The world's double standards towards Gaza are utterly repulsive!

The world's double standards towards Gaza are utterly repulsive! - An Israeli child is killed, and the world uproars, yet over 10,000 Palestinian children are killed, and there's deafening silence! - Israel mistakenly executes three of its soldiers, and the world demands an immediate investigation. Meanwhile, the same army executes dozens of Palestinians daily without a word from this unjust world! - Hamas has dozens of captives, mostly soldiers, and the world everyday demands their release. Yet thousands of Palestinians have been imprisoned for years, and there are no calls. - The world supplies Israel with hundreds of weapon trucks while denying entry for water and milk to Gaza, letting two million Palestinians suffer in silence! - Israel kills two Palestinian Christian women in a church, and call for investigations pour in from Washington and Europe. Conversely, Israel destroys dozens of mosques with worshippers inside and burns hospitals, and Europe remains silent! This is a brutal, unjust world devoid of values and principles. I am ashamed to speak of the illusion of human rights!

 @RamAbdu on X 

What's TRUE About Israel's 10/7 Sexual Assault Claims? (w/ Heidi Matthews)

 

Osgoode Hall Law School Assistant Professor Heidi Matthews set off a Twitter firestorm when she weighed in on accusations of sexual violence on October 7th which resurfaced over the course of last week. Drawing on her expertise in International criminal law, the global legal regulation of political violence & gender, she cautioned against the weaponization of sexual violence in defense of an ongoing genocide. Supporters of Israel's siege were not happy -- to put it mildly. Matthews joins Bad Faith to elaborate on the evidence there is (and isn't) with respect to sexual violence on October 7th, and why it matters.

Hamas ‘mass rape’ claim lacks evidence. But it’s being used to justify genocide

 

The veracity of this claim is now treated as axiomatic by western media and politicians, even though there appears to be no meaningful evidence for it.

Remember the argument being made by those justifying the genocidal bombing campaign in Gaza is not that isolated instances of rape or sexual assault occurred.

Given that Palestinians flooded out of Gaza that day after Hamas fighters broke through the prison fence, only a fool would argue with certainty that no rapes or sexual assaults occurred.

But it should not be incumbent on those questioning the Israeli narrative – the one contending that there was planned, systematic, mass rape on October 7 – to prove that no sexual violence occurred.

Rather, it is the responsibilty of those making the accusation – Israel, western politicians, the western media – to back up their claim with solid evidence. Otherwise they are simply rationalising the far graver and greater crimes now being committed in Gaza against Palestinians.

Producing a few photos that may, or may not, show evidence of sexual violence is not evidence that Hamas ordered, and its fighters carried out, mass rape.

Relaying testimony that a witness saw a gang rape is not evidence that Hamas ordered, and its fighters carried out, mass rape.

And the claims of the highly ideological and unreliable leaders of Zaka’s first responders unit do not count as evidence either – unless they can be substantiated with other kinds of evidence.

The evidential bar in international law is high for a reason: because the charge is so grave.

But in this case, the bar needs to be high for an additional reason: because Israel’s response – the mass slaughter of civilians in Gaza premised on the supposed savagery of Hamas’ crimes – is graver still by an order of magnitude.

 Two long articles in the respected Haaretz newspaper – Israel’s version of the New York Times – purportedly providing the evidence for mass rape are worth picking apart because they form the backbone of claims being recycled by western politicians and the western media.

The first is a kind of evidential overview. The other is a profile of Cochav Elkayam-Levy, who founded the “Civil Commission on October 7 Crimes by Hamas against Women and Children” which has been at the forefront of making allegations of mass rape by Hamas.

The profile article concludes: “The aggregation of the evidence presents a horrifying picture that leaves no room for doubt: Under cover of the massacre, Hamas carried out a campaign of rape and sexual abuse.”

Having made this bold assertion, however, the article and its companion piece then spend a great deal of time setting out the many and varied reasons why there is little evidence that Hamas carried out systematic, mass rape.

Doubtless, as these articles state, the Israeli military and police were too busy fighting Hamas to record and collect evidence. Doubtless, some bodies were too burned – most likely by Israeli shelling and missile strikes, as my previous article highlighted – for forensic examination to be possible. Doubtless, many potential witnesses were killed that day.

But the absence of evidence cannot be treated as evidence, as it is by Haaretz and the western media. Only those reading these two articles through an entirely ideological lens – one seeking to play on a racist trope of the primitive, savage, predatory Arab male so as to rationalise the mass slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza – can fail to notice that lack of meaningful evidence.

