Tag: palestine

What The Democratic Socialists Are Demanding From Mamdani Is Truly Terrifying

According to leaked documents, the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America views Zohran Mamdani’s victory as a springboard for a sweeping anti-Israel crusade. The group’s “Anti-War Working Group” drafted a list of a dozen “demands” urging the incoming mayor to punish Israel financially and diplomatically. The proposals call for New York City to end all contracts with firms that do business with Israel and to withdraw city funds from any banks financing the Jewish state. The internal planning document paints a clear picture of how far-left activists intend to push City Hall under Mamdani’s leadership.

The five-page screed was distributed at the group’s Nov. 2 public meeting, and reveals the DSA’s NYC chapter has been plotting since at least late September on how to best to ensure the pro-Palestine, Israel-hating Mamdani fully supports its anti-Israel agenda once he’s sworn in as mayor in January — and doesn’t buckle to political pressure.

The leaked document doesn’t stop at cutting contracts or pulling city funds. It goes even further, outlining a wish list that reads like an antisemitic manifesto. Among the demands: the city would divest its pension funds from Israeli bonds and securities, and ban Israeli products from the network of city-run grocery stores Mamdani has proposed creating. It also calls for investigations into real estate agents accused of “hosting illegal sales of stolen lands in the West Bank,” and for revoking the tax-exempt status of nonprofits that raise money for the Israel Defense Forces.

The group’s ambitions go beyond economics. It wants the NYPD to end all training programs with what it calls the “Israeli Occupation Forces,” and even insists that New York City authorities arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and active IDF soldiers for “war crimes” should they set foot in the city. The final demand urges the dismantling of the NYC-Israel Economic Council, which was established under outgoing Mayor Eric Adams to strengthen economic ties between New York and Israel.

“Well at least the DSA mask is off,” said state Assemblyman Kalman Yeger, a conservative Brooklyn Democrat and Orthodox Jew. “This was never about affordability, free buses or anything else. This was always about Jew hatred.

“With every municipal issue facing New York City’s government, the DSA doesn’t care about the state of our schools, streets, parks, subways, city budget or anything else. They care about Israel — Israel and only Israel.

“At least now they can stop trying to deny their antisemitism; most New Yorkers aren’t stupid,” said Yeger.

Zohran Mamdani, a longtime supporter of the anti-Israel BDS movement, whose father Mahmood Mamdani sits on an advisory group that regularly accuses Israel of “genocide,” spent the campaign trail publicly condemning antisemitism and cozying up to select Jewish leaders to secure political cover — a blatantly obvious scheme to cover up his true intentions.

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Israeli settlers attack Palestinians, journalists at West Bank olive harvest, witnesses say

Israeli settlers attacked a group of Palestinian villagers, activists and journalists on Nov 8 who had gathered during an attempt to harvest olives near a settler outpost in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, witnesses said.

Two Reuters employees – a journalist and a security adviser accompanying her – were among those injured in the attack by the men who wielded sticks and clubs and hurled large rocks, in an area close to the Palestinian village of Beita.

The area, lying south of the West Bank city of Nablus, has in past years been a flashpoint for settler attacks, which increased across the West Bank after the war in Gaza began two years ago.

Such attacks have escalated during 2025’s olive harvest, which began in October.

As the number of such attacks has climbed, Israeli and other activists have often joined Palestinians to support them and their right to harvest their olive groves, while also documenting any violence.

Activists or local Palestinians often inform journalists of harvesting plans, so they can attend to report, particularly in flashpoint areas, such as outposts.

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Outrage over video leak of Israeli soldiers’ gang rape of Palestinian exposes rot in Israeli society

Israelis are having a meltdown over the leak of a video of Israeli soldiers gang raping a Palestinian prisoner at the  notorious Sde Teiman torture camp. 

The uproar isn’t about the dozen or so Israeli soldiers who inserted a sharp object into a Palestinian prisoner’s anus and ripped his rectum apart. No, it’s over the fact that it was made public at all — and leaked by Israel’s Chief Military Advocate, no less.

On Sunday night, Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, the top lawyer supposedly in charge of making sure the Israeli army follows the law, was arrested after having revealed last Friday that she was the one who had leaked the infamous rape video to the media over a year ago. 

