeli tallies.
Since then, nearly 30,000 people have been confirmed killed in Gaza, according to health authorities, with thousands more feared dead, unrecovered under ruins.
PEACE TALKS
Israel has threatened to launch a full-blown attack on Rafah, the last city at Gaza’s southern edge, despite international pleas – including from its main ally Washington – for restraint.
Residents who have fled to Rafah from elsewhere say there is nowhere left to go. Meanwhile, an already meagre aid flow has almost completely dried up.
Talks to reach a ceasefire failed two weeks ago, when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a counteroffer from Hamas for a four-and-a-half month truce that would end with an Israeli withdrawal.
Hamas, still believed to be holding more than 100 hostages, says it will not free them unless Israel agrees to end fighting and withdraw. Israel says it will not pull out until Hamas is eradicated.
Sami Abu Zuhri, a senior Hamas official, told Reuters that Israel was now backtracking on terms the country had accepted weeks ago in a ceasefire offer hammered out with U.S., Egyptian and Qatari mediators.
“The occupation is not interested in achieving any agreement,” he said, accusing Netanyahu of ignoring the issue of freeing captives in a prisoner swap. “All he is concerned about is continuing the execution of Palestinians in Gaza.”
There was no immediate response from Israeli officials. Netanyahu has said he would not agree to Hamas’ “delusional demands”, but that if the group were to show flexibility progress would be possible.
In one of the first indications of how Israel sees Gaza being run after the war, a senior Israeli official said Israel was looking for Palestinians with no links to either Hamas or the rival Palestinian Authority based in the West Bank, to set up a civil administration in “humanitarian pockets” of Gaza.
“We’re looking for the right people to step up to the plate,” the official told Reuters on condition of anonymity. “But it is clear that this will take time, as no one will come forward if they think Hamas will put a bullet in their head.”
The plan was dismissed by Palestinians, including both Hamas and the umbrella Palestinian Liberation Organisation of its main rivals, as an unworkable formula for Israeli occupation.
(Reporting by Ibraheem Abu Mustafa in Rafah, Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo, Dan Williams in Jerusalem; Writing by Peter Graff, Alexandra Hudson; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Cynthia Osterman)
LEILA WARAH, MONDOWEISS, FEBRUARY 22, 2024
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*This figure was confirmed by Gaza’s Ministry of Health on Telegram channel. Some rights groups put the death toll number at more than 36,500 when accounting for those presumed dead.
** This figure is released by the Israeli military, showing the soldiers whose names “were allowed to be published.”
The bombardment of Gaza has continued for the139th day and the Palestinian death toll is steadily increasing. Nowhere is safe for civilians in the besieged enclave as the Israeli military is attacking the area with wild abandon.
Overnight on Wednesday, stretching into the early hours of Thursday morning, an intense bombing campaign took place across Gaza’s southernmost city, Rafah, reported Hani Mahmoud from Gaza for Al Jazeera.
“Overnight, we’re looking at attacks in the eastern part, the northern part, and even the western part where literally hundreds of thousands of people have been sheltering,” Mahmoud said, describing the sounds of systematic home demolitions in the north.
“This is absolutely terrifying in a densely populated area. Right now, Rafah has been a center for Israeli attacks,” Al Jazeera correspondent Tareq Abu Azzoum added.
The Israeli military has also continued its attacks on Gaza City, where the military demanded all residents of the Zeitoun and Turkmen neighborhoods urgently move to al-Mawasi area in Rafah’s outskirts in the south of the Gaza Strip. To do so, they would have to travel more than 30km through ongoing attacks and bombed roads of the war zone.
Avichay Adraee, a spokesman for the Israeli army, told the Palestinians on X that the evacuation order comes “for your safety”, despite there being no safe place in the war-torn and besieged enclave.
Israeli attacks on the supposed ‘safe areas’ have continued. On Wednesday, a shelter run by Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF) in al-Masawi was targeted by Israeli forces.
According to the statement, an Israeli tank fired on the building, sheltering 64 MSF employees and family members, killing the wife and daughter-in-law of an MSF worker. Nearby shelling prevented an ambulance from reaching the facility to assist the wounded for more than two hours.
Israeli forces had been “clearly informed of the precise location of this MSF shelter in al-Mawasi” and that the building was additionally identified with a large MSF flag, the organization added.
“These killings underscore the grim reality that nowhere in Gaza is safe, that promises of safe areas are empty and deconfliction mechanisms unreliable,” said MSF general director Meinie Nicolai. “The amount of force being used in densely populated urban environments is staggering, and targeting a building knowing it is full of humanitarian workers and their families is unconscionable.”
Just a few hours after the evacuation order in Gaza City, Israeli forces killed journalist Ihab Nasrallah and his wife in Zeitoun. Their three children were also badly burned, reported Wafa, citing medical sources.
In Nuseirat, in central Gaza, air strikes on the home of the al-Daalis family killed 17 people and wounded dozens of others, who were taken to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in neighboring Deir el-Balah, Wafa added.