Regarding the claim that the Hamas leadership ordered its fighters to carry out rape, the main overview article cites David Katz, an Israeli police commander investigating the October 7 attack. According to Haaretz, he says “it’s premature to determine whether Hamas terrorists received specific instructions to commit rape”.

In other words, there is no evidence for such an order.

The actual evidence that mass rape was carried out cited in the two articles essentially amounts to this:

“According to a police source, so far, they have one witness account of a rape. The witness’ account was recently revealed in the media. She attested to seeing a woman being gang raped, mutilated and murdered…

“Senior security officials say that some of the terrorists from Hamas’ elite Nukhba Force unit and other Gazans held by the Shin Bet security service and the police have accused their comrades of sexual violence…

“The police also have dozens of accounts from Zaka volunteers and soldiers about women’s bodies being found inside homes without underwear. Those accounts also describe physical signs of sexual abuse on bodies at the crime scenes.”

Fabricated claims
That this amounts to the sum of evidence for the claim that Hamas carried out systematic, mass rape should be shocking to anyone other than the most fanatical Israel defenders.

The idea that the testimonies of Hamas fighters – or of anyone else in Israeli detention – can be treated as credible evidence is patently absurd. As has been well documented, torture is standard practice in interrogations of Palestinians, and is even used against children.

No one can seriously argue that Hamas fighters interrogated by Israel following the October 7 atrocities were not subjected to the most extreme “pressure” techniques. Is it likely that none were willing to falsely “confess” to witnessing rapes to ease that pressure?

Such “testimonies” would be worthless in any court of law outside Israel.

As for the allegations from male Zaka volunteers, a hardline religious organisation best known for collecting Jewish remains for burial, they are best treated with the utmost scepticism.

These are the same male volunteers already caught inventing or relaying the most lurid, fabricated claims against Hamas, such as that it beheaded 40 babies, put a baby in an oven, hung other babies from a clothes line, and ripped a foetus from its mother’s womb.

According to Israel’s own figures, two infants were killed that day.

The Zaka volunteers appear to have an ideological agenda: to fuel as much hatred against Palestinians as possible to justify the kind of genocidal response we have been witnessing over the past two months.

Fearful witnesses
That leaves an anonymous witness testimony, that may or may not be credible, and a handful of photos whose contents are ripe for interpretation and dispute.

Assuming that all of this evidence can be taken definitively at face value, that would still not show that Hamas ordered rape or that Hamas fighters carried out systematic rapes, or even conclusively that Hamas fighters carried out any rapes.

Full article

A Conversation on the Horrors in Gaza with Jeremy Scahill and Sharif Abdel Kouddous

 

Everything we know about Joe Biden’s 50-year history of supporting and facilitating Israel’s worst crimes leads to one conclusion: He wants Israel’s destruction of Gaza — with more than 7,000 children dead — to unfold as it has. When will it stop?

Intercept co-founder Jeremy Scahill and journalist Sharif Abdel Kouddous discuss the U.S. role in Israel’s scorched-earth campaign to annihilate Gaza.

KAHANISTAN: How the Jewish far-right remade the mainstream

 

KAHANISTAN: How the Jewish far-right remade the mainstream – a lecture by investigative journalist David Sheen davidsheen.com

Lowkey EXPOSES Piers Morgan & Ben Shapiro

 

The Video Piers Morgan & Ben Shapiro Don’t Want You To See

The Value of Just One Righteous Life | Khutbah by Dr. Omar Suleiman

The Prophet ﷺ spoke about the value of saving one life, but taught us how to especially make du’a for Allah to preserve a righteous life. As we see the amazing people of Gaza and Palestine, use these Prophetic du’as to pray for these pious people and advocate for saving every single one of them.

'Israelis Are Indoctrinated to See Palestinians as Enemies' - Prof Ilan Pappe

 

Challenging perspectives: Israeli Historian, Professor Ilan Pappe sheds light on the impact of indoctrination, stating, 'Israelis Are Indoctrinated to See Palestinians as Enemies.' 

Saul Williams & Abby Martin: Israel's High-Tech Barbarism

Legendary artist Saul Williams joins Empire Files to discuss the overlap of high technology with medieval barbarism in Israel's genocide. 