The court case against the suspected rapists — who are not even charged with rape, but “aggravated abuse” and “causing aggravated injury” — is still ongoing. Meanwhile, Tomer-Yerushalmi is now being leveled with charges such as “breach of loyalty,” “breach of trust,” “dereliction of duty,” and “disrupting investigative operations,” Israel’s Channel 12  reported in Hebrew.

In her resignation letter, the ex-Military Advocate said she approved the video leak “in an attempt to rebuff the deceitful propaganda against the law-enforcing elements in the army.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netantahu did not miss the opportunity to dramatize the matter, portraying the whole case as an attack on the nation: “This is perhaps the most severe public relations attack that the state of Israel has experienced since its establishment,” he railed.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz called the case a “blood libel,” promising that “all required sanctions” would be taken against Tomer-Yerushalmi, including stripping her of her rank.

“Anyone who falsely spreads blood libels against IDF soldiers and prefers the welfare of the Nukhba terrorists over theirs is not worthy of wearing the IDF uniform and belongs in prison,” the Defense Minister said. Although, as the Times of Israel and other news sources clarified, the Palestinian detainee who was raped by the reservists in Sde Teiman was a civilian and not a Hamas fighter.

Even still, the leak is playing to the rapists’ favor, since the nature of the leak might end up compromising the position of the prosecution. 

What’s notable about all this is the popular outrage in Israel, with widespread sympathy toward the “wronged” soldiers turning the affair into a national story — in support of their right to rape Palestinians with impunity. 

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YouTube deletes hundreds of videos documenting Israeli war crimes

YouTube, owned by Google LLC, has deleted more than 700 videos documenting Israeli human rights violations, citing compliance with US sanctions imposed on Palestinian human rights groups cooperating with the International Criminal Court (ICC), according to an investigation by The Intercept published on 5 November.

The investigation revealed that the videos were removed after US President Donald Trump’s administration sanctioned three Palestinian organizations over their work with the ICC on war crimes cases against Israeli leaders.

The organizations sanctioned are Al-Haq, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights.

The deletions, carried out in early October, erased years of archives detailing Israeli atrocities in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, including footage of home demolitions, civilian killings, and torture testimonies from Palestinians. 

Among the deleted material were investigations into the murder of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh and documentaries such as ‘The Beach’, which recounts the killing of children by an Israeli airstrike as they played by the sea.

YouTube confirmed the removals were made in compliance with “trade and export laws” after Trump sanctioned the groups. 

Human rights advocates said the company’s decision effectively aided US efforts to suppress evidence of Israeli atrocities.

“It’s really hard to imagine any serious argument that sharing information from these Palestinian human rights organizations would somehow violate sanctions,” said Sarah Leah Whitson of Democracy for the Arab World Now.

The Center for Constitutional Rights condemned the decision as an attempt to erase war crimes evidence, while Al-Haq described the move as “an alarming setback for human rights and freedom of expression.” 

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights said YouTube’s action “protects perpetrators from accountability,” accusing Google of complicity in silencing victims of Israeli aggression.

Al Mezan stated that its channel was removed without warning. The three organizations warned that US-based platforms hosting similar content could soon face the same censorship, potentially erasing further documentation of Israeli war crimes.

The Intercept investigation highlighted YouTube’s bias, noting that pro-Israel material remains largely untouched while Palestinian narratives are disproportionately targeted.

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Thousands of Unexploded Bombs Dropped by Israel Have Turned Gaza into a Minefield

Mohammed Nour returned with his family from Khan Younis to Gaza City on October 13th, three days after the ceasefire went into effect, along with thousands of other Palestinians. “As soon as they announced the truce, we came back immediately,” Nour told Drop Site. “From the moment Gaza City opened, we were among the first to return, because of everything we had suffered in the south.”

The family set up a tent just behind Al-Shifa hospital in an area that—like much of the city— was filled with large mounds of rubble and debris following Israel’s concentrated aerial bombardment and shelling. “It was around 10 or 11 a.m. I told the kids, ‘Go bring some cardboard, some wood, and a bit of plastic so we can light a fire.’ We wanted to cook something for the kids to eat,” Nour said. “We had just arrived and had nothing to burn and light a fire.”