Families across the Gaza Strip have continued to shelter in the ruins of schools run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) because they have nowhere else to go, the UN agency says in a post on X.
“Entire neighborhoods are gone without a trace. Military operations relentlessly continue. No place is safe.”
Civilians across the besieged enclave areas are still unable to receive proper healthcare amid Israel’s ruthless offensive, which Palestinains say has turned hospitals into morgues.
In Khan Younis, the situation is especially difficult as the two leading hospitals, al Amal and Nasser, remain under military siege and many critically ill patients have been trapped inside the hospitals for weeks.
During an evacuation mission to Nasser Hospital, Jonathan Whittal, a senior humanitarian affairs officer with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), described “appalling” conditions, which have transformed “a place of healing” to “a place of death.”
“There are 150 patients in one of these buildings. They have no food and water, no electricity. There’s very few doctors and nurses that are remaining inside this hospital. The conditions are appalling,” Whittall said in a video on X.
“There are dead bodies in the corridors. Patients are in a desperate situation. This has become a place of death, not a place of healing.”
“This is a preventable tragedy that should not have happened.”
Medical workers have said they do not want to be evacuated but instead have called for the protection of medical facilities and for critical functions of the hospital to be restored so they can continue treating patients there.
“The last week has been miserable; it’s been a nightmare [for workers in the hospital under Israeli siege]. The things they’re seeing are traumatizing, and they’re asking for some sort of help. They’re asking, actually, not to be evacuated from the hospital but for the hospital to function. For the lights to be turned back on, for the medicine they need to treat the 150 patients that remain,” Dr. Thaer Ahmad, a US-based emergency physician who spent several weeks volunteering at Nasser Hospital in January, told Al Jazeera.
“I spoke to one of the last surgeons remaining there, who sent a message to a group of physicians here in the [United] States, and he asked us to advocate for the patients who are there. He told us, ‘I’m staring at patients, and they need my help, they need my care, and there’s nothing that I can do.’”
Similarly, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) is warning of the dire situation at al-Amal Hospital “due to the ongoing siege and targeting by the Israeli occupation for the 30th consecutive day”.
The PRCS is, once again, calling on the international community to take immediate action to protect the hospital and “to lift the imposed siege before it is too late and the hospital is forced out of service.”
Israel’s ongoing blockade is still starving Palestinians across the Gaza Strip.
Israel is bringing over 2 million people in Gaza to the brink of death, especially the 400,000 living in the northern area of the besieged enclave, according to the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“Israel’s prevention of aid trucks from entering and its occasional targeting of the few allowed in is already resulting in the death of children, elderly, and patients due to hunger,” the ministry said in a statement.
“The sight of thousands of children holding empty pots and standing in long lines waiting for any meal or food rations dominates life in northern Gaza.”
Ismail al-Thawabteh, the head of Gaza’s government media office, says that residents of the northern Gaza Strip have been eating animal feed for three consecutive weeks, reported Al Jazeera.
If the world fails to force Israel to allow humanitarian aid into the besieged coastal enclave, a humanitarian catastrophe affecting hundreds of thousands of Palestinians will take place, warned al-Thawabteh.
UNOCHA has said only four humanitarian aid trucks entered the Gaza Strip on Sunday, far below the average of 47 trucks per day between February 9 and 15 and a steep decline compared with 133 trucks per day the week before. It is important to note that before October 7, about 500 humanitarian aid trucks entered the Gaza Strip daily.
“Between January 1 and February 15, less than 20 percent of missions (15 out of 77) planned by humanitarian partners to deliver aid and undertake assessments in areas to the north of Wadi Gaza were facilitated by the Israeli authorities fully or partially and 51 per cent were denied (39 out of 77),” OCHA said in a statement.
“Access of missions to support hospitals and facilities providing water, hygiene, and sanitation (WASH) services were among those overwhelmingly denied” by Israel, OCHA added.
Hamas said in a statement on Telegram: “We call on the World Food Program and all UN agencies, including UNRWA, to put pressure on the occupying power, by announcing a return to work in the northern Gaza Strip in accordance with their international mandates to relieve our people from the dangerously increasing threat of famine, in compliance with their legal and humanitarian responsibilities,” reported Al Jazeera.
Meanwhile, UNRWA’s future is uncertain after Israel is leading a global campaign to defund the UN organization, which is the primary aid distributor in the Gaza Strip.
While several major donor nations, including the US, have frozen vital aid to the agency due to the allegations, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said on Monday that the agency is still waiting for Israel to share evidence of its claims.
A new report by US intelligence has assessed with “low confidence” that a handful of staff members at UNRWA participated in the October 7 attacks on Israel, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing officials familiar with the findings.
The “low confidence” assessment indicates that the intelligence officials find Israel’s claims that a dozen UNRWA employees took part in the attacks plausible but can’t offer a more decisive confirmation as they lack independent evidence.
