Palestine
posted 2025-07 to 2025-09
"Palestine is a moral litmus test for the world,"
— June Jordan
A reading list (roughly in reverse chronological order) of contributions to the common pool of news/analysis/resources.
— a readers travelogue ::: to bear witness
Flotilla Tracker
rack the flotilla journey. More of our boats will show up here as they are added into this tracker
from Global Sumud Flotilla
"
"We are a coalition of everyday people—organizers, humanitarians, doctors, artists, clergy, lawyers, and seafarers—who believe in human dignity and the power of nonviolent action.
"In June, we launched a globally coordinated mobilization by land, sea, and air. In Summer, we return with a unified strategy: one goal and global coordination like never before.
"Our efforts build on decades of Palestinian resistance and international solidarity. Though we belong to/hold different nations, faiths, and political beliefs, we are united by a single truth: the siege and genocide must end.
"We are independent, international, and unaffiliated with any government or political party. Our allegiance is to justice, freedom, and the sanctity of human life."
Netanyahu Faces Mass Walk Out Protest at UN Speech
from Axios
"The vast majority of officials and diplomats in the UN General Assembly Hall appeared to walk out as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took the stage for his address on Friday.
"Why it matters: Israel is deeply isolated internationally as it presses on with the war in Gaza. Outside of President Trump, Netanyahu — who faces war crimes charges from the ICC — has very few allies on the global stage.
"Driving the news: Netanyahu said in his speech that Israel "will finish the job" in Gaza, and will do so as quickly as possible.
"State of play: The Trump administration denied Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas a visa to address the UN, but the General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to allow him to speak remotely."
We are sailing to Gaza. Here’s why
Governments have failed the people of Gaza. Now, ordinary people are taking humanitarian matters into their own hands — and putting their lives on the line
from the Guardian
"Right now – as presidential planes touch down in New York City for the UN general assembly – a fleet of civilian vessels is sailing to Gaza: the largest convoy in history to traverse the Mediterranean Sea with a mission to establish a humanitarian corridor to reach the starving people of Palestine.
"I am a member of that mission. Since the first batch of boats departed from Barcelona, I have been assigned to Family, the lead vessel of the fleet: a humble motor-cruiser carrying doctors and lawyers, journalists and parliamentarians, students and sea rescue workers from 10 countries across the world.
"All together, this 'Global Sumud Flotilla' carries hundreds of participants from more than 40 national delegations, united by their shared conviction that something must be done to halt the destruction of Gaza – and that if governments refuse to do it, then ordinary people will."
Gaza City Health System Continues to Collapse
Several European states recognize Palestine at United Nations, Israel threatens humanitarian flotilla
from Drop Site News
"Israeli forces kill at least 29 people across Gaza since dawn, including 25 in Gaza City, according to Al Jazeera, while 38 killed and 190 injured Palestinians arrive at Gaza's hospitals over the past 24 hours. Israel continues its assault on Gaza City, as health services collapse after bombing destroys the Jordanian field hospital and the only remaining children’s hospital.
"Israel threatened military action against the Global Sumud Flotilla, falsely claiming that it is 'organized by Hamas' and 'intended to serve Hamas,' and vowing to prevent it from reaching Gaza. Activists were instructed to dock in Ashkelon and hand over aid for Israeli-controlled delivery, as Israel maintains a naval blockade of Gaza that has been in place since 2007. Past flotillas, including the 2010 Mavi Marmara mission, were intercepted by force, resulting in ten deaths. Trump envoy Tom Barrack admitted in an interview with The National News’ Hadley Gamble that Israel struck Global Sumud Flotilla ships in Tunisia earlier this month, citing it as part of a broader pattern of attacks on the region."
List of Identified Victims, as Published by the Palestinian MoH in Gaza
from Airwars
"Since the war between Israel and Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza began in October 2023, the Palestinian Ministry of Health (MoH) in Gaza has been publicly releasing, in Arabic, the names of those it says have been killed by Israeli actions, along with their ID numbers, ages, sex, and, more recently, information about how the death was recorded.
"The release of this information is unprecedented in modern conflict, with no such official individualised record of harm in Ukraine, Iraq, or Syria publicly available."