This Is Not a War Against Hamas

 

 

 

From Jeremy Scahill, probably one of my most admired, most repected journalists:

 

THE EVENTS OF the past week should obliterate any doubt that the war against the Palestinians of Gaza is a joint U.S.–Israeli operation. On Friday, as the Biden administration stood alone among the nations of the world in vetoing a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire, Secretary of State Antony Blinken was busy circumventing congressional review to ram through approval of an “emergency” sale of 13,000 tank rounds to Israel. For weeks, Blinken has been zipping across the Middle East and appearing on scores of television networks in a PR tour aimed at selling the world the notion that the White House is deeply concerned about the fate of Gaza’s 2.2 million residents. “Far too many Palestinians have been killed; far too many have suffered these past weeks, and we want to do everything possible to prevent harm to them,” Blinken declared on November 10. A month later, with the death toll skyrocketing and calls for a ceasefire mounting, Blinken assured the world Israel was implementing new measures to protect civilians and that the U.S. was doing everything it could to encourage Israel to employ a tiny bit more moderation in its widespread killing campaign. Friday’s events decisively flushed those platitudes into a swirling pool of blood.

Over the past two months, Benjamin Netanyahu has argued, including on U.S. news channels, “Our war is your war.” In retrospect, this wasn’t a plea to the White House. Netanyahu was stating a fact. From the moment President Joe Biden spoke to his “great, great friend” Netanyahu on October 7, in the immediate aftermath of the deadly Hamas-led raids into Israel, the U.S. has not just supplied Israel with additional weapons and intelligence support, it has also offered crucial political cover for the scorched-earth campaign to annihilate Gaza as a Palestinian territory. It is irrelevant what words of concern and caution have flowed from the mouths of administration officials when all of their actions have been aimed at increasing the death and destruction.

The propaganda from the Biden administration has been so extreme at times that even the Israeli military has suggested they tone it down a notch or two. Biden falsely claimed to see images of “terrorists beheading children” and then knowingly relayed that unverified allegation as fact — including over the objections of his advisers — and publicly questioned the death toll of Palestinian civilians. None of this is by accident, nor can it be attributed to the president’s propensity to exaggerate or stumble into gaffes.

Everything we know about Biden’s 50-year history of supporting and facilitating Israel’s worst crimes and abuses leads to one conclusion: Biden wants Israel’s destruction of Gaza — with more than 7,000 children dead — to unfold as it has.

It has become indisputably clear over these past two months that there are not actually two sides to this horror show. Without question, the perpetrators who meted out the horrors against Israeli civilians on October 7 should be held accountable. But that is not what this collective killing operation is about. And journalists should stop pretending it is.

Any analysis of the Israeli state’s terror campaign against the people of Gaza cannot begin with the events of October 7. An honest examination of the current situation must view October 7 in the context of Israel’s 75-year war against the Palestinians and the past two decades of transforming Gaza first into an open-air prison and now into a killing cage. Under threat of being labeled antisemitic, Israel and its defenders demand acceptance of Israel’s official rationale for its irrational actions as legitimate, even if they are demonstrably false or they seek to justify war crimes. “You look at Israel today. It’s a state that has reached such a degree of irrational, rabid lunacy that its government routinely accuses its closest allies of supporting terrorism,” the Palestinian analyst Mouin Rabbani recently told Intercepted. “It is a state that has become thoroughly incapable of any form of inhibition.”

Israel has imposed, by lethal force, a rule that Palestinians have no legitimate rights of any form of resistance. When they have organized nonviolent demonstrations, they have been attacked and killed. That was the case in 2018-2019 when Israeli forces opened fire on unarmed protesters during the Great March of Return, killing 223 and wounding more than 8,000 others. Israeli snipers later boasted about shooting dozens of protesters in the knee during the weekly Friday demonstrations. When Palestinians fight back against apartheid soldiers, they are killed or sent into military tribunals. Children who throw rocks at tanks or soldiers are labeled terrorists and subjected to abuse and violations of basic rights — that is, if they are not summarily shot dead. Palestinians live their lives stripped of any context or any recourse to address the grave injustices imposed on them.

You cannot discuss the crimes of Hamas or Islamic jihad or any other armed resistance factions without first addressing the question of why these groups exist and have support. One aspect of this should certainly probe Netanyahu’s own role — extending back to at least 2012 — in propping up Hamas and facilitating the flow of money to the group. “Anyone who wants to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state has to support bolstering Hamas and transferring money to Hamas,” Netanyahu told his Likud comrades in 2019.

But in the broader sense, a sincere examination of why a group such as Hamas gained popularity among Palestinians or why people in Gaza turn to armed struggle must focus on how the oppressed, when stripped of all forms of legitimate resistance, respond to the oppressor. It should be focused on the rights of people living under occupation to assert and defend their self-determination. It should allow Palestinians to have their struggle placed in the context of other historical battles for liberation and independence and not relegated to racist polemics about how all Palestinian acts of resistance constitute terrorism and there are not really any innocents in Gaza. Israel’s president said as much on October 13. “It is an entire nation out there that is responsible,” Isaac Herzog declared. “It is not true this rhetoric about civilians not being aware, not involved. It’s absolutely not true. They could have risen up. They could have fought against that evil regime which took over Gaza in a coup d’etat.”