Similarly, the intelligence officials also weren’t able to verify Israel’s claims that a large number of UNRWA staff have links to Hamas. Israel has claimed that 10 percent of UNRWA’s 12,000 staff in Gaza have some kind of affiliation with the group.
On Thursday, at least one person was killed and eight wounded when three Palestinian gunmen opened fire at motorists near an Israeli checkpoint near occupied East Jerusalem, Israeli police said, adding that two gunmen were killed, and a third was arrested.
A police spokesperson said the gunmen were Palestinians but gave no further details, according to Al Jazeera.
In response to the attack, Israel’s National Security Ministry, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has called for an escalation in the collective punishment of Palestinians.
“The freedom of life of the citizens of Israel prevails over the freedom of movement of the residents of the PA! We need to place more and more barriers and close roads on the Authority’s roads,” he said on X.
Similarly, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has demanded the approval of a plan to build thousands of new illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.
“The serious attack on Maale Adumim must have a decisive security response but also an answer from the settlements,” he wrote on X.
“I demand the prime minister approve the convening of the higher planning council and immediately approve plans for thousands of housing units in Maale Adumim and the entire region,” he said.
“Our enemies know that any harm to us will lead to more construction and more development and more of our control across the entire country.”
United Nations resolutions repeatedly affirmed that Israel’s establishment of settlements in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, has no legal validity. Most states and international bodies have long recognized that Israeli settlements are illegal under international law.
Hamas has said the attack was a “natural response to the [Israeli] occupation’s massacres and crimes in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank,” as cited by Al Jazeera.
Tensions across occupied Palestine have been increasing amid Israel’s state-sanctioned violence against Palestinians.
The day before the attack, a Palestinian child was fatally shot in the heart by Israeli forces in Qalqilya in the northern occupied West Bank, according to Wafa.
About 394 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank since October 7, including 100 children, according to OCHA.
The UN agency added that since October 7, Israeli demolitions have led to the displacement of 830 people, including 337 children, with 131 homes, and Israeli settlers carried out 573 recorded attacks against Palestinian people and their property.
Israel has also been tightening security in East Jerusalem as Ramadan approaches. On Wednesday, journalist Hamdah Salhut reported that Israeli authorities set up a checkpoint for Palestinians at Damascus Gate, a central entry point for Palestinians trying to reach the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.
“Palestinians at the gate told me this is “the reality of life under occupation,” Salhut said in a social media post, expanding that Jewish Israelis bypass the security check.
Republican US Congressman Andy Ogles sparked anger when he appeared to call for the mass killing of Palestinians when confronted by activists calling for a ceasefire.
A woman was telling Ogles about the footage of Palestinian children killed by Israel. He responded, “I think we should kill them all if that makes you feel better – everybody, Hamas.”
The comment has left Palestinian rights advocates questioning why the comment has not garnered a forceful rejection from mainstream politicians.
“Not a peep from Congressional leadership in response to this murderous statement and open support for genocide,” Jewish Voice for Peace Action said on X.
The same politicians brushing aside his comment are the ones who criticized Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian American in Congress, in November over her criticism of Israel.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has called on every member of Congress to condemn Republican Congressman Andy Ogles for appearing to call for the mass murder of Palestinians.
CAIR Deputy Director Edward Mitchell said in a statement: “If a member of Congress had called for every Israeli child to be killed, the entire American political establishment would rightfully condemn such remarks and call for, at the least, censure.”
Leila Warah
Leila Warah is a freelance multimedia journalist based in Palestine.
Madison365 staff, Feb 19, 2024
The Dane County Board of Supervisors has approved a resolution, introduced by County Board Supervisor Kierstin Huelsemann (District 27), calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and “urgent political action both to de-escalate the crisis and to prioritize truth, reconciliation, restitution, and the building of a future for the Israeli and Palestinian people.” 2023 Resolution 333 was approved at Thursday night’s board meeting.
Dane County joins local governments across the nation, including Cudahy, San Francisco, Oakland and Richmond, California; Wilmington, Delaware; Carrboro, North Carolina; Providence, Rhode Island; Detroit, Michigan; Atlanta, Georgia; and Madison in passing a resolution calling for a ceasefire. At least 68 members of Congress also have publicly called for a ceasefire in Gaza.
“The targeting of civilians, no matter their religion or ethnicity, is a violation of international humanitarian law,” said Huelsemann in a statement. “We cannot be silent in the face of the tremendous loss of life and the deepening humanitarian crisis, starvation, and displacement of fellow human beings that grows with each day this war continues.”
In addition to urging an immediate release of all hostages and cessation of hostilities toward civilians by all parties in the war, the resolution also urges the Biden Administration and elected Senate and Congress members to oppose additional funding for military action against Israelis and Palestinians in this war, and to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian assistance.
According to the United Nations, since the start of the war on October 7, 2023, more than 100,000 people in Gaza have been killed, injured, or are missing, and over 2 million people have been displaced.