Civilians Made Up 15 of Every 16 People Killed by Israel in Gaza Since March
Report from independent conflict tracker Acled indicates one of the highest civilian death rates since start of war
from the Guardian
"About 15 of every 16 Palestinians the Israeli military has killed since its renewed offensive in Gaza began in March have been civilians, data collected by the independent violence-tracking organisation Acled indicates.
"The civilian death rate implied by a report from Acled, which stands for Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, is one of the highest recorded during the conflict, and will increase international pressure on Israel as its forces advance into Gaza City, forcing up to a million people to evacuate and threatening further large-scale civilian casualties.
"The Guardian revealed last month that internal data from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) indicated a civilian death toll of 83% between the outbreak of war in October 2023 and May of this year."
Israel has Committed Genocide in the Gaza Strip, UN Commission Finds
Press release 16 September 2025
from United Nations Human Rights
"Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel said in a new report today. The Commission urges Israel and all States to fulfil their legal obligations under international law to end the genocide and punish those responsible for it.
"The Commission has been investigating the events on and since 7 October 2023 for the last two years, and concluded that Israeli authorities and Israeli security forces committed four of the five genocidal acts defined by the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, namely killing, causing serious bodily or mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of the Palestinians in whole or in part, and imposing measures intended to prevent births.
"Explicit statements by Israeli civilian and military authorities and the pattern of conduct of the Israeli security forces indicate that the genocidal acts were committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip as a group.
"'The Commission finds that Israel is responsible for the commission of genocide in Gaza,' said Navi Pillay, Chair of the Commission. 'It is clear that there is an intent to destroy the Palestinians in Gaza through acts that meet the criteria set forth in the Genocide Convention.'"
How to Burst the Israeli Bubble
Recognizing a Palestinian state is a limited but welcome step that addresses an enduring blind spot: Palestinian rights cannot be conditioned on Israeli interests
from the Guardian
"Once the cloud of grief over 7 October began lifting, something vile and wicked entered the Israeli public discourse: a certain enjoyment of the humiliation of Palestinians and their sympathizers that in the past was only found on the political margins.
"The minister for interior security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has made it a habit of posting images of bent, blindfolded and handcuffed prisoners, and supporting cutting down their food rations or banning Red Cross and family visits (according to Israel’s own records, only one-fourth of the people arrested in Gaza are fighters, but all detainees are portrayed as terrorists in the media). Hanoch Daum, a popular commentator and writer, recently drew massive social media engagement with an AI-generated image mocking Palestinian hunger as a hoax. The climate activist Greta Thunberg, who leads flotillas to Gaza, is another favorite target for ridicule. Expelled after her first attempt to reach the Strip, authorities made a point of seating her on the worst seat on the plane, passengers hurled insults at her, and the pilot announced his support for the IDF on the speakers.
"Every criticism of Israel, any sympathy for the Palestinians, any pressure to end the war, is seen today as a form of antisemitism – even endorsement of Hamas. Over 60% of Israelis, according to recent polls, believe 'nobody in Gaza is innocent.' Along with Israel’s sense of impunity, this popular notion explains how this war has turned into a genocide."
Some view the conflict as a clash of narratives — not essentially about territory. In a recent article in the New Yorker, Malley and Agha wrote that "'It is not about roads and dunes and hills. It is about people, their lives, emotions, anger, grief, attachments, and history.'
"Yet the reality is not of two sides arguing over myths but one sovereign power ruling over millions of people without rights. It is not just a conflict, but a problem inherent to a regime. The most important local dynamic is a de facto one-state condition in which half the population – namely, the Palestinians – is excluded from the political system.
"Israel controls every border, every checkpoint, every natural resource, every aspect of the economy. It decides where Palestinians can work, travel, or build; it denies them legal protection, allows their property to be vandalized or taken and leaves them exposed to violence.