His 11-year old son, two nephews, and two other boys their age walked about 10 meters from the tent and began searching through the rubble. “As soon as one of the kids pulled a piece of wood, something exploded. The children were thrown into the air—all of them,” Nour said. “I suddenly saw people flying—I didn’t even realize they were our children. I ran toward them and found my son hanging on the fence, and my sister’s son and my brother’s son—all of them hanging there,” he added. “Their condition was terrible, terrible.”

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Israel Arrests Ex-IDF Lawyer Who Leaked Video Showing Israeli Soldiers Rape a Palestinian Prisoner

On Monday, Israeli police arrested the Israeli military’s former top prosecutor for leaking a video that showed Israeli soldiers raping a Palestinian prisoner at the notorious Sde Teiman detention facility in southern Israel last year.

Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi resigned on Friday after admitting to approving the leak, something she said she did in response to the backlash over Israeli military police arresting IDF soldiers who were suspected of severely abusing the prisoner, which involved stabbing him with a sharp object that tore his rectum.

Tomer-Yerushalmi went missing on Sunday for several hours, raising concerns that her life was at risk, but she was later found unharmed. The former military prosecutor has come under a torrent of criticism for her role in leaking the video, including from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who called the leak the worst public relations attack on Israel in the country’s history.

Israeli government officials have been strongly critical of the act of leaking the video, but of the horrific abuse inflicted on the Palestinian prisoner. According to Israeli media reports at the time, the prisoner was admitted to the hospital with an injury to his anus so severe that he couldn’t walk and also had severe lung injuries and broken ribs.

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Netanyahu greenlights death penalty bill for Palestinian prisoners

The National Security Committee in Israel’s Knesset is moving forward with a bill to impose the death penalty on Palestinians convicted of deadly attacks and operations that killed Israelis. 

According to the Israeli government’s top official on captives’ affairs, Gal Hirsch, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu supports the move. 

Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who has long called for the execution of Palestinian prisoners, thanked Netanyahu for supporting the bill in a post on social media. 

“I thank the prime minister for his support for Otzma Yehudit’s bill for the death penalty for terrorists, but the court must not have any discretion – every terrorist who goes out to murder must know that the death penalty will be imposed on him. It’s time for justice!” Ben Gvir said. 

Israeli media reports said the bill could have its first reading as soon as Wednesday. 

“The extremist and terrorist Israeli government once again proves, through this decision, that it feeds off the blood and suffering of prisoners in its jails,” said the Palestinian Center for Prisoners’ Defense. “The repercussions of this fascist step will be even more bloody and will drag the entire region into a new cycle of uncertainty whose consequences no one can predict.”

Lawmakers in the Knesset National Security Committee already voted 4-1 in favor of the bill on 28 September.

The bill – which does not apply to Israelis who kill Palestinians – requires another three votes in a full Knesset session before it is passed into law. 

At the time of the vote, Ben Gvir came under fire within Israel for pushing the execution bill at a time when Israeli captives were still held in Gaza. 

The National Security Minister threatened on 20 October to stop voting with the ruling coalition if the death penalty bill did not pass its first reading within three weeks. 

Prior to the formation of Netanyahu’s ruling coalition, Ben Gvir had been demanding the death penalty for Palestinians and, at one point, even made the demand as a condition for his joining the government.

Since assuming the role of national security minister, Ben Gvir has tightened the already repressive measures against Palestinians in the Israeli prison system.

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Prosecutor Who Exposed Sde Teiman Rape Video Missing After Netanyahu Calls It ‘Israel’s Most Dangerous Attack’

Israeli police have launched a search for outgoing military prosecutor Yifat Tomer Yerushalmi, who admitted leaking a video showing Israeli soldiers raping a Palestinian hostage at the notorious Sde Teiman detention facility in the occupied Negev.

According to Yedioth Ahronoth, Yerushalmi has been missing for several hours. Police found her car abandoned near a Tel Aviv beach early Sunday morning. Israel Hayom reported that she left a farewell letter inside the vehicle, while Kan, Israel’s public broadcaster, said she also left a suicide note at her home.