It’s been a while since we sent you an update about MECA’s work in Gaza. When you see the news getting more terrible every day you may wonder if we’re able to do very much at all.
In fact, we’re continuing some of the things we’ve been doing since October 8, like delivering food parcels and clean water. And, as the genocide goes on, MECA’s Gaza team finds new ways to meet the needs of thousands of children and families.
Even here at MECA, we are inspired by what our staff, partners, and volunteers are able to do when faced with such danger and scarcity. Also, the difficulties of communication blackouts, roads damaged, destroyed or blocked by Israeli tanks.
Food and water continue to be the most urgent needs throughout Gaza and MECA is meeting those needs several ways:
Fresh produce provides key nutrition. MECA continues to get fresh vegetables and fruit from local farmers. Right now, we are distributing boxes to 12,500 families in the three southernmost areas —Middle Area, Khan Younis, and Rafah.
Hot Meals from Community Kitchens. With the support of the World Central Kitchen (WCK), MECA now has one large and two small solar-powered community kitchens in Rafah and one further north. Israeli tanks and bulldozers destroyed another kitchen, but we are expecting new equipment from WCK to rebuild it soon. Together, the kitchens provide hot meals for more than 3,500 people every day.
Food parcels with rice, lentils, beans, cheese, and more plus ready-to-eat meals are delivered to several thousand people every week, many who are recently displaced from their homes or shelters.
Water: We’ve provided 26,417 gallons of water to displaced families in Rafah, and now other large organizations are distributing water there. We had been trucking water to the tens of thousands of people sheltering in Mawasi on the edge of Khan Younis until the Israeli military presence made that impossible. However, we managed to get 2,000 water bottles of clean drinking water for families from World Central Kitchen into the area. A huge achievement was the recent installation of a water purification unit for the community in Mawasi. This water purification unit is solar powered and provides 2,600 gallons of clean drinking water every day.
Some aid for people in the north. The needs in northern Gaza are so great and the obstacles are almost insurmountable but one new and one longtime partner organization were able to find and distribute medicine, milk, drinking water and even hot meals of rice and meat.
MECA’s team in Gaza is working tirelessly and they are determined not to give up. They won’t even take a break when I want them to. This the collective spirit in Gaza and among Palestinians everywhere that has made it possible for us to survive to this day.
Many thanks for your support.
In solidarity,
Zeiad Abbas Shamrouch
MECA Director
Middle East Children’s Alliance
1101 8th Street
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The Read Palestine! project, supported by Madison Rafah Sister City Project, is hosting book clubs for 4th – 12th graders. Please fill out this form if you’re interested in participating. Meeting times, format and next books to read will be decided by the group once it has formed. Different grade levels will read different books:
4th-5th: Farah Rocks Summer Break by Susan Muaddi Darraj
6th-8th: Ida in the Middle by Nora Lester Murad
9th-12th: They Called Me Lioness by Ahed Tamimi and Dena Takruri
The public hearings are taking place in the Hague from 19 to 26 February after the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution in December 2022 to request an advisory opinion from the ICJ on the legality of Israel’s policies and practices in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) and the consequences of Israel’s conduct for other states and the UN. More than 50 states, the African Union, the Arab League and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation are scheduled to participate in the proceedings.
The world must recognize that ending Israel’s illegal occupation is a prerequisite to stopping the recurrent human rights violations in Israel and the OPT.
Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General
“Israel’s occupation of Palestine is the longest and one of the most deadly military occupations in the world. For decades it has been characterised by widespread and systematic human rights violations against Palestinians. The occupation has also enabled and entrenched Israel’s system of apartheid imposed on Palestinians,” said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General.
“Over the years, Israel’s military occupation has evolved into a perpetual occupation in flagrant violation of international law.
“The current conflict raging in the occupied Gaza Strip, where the ICJ has ruled there is a real and imminent risk of genocide, has brought into sharp focus the catastrophic consequences of allowing Israel’s international crimes in the OPT to continue with impunity for so long. The world must recognize that ending Israel’s illegal occupation is a prerequisite to stopping the recurrent human rights violations in Israel and the OPT.”
Under international humanitarian law, occupation of a territory during a conflict is meant to be temporary. The occupying power is required to administer the territory in the interest of the occupied population and to preserve as much as possible the situation that existed at the beginning of the occupation, including by respecting existing laws and refraining from introducing demographic changes and tampering with the territorial integrity of the occupied territory.
Israel’s occupation has failed to align with these basic principles of international humanitarian law. The duration of Israel’s occupation – spanning more than half a century – coupled with the authorities’ illegal official annexation of occupied East Jerusalem and de facto annexation of large swathes of the West Bank through land confiscation and settlement expansion, provide clear evidence that Israel’s intention is for the occupation to be permanent and for the benefit of the occupying power and its own citizens.