The notion that the Palestinians of Gaza could end all of their suffering by overthrowing Hamas is just as ahistorical and false as the oft-repeated claims that the war against Gaza would end if Hamas surrendered and released all Israeli hostages. “Look, this could be over tomorrow,” Blinken said December 10. “If Hamas got out of the way of civilians instead of hiding behind them, if it put down its weapons, if it surrendered.” That, of course, is a crass lie. With or without Hamas, Israel’s war against the Palestinians would endure precisely because of Blinken and his ilk in elite bipartisan U.S. foreign policy circles.

Throughout the years of U.S. support for Israel’s apartheid regime, it has consistently facilitated Israel’s “mowing the grass” in Gaza. This is not a series of periodic assaults on Hamas — it is a cyclical campaign of terror bombings largely aimed at civilians and civilian infrastructure. The Biden administration is not — and Biden personally has never been — an outside observer or a friend encouraging moderation during an otherwise righteous crusade. None of this slaughter would be occurring if Biden valued Palestinian lives over Israel’s false narratives and its bloody ethnonationalist wars of annihilation repackaged as self-defense. We should end the charade that this is an Israeli war against Hamas. We should call it what it is: a joint U.S.–Israeli war against the people of Gaza.

Full article

From the River To The Sea, Palestine Will Be Free

 

Katherine Bogen is a 4th year PhD student in clinical psychology and a reconstructionist Jewish woman. She works at the intersections of violence prevention and human sexuality research, focusing on the development and robust evaluation of interventions to support sexual trauma survivors in living joyful, consensual, and fully-embodied intimate lives.

Raised in an American Jewish household by the son of a Holocaust survivor, Katherine was taught of the promise of Israel from early childhood. She studied Israel's Apartheid system and Jewish marginalization experiences in college, where she received her BA in Political Science and developed her pro-Palestine liberatory politic. She applies the insights from her doctoral program to the intergenerational trauma of Palestinians who have been systematically displaced, brutalized, and violated. As an activist and academic, she is dedicated to full safety and political enfranchisement for Palestinians and Jews, from the river to the sea.

When the Lie's So Big

Max Blumenthal and Aaron Mate cover the latest from the Gaza war as Israel embarks on one of history's most expensive and cynical propaganda campaigns to justify its similarly unprecedented slaughter of innocent civilians. 

Norman Finkelstein FIRES BACK at Coleman Hughes… “Gaza IS a Concentration Camp!”

 

“I don’t follow the web, I’m a book person.” This is Norman Finkelstein being peak Norman Finkelstein.

 

LEAKED: Israel's War Machine Exposed

 

This is extraordinary: members of Israel's intelligence community have exposed the workings of Israel's war machine. The truth is more shocking than you may realise. 

Israel's Propaganda is Getting INSANE (w/ Abby Martin)

 

Independent journalist Abby Martin has spent much of her career reporting on Israel's oppression of Palestinians, and was personally affected by anti-BDS legislation when she was disinvited from speaking at Georgia Southern University because she refused to sign an anti BDS pledge. Today, she joins Bad Faith to discuss the new wave of "hasbsra," or Israeli media manipulation, that has quickly shifted the focus from 40 imaginary beheaded babies, to a non-existant "command center" under Al-Shifa hospital, to "new" allegations of sexual assault on October 7th. Meanwhile, the media ignores dead Palestinian babies left to decompose in the NICU by Israeli soldiers, Palestinian children shot in cold blood in the West Bank, and the authoritarian bent of congress deeming anti-zionism anti-semitism. How do they get away with it all, and what's the current state of things on the ground in Gaza?

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Gabor Maté and Cornel West on Gaza and the Human Soul

 

Presidential candidate Cornel West and author Gabor Maté met for the first time this week to discuss the horrors of Israel’s war on Gaza. 

“I don’t know about you,” Dr. Maté says to Dr. West, “but for me, what’s going on is one of the heaviest things, if not the heaviest thing, I’ve witnessed in my whole life. I don’t know how to compare tragedies, but there’s something about what’s going on right now that seems heavier and darker.” West responds: “When you watch precious human beings being literally killed, crushed, demeaned, degraded, day after day, it makes you think that this particular historical moment has a certain grimness and darkness that others don’t.” 