A senior police source told Haaretz there are serious concerns for her life.

The disappearance comes a few hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the video leak as “the most dangerous propaganda attack in Israel’s history.”

Speaking at Sunday’s cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said the footage caused “massive damage to Israel’s image, its army, and its soldiers.” He called for an independent investigation into the leak, which has deeply shaken Israel’s political and military establishment.

The leaked video shows Israeli soldiers torturing and raping a Palestinian hostage at the Sde Teiman base, often referred to by Israeli activists as a “human slaughterhouse.” The recording, from July 2024, spread widely online, sparking outrage abroad but mainly panic within Israel’s leadership over reputational damage and the risk of international prosecution.

Following the leak, right-wing activists, including several Israeli ministers, stormed the base to show support for the soldiers, who committed the assault, denouncing their arrest and framing them as heroes.

A Haaretz investigation published Sunday revealed that Yerushalmi, who was dismissed last week by Defense Minister Israel Katz, had for months avoided launching probes into incidents in Gaza that could constitute war crimes.

Military correspondent Yaniv Kubovich reported that Yerushalmi deliberately froze several sensitive cases due to threats and incitement from Israel’s far-right circles following her involvement in the Sde Teiman affair.

“She felt threatened and stopped making decisions out of fear of personal attacks,” a senior army source told the paper.

Among the cases she ignored was the killing of seven aid workers from the World Central Kitchen in Deir al-Balah in April 2024. An internal field investigation found that the strike violated operational orders, but Yerushalmi chose not to refer it to military police.

A reserve officer told Haaretz that Yerushalmi also refused to open investigations into the killing of 15 medical staff members in Gaza in March 2024, despite documented evidence and calls from inquiry committees.

According to sources quoted by Haaretz, Yerushalmi had received direct threats at her home and workplace.

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Whitewashing the Gaza Gas Exploration

In 2019, UNCTAD (the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development) reported that the occupied territories lie above sizeable reservoirs of oil and natural gas wealth in Area C of the occupied West Bank and off the Gaza Strip. However, as UNCTAD warned, the Israeli occupation has prevented Palestinians from developing their energy fields.

The missed opportunities added up.

Palestinians’ ransacked energy wealth

Based on the 2010 US Geological survey, the discoveries of oil and natural gas in the Levant Basin amounted to 122 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 1.7 billion barrels of recoverable oil. In 2023 US dollars, the value of these resources translated to $557 billion and $87 billion, respectively. At the eve of October 7, that was about $644 billion in total.

By 2018, 18 years had passed since the drilling of Marine 1 and Marine 2 offshore Gaza. As the Palestinian Authority had not been able to exploit these fields, the accumulated losses were already in billions of dollars. Even in the West, the Israeli stance was seen as needlessly harsh.

In February 2021, amid the covid-19 fog of the pandemic years, talks on a gas pipeline that would deliver reliable energy to the impoverished Gaza seemed to move ahead. The plan would see natural gas from the deepwater Leviathan field operated by Chevron in the eastern Mediterranean flow through an existing pipeline into Israel, and from there into Gaza through a proposed new extension. The Israeli side of the planned pipeline would be funded by Qatar and the section in Gaza paid for by the European Union.

After a painful seven-year pause, the pipeline project was expected to provide “a steady energy source to Gaza, ending rolling blackouts that have helped cripple the economy of the blockaded Palestinian enclave.” Control over these energy resources was a central element in Yasser Arafat’s state-building agenda. As Michael Barron, an energy consultant who has written on Gaza’s energy concurs, “Israeli exploitation of Palestinian resources was and remains a central part of the conflict.”

But the Netanyahu cabinets’ intransigence is working against Israel’s long-term interest in peace and stability. In particular, the recognition of the Palestinian state, especially by countries like the UK and Italy with large energy firms registered in their jurisdiction (BG and ENI, respectively), could clarify the legal ambiguity. It could ensure the Palestinian Authority with a secure source of income that is no longer reliant on Israel.

But that has never been acceptable to the Netanyahu cabinets. 

Illegal offshore tenders amid huge onshore destruction

In December 2022, Israeli Ministry of Energy launched the Fourth Offshore Bid Round offering new exploration licenses. A year later, it awarded licenses to several Israeli and international companies: Eni (Italy), Dana Petroleum (UK, a subsidiary of a South Korean company), and Ratio Petroleum (Israel). The problem is that these tenders violated international law, however.

Nonetheless, just a few months later in June 2023, following years of stalled talks, Israel approved the development of the Gaza Marine field, while Egypt’s state-owned EGAS (Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company) was to lead extraction efforts in cooperation with the Palestinian Authority. Nonetheless, Israel stipulated that Hamas must not benefit financially.

Ironically, PM Netanyahu had for years ensured, as part of his Gaza strategy, that Hamas can receive multi-million-dollar shipments, via intermediation. The double-faced ploy used Hamas to disrupt the Palestinian Authority (PA), to keep Gaza weak and ultimately to reap the gas benefits to Israel.

As a net effect, active gas exploration or production could not commence due to the ongoing tensions in and around the Strip, which undermined investment and infrastructure development. The resulting stalemate status quo harmed Egypt’s mediation and interest in fostering regional energy stability.

As Israel initiated its ground assault in Gaza a week after October 7, 2023, Energy Minister Israel Katz pledged on X that “all the civilian population in Aza [Gaza’s Hebraized name] is ordered to leave immediately. We will win. They will not receive a drop of water or a single battery until they leave the world.”

But Netanyahu’s veteran Likud ally had another, equally destructive role. It was Katz’s Ministry that awarded the exploration licenses to the companies on October 29, 2023, violating international law – just two days after the lethal fury of the full-scale invasion in Gaza of the Israeli military. If it wasn’t pre-planned, it was certainly most convenient.

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Haaretz Report: Lynch Mobs, Arson, and Slaughtered Animals Mark Unprecedented Israeli Settler Violence Across the West Bank

A new investigative report from Haaretz exposes a shocking escalation of settler and military-backed violence across the occupied West Bank — a campaign marked by organized lynch mobs, arson attacks, and the slaughtering of Palestinian livestock, described by local witnesses as “terror under the guise of security.”

The report, titled “Lynch Mobs, Arson, Slaughtered Animals: The West Bank Faces Unprecedented Israeli Violence,” catalogs a wave of brutality unleashed by armed settler militias over the past months, often operating with protection or open collaboration from Israeli soldiers. The evidence paints a grim picture of systemic state-sanctioned aggression and near-total impunity for the perpetrators.

A Campaign of Terror Across the Hills

According to eyewitnesses cited by Haaretz, coordinated settler groups have attacked dozens of Palestinian villages, burning homes, destroying crops, and setting herds ablaze. Livestock — a lifeline for many rural families — has been massacred in acts of intimidation designed to drive Palestinians from their land.

Residents recounted scenes of coordinated terror. “They came after midnight with rifles and masks,” one witness said. “They torched the fields, shot the sheep, and beat anyone who tried to stop them.”

The report highlights that these raids have intensified in scope and brutality since early summer. With Israeli military forces stationed mere kilometers away, settlement militias have acted freely — sometimes escorted by soldiers, according to the testimonies.

Human Rights Monitors Sound Alarm

Israeli rights groups, including Yesh Din and B’Tselem, confirmed that violent settler incursions have dramatically risen since the Gaza war’s escalation. In recent weeks, entire Palestinian communities in the South Hebron Hills and northern Jordan Valley were reportedly forced to flee following repeated armed assaults.

Yesh Din’s monitoring team described the situation as “a campaign of terror being carried out under state protection.” Footage and testimonies published through Haaretz indicate Israeli forces not only failed to intervene but, in several cases, actively shielded settlers from consequences.

“The army now behaves as a protective arm of the settlers,” one source told Haaretz. “Every complaint filed by a farmer or herder ends up buried — or worse, punished.”

Independent footage shared by journalist Jasper Nathaniel on X reinforces those accounts. His video, filmed near one of the recently attacked villages, shows soldiers standing by as masked settlers torch fields and chase fleeing residents — evidence, he wrote, of “open collaboration between military units and armed settlers.”

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