The Gaza Strip remains occupied even after the withdrawal of Israeli forces and removal of settlers in 2005 as Israel has retained effective control over the territory and its population, including through its control of its borders, territorial waters, air space, and population registry. For 16 years, the occupation has been experienced in Gaza through Israel’s illegal blockade that has severely restricted movement of people and goods and has devastated Gaza’s economy, and through repeated episodes of hostilities that have killed and injured thousands of civilians and destroyed much of Gaza’s infrastructure and housing.
“All states must review their relations with Israel to ensure that they are not contributing to sustaining the occupation or the system of apartheid. As European foreign ministers gather in Brussels today, the need to make a clear and united call for an end to Israel’s occupation has never been more urgent,” said Agnès Callamard.
Palestinians living under Israeli occupation are subjected to a myriad of human rights violations, maintained by an institutionalized regime of systematic domination and oppression. The discriminatory and repressive laws, ostensibly adopted as part of the occupation but effectively serving the objectives of the Israel’s system of apartheid, have fragmented and segregated Palestinians across the OPT, while unlawfully exploiting their resources, arbitrarily restricting their rights and freedoms and controlling almost every aspect of their lives.
Even before the latest hostilities, Palestinians in Gaza had been subjected to numerous Israeli military offensives – at least six between 2008 and 2023 – in addition to an enduring land, air, and sea blockade, which has helped maintain Israel’s effective control and occupation of Gaza. During those offensives, Amnesty International documented a recurrent pattern of unlawful attacks, amounting to war crimes and even crimes against humanity, while the enduring blockade constitutes collective punishment, also a war crime.
For 56 years Palestinians in the OPT have been living trapped and oppressed under Israel’s brutal occupation, subjected to systemic discrimination.
Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General
In the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, Palestinians routinely face excessive use of force, unlawful killings, arbitrary arrest, administrative detention, forced displacement, home demolitions, confiscation of land and natural resources, and denial of fundamental rights and freedoms. Israel’s multi-layered closure system, fortified by mass surveillance, physical barriers and legal restrictions, including an illegal wall/fence, hundreds of checkpoints and roadblocks, and an arbitrary permit regime, has curtailed Palestinians’ freedom of movement and perpetuated their disenfranchisement.
Among the most emblematic examples of Israel’s outright disregard for international law has been the establishment and incessant spread of Israeli settlements throughout the OPT and the illegal annexation of occupied East Jerusalem immediately after the 1967 war which was constitutionally enshrined in 1980. There are currently at least 300 illegal Israeli settlements and outposts in the West Bank, including in occupied East Jerusalem, with a population of over 700,000 Israeli settlers.
“For 56 years Palestinians in the OPT have been living trapped and oppressed under Israel’s brutal occupation, subjected to systemic discrimination. Every aspect of their daily lives is disrupted and controlled by Israeli authorities, who place restrictions on their rights to move around, earn a living, pursue educational and professional aspirations, and enjoy a decent quality of life, as well as depriving them of access to their land and natural resources,” said Agnès Callamard.
“Israel has also continued its vicious land grab policies relentlessly expanding illegal settlements in violation of international law with devastating consequences for Palestinians’ human rights and security. Violent Israeli settlers have been attacking Palestinians for decades with virtually total impunity.”
Israel’s draconian system of control over the OPT includes a large network of military checkpoints, fences/ walls and military bases and patrols as well as a string of repressive military orders.
Israel’s control of the OPT’s borders, the population registry, the supply of water, electricity, telecommunication services, humanitarian and development assistance, and the imposition of its currency have had devastating effects on the economic and social developments of the Palestinian people in the OPT.
This control has reached unprecedented levels of cruelty in the Gaza Strip where Israel has maintained a 16-year illegal blockade which has been further tightened since 9 October 2023. The blockade, coupled with Israel’s recurrent military operations have plunged the Gaza Strip into one of the gravest humanitarian and human rights crisis of modern times.
“As the occupying power Israel has an obligation to ensure the protection and welfare of all those residing in the territory it controls. Instead, it has perpetrated gross and systematic human rights violations with impunity. Israel cites the need to maintain security as the reason for its cruel policies. But security can never justify apartheid, illegal annexation and settlements, or war crimes against the protected population. The only way to ensure security for Israelis and Palestinians is to uphold human rights for all,” said Agnès Callamard.
Ending the occupation would mean restoring Palestinians’ rights by lifting the brutal blockade on Gaza, dismantling Israeli settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem and reversing its illegal annexation. It would allow Palestinians to move freely in the areas where they live and allow families separated by different identification legal statuses – such as the Jerusalem residency and West Bank or Gaza Strip – to be reunited. It would alleviate mass suffering and end widescale human rights violations.
It would also contribute to tackling one of the root causes of the recurrent violence and war crimes against Israelis, thus helping to improve human rights protection and secure justice and reparation for victims on all sides.
On 30 December 2022, the UN General Assembly adopted resolution A/RES/77/247, in which, it requested the International Court of Justice for an advisory opinion on key questions regarding the legal consequences arising from its prolonged occupation, and settlement and annexation of the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, how the policies and practices of Israel affect the legal status of the occupation and what legal consequences arise for all states and the UN from this status.
