Tag: ethnic cleansing

The War on Truth: Why Are Palestinian Journalists Being Systematically Erased?

The killing of seven Palestinian journalists and media workers in Gaza on August 10 has prompted verbal condemnations, yet has inspired little to no substantive action. This has become the predictable and horrifying trajectory of the international community’s response to the ongoing Israeli genocide.

By eliminating Palestinian journalists like Anas al-Sharif and Mohammed Qraiqeh, Israel has made a sinister statement that the genocide will spare no one. According to the monitoring website Shireen.ps, Israel has killed nearly 270 journalists since October 2023.

More journalists are likely to die covering the genocide of their own people in Gaza, especially since Israel has manufactured a convenient and easily deployed narrative that every Gazan journalist is simply a “terrorist”. This is the same cruel logic offered by numerous Israeli officials in the past, including Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who declared that “an entire nation” in Gaza “is responsible” for not having rebelled against Hamas, effectively stating that there are no innocent people in Gaza.

This Israeli discourse, which dehumanizes entire populations based on a vicious logic, is frequently repeated by officials who fear no accountability. Even Israeli diplomats, whose job in theory is to improve their country’s image internationally, frequently engage in this brutal ritual. In comments made in January 2024, Israeli ambassador to the UK, Tzipi Hotovely, callously argued that “every school, every mosque, every second house has access to tunnels,” implying that all of Gaza is a valid military target.

This cruelty of language would be easily dismissed as mere rhetoric, except that Israel has, in fact, according to Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor reports, destroyed over 70% of Gaza’s infrastructure.

While extremist language is often used by politicians around the world, it is rare for the extremism of the language to so precisely mirror the extremism of the action itself. This makes Israeli political discourse a uniquely dangerous phenomenon.

There can be no military justification for the wholesale annihilation of an entire region. Yet again, the Israelis are not shying away from providing the political discourse that explains this unprecedented destruction. Former Knesset member Moshe Feiglin chillingly said, last May, that “Every child, every baby in Gaza is an enemy… not a single Gazan child will be left there.”

But for the systematic destruction of a whole nation to succeed, it must include the deliberate targeting of its scientists, doctors, intellectuals, journalists, artists and poets. While children and women remain the largest categories of victims, many of those killed in deliberate assassinations appear to be targeted specifically to disorient Palestinian society, deprive it of societal leadership, and render the process of rebuilding Gaza impossible.

These figures powerfully illustrate this point: according to a report released by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, based on the latest satellite damage assessment conducted in July, 97% of Gaza’s educational facilities have been affected, with 91% in need of major repairs or full reconstruction. Additionally, hundreds of teachers and thousands of students have been killed.

But why is Israel so intent on killing those responsible for intellectual production? The answer is twofold: one unique to Gaza, and the other unique to the nature of Israel’s founding ideology, Zionism.

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Israel destroyed Gaza’s water plants. Now a deadly condition is spreading like wildfire

From the grey rubble of Gaza’s bombed water treatment plants, a rare and deadly paralytic disease has emerged that has brought a new crisis to a region already devastated by starvation and illness.

An unprecedented surge in acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) – a condition which causes a rapid onset of muscle weakness and paralysis – has seen 110 people diagnosed in the past three months. In previous years, Gaza saw just one or two cases of AFP per year.

The symptoms occur when the body’s immune system is triggered by certain viruses, in some cases causing it to attack its own nervous system. In Gaza, the rapid spread of water-borne infectious diseases has led to a striking rise in AFP cases.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) and Dr Ahmed al-Farra, head of paediatrics at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, told The Independent thatIsrael’s destruction of Gaza’s vital water treatment plants is largely responsible for the spread of these diseases.

“To see 110 cases, this is incredible. This is an outbreak, it is alarming for us to see that number,” Dr Farra said, describing the situation as “one of the most challenging” medical incidents Gaza has seen since 2023.

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Israeli military uproots thousands of Palestinian olive trees in West Bank

The Israeli military has destroyed about 3,000 olive trees in a village near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, the head of the local council says, as Palestinians face a continued wave of violence across the territory in the shadow of Israel’s war on Gaza.

The Israeli military issued an order to uproot olive trees in a 0.27sq-km (0.1sq-mile) area in al-Mughayyir, a village of about 4,000 residents northeast of Ramallah.

The army justified the measure by saying the trees posed a “security threat” to a main Israeli settlement road that runs through the village’s lands.

The destruction was carried out as al-Mughayyir has been under lockdown since Thursday after an Israeli settler said he was shot at in the area.

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More than a dozen people killed in Israeli strikes on hospital in southern Gaza, including journalists, officials say

More than a dozen Palestinians were killed in a pair of Israeli strikes on a hospital in southern Gaza, according to the Nasser Medical Complex, including journalists from multiple outlets.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health said at least 20 people were killed in the attack on Monday, with many more injured.

Israel carried out back-to-back strikes on the hospital in Khan Younis separated by only a matter of minutes, the ministry said. The “double-tap” hits killed journalists, health workers, and emergency response crews who had rushed to the scene after the initial attack, the Nasser Hospital said.