"Racism and ethnic hatred, even the endorsement of old myths – these are not intrinsic to Jews or Palestinians, but are byproducts of this system of segregation and dominance. This is what Ta-Nehisi Coates observed when he visited the West Bank on the eve of 7 October. 'What my eyes now saw … was a world where separate and unequal was alive and well, where rule by the ballot for some and the bullet for others was policy,' he wrote in his recent book, The Message. 'I was seeking a world beyond plunder – but my proof of concept was just more plunder.' Yet, he writes elsewhere, 'even plunderers are human beings whose violent ambitions must contend with the guilt that gnaws at them when they meet the eyes of their victims. And so a story must be told.' In Israel, Coates recognized the colonizer’s sense of 'fragile triumphalism'.
"Recently, there are signs that the west is opening its eyes to the horror in Gaza, mainly due to sustained civil society activism. It is not surprising that the United States is mounting unprecedented opposition to the countries deciding to recognize Palestine, including by withholding visas from Palestinian officials seeking to travel to the UN. For Washington too, Palestinians exist only on Israel’s terms. So far, the countries leading the recognition effort are not deterred; pushing against American hegemony over diplomacy is another positive byproduct of recognition.
"As limited as the recognition of Palestine – a state with no territory or sovereignty – is, it is a step in the right direction, because it re-establishes the existence and the rights of Palestinians as individuals and as a collective. It finally moves up the end goal, which should have been a precondition to the talks all along. More urgently, it strengthens the Palestinian case in international institutions and further justifies the demand for sanctions that could end the war.
"Steps against Israeli ministers who advocate ethnic cleansing and genocide, as some countries are considering, are another positive development. More should follow, and more rapidly; as the destruction of Gaza is happening now. We need more political engagement and risk-taking, and a willingness to break old taboos.
"History’s myths may feel eternal, but like the violence they sustain, they are choices – and choices can be remade."
The destruction of Palestine is breaking the world
The rules of the institutions that define our lives bend like reeds when it comes to Israel – so much that the whole global order is on the verge of collapse
from the Guardian
"'When students expose the violence of Israel’s occupation and genocide, institutions like VCU, which are deeply entangled with weapon manufacturers and corporate donors, become fearful,' Haddad said. 'So they twist the rules, they rewrite the policies, and they try to silence us … But it’s all about power. Our demands for justice are a threat to their complicity.'
"We tend to think of the law as an agreed-upon limit on our actions. As Dwight D Eisenhower memorably said: 'The world no longer has a choice between force and law. If civilization is to survive, it must choose the rule of law.'
"But what if law is better understood as a system that, yes, restricts behavior but more importantly validates what’s possible? Whoever gets to define the limits gets to define what’s acceptable. As such, the powerful are far more likely to shift the ground of what’s acceptable to their advantage. As Hurd explains, international law 'facilitates empire in the traditional sense because strong states … shape the meaning of international rules and obligations through interpretation and practice'.
"Israel’s campaign in Gaza carries the terrifying possibility of such a radical shifting of the line of acceptability that it makes genocide a lawful weapon of war. If you think I’m being hyperbolic, consider what Colin Jones wrote in the New Yorker earlier this year. Jones consulted key lawyers in the American military establishment about their views on Israel’s campaign in Gaza. What he found was a US military that is deeply concerned about being hobbled by international law when prosecuting a future war against a major power such as China – so much so that Israel’s 'loosened restraints on civilian casualties' usefully shifts the goalposts for future US conduct.
"To the US military, Jones writes: 'Gaza not only looks like a dress rehearsal for the kind of combat US soldiers may face. It is a test of the American public’s tolerance for the levels of death and destruction that such kinds of warfare entail.'
"No one knows what will come to replace the international system that is currently collapsing around us, but any political system that prioritizes punishing those who protest against genocide rather than stopping the killing has clearly exhausted itself.
"If there’s a glimmer of hope in all this rage-inducing misery, it can be found in the growing number of people around the world who refuse to be intimidated into silence."
‘Game Over Israel’ Campaign Demands Boycott of Israeli Soccer Clubs Over Government’s Killing of Palestinian Players
The campaign, supported by Gary Lineker, Liam Cunningham, and Eric Cantona, comes after Israel killed some 800 athletes in Gaza in the last 23 months
from Zeteo
"A group of pro-Palestine and labor organizations, fan associations, athletes, celebrities, and human rights organizations is demanding that national soccer federations boycott Israel over its killing of hundreds of Palestinian athletes in Gaza.