The Court is expected to issue its advisory opinion later this year.
For six decades, Amnesty International has been documenting how Israeli forces have committed grave human rights violations in the OPT with impunity. In 2022, the organization issued Israel’s apartheid against Palestinians: Cruel system of domination and crime against humanity, a report which highlights the entrenched role that Israel’s military and its occupation have had in perpetuating the system of apartheid. Many of the report’s findings and recommendations underline the urgent need for an end to Israel’s occupation to remove the environment that enables the commission of crimes against humanity and war crimes.
We, Palestinian-led organizations in the United States, are issuing an urgent call and a warning to President Biden. Palestinians in Gaza are facing the threat of extermination or expulsion, and this administration is greenlighting it. Israel’s genocidal assault on the Gaza Strip is the latest chapter in the ongoing Nakba, which began in 1948. Then, like now, Israel’s colonial regime is trying to erase Palestinian life in Palestine under the fog of war.
1.5 million Palestinians are crowded in Rafah. The majority have been displaced from elsewhere in the Gaza Strip over the course of the last 132 days. The majority were already refugees before October, forced to flee from homes across Palestine. With this assault, Israel is pursuing plans to depopulate Rafah, pushing a population it has starved into the Sinai Peninsula, in a continuation of its century-long attempt to cleanse Palestine of all Palestinians.
The world has watched this unfold, streaming horrors in real-time, scenes that will be embedded in our memories for centuries to come. Yet, even as we cry out for justice, the leaders of the so-called free world, led by Biden and Congress, continue to fuel the flames of destruction with their unrelenting support for Israel. The most bone-chilling part of this all is the public gloating and encouragement of our destruction, by Israeli and US officials alike, without consequence. We cannot, we must not, let Rafah fall under the shadow of yet another joint US-backed Israeli assault meant to drive Palestinians into the desert and into permanent exile. We Palestinians know that when we leave our homes, Israel works to ensure we cannot go back. This cannot be repeated.
Palestinians in the United States have watched our government’s complicity in what US courts and the International Court of Justice have described as a genocidal campaign. We have watched the Biden administration state “no red lines” on Israel, and instead, rush even more weapons, veto ceasefire resolutions, and block humanitarian aid, enabling every step of this genocide.
We also know that the horrors of today are the culmination of a 100-year process of dehumanization, dispossession, fragmentation, and suppression of Palestinians. With a blank check from the US, Apartheid Israel has thrived.
Through a century of Zionist colonization and 75 years of an ongoing Nakba, our Palestinian people continue, against all odds, to collectively struggle against our erasure. We are still here, whether on our lands or in our communities in exile, demanding a future of freedom, justice, and dignity between the river and the sea. The international community thought Palestinians would accept their permanent subjugation. But the history of colonized people tells a different story. The next 100 years will be our century of liberation, and it begins with protecting Rafah, protecting Gaza, and ending US complicity in apartheid and genocide.
We all recognize the unwillingness of Western world leaders to contend with the damage and destruction they cause both at home and abroad. We are living through complete obliteration: a human and climate disaster that will mark the earth for centuries to come, permanent environmental destruction through chemical and arms pollution, and an enduring trauma that will alter the DNA of humanity.
What happens in Gaza is about much more than freedom for Palestine and our return to our homes. The struggle for Gaza is a struggle of all oppressed peoples. This is why we have seen so many rise up and join our struggle.
The weapons of destruction, the tactics of dehumanization, the open complicity of the US in the face of genocide—these are the same tools that threaten us all. From immigrants and minorities, to workers and all the oppressed, the specter of white supremacy and racism looms large. We call on everyone of you who reads these words to not stay silent, not stay seated. Rise up. To those who have been on the streets with us, do not tire. Do not allow the inhumanity to become normalized. Disrupt the complacency of everyday life, and refuse to turn a blind eye to the genocide unfolding before us.
The Pentagon is not retaining comprehensive records of alleged war crimes in its global military operations as required by the Defense Department’s own policies, according to a declassified version of a government report reviewed by The Lever. As journalist Freddy Brewster reveals in our new scoop, the government report found that an entire year’s worth of records has gone missing from the military’s command center in the Middle East — a period that coincides with an independent watchdog group’s claims of war crimes committed in the region.
By Freddy Brewster
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The Pentagon is not retaining comprehensive records of alleged war crimes in its global military operations as required by the Defense Department’s own policies, according to a declassified version of a government report reviewed by The Lever.
The report found that an entire year’s worth of records that could include such allegations has gone missing from the military’s command center overseeing operations in the Middle East — a period that coincides with an independent watchdog group’s claims of war crimes committed in the region.
Government investigators found evidence of at least 47 allegations of U.S. military war crimes between 2012 and 2022 as the United States waged an air and ground war against the Islamic State in the Middle East and Africa. But a significant portion of information about alleged war crimes during that time was missing.