Dr. Mohammad Saqer, a Nasser Hospital spokesman and head of nursing, said that five journalists and four health workers had died.

The journalists killed include Mohammad Salama, a cameraman from Al Jazeera, Hussam Al-Masri who was a contractor for Reuters, and Mariam Abu Dagga, who has worked with the Associated Press (AP) and other outlets throughout the war. Moath Abu Taha, a freelance journalist, was also killed, the hospital added.

The Israeli attacks hit a balcony on the hospital used by reporters for an elevated view of Khan Younis.

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Why it took Palestinians starving for many to finally admit Israel is committing genocide in Gaza 

As anyone who studies the crime of crimes knows, genocide is a process not an event. For some NGOs, politicians, and other public figures, concluding that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians has also been a “process.” It has taken months, at times nearly two years, for some to admit that Israel has violated the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

One factor has been decisive in prompting these admissions. That factor is “starvation,” namely, Israel’s deliberate starvation of 2.1 million Palestinians who inhabit this tiny, densely packed strip of land.

Israel intensified its long-standing use of starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza immediately following October 7, 2023. Nearly twenty-three months later, Israel’s starvation project has brought widespread and sustained famine to the Strip, with over 200 people, including over 100 children, dying of starvation since October 7. 61% of those deaths have occurred since July 20, 2025. Deaths related to malnutrition and malnutrition-related disease are significantly higher.

But why has starvation been so pivotal as compared to Israel’s other horrors, which have brought even more death and destruction to Gaza? Ironically, it is the dehumanization of the Palestinian people, which continues to prevent some from acknowledging the genocide even until now, that explains why starvation has played such a decisive role in naming Israel’s actions.

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Amidst Horrors in Gaza Some Prefer To Focus on Antisemitism

Canadian officials and commentators continue to justify the unspeakable horrors inflicted on people who have endured 22 months of a live-streamed holocaust in Gaza. After Israel assassinated six Palestinian journalists last week, CBC commentator and former Stephen Harper communications director Dimitri Soudas openly applauded the “elimination” of what he claimed was a “member of a terrorist organization.” There was no mention that 200 Palestinian journalists have been killed simply for practicing journalism in a place where Israel has banned outside reporters.

Alongside a political culture awash in genocidal statements, Canadian officials continue to provide unique, often illegal, support for Israel’s crimes. Canada arms Israel, charities raise up to a half a billion dollars a year on its behalf and groups induce Canadians to join the Israeli military in contravention of Canadian law. In addition, Canada effectively bans most Palestinian political parties and has helped build a Palestinian security force to oversee the occupation of the West Bank.

Canadian taxpayers also fund a special envoy who promotes Israel’s genocide. Deborah Lyons, who recently stepped down as Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combating Antisemitism, previously led Canadian diplomacy in Israel. During that time, she organized a pizza party for Canadians serving in Israel’s occupation forces. Lyons was echoing the stance of Canada’s foreign minister: when Chrystia Freeland visited Israel in November 2018, she declared that if Canada won a seat on the United Nations Security Council, it would serve as an “asset for Israel” on the council.

These are only two examples of Canada’s unique support for Israel. I can state this with confidence, having published 11 books on Canadian foreign policy – including Canada in Africa: 300 Years of Aid and Exploitation, Canada in Haiti: Waging War on the Poor Majority, and Canada’s Long Fight Against Democracy, among others.

In Canada and Israel: Building Apartheid and numerous articles, I have detailed the many forces driving support for Zionism. Over the past century, Canada’s ties to the US and British empires, its interest in geopolitical control of the region, Protestant Zionism, anti-Muslim sentiment, and settler-colonial solidarity have all shaped Canadian policy to varying degrees.

On top of this, there is a well-organized, wealthy and highly motivated Jewish Canadian Israel lobby, which has been increasingly powerful in recent decades. No other internationally focused Canadian ethnic/religious lobby is nearly as well-resourced or organized. And CIJA, B’nai Brith and Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre, etc. wield a uniquely powerful tool to silence critics: accusations of antisemitism.

I have likely written more about Canada’s assistance to Israel than any other Canadian over the past 15 years. Yet, as a sign of the lobby’s reach, even some leftists resort to vicious smears of antisemitism against me – rather than focusing on the suffering of Palestinians – even as the Jewish supremacist state commits the most horrendous crimes imaginable.

Recently, Ben Merenlensky, Sarah Buehler, Jordy Cummings, Judy Rebick, Cormac McCann and others have joined these efforts, labeling me – explicitly or implicitly – as an antisemite and suggesting I should be disqualified from participating in the NDP leadership race.

I stand firm in my belief that institutions financing, cheering on, or otherwise promoting a live-streamed genocide must be “weakened”. Ditto with my response to an absurd claim there’s no ethnic/religious contribution to anti-Palestinian media bias in Canada. These realities must be named. This is not about attacking any faith or ethnicity – it is about holding accountable the institutions and individuals, of any background, that promote apartheid and genocide. We must be able to identify and call out all forces that contribute to, or provide cover for, Canada’s support of genocide.