"The #GameOverIsrael campaign, which launched on Tuesday with a billboard in Times Square, calls on the soccer federations of Belgium, England, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Scotland, and Spain to refuse to play against Israel’s national and club teams and bar Israeli players in an effort to build pressure on FIFA and UEFA (Union of European Football Associations) to suspend the country."
Senators Say US is Complicit in Israel’s Ethnic Cleansing of Gaza
Democrats Chris Van Hollen and Jeff Merkley reach ‘inescapable conclusion’ after fact-finding trip to region
from the Guardian
"Two Democratic senators claim they have reached the 'inescapable conclusion' that Israel is acting on a systematic plan to destroy and ethnically cleanse Palestinians from Gaza to force local people to leave, and they say the US is complicit.
"Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and Jeff Merkley of Oregon, both members of the Senate foreign relations committee, released their findings in a report on Thursday after returning from a congressional delegation to the Middle East where, they note, the destruction goes beyond bombs and bullets. They say they also found a systematic campaign to strangle humanitarian aid, which they call 'using food as a weapon of war'.
"'The Netanyahu government has gone far beyond targeting Hamas to imposing collective punishment on all the people of Gaza,' Van Hollen said at a Thursday press conference. 'What they’re doing, and what we witnessed, is putting those goals into action.'"
"Palestine Is Really the Center of the World"
Angela Davis on Gaza, Black-Jewish Solidarity & Trump
from Democracy Now
"Professor Davis, you've said that "Palestine is a moral litmus test for the world," quoting, of course, the late poet June Jordan.
"And so, it's a moment that is a bit difficult to digest, but I do think that even as we cry, even as we express solidarity amidst the suffering, we should recognize that this is a moment we've been waiting for, where people all over the world are recognizing Palestine as a litmus test and are recognizing that the people in the Sudan will — in Sudan will not be successful, people in Congo will not be successful, people in Haiti will not be successful, if they do not follow the leadership of the Palestinian people, who absolutely refuse to capitulate and genuflect to Zionism and to global capitalism and to racism."
Central Bank of Ireland Confirms it Will No Longer Approve Sale of Israeli ‘War Bonds’
from Irish Times
"It means the Central Bank will no longer approve European prospectuses for the sale of Israeli bonds that the Development Company for Israel (International) Ltd, which sells debt on behalf of Israel, has been marketing on its website in the context of the country needing funds to fight the Gaza war.
"The Central Bank had been under mounting political pressure over its approval for Israeli debt because of anger at Israel’s military campaign in the Gaza Strip, which has led to tens of thousands of deaths in the Palestinian territory and the declaration by the United Nations of a famine."
The Global Sumud Flotilla Is Making History
Corporate Media is ignoring the largest civilian flotilla to ever send aid to Gaza, with activists from 44 countries uniting to break Israel's illegal 18 year blockade
from Let's Address This with Qasim Rashid
"As we speak, on August 31, boats representing activists from 44 different countries are setting sail toward Gaza as part of the Global Sumud Flotilla. The Global Sumud Flotilla is the largest civilian maritime mission ever launched to break Israel’s illegal blockade. Coordinated by grassroots organizers, doctors, artists, seafarers, and solidarity activists across 44 countries, this flotilla is not just about carrying aid. It is a global, nonviolent response to the genocide of the Palestinian people—and it carries a message the world must hear: Israel’s illegal siege and blockade on Gaza must end.
"What we desperately need now is the power of a global movement towards peace and justice. Here are the three things you can do to get meaningfully involved..."
Casualties of the Gaza war
from Wikipedia
"As of 30 July 2025, over 63,000 people (62,122 Palestinians and 1,983 Israelis) have been reported killed in the Gaza war according to the Gaza Health Ministry (GHM) and Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as 217 journalists and media workers, 120 academics, and over 224 humanitarian aid workers, a number that includes 179 employees of UNRWA. Scholars have estimated 80% of Palestinians killed are civilians. A study by OHCHR, which verified fatalities from three independent sources, found that 70% of the Palestinians killed in residential buildings or similar housing were women and children."
Visualizing Palestine
Infographics
from Visualizing Palestine
"Making narrative waves to turn the tide of oppression toward justice"
Remember Their Names
We know the names of 55,202 Palestinians killed in Gaza. Thousands more remain unidentified, unrecoverable, or unknown.
6 Oct 2023—14 Jun 2025
from Visualizing Palestine
An impactful interactive visual remembrance.
Genocide, Neutrality and the University Sector
Neutrality as a colonial construct
from Rafeef Ziadah
"The ongoing destruction in Gaza demands urgent academic and ethical reckoning, exposing the complicity of universities and scholarly disciplines in sustaining settler-colonial violence. This essay interrogates the role of Sociology as a discipline and academic institutions in shaping, legitimising, or resisting systemic oppression, with a focus on institutional neutrality as a mechanism of erasure. Drawing on critical scholarship on settler colonialism, anti-Palestinian racism and neoliberal academia, the article examines how universities suppress Palestine advocacy through overt repression, bureaucratic silencing and material entanglements with the military-industrial complex. It critiques the discourse of neutrality and balance, demonstrating how these frameworks function to maintain dominant power structures. By tracing the complicity of Western academic institutions – from their partnerships with Israeli military research to their suppression of pro-Palestinian activism – the article argues that meaningful decolonisation requires a rejection of performative neutrality and an active dismantling of structures that sustain occupation and genocide."
We Teach Life, Sir
Ziadah recites the poem
from Rafeef Ziadah
"Today, my body was a TV’d massacre that had to fit into soundbites and word limits."
"Civil rights activist Angela Davis says that Ziadah’s words 'hit you right in the heart. They are more powerful than any weapon.'"
Misperceptions of the Border: Migration, Race, and Class Today
from Adam Hanieh & Rafeef Ziadah
"In recent decades, a rich current of Marxist literature has insisted that categories of race and class under capitalism cannot be separated from one another, in either a theoretical or historical sense.1 The basic premise of this work is that processes of class formation are always racialised in specific, historically concrete ways; and that, likewise, racialised groups are necessarily marked by class inequalities and differences in social power.
"All of this has proven exceptionally invigorating to Marxism, and our argument in this paper draws heavily upon many of the insights generated by this existing literature (both new and old). In what follows, however, we single out one dimension of this work that we feel needs to be explored much more systematically: the role of global migration and the nature of national borders within the co-constitution of class and race. By this, we are not at all suggesting that migration, the migrant experience, and the crossing of borders have not figured centrally within Marxist analyses of race and class. There is a strong tradition, particularly exemplified in the work of some Black British writers,9 which has paid close attention to the intersection between racial formation, migration, and labour.10 This work has opened up critical insights into the relationship between migration, class, and processes of racialisation, particularly through the postwar period. However, in our opinion, this work often takes the national scale and its borders as an assumed given, and does not go far enough in problematising and demystifying the particular place of migrant labour and borders in global capitalism. In what follows, we seek to challenge these common-sense perceptions of national borders, and ask what can be learnt about the interconnections of race and class through more systematically foregrounding migration within the circuit of capital accumulation."
Resisting Erasure: Capital, Imperialism and Race in Palestine
from Politics Theory Other podcast
"Adam Hanieh, Rafeef Ziadah, and Robert Knox on their new co-authored book, 'Resisting Erasure: Capital, Imperialism and Race in Palestine'. We spoke about the inadequacy of framing the question of Palestine and the Gaza genocide solely as a humanitarian issue and how the Israeli project of settler-colonialism has been part and parcel of the expansion of European and American capitalism."
'Very sick and very tired': the reality of famine for Gaza’s most vulnerable
from the Guardian
"In the overcrowded, rubble strewn streets of Gaza City, there was little surprise at the announcement that UN-backed experts believed the scenes of desperation could now be formally described as a famine.
"Only four famines have been declared by the IPC since it was established in 2004, most recently in Sudan last year. 'This famine is entirely man-made, it can be halted and reversed,' the report said. It warned of an exponential increase in deaths if 'a ceasefire is not implemented … and essential food supplies and basic … services are not restored immediately'."
Tell Congress: End the Gaza famine. Stop U.S. military aid to Israel now
from the Intercept
"For months, a U.N.-backed international watchdog has been warning that Gaza would reach catastrophic levels of food insecurity causing mass starvation, destitution, and death.
"Already, 1 in 3 Palestinians in Gaza go without food for days at a time, and more than 20,000 children have been treated for acute malnutrition in hospitals since April.
"The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, backed by the U.S. and Israel, is responsible for delivering food and other aid to civilians, yet those who seek aid have been regularly shot and killed by the Israeli military.
"The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza reported 325 people killed by the Israeli military while trying to get food in just one week. The U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights estimates at least 1,373 Palestinians have been killed while seeking food between May 27 and July 31. Doctors Without Borders has described distribution sites as scenes of 'orchestrated killing.'
"This has to stop, yet the U.S. government continues to fund this war with more than $22 billion in military aid."
The assassination of Aljazeera journalists is another desperate attempt to hide the truth about Israel's crimes in Gaza
from PEN International
"'We mourn and condemn the killing of five Palestinian journalists in Gaza, including prominent correspondents Anas Al-Sharif and Mohammed Qreiqeh. These were civilians, protected under international law, whose only 'crime' was telling the truth. Their deliberate killing is clearly intended to silence reporting on the attempted annihilation wreaked upon the people of Gaza.' Romana Cacchioli, PEN International Executive Director
"12 August 2025: PEN International is outraged by the targeted extra-judicial killing of five Al Jazeera journalists, including prominent correspondents Anas Al-Sharif and Mohammed Qreiqeh, and camera operators Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal and Moamen Aliwa. The deliberate targeting and killing of journalists and media workers in Gaza is an integral part of Israel's genocidal campaign to erase Palestinians in the Strip and silence those who reveal the truth about its crimes."
The Israeli Assassination of Journalist Anas al-Sharif and Five Colleagues in Gaza City
Israel has now killed 238 journalists in Gaza
from Drop Site News
"The prominent Palestinian journalist Anas al-Sharif was buried in Gaza City on Monday, a broken slab of rock used as a headstone, one day after his assassination by the Israeli military. Five other journalists —four from Al Jazeera, Mohammed Qraiqeh, Ibrahim Zaher, Moamen Aliwa, and Mohammed Noufal, and one from media outlet Sahat, Mohammed Al-Khalidi—were killed alongside him and also laid to rest.
"All six were killed on Sunday night in an Israeli airstrike on their media tent outside Al-Shifa hospital in what the Israeli military proudly proclaimed was an assassination targeting al-Sharif. Israel has now killed 238 journalists in Gaza, according to the Government Media Office."
The Last Words of Anas al-Sharif
Murdered in an Israeli attack on a tent for journalists near al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City
from the Guardian
"This is my will and my final message. If these words reach you, know that Israel has succeeded in killing me and silencing my voice."
Dozens of Palestinians Killed Seeking Aid as Witkoff and Huckabee Tour GHF Hub in Stage-Managed Visit
from Drop Site
"Israel and the U.S. have done little to alleviate the widening famine in Gaza, even as the forced starvation has passed the tipping point."
"Israel's starvation campaign in Gaza reached a tipping point last month, with Palestinians collapsing in the streets and with men, women, and children dying from hunger and malnutrition on a daily basis. Three new deaths from the spreading famine were recorded by the ministry of health on Friday, bringing the total number since the start of the war to 162, including 92 children—many of them over the past three weeks alone."
When Israel Murders U.S. Citizens, the U.S. Govt Looks Away
from Qasim Rashid
"This week, 20 Democratic Senators joined every single Republican Senator in voting to continue sending weapons to Netanyahu—even as those weapons are being used to carry out what countless legal scholars, the United Nations, and Israel's own historians have called genocide. These twenty have made clear that no red line exists for them, that no functioning moral compass guides them, and that it is more important to arm a credibly accused war criminal because it appears to benefit their political ambitions, than it is to protect children being starved to death by that credibly accused war criminal. And to reiterate, every Republican joined them."