Military personnel were not able to provide records of potential war-crime allegations from the sub-command center overseeing operations in Iraq and Syria for all of 2015, when President Barack Obama oversaw thousands of airstrikes in the countries. And records that would have detailed allegations in 2017 were missing from the military’s Middle East command center.
That year, Amnesty International accused pro-Iraqi government forces — led by the U.S. military under the direction of President Donald Trump — of potentially committing war crimes amid the deaths of hundreds if not thousands of civilians in the Iraqi city of Mosul.
“While we have not yet had an opportunity to review the GAO report, we find it concerning if [the Defense Department] does not track or report on commission of war crimes,” said Daphne Eviatar, Director for Security with Human Rights at Amnesty International USA. “While in some cases [the Defense Department] has acknowledged civilian harm, it almost never acknowledges whether war crimes were committed or whether the incidents were investigated as potential war crimes.”
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The revelations come from the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office (GAO)’s investigation of military recordkeeping. The analysis looks at a time period that began during Obama’s second term, as his administration created a “kill list” and ramped up drone strikes, whose casualty rates were shrouded in secrecy. GAO investigators also looked at Trump’s term and the first half of President Joe Biden’s term.
The GAO report honed in on Africa and the Middle East due to the “kinetic strike operations” that the U.S. military conducted in the regions from January 2012 through December 2022 as part of its war against the Islamic State.
The probe was a response to a Defense Department Inspector General investigation and a New York Times report that found deficiencies in how — and whether — the Pentagon tracked alleged war crimes.
The Times report focused on a 2019 U.S. bombing in Syria that killed more than 60 civilians — mostly women and children — that was actively covered up and never independently investigated by the U.S. military.
GAO investigators noted that while they found scores of war-crime allegations inside the military bureaucracy, the major military commands admitted they do not keep comprehensive records providing a full picture of the situation.
“Several components have not retained reports of alleged law of war violations as required by [Defense Department] guidance because there is no system to comprehensively retain such reports,” the report said. “Without a system to comprehensively retain records of allegations of law of war violations, [Defense Department] leadership may not be well positioned to fully implement the law of war.”
The GAO report found key failures in two Defense Department command centers — CENTCOM, which oversees the Middle East and parts of Asia, and AFRICOM, which oversees Africa.
Between 2014 and 2023, the Defense Department launched nearly 40,000 airstrikes in the two command areas. Those two command centers provided GAO records of at least 47 documented allegations of potential war crimes that took place between January 2012 and December 2022.
Investigators did not try to determine the validity of those alleged “law-of-war violations,” and noted that there could be other allegations that weren’t identified.
“We found that the alleged law-of-war violations obtained may not represent the entire universe of alleged violations, but we are not able to determine what that universe is,” the report stated.
The Department of Defense notes that the law of war is based on treaties and international laws applicable to the United States. The United Nations defines war crimes as, among other activities, killing civilians, torture, sexual violence, wanton destruction of civilian property, and taking hostages.
According to the report, key information was missing from the office overseeing military operations in Iraq and Syria, which has reportedly seen nearly 35,000 airstrikes from U.S.-led forces since the U.S. began bombing the area in 2014.
GAO noted that multiple Defense Department policies require proper war-crime recordkeeping. That includes the Defense Department’s Law of War Program, which requires the military to “maintain a central collection of information on reportable incidents.”
The report did not find instances of retaliation against military members who reported potential war crimes in the AFRICOM and CENTCOM areas. But it did note that the Defense Department’s Inspector General reported one case of retaliation during the timeframe.
“An investigation found that both the alleged reprisal and overarching alleged law of war violation were not substantiated,” the report noted.
The Defense Department divides the world into six separate command zonesand assigns a call name to each.
Of the 47 total reports of alleged war crimes the GAO found in its report, all but one took place under CENTCOM, which oversees operations in the “central” area of the globe, including interventions in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria. According to investigators, CENTCOM officials appeared to routinely lose or misplace records of war-crime allegations.
The sub-command center overseeing operations in Iraq and Syria faced 17 reported allegations of war crimes between 2012 and 2022, but only had summary-level records of two of the allegations on hand. In fact, the sub-command center couldn’t find any reports at all from 2015.
“Officials said that they could not locate [the] records and their current existence and locations are unknown,” the report found. “As a result we could not determine the circumstances of the two allegations or if they were committed by U.S. personnel.”
Officials said they did not know why there were no records from 2015, but said it may be due to a limited military presence in the area before 2016.
In October 2015, amid growing revelations and outcry over Obama’s drone war, U.S. forces bombed a Doctors without Borders-run hospital in Afghanistan, killing 22 people. The incident was later described as a “mission that went wrong from start to finish,” and resulted in 16 U.S. military personnel being punished via “administrative actions.”
CENTCOM was also missing documents tracking potential war crimes for 2017, for which officials provided no explanation.
“CENTCOM retained records of alleged law of war violations for 2012 through 2016 and 2018 through 2022, but did not have all records for 2017,” noted the GAO report.“CENTCOM officials did not know why a document tracking potential alleged law of war violations for 2017 was unavailable.”
In July 2017, Amnesty International claimed it had documented more than 400 civilian deaths in 45 attacks that year in Mosul by the Iraqi government or U.S.-backed forces, and noted that its tally was “very likely to be an underestimate.”
When GAO first requested documents from CENTCOM, investigators received 37 reports of war crime allegations. Later, the Defense Department’s Inspector General later provided five more reports, explaining they had not been included because CENTCOM joint operation centers do not usually receive those kinds of reports. Four additional reports were sent to the GAO from two other command centers.
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GAO investigators also scrutinized AFRICOM, a Germany-based command of 2,000 people that has spearheaded incursions in Libya and Somalia as part of war on the Islamic State, and found a single allegation of war crimes between 2012 and 2022.
According to the GAO report, that allegation was related to an unspecified incident that occurred in August 2017.
In 2017, U.S. bombing in Somalia reportedly became “excessive” after Trump signed an executive order that March declaring the southern portion of Somalia an “area of active hostilities.”
“U.S. forces carried out 34 strikes in Somalia in the last nine months of 2017 – more than in the entire five years from 2012 to 2016,” Amnesty International wrote.
The human rights group claimed that the U.S. bombing in Somalia may be considered war crimes.
“Amnesty International uncovered compelling evidence that US air strikes killed a total of 14 civilians and injured eight more, in five attacks that may have violated international humanitarian law and could, in some cases, constitute war crimes,” wrote the group.
The GAO report also noted that AFRICOM’s policy on war-crime reporting “does not fully align” with Defense Department requirements.
Among other concerns, the report noted that current AFRICOM policy failed to define what exactly would qualify as “credible information” about a potential war crime violation, justifying an investigation into the matter. AFRICOM also failed to define “reportable incidents,” or initial reports of potential wartime law violations.
GAO investigators also called out the command center’s convoluted and inefficient process for reporting war crimes allegations.
“By waiting for formal investigations to conclude before determining whether an allegation is supported by credible information, AFRICOM risks failing to report reportable incidents in a timely manner,” the report states.
AFRICOM command last updated its war crime-reporting policies in 2014, and AFRICOM officials admitted that they had failed to update it because “other priorities took precedence over updating its policy,” the report stated.
AFRICOM officials said that although their current policy is outdated, it still abided by the proper Defense Department policies. The GAO report disagreed.
“Without a current policy aligned to DOD requirements, AFRICOM officials may not be reporting all alleged law-of- war violations as required,” the report stated. “As a result, AFRICOM leadership may not be fully aware of all such allegations within their command or be in a position to forward reportable incidents to senior DOD leadership as required.”
The new GAO report, released Feb. 13, is based on a classified report the agency provided to the Department of Defense in December 2023 after it scrutinized records and interviewed officials from across the Defense Department.
GAO investigators didn’t just limit their criticisms to specific command centers. They found that the Defense Department as a whole lacked a unified system to track potential war crimes across the entire agency, instead leaving tracking to individual operations across the world.
“No single entity above the combatant commands retains a comprehensive set of records for either reportable incidents or those found to be unsupported by credible information,” noted their report.
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A core part of the GAO report focused on law-of-war training for military members from each branch.
According to the Pentagon’s wartime engagement policies, all military members must receive training on when to engage with a potential enemy threat and how to minimize civilian deaths.
One official from the CENTCOM sub-command center overseeing Iraq and Syria told GAO representatives that the pre-deployment training was “not the best, but it covered all of the necessary points,” and that military members deployed for war “would know how to identify and report a law-of-war violation.”
As part of its report, the GAO issued just two recommendations to the Defense Department: The Secretary of Defense should ensure that AFRICOM updates its guidance on reporting allegations of war crimes; and that the Secretary of Defense ensures the implementation of a comprehensive recordkeeping system for all war-crime allegations.
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Emergency National Security Supplemental Appropriation Bill
After passing the US Senate with Sen. Baldwin’s YES vote, the $95 billion gift to the weapons industry is going to the House; this is a supplement to our $886 billion dollar 2024 military budget already approved.
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As if that isn’t bad enough, the Senate bill also includes a prohibition against US funding for UNRWA, the lifeline for water and food to Gaza, to threaten mass starvation for over two million people. Finally, there’s a provision that allows President Biden to send unlimited weapons to Israel without the legally-required notification to Congress.”
Rep. Pocan has previously voted against this supplemental bill. We will visit his office and ask him to continue to oppose it. As for Sen. Baldwin, we’ll visit her office again to continue to condemn her votes that fund murderous policies; deaf and blind to the genocide, she continues to promote the defense industry as an economic boon for Wisconsin. What a racket! Can you join us?
RSVP if you can to warabolition@gmail.com, or just show up for any part; and to access Baldwin’s office during the time of vigil, you can call 608 217 2248.