I reassert my belief that it is racist to invoke the word “antisemitism” more often than the phrase “Jewish supremacy” during a two year genocide – one carried out to advance apartheid and enforce the supremacy of Jewish people over non-Jews in Palestine.

Because of this, some self-described “supporters of Palestine” have labeled me an “antisemite.”

I reject the notion that such criticism is antisemitic.

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Israel Calls Up 60,000 Reservists Ahead Of Gaza City Takeover

Israeli media is reporting that around 60,000 Israeli reservists are set to receive call-up orders on Wednesday as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) gear up for a major assault on Gaza City.

A report in Times of Israel notes that reservists will have up to two weeks before going to their duty stations, but not all will be directly involved in the Gaza City offensive, as some are needed replace Israeli forces currently stationed in other parts of Gaza.

The controversial Netanyahu-ordered expanded offensive which aims to achieve total control of Gaza City is expected to displace over a million Palestinian civilians.

The IDF is prepared to use artillery to forcibly remove them, and a ramped-up air campaign has already been underway. Arab media sources, including Al Jazeera, have said that areas with a lot of tent shelters for refugees have at times been directly struck.

Israel’s military has issued evacuation orders, and is framing this as simply a mass transfer, while the Palestinian side along with international human rights monitors have decried an ethnic cleansing and land grab in progress.

Reports in Israeli media have further described that after capturing the city, the IDF plans to spend over a year systematically demolishing it, which is precisely what previously happened in Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahia, and Jabalia.

The ostensible justification is for removal of “Hamas infrastructure” – but critics have said it is ultimately to pave the way for Jewish settlement of the Gaza Strip.

The question remains, where will these Gazans go? Israel has been seeking to pressure some regional and even north African countries to take them in. 

To be expected, these conversations have gone nowhere especially as regional Arab states have already historically absorbed hundreds of thousands. For example, the majority of the population of Jordan actually has Palestinian roots.

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Israel launches attack on Gaza City

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has begun “the first stages” of an operation to take over Gaza City, a military spokesman has announced.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to seize the city in order to achieve full control of Gaza was approved by the Jewish state’s security cabinet two weeks ago.

IDF spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin said on Wednesday that Israeli forces are already “holding the outskirts of Gaza City” and will “deepen” attacks on Palestinian armed group Hamas in the densely populated area.

Netanyahu later said he had ordered the military to “shorten the timelines for seizing the last terror strongholds and for the defeat of Hamas.”

The IDF is expected to present its plan for the capture of Gaza City to the prime minister on Thursday, military sources have told local media. Earlier this week, the IDF announced it would be calling up another 60,000 reservists ahead of the operation.

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The BBC Helped Kill Anas Al-Sharif

How is it possible for a BBC reporter to have made the following obscene observation in his recent segment on Israel’s murder of Al-Jazeera journalist Anas Al-Sharif: “There’s the question of proportionality. Is it justified to kill five journalists when you were only targeting one?”

Unpacking the depraved journalistic assumptions behind this short “question” is no small task.

Let us note first, in passing, the entirely false assumption here that Israel wished only to kill one journalist, Al-Sharif. All the evidence is that, in killing more than 200 Palestinian journalists in Gaza over the past two years and by excluding all Western journalists from the enclave, Israel has been seeking to ensure its genocidal crimes go unreported. It is systematically killing those best placed to serve as witnesses.

The all-too-obvious reason Israel wiped out the entire press team at this moment is that the Israeli army is about to invade Gaza City and commit yet more such atrocities.

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The Trump administration’s halt on medical evacuations from Gaza is a death sentence for Palestinian children

The U.S. State Department’s decision this weekend to halt all visitor visas for people from Gaza, which includes the medical-humanitarian visas that have brought injured children to American hospitals, will cost Palestinian lives. Officials say this process will be subject to a “full and thorough review”. For a child with infected burns or a deep trauma wound, a pause is a verdict on their life. The freeze did not arise from new intelligence or any novel identification of problems in the temporary visitor visa pathway. It followed a social-media panic with the circulation of mischaracterized videos of injured children arriving under the care of a U.S. nonprofit being labeled as a “security threat,” rhetoric amplified by political allies. The State Department then announced it was stopping visas while it re-examines procedures.

The racism and misinformation at the heart of that panic deserve naming. Some have labeled the process of evacuating children with amputations and burns as being potentially linked to terrorism and even characterized their joyful cries as “jihadi chants.” That is textbook dehumanization: take a population of wounded kids and code them as a threat to justify exclusion. Many have commented on the chain reaction from such posts to the administrative action. The line from a viral smear to a federal policy that blocks chemotherapy, skin grafts, or prosthetics for children should shame us, and the speed with which it occurred. 

It also wildly overstates the scale of what has actually happened. In total, many of the NGOs running these U.S. transfers report a few dozen total children to date, not a “flood”. Individual city stories have been about twos and threes: a pair treated in Dallas; several children welcomed in Boston. This is the opposite of a large-scale pipeline; it’s a narrow, highly vetted corridor that exists because Gaza’s health system has been shattered.

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