NYT Whitewashes Genocide, Again
from Let's Address This with Qasim Rashid
"In an OpEd, Columnist Bret Stephens takes a sledgehammer to truth & humanity to justify a live streamed genocide—we rebuke his propaganda in full"
"A recent UN survey concluded that more than 95% of land in Gaza is now unusable for agriculture. Another report by Doctors Without Borders in January 2025 concluded that more than 92% of homes and more than 70% of all buildings in Gaza are destroyed, damaged, or unusable. Yet another UN report from September 2024 concluded that nearly 70% of all infrastructure in Gaza has been destroyed or damaged."
"Moreover, by April of 2024 Gaza had already suffered more than 70,000 tonnes of bombing. To put that in perspective, that is more than the combined bomb tonnage dropped on Dresden, Hamburg, and London in World War II. Now more than a year later, that bombing has only increased. It is no surprise, therefore, that UN Humanitarian Chief Martin Griffiths declared Gaza 'uninhabitable' due to the bombing, destruction, blockades, and subsequent famines."
"...a study published by Yale in The Lancet estimated in June 2024 that Israel’s genocide upon Gaza had already killed up to 186,000 people, conservatively..."
"While the latest data is far worse, even 1 year into Israel’s siege on Gaza, OxFam reported this horrifying fact: 'More women and children have been killed in Gaza by the Israeli military over the past year than the equivalent period of any other conflict over the past two decades.'"
Journalists Killed in the Gaza War
from Wikipedia
"The killing of journalists in the Gaza war, overwhelmingly Palestinian, along with other acts of violence against journalists, marks the deadliest period for journalists in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict since 1992 and the deadliest conflict for journalists in the 21st century. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) counted 178 journalists who were killed (176 Palestinian and 2 Israeli), as of 12 June 2025, and the International Federation of Journalists counted 174 journalists and media workers who were killed (170 Palestinian and 4 Israeli), as of 5 June 2025. A July 2024 count by the Gaza government media office placed the number of Palestinian journalists killed at 160, and in January 2025 the Gaza Government Media Office increased it to 202. July 2025 saw the number climb to 217.
"The head of the Committee to Protect Journalists stated in 2024, 'Israel's war on Gaza is more deadly to journalists than any previous war'."
Palestinian Poet Mosab Abu Toha on Winning a Pulitzer
from Democracy Now
"Palestinian writer Mosab Abu Toha has just been awarded the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary for his essays about the Palestinian experience in the face of the U.S.-backed Israeli assault on Gaza. He joins Democracy Now! to discuss his work, the necessity of advocating for Palestinian rights, and the violence of Israeli occupation. Abu Toha, who evacuated Gaza in late 2023 after being arrested, beaten and detained by the Israeli military, now resides in Syracuse, New York. He says that, while grateful for the platform granted by the Pulitzer, he cannot celebrate the achievement while 'my sisters, my brothers and my parents in Gaza are starving.'"
Netanyahu is committing crimes against humanity in Gaza
from The Dean's Report
"Netanyahu was charged in November 2024 with war crimes by the International Criminal Court at The Hague, including using "starvation as a method of warfare." His response since then has been to double down on these crimes against humanity. Netanyahu must be brought to justice along with any others who participated in these war crimes. That is the only way to reduce the chances we see another leader engage in the same type of barbarism."
Israel committing genocide in Gaza, say Israel-based human rights groups
from The Guardian
"Reports detailing intentional targeting of Palestinians as a group, and systemic destruction of Palestinian society, add to pressure for action"
"Two leading human rights organisations based in Israel, B'Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights, say Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and the country's western allies have a legal and moral duty to stop it."
"Multiple international and Palestinian groups have already described the war as genocidal, but reports from two of Israel-Palestine's most respected human rights organisations, who have for decades documented systemic abuses, is likely to add to pressure for action."
U.S. Companies Honed Their Surveillance Tech in Israel. Now It's Coming Home.
from The Intercept
"Since he took office barely six months ago, Donald Trump has handed billionaire Peter Thiel's surveillance company, Palantir, contracts reportedly worth more than $113 million to build detailed profiles of Americans. Here's what they're planning to do with that data:
"Track immigrants' movements in real time. Monitor their social media. Map where they live, work, and travel. Generate instant reports on visa holders that include what they look like and with whom they associate.
"And targeting immigrants is just the beginning.
"Palantir specializes in mining personal data from thousands of sources — your social media, financial records, travel patterns, associations — and converting it all into searchable databases that map connections between individuals and organizations. This isn't speculation. It's already happening — and Trump is turbocharging it.
"U.S. spy agencies plan to create a master surveillance database that would make it even easier for them to surveil anyone they choose. This massive database would be a one-stop shop for authorities that want to track, intimidate, and retaliate against Americans — all built with our tax dollars.
"The Intercept also recently highlighted how U.S. companies like Palantir first honed these surveillance technologies on Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. After Trump's reelection, the companies thought they could now operate with little pushback at home, so they're bringing those same tools to American soil."
At UN conference states must prioritize ending Israel's genocide, unlawful occupation and apartheid
from Amnesty International
"The high-level UN conference to discuss a peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine and implementation of the two-state solution next week must be centered around the immediate and effective application of international law, including states' obligations to prevent and punish genocide and apartheid and end Israel's unlawful occupation of Palestinian territory, said Amnesty International in an advocacy briefing published today."
"Wasting Away" in Gaza: Oxfam, 100+ Groups Decry Israel's "Man-Made" Mass Starvation of Palestinians
from Democracy Now
"As you know, mass starvation means starvation of a large proportion of a population. And a large proportion of the population of Gaza is starving. I don't know what you would call it, other than mass starvation. And it's man-made, and that's very clear. And this is because of blockade, and, I have said it in my statement, more than 80 days of blockade straight. And then, of course, there is opening now, but it's not enough. It's just a trickle, and people are starving."
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
Severe malnutrition in under-5s has tripled at Gaza City clinic, charity reports
from The Guardian
"Rates of severe malnutrition among children aged under five at Médecins Sans Frontières' Gaza City clinic have tripled in the last two weeks, the charity has said, as starvation in the Israeli-besieged strip worsens.
"The global aid community has sounded the alarm as Gaza descends deeper into mass starvation, with resulting deaths being reported daily as Israel allows only a trickle of aid into the territory."
Gaza doctors 'becoming too weak to treat patients' as hunger crisis deepens
from the Guardian
"Doctors and medical staff in Gaza say their increasing hunger and the lack of available food is beginning to leave them too weak to provide urgent medical care to patients inside hospitals full of malnourished and injured civilians.
"Almost a dozen medical staff across the territory have told the Guardian and the Arabic Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ) of their increasingly desperate search for food and declining physical health due to hunger."
Starvation as a Weapon: Chris Hedges on Gaza
from The Intercept
"Gaza is on the brink of mass famine. At least 600,000 people are suffering from severe malnutrition, according to staff at Al-Aqsa Hospital in central Gaza.
"This is not a tragedy of circumstance. It's a deliberate campaign of mass starvation, enforced through Israel's unrelenting bombing and continuous blockade on the flow of aid into Gaza, which is prohibited under international law.
"The death toll in Gaza has reached nearly 60,000, officially, but experts and relief workers on the ground expect the actual number of casualties to be significantly higher.
"To be clear: This is a genocide."
Angela Davis — Tanner Lectures on Human Values
Held at Yale in April
"Angela Y. Davis is professor emerita of history of consciousness and feminist studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. An activist, writer, and lecturer, her work focuses on prisons, police, abolition, and the related intersections of race, gender, and class. She is the author of many books, from Angela Davis: An Autobiography (1974) to Freedom Is a Constant Struggle (2015). Her most recent books include Abolition. Feminism. Now., written with Gina Dent, Erica Meiners, and Beth Richie, and a book of essays Abolition: Politics, Practices, Promises, vol. 1.
"She is a founding member of Critical Resistance, a national organization dedicated to the dismantling of the prison industrial complex. Internationally, she is affiliated with Sisters Inside, an abolitionist organization based in Queensland, Australia, that works in solidarity with people in women's prisons.
"Like many educators, Professor Davis is especially concerned with the general tendency to devote more resources and attention to the prison system than to educational institutions. Having helped to popularize the notion of a "prison industrial complex," she now urges her audiences to think seriously about the future possibility of a world without prisons and to help forge a twenty-first-century abolitionist movement."