 The two men use their complex histories with tragedy and suffering to analyze the horror of the current moment. “I’ve always felt that no evil would surprise me and no despair would paralyze me,” West continues, “because you and I know the history of the species.” But the conversation that stems from this is a much more hopeful one, where the scholars’ vast study of philosophy and history intertwine to create a message not of helplessness but of possibility.

Saladin: The Conqueror of Jerusalem Episode 1

 

The story of Saladin Ayyubi, a prominent Muslim ruler of the 12th century.

The chronicles of Saladin Ayyubi, a 12th-century Muslim ruler who aimed to unite the Muslim lands of Syria, northern Mesopotamia, Palestine, and Egypt against the Crusades, and the story of his conquest of Jerusalem.

How to cope with witnessing a genocide?

I asked ChatGPT: How to cope with witnessing a genocide?

I'm truly sorry to hear that you're going through such a traumatic experience. Witnessing a genocide can have severe emotional and psychological effects, and coping with such trauma is a complex process. Here are some suggestions, but it's important to seek professional help and support as well:

Reach out for immediate support:

Talk to someone you trust about what you've witnessed. Sharing your experiences with a friend, family member, or colleague can be an important first step.
Contact mental health professionals:

Seek the assistance of mental health professionals, such as therapists, counselors, or psychologists, who specialize in trauma. They can provide guidance tailored to your specific needs.
Participate in group therapy:

Group therapy sessions with individuals who have experienced similar traumas can create a supportive environment. It allows you to share your feelings, gain insights, and realize that you're not alone in your experiences.
Practice self-care:

Focus on your physical and emotional well-being. Ensure you're getting enough sleep, eating healthily, and engaging in activities that bring you comfort and relaxation.
Create a safe space:

Establish a safe and comfortable environment for yourself where you can retreat when the emotional burden becomes overwhelming.
Limit exposure to triggers:

Avoid exposing yourself to materials or situations that trigger traumatic memories. This may include news coverage, documentaries, or discussions related to the genocide.
Express your emotions:

Find healthy outlets for expressing your emotions, such as journaling, art, or music. This can help you process your feelings and make sense of the trauma.
Establish routines:

Creating and sticking to a daily routine can provide structure and stability during difficult times.
Consider spiritual or religious support:

If you have spiritual or religious beliefs, seeking guidance and support from your faith community may be beneficial.
Set boundaries:

Establish clear boundaries with others regarding discussions or questions about the genocide. It's okay to let people know what topics are off-limits for you.
Be patient with yourself:

Coping with trauma is a gradual process, and healing takes time. Be patient with yourself and acknowledge that recovery is a journey.
Remember that professional help is crucial in dealing with the psychological impact of witnessing a genocide. If you're struggling, please reach out to mental health professionals or support organizations that specialize in trauma and post-traumatic stress. You don't have to navigate this journey alone.

Hebron: The Reality of Israeli Settlement in Palestine // Behind The Wall

 

It’s widely known that there are Jewish settlements in Palestinian territory, but very few people know what the lives of people are actually like in these isolated districts.This vlogger traveled to Hebron, a Palestinian city that has Israeli settlements right in the middle of the city itself, and managed to enter a Jewish neighborhood surrounded by barbed wire fences and checkpoints.
he shares what he saw and experienced in this controversial section of Hebron.

Israeli teen ”burned completely” by Israeli tank fire at kibbutz

 

An Israeli child completely incinerated at Kibbutz Be’eri was killed by two tank shells shot by Israeli forces at the end of an hours-long gun battle, a survivor of the same carnage told the Israeli state broadcaster Kan earlier this month.

Yasmin Porat, taken captive with at least a dozen other Israeli civilians on 7 October, told Kan radio that a fellow captive, 12-year-old Liel Hatsroni, survived to the end of the battle and only died when Israeli forces fired two tank shells at the house where they were held hostage by Hamas fighters.

Hatsroni’s obliteration by Israeli tank fire emerged this month after her family decided to mourn her with a public funeral, even though the government had not officially pronounced her dead.

Although Hatsroni’s 69-year-old grandfather Aviyah and twin brother Yanai were buried two weeks after their deaths on 7 October, her 73-year-old aunt and guardian Ayala was only buried on 15 November, the day after Israel officially declared her dead.

On that day the Hatsroni family also held funeral rites for Liel, though the state still listed her as missing because “to this day they have not found any of her remains,” Yasmin Porat told Kan on 15 November.

You can listen to Porat speak in that interview in this video, with English subtitles: