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By Prof. Junaid S. Ahmad

There was a time when the word “ceasefire” had meaning. It conjured up the faint possibility of respite, an exhausted silence after prolonged carnage, a breathing space for diplomacy, humanitarian aid, or simply for the burying of the dead. But today, thanks in no small part to the United States—and most grotesquely under Trump and his would-be courtiers—the word has become little more than a cynical punchline. Washington wields “ceasefire” the way a con man wields a handshake: a performance, a cover, a gesture whose emptiness is both deliberate and insulting.

Take the bizarre spectacle of Secretary of State Marco Rubio solemnly proclaiming that he is “monitoring” the ceasefire between India and Pakistan. Anyone with even a passing familiarity with South Asian geopolitics will recognize the absurdity. Neither New Delhi nor Islamabad uses that word. They speak of “understandings,” “agreements,” “LOC management,” or simply “not shooting today.” The U.S., however, insists on its favorite prop. Rubio regurgitates it with the confidence of a man who knows the American press will nod gravely and move on. For him, it is not about what the parties actually say or mean—it is about keeping the narrative comfortably framed within Washington’s civilizational imagination.

And what an imagination it is. The U.S. still performs its well-rehearsed colonial pantomime: left to themselves, the unruly masses of the Global South will slit each other’s throats until a wise and benevolent American adult steps in with the magic word “ceasefire.” This is the same logic that justified centuries of empire—the so-called White Man’s Burden repackaged in State Department press releases. The barbarian hordes, incapable of restraint, must be babysat by Washington lest the world descend into chaos. That both India and Pakistan are nuclear-armed, bureaucratically capable states with long histories of managing their hostility is irrelevant. What matters is the projection: the civilized shepherd guarding his squabbling sheep.

Rubio, of course, is only one clown in a very large circus. His administration, under Trump, elevated this act into a grotesque art form. Trump himself famously announced that solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would be “the deal of the century,” a statement that might have been amusing had it not been accompanied by relentless U.S. enabling of Israeli land grabs, bombardments of butchery, and apartheid practices. “Ceasefire,” in this lexicon, does not mean cease fire. It means “pause long enough for Israel to reload, and for America to draft the press release.”

The tragicomic farce becomes most grotesque in Gaza. There, the U.S. is not some distant monitor or alleged referee. It is an active co-perpetrator. American weapons, money, and diplomatic cover make Israel’s war on Palestinians possible. And yet, U.S. leaders—from Biden to Trump—have the audacity to pronounce the word “ceasefire” with straight faces, as though anyone beyond the Beltway still believes them. In Gaza, the word has been reduced to gallows humor. When Biden or Trump calls for a “temporary ceasefire,” Palestinians can be forgiven for laughing bitterly. They know the performance well. “Ceasefire” means another round of shelling will come soon enough.

What Washington has done, with its characteristic mix of arrogance and amnesia, is to weaponize the very language of peace. “Ceasefire” is not deployed to stop bloodshed. It is deployed to manage optics, to placate restless publics abroad, and to soothe a domestically distracted conscience at home. It is not a commitment to end violence; it is a commitment to prolong it under more marketable terms.

This is the scandal, but also the strategy. Words, after all, are cheaper than bombs. It costs nothing to issue a statement “welcoming a ceasefire” while sending billions in arms to the perpetrators. It costs nothing to scold India and Pakistan for their “escalations” while selling both advanced weaponry. It costs nothing to lament humanitarian suffering in Gaza while vetoing every meaningful U.N. resolution demanding that the killing stop. The U.S. loves the word “ceasefire” precisely because it is so inexpensive and so useful a disguise.

But let us not miss the racism embedded in this trick. To invoke “ceasefire” as Washington does is to assume that violence only matters when mediated through American speech. Left to themselves, the Others will kill each other like animals. Only when the civilized American utters the spell—ceasefire!—does violence become legible, containable, newsworthy. This is the colonial hangover that lingers in every press conference: that the Global South lacks political rationality, that only the U.S. can confer meaning upon war or peace.

Of course, this is also a form of projection. For who, after all, has shredded more ceasefires than the U.S. itself? Washington invaded Iraq in defiance of international law, bombed Libya into chaos, prolonged Afghanistan’s war long past the point of strategic rationale, if there ever was one. When America says “ceasefire,” it really means “cease the fighting once we’ve had our fill.” The term becomes less a call to peace than a declaration of monopoly. Only America decides when wars begin and end, whose dead are grievable, and whose suffering counts.

This is why the word has become hollow to the point of ridicule. To Palestinians in Gaza, to Afghans, to Iraqis, to countless others, “ceasefire” is not a promise but a threat. It is the pause before the next wave of devastation. It is the word that signals not the end of killing but its indefinite continuation, under the watchful, hypocritical eye of Washington.

And so the tragedy: a word that once carried hope has been stripped of dignity by the very empire that insists on using it most. America has made “ceasefire” into a farce, a propaganda tool, a performative utterance meant to reassure everyone except those actually under fire. The greatest insult is that the U.S. seems to believe no one notices—that people in Gaza, in South Asia, in the wider Global South will nod along like obedient extras in Washington’s morality play.

But people notice. They notice that Washington’s “ceasefire” comes only when it is convenient for Israel, or when American image management demands it. They notice that U.S. officials lecture India and Pakistan about responsibility while enabling the world’s most blatant, ongoing military occupation. They notice that American leaders mouth platitudes about peace while ensuring war remains profitable for their arms manufacturers. And they laugh, bitterly, at the sheer gall of it.

Perhaps the final irony is that America still imagines itself as a credible mediator, as if its invocations carry some universal weight. But words lose their power when used as lies too often. “Ceasefire,” today, has become like the boy who cried wolf: repeated so cynically that no one believes it, least of all those whose lives depend on it.

The world deserves better than this semantic fraud. The people of Gaza deserve a ceasefire that is real, not rhetorical. India and Pakistan deserve recognition of their own agency, not colonial babysitting. And Americans deserve to know that their leaders are playing word games with life and death.

Until then, every time Washington mouths “ceasefire,” the world will hear not peace but parody. It will hear the sound of an empire so mired in hypocrisy that even its vocabulary of peace has become an instrument of violence.

In the end, the United States has not just cheapened a word. It has revealed its own bankruptcy. For when an empire can no longer speak honestly about peace, when even its calls for “ceasefire” are heard as mockery, it is not the world that is diminished. It is America itself. And that may be the most fitting ceasefire of all: the silencing of Washington’s hollow rhetoric, leaving the rest of the world to seek peace on its own terms, without the poisonous help of its self-appointed savior.

Prof. Junaid S. Ahmad teaches Law, Religion, and Global Politics and is the Director of the Center for the Study of Islam and Decolonization (CSID), Islamabad, Pakistan.

18 August 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Dr Gideon Polya

The UN has reported that genocidal Apartheid Israel has so far killed 242 journalists reporting the Gaza Massacre, Gaza Genocide and Gaza Holocaust (680,000 Gaza deaths from violence and deprivation as of 25 April 2025), with this  translating to 64.5 journalists killed per year per million of population as compared to 0.5 (Syria), 0.3 (Afghanistan) and  0.01 (the World). Memo to cowardly, racist and mendacious Western Mainstream media: Silence is complicity and inaction is complicity.

The core moral ethos of Humanity is Kindness and Truth.  In science there is zero tolerance for lying. Lying comes in 2 forms,  lying by commission and lying by omission. Lying by omission is far, far worse than repugnant but familiar lying by commission because the latter  at least permits public refutation and public debate (subject to censorship by Establishment media gatekeepers of course). Numbers matter and Lord Kelvin famously stated that in any discussion it was important to adduce numbers (with appropriate Units): “When you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meager and unsatisfactory kind; it may be the beginning of knowledge, but you have scarcely, in your thoughts advanced to the stage of science.”

Systematically set out below are quite shocking quantitative aspects of the Zionist Israeli killing of journalists and children.

(1). The recent Zionist Israeli murder in Gaza of journalist Anas al-Sharif and 4 of his Al Jazeera journalist colleagues has sparked outrage from decent Humanity.

Some reactions from decent Humanity (as opposed to mendacious Mainstream media presstitutes) are given below:

(i).  Stephane Dujarric (UN spokesperson for United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres): “The secretary-general calls for an independent and impartial investigation into these latest killings. At least 242 journalists have been killed in Gaza since the war began. Journalists and media workers must be respected, they must be protected and they must be allowed to carry out their work freely, free from fear and free from harassment” [1].

(ii). TRT Global (11 August 2025): “Since the war began on October 7, 2023, Gaza has become the deadliest place on earth for journalists. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ),at least 192 journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza in just over 22 months. The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate reports that 238 members have died and over 500 have been injured, with many more displaced or forced into exile” [2].

(iii). Free Palestine Melbourne (I was a founding member; it helps organize huge Sunday Rallies for Gaza in the Melbourne CBD): “Free Palestine Melbourne fiercely condemns the deliberate and cold-blooded assassination of five Al Jazeera journalists by the terrorist Israeli occupation forces: Anas Alsharif, Mohammad Qraqeh, Ibrahim Zaher, Moamen Aliwa, Mohammed Nawfal. These courageous journalists were murdered while sleeping in a tent near one of Gaza’s main hospitals — targeted for doing their job: exposing the truth about the ongoing genocide in Palestine. This is a direct attack on press freedom and a blatant war crime. Israel’s actions are not random; they are part of a systematic, decades-long plan to erase the Palestinian people from Gaza and all of historic Palestine. Killing journalists, nurses, and civilians will not erase the truth — it will expose their crimes to the world even faster. We demand the Australian media break its silence, abandon its complicity, and take moral responsibility to show the reality on the ground. We demand the Australian government: Sanction Israel immediately. Cut all diplomatic, economic, and military ties with the terrorist regime. Join ICJ and ICC efforts to prosecute Israeli leaders for war crimes and crimes against humanity.To all supporters of Palestine: the time for waiting is over. Take to the streets. Mobilise. Organise. Tell the Labor government loud and clear — enough is enough. Yesterday, the criminal Netanyahu stood before the world and lied yet again, blaming the very victims he has been massacring for decades. The world knows the truth. Free Palestine Melbourne stands united with all movements in Melbourne, across Australia, and around the globe. We will not stop until Palestine is free and every Israeli war criminal faces justice” [3].

(iv). Dr Jeremy Webb (academic environmental economics writer and researcher, former Australian diplomat and economics journalist): “The killing of Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif is shocking but that it is a culmination of planned mass assassination of journalists by the Israeli Government is an outrage. Since the beginning of the Gaza war the UN secretary-general reminds us that 242 journalists have been killed by the IDF – 13 journalists a month. According to Reporters Without Borders, the most deadly year for journalists covering the war was 2024 with more than 120 killed. The pace has not slackened: more than 50 journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza this year. Just how deliberate these deaths have been is borne out by statistics. Brown University’s Costs of War project calculates that more journalists had been killed in the Gaza war than in the US civil war, World War I, World War II, The Korean War, the Vietnam War, the wars in the former Yugoslavia, the post-911, and the war in Afghanistan combined” [4].

(v). John D. Marks (biomedical engineer US Army veteran and humanitarian writer): “On the night of August 10, 2025, the air over Gaza City hung heavy with dust and the steady thrum of generators. In a modest press tent pitched outside the bomb-scarred shell of al-Shifa Hospital, Al Jazeera’s last reporting team in the city worked with the quiet urgency of people who knew each second could be their last chance to bear witness… Al Jazeera, a Qatar-based global news network, has kept a permanent presence in Gaza for years, often reporting from places other international media could not reach. The network has long faced hostility from Israeli officials…Inside the tent sat Anas al-Sharif, Mohammed Qreiqeh, Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal, and Moamen Aliwa. Minutes later, an Israeli missile struck the tent… The blast did more than tear through canvas and steel. It silenced the final independent voices still reporting from Gaza City. When you kill the witness, you kill the story. And when the story dies, accountability dies with it. This was not an isolated tragedy. It was part of a pattern that, measured across the war, has made Gaza the deadliest place on Earth for journalists in the modern record. The deliberate killing of multiple journalists from a single, reputable newsroom is not without precedent. Each time it happens, it marks a rupture in the global record… Unless the witness is defended everywhere, we may find no one left to tell our story when it matters most.” [5].

(vi). Robert Inlakesh (a political analyst, journalist and documentary filmmaker who has reported from the Occupied Palestinian territories): “Wafa al-Udaini was murdered for the same reason as Anas al-Sharif – as part of a western-backed campaign to smear, silence, and eliminate Gaza’s journalists… Wafa’s assassination was not isolated. It was the culmination of a campaign to normalize the erasure of Palestinian journalists. The occupation army even has a special unit dedicated to this war crime, known as the ‘Legitimization Cell.’ … The killing of Anas al-Sharif:The most prominent recent example was Israel’s assassination of one of Gaza’s most famous reporters, Al Jazeera’s Anas al-Sharif, and his entire crew. Nearly 270 Palestinian journalists have been killed since October 2023. Western press has actively facilitated the cover-up of the murder of journalists in Gaza and failed to hold the occupation state accountable. Calls for accountability have been challenging Israel and western media outlets that have provided cover for the deliberate campaign to murder journalists… Every time western media echoes Tel Aviv’s lies, it helps normalize the slaughter of Palestinian journalists – not out of ignorance, but to deliberately spread propaganda” [6].

(vii). Post-mortem last testament of Anas Al-Sharif: “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. First, peace be upon you and Allah’s mercy and blessings. Allah knows I gave every effort and all my strength to be a support and a voice for my people, ever since I opened my eyes to life in the alleys and streets of the Jabalia refugee camp. My hope was that Allah would extend my life so I could return with my family and loved ones to our original town of occupied Asqalan (Al-Majdal). But Allah’s will came first, and His decree is final. I have lived through pain in all its details, tasted suffering and loss many times, yet I never once hesitated to convey the truth as it is, without distortion or falsification—so that Allah may bear witness against those who stayed silent, those who accepted our killing, those who choked our breath, and whose hearts were unmoved by the scattered remains of our children and women, doing nothing to stop the massacre that our people have faced for more than a year and a half. I entrust you with Palestine—the jewel in the crown of the Muslim world, the heartbeat of every free person in this world. I entrust you with its people, with its wronged and innocent children who never had the time to dream or live in safety and peace. Their pure bodies were crushed under thousands of tons of Israeli bombs and missiles, torn apart and scattered across the walls.I urge you not to let chains silence you, nor borders restrain you. Be bridges toward the liberation of the land and its people, until the sun of dignity and freedom rises over our stolen homeland…” [7, 8].

(2). In the 2 decades before the 2023 onwards Gaza Massacre “journalists killed per year per million of population” was 0.616 for Occupied Palestine, 73.3 times greater than for the World (0.0135).

As estimated before the Gaza Massacre, according to the International Federation of Journalists (2020) 2,658 journalists were killed in the last 30 years. In that period the average population of the World was 6,541.9 million, this indicating an average  of 0.0135 journalists killed annually per million of population [9, 10].

According to the Palestinian Journalism Syndicate (2022), before the Gaza Massacre Israel had killed more than 50 Occupied Palestinian journalists in the 2 decades since 2001 [11]. In that period the average population of Occupied Palestine was 4.056 million, this indicating  an average of 0.616 journalists killed per year  per million of Occupied Palestinians, 45.6 times greater than the world average (0.0135) over the same time period [10]. I reported these quantitative estimates in Countercurrents in 2022 [10], prompted by the Zionazi murder of famed Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh [12]. 

Indeed the Occupied Palestinian WAFA News Agency (2022) reported:  “Countercurrents, an India-based analysis website, has published a reported titled “Apartheid Israel leads the world for killing journalists,” a month after Israel’s cold-blooded murder of veteran Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.… Careful analysis reveals that Apartheid Israel leads the world by far in terms of average number of journalists killed per million of population per year [0.616]. The report added, “The International Federation of Journalists has reported that 2,658 journalists were killed in the last 30 years [0.0135 journalists killed per year per  million of population]”…  On Thursday, Palestinian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Riyad Al-Maliki handed the International Criminal Court’s Prosecutor Karim Khan the official results of the Palestinian government’s investigation into Israel’s murder of veteran journalist Shireen Abu Akleh last month in Jenin. Al-Maliki urged the ICC Prosecutor to bring the criminals responsible for this crime and other crimes targeting civilians, children, women, journalists, doctors and other protected groups, to international justice in order to achieve justice” [13].

However as set out below the rate of killing of Palestinian journalists  in Gaza has reached an horrendous level of 64.5 journalists killed per year per million of population, 105 times more than the rate for Occupied Palestine before the present Gaza Massacre.

(3). In the 7 October 2023 onwards Gaza Massacre “journalists killed per year per million of population” is presently 64.5 , this being  a shocking 7,679 times greater than the World average in the same period (0.0084).

Wikipedia reports: “According to the United Nations, the number of Palestinian journalists killed by Israel since the start of the war stood at 242 by 11 August 2025” [16] (see also [1]).

The population of Gaza was 2.4 million pre-war but is now estimated to be 1.7 million due to the deaths from violence and imposed deprivation of about 0.7 million  Gazans by 25 April 2025 [17-38]. The average population of Gaza over the last 22 months has accordingly been (2.4 million + 1.7 million)/2 = 2.05 million.

The “journalists killed per year per 10 million of territory population”  for Gaza = (242 journalists killed/ 1.83 years) /(2.05 million average population) = 64.5 journalist killed per year per million of population – this being  64.5/0.0084 =  7,679 times greater than the World average in the same period.

  Amy Watson of Statista has provided statistics  of journalists killed in the 5-year period of 2016-2021 for the World and for 10 countries  ranked in descending order of journalists killed in the last 5 years [14]. I have estimated the average population  in 2016-2021 for these entities from UN Population Division data [15]. From this data one can calculate that for this period the “average number of journalists killed per million of population per year” was 0.0084 for the whole World.

Mexico: 47 journalists killed/ 5 years/ 125.3955 million population -> 0.0750 killed per million per year.

*Afghanistan: 47 killed/ 5 years/ 36.671 million -> 0.2563 killed per million per year.

*Syria:  42 killed/ 5 years/ 17.749 million – > 0.4733 killed per million per year.

India: 18 killed/ 5 years/ 1,345.078 million -> 0.0027 killed per  million per year.

*Yemen: 18 killed/ 5 years/ 28.162 million -> 0.1278 killed per million per year.

*Iraq: 17 killed/ 5 years/ 37.8975 million -> 0.0897  killed per million per year.

*Pakistan: 16 killed/ 5 years/ 210.1595 million -> 0.0152 killed per million per year.

Philippines 15 killed/ 5 years/ 105.847 million -> 0.0283 per million per year.

*Somalia: 13 killed/ 5 years/ 14.845 million -> 0.1751 per million per year.

Colombia: 9 killed/ 5 years/ 49.202 million -> 0.0366 per million per year.

Total of journalists killed over 5 years in the above 10 countries: 242

Other countries: 77 killed over 5 years

World: 319 killed/ 5 years/ 7,587.298 million -> 0.0084 per million per year.

 Note: * variously denotes US Alliance violation, bombing, devastation and/or occupation of the country.

(4). Mendacious Mainstream media treat us like idiots, ignore key Numbers and won’t even report key terms such as “journalists killed per year per million of population” and  “deaths from violence and deprivation” .

I taught science students at a big Australian university over 4 decades.  I endlessly tried to impress on my students the importance of Numbers and Units. Thus by way of a simple but pertinent example,  in 2022 the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that: “ In 2020 an estimated 5 million children under the age of 5 years died, mostly from preventable and treatable causes. Approximately half of those deaths, 2.4 million, occurred among newborns (in the first 28 days of life)” [39]. Accordingly “under-5 child deaths per day ” = (5 million under-5 child deaths/ year) x (1 year/365.25 days) =  13,689 under-5 child deaths per day (after you do the arithmetic and cancel the units). Or another simple example, display and cancel Units in a currency exchange equation and you can’t go wrong. My favourite example was a billion dollar NASA Mars probe that crashed because someone had put the wrong Unit into an equation (e.g. “miles per hour” instead of “kilometers per hour”)  . 

The average person is very careful about important things such as currency exchange. However one may read in decent media that 242 journalists  have been killed in Gaza but for precision, proper comprehension and comparisons one needs to know  how many “journalists killed per year per million of population”. Thus “journalists killed per year per million of territory population”  for Gaza = (242 journalists killed/ 1.83 years) /(2.05 million average population) = 64.5 journalist killed per year per million of population – this being  64.5/0.0084 =  7,679 times greater than the World average in the same period (0.0084 journalists killed per year per million of population). However if you Google this crucial phrase  “journalists killed per year per million of population” you find zero (0) results except for numerous articles by Gideon Polya. A Bing Search yields zero (0) results period.

In the 2 decades before the 2023 onwards Gaza Massacre “journalists killed per year per million of population” was 0.616 for Occupied Palestine, 73.3 times greater than for the World (0.0135). However during the Gaza Massacre  64.5 journalist killed per year per million of population – this being  64.5/0.0084 =  7,679 times greater than the World average in the same period, or over 100 times greater than in the pre-Gaza Massacre period. Use of pertinent Units tells us that something very serious has happened after 7 October 2023 – the Zionists were now embarking on a deliberate policy of extermination of Palestinian journalists. By way of analogy, my esteemed father John Bela Polya (a Jewish refugee from fascist Hungary, a scientist, staunch defender of academic freedom, and a founder of the Tasmanian Council for Civil Liberties) [40-42] used to say of public unresponsiveness that some people would deny an anti-Jewish  pogrom was happening if hundreds of Jewish bodies were seen floating down the Danube. If 1 such body was observed in the Danube on one day in Budapest one might regard it as unfortunate  happenstance but 100 bodies would indicate mass murder to a sane observer.

Similarly, any sane and honest  observer (I like to imagine Kind and Truthful visitors to Earth from the nearby Andromeda Galaxy, the nearest major galaxy to our Milky Way Galaxy) would observe that deaths due to war were either direct deaths (from violence) and indirect deaths (from deprivation) [17-38] i.e. that these war-imposed deaths included “deaths from violence and deprivation” or more precisely “deaths from violence and imposed deprivation”.  However if you Google these extremely pertinent phrases in inverted commas one gets zero (0) results except for numerous articles by Gideon Polya. Ditto Bing Searches for these key terms. One supposes that medical epidemiologists might use such terms in specialist papers in specialist journals  protected by paywalls and read by relatively few people.

Numbers matter. Zionist- and US-perverted and  mendacious Mainstream media treat their consumers like idiots and resolutely ignore key Numbers in the interests of genocidally racist, egregiously mendacious, child-killing, endlessly thieving and Humanity-violating  Apartheid Israel. Thus in 1960 Apartheid South African police panicked and shot and killed 69 unarmed African demonstrators in the Sharpeville Massacre (the deaths now updated to 91) [43]. The World (except for Apartheid Israel) responded by imposing global  Sanctions  on Apartheid South Africa that were ultimately successful with the fall of Apartheid in 1994. Presently Mainstream media report about 60,000 Gaza deaths from violence (approaching 1,000 times more than the Sharpeville Massacre deaths) but no draconian Sanctions have been applied to Apartheid Israel. It is now expertly estimated that Gaza “deaths from violence and deprivation” totalled 680,000 by 25 April 2025 [17-38] (about 10,000 times more than the Sharpeville Massacre deaths) but still no draconian Sanctions have been applied to Zionazi Apartheid Israel . So far the genocidally racist Zionist Israelis have killed 28% of the pre-war Gaza population but one supposes that when nuclear terrorist Apartheid Israel has killed every Gazan there may still be no concrete Sanctions applied to nuclear terrorist and US-backed Apartheid Israel by a cowardly and morally degenerate West and indeed World. In vain I cry: Numbers matter.

(5). Apartheid Israel leads the World in killing children: as of 25 April 2025, about  152,000 children killed per year per million of population versus 75.7 (Honduras), 53.6 (Ituri Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo), 7.6 (the World). 

(i). On 15 June 2022, 15 months before 7 October 2023, I published an analysis of Apartheid Israel leading the World in killing children. In summary I stated:  “Apartheid Israel in its illegal and war criminal occupation of the Occupied Palestinian Territories is among world leaders in “children killed per year per million of total territory population” with a value of  25.8 as compared to 75.7 (Honduras), 53.6 (Ituri Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo), 7.6 (the World), and 2.6 (Kashmir, India)” [44].

(ii). On 6 November 2023, after 1 month of the present Gaza Massacre I compared “children killed per year per million of total territory population” in Gaza with that elsewhere in the World: “The UK Guardian has reported that 859 Occupied Palestinian children were killed in the period 2008-September 2023. However it also reports that subsequent to the 7 October 2023 Breakout  and as of 5 November 2023, 3,900 Gaza children have been killed and another 1,250 have been buried in bomb-blasted rubble and presumed killed, for a total of 5,150 child deaths [ see [45]]. One can then calculate “children killed per year per million of population” by Apartheid Israel in the Gaza Concentration Camp over the last 30 days = ( 5,150 deaths / 30 days) x (365.25 days/ year) / 2.3 million Gazans =  27,261  children killed per year per million of total territory population. This horrifying number of 27,261 is 3,587 times greater than for the World (7.6) and  360 times greater than  for crime-wracked Honduras (75.7). This awful number is set to increase because there are 50,000 pregnant women in the Gaza Concentration Camp, the killing is continuing at the same horrendous level, and neo-Nazi Apartheid  Israel has only permitted a trickle of life-sustaining aid into Gaza that from 7 October was subject to a war criminal Israeli siege involving a near-total  ban on water, food, medicine, other medical requisites, electricity and fuel” [46]. 

(iii). On 4 July 2025 I re-assessed the children deaths in Gaza as of 25 April 2025 (after about 19 months of the Gaza Massacre): “ From data published by expert epidemiologists in the leading medical journal The Lancet, by 25 April 2025 (war dead remembrance Anzac Day in Australia and New Zealand) it is estimated that Gaza deaths from violence (136,000) and imposed deprivation (544,000 on the “conservative” basis that they were 4 times the violent deaths) total 680,000 or about 0.7 million. Critically, the UNHCR reports: “The burden of indirect deaths was between three and 15 times the number of direct deaths… A reasonable average estimate would be a ratio of four indirect deaths” [see [32]]. My book “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” [see [47]] estimated a ratio of 1 (Iraq War) and 16 (Afghan War). Western Mainstream media presently report 56,000 deaths and thus under-count Gaza deaths 12-fold by ignoring  544,000 indirect deaths from imposed deprivation…Under-5 infant deaths are about 70% of avoidable deaths from deprivation in impoverished countries, this implying 380,000 Gaza under-5 infant deaths. The 680,000 Gaza deaths from violence and imposed deprivation by 25 April 2025  included deaths of about 380,000 under-5 year old infants, 479,000 children in total, 63,000 women and 138,000 men” [18]. From this one can calculate (479,000 child deaths /1.54 years)/2.05 million (average Gaza population) = 151,726 or about 152,000 children killed per year per million of total territory population, as compared to 75.7 (Honduras), 53.6 (Ituri Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo), 7.6 (the World), and 2.6 (Kashmir, India).

The ” rate of killing of children” has been 479,000 /1.54 years  = 311,000 per year in Gaza as compared to 250,000 per year (the killing of Jewish children by Nazi Germany in World War 2). “Children as a percentage of those killed” is 470,000 x 100/680,000 = 70.4% (Gaza) as compared to 1.5 million x 100/6.0 million = 25% (Jews killed by Nazi Germany in World War 2). Nazi is as Nazi does. Terrorist is as terrorist does. Indeed there is a well-documented list of 52 Zionist- and Apartheid Israeli-Nazi Germany comparisons [48].

These are shocking figures that are increasing every day and should burn into the conscience of the World that has so far utterly failed the traumatized, starved, shot and bombed children of Gaza.

Final comments and conclusions.

 Dr Ramzy Baroud ( indefatigable Palestinian writer, author of 6 books,  and editor of the Palestine Chronicle): “The consequences of the Israeli genocide in Gaza will be dire. An event of this degree of barbarity, sustained by an international conspiracy of moral inertia and silence, will not be relegated to history as just another “conflict” or a mere tragedy… History does not take its cues from Israel or Western powers. Gaza will indeed result in the kind of global shifts that will affect us all, far beyond the Middle East. For now, however, it is most urgent that we use our collective will and action to influence one single historical event: ending the genocide and the famine in Gaza. The rest will be left to history, and to those who wish to be relevant when the world changes again” [49].

In 2024 I published a huge book entitled “Free Palestine. End Apartheid Israel, Human Rights Denial, Child Killing, Gaza Massacre, Occupation and Palestinian Genocide” [50].  The sub-title lists the 6 key things that must happen to Free Palestine  from 77 years of genocidal Zionazi rule.  Of these the quickest and most fundamental action is to grant the Palestinians  all the human rights set out in the 30 Articles of the Universal Declaration  of Human Rights (UDHR) [51]  and from which they have been excluded by the Zionazis for 77 Years [52-55]. This can  be simply done peacefully by the stroke of a pen as evidenced by the fall of Apartheid in South Africa by 1994. However it is extremely likely that the genocidally racist and child-killing Zionazis will not agree and accordingly must suffer draconian global Sanctions as were ultimately successfully applied to  Apartheid  South Africa.

The traumatising, starving, injuring, and killing of children, mothers, women and men must stop NOW.  Inaction is complicity. Decent Humanity must act by (a) informing everyone they can (the morally degenerate , US- and Zionist-perverted Western Mainstream presstitutes certainly won’t) and (b) urge and apply draconian Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against human rights-denying Apartheid Israel and all people, politicians , parties, collectives, companies and countries supporting this genocidally racist Apartheid pariah state in any way. 

References.

[1]. France 24, “UN says 242 journalists killed in Gaza as Al Jazeera mourns those killed in Israeli strike”, 12 August 2025: https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20250811-live-reporters-without-borders-slams-al-jazeera-journalist-s-murder-by-israeli-army .

[2]. Mohamed Solaimane, “Gaza – the deadliest war for journalists, but they keep reporting”, TRT Global, 11 August 2025: https://trt.global/world/article/50c0769bf3ab .

[3]. Free Palestine Melbourne, “Statement on the Assassination of Al Jazeera Journalists in Gaza”, 11 August 2025: https://www.freepalestinevic.org/press-releases/statement-on-the-assassination-of-al-jazeera-journalists-in-gaza/ .

[4]. Jeremy Webb: “Where is the outrage? Israel’s systematic mass assassination of journalists”, Pearls & Irritations, 16 August 2025: https://johnmenadue.com/post/2025/08/where-is-the-outrage-israels-systematic-mass-assassination-of-journalists/ .

[5]. John D. Marks, “Killing the Witness: Gaza’s Journalists and the Global Blueprint of Disappearance”, Countercurrents, 13 August 2025: https://countercurrents.org/2025/08/killing-the-witness-gazas-journalists-and-the-global-blueprint-of-disappearance/ .

[6]. Robert Inlakesh. “Dehumanize and destroy: How western media helped target Gaza’s journalists”, The Cradle, 14 August 2025: https://thecradle.co/articles/dehumanize-and-destroy-how-western-media-helped-target-gazas-journalists .

[7]. Anas Al-Sharif, “Last testament”, Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ans.al.alshryf.2025/posts/742925041926114 .

[8]. Chantelle Al-Khouri and Lauren Day, “Journalists in Gaza are writing their own obituaries, after Israel brands them ‘terrorists’”, ABC, 12 August 2025: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08-12/palestinian-journalists-israeli-air-strikes-anas-al-sharif/105639346 .

[9]. International Federation of Journalists, “White Paper on global journalism”, IFJ, 2020: ”, https://www.ifj.org/fileadmin/user_upload/IFJ_white_book__part_1.pdf .

[10]. Gideon Polya, “Remember Shireen Abu Akleh: Apartheid Israel Leads The World For Killing Journalists”, Countercurrents, 6 June 2022: https://countercurrents.org/2022/06/remember-shireen-abu-akleh-apartheid-israel-leads-the-world-for-killing-journalists/ .

[11]. Brendan Ciaran Browne, “The killing of Shireen Abu Akleh a fatal sign of sign of Israel’s control ”, The Irish Times, 16 May 2022: https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/killing-of-shireen-abu-akleh-a-fatal-sign-of-israel-s-control-1.4878879 .

[12]. “Shireen Abu Akleh”, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shireen_Abu_Akleh .

[13]. WAFA News Agency, “Analysis website Countercurrents: Apartheid Israel leads the world for killing journalists”, 11 June 2022: https://english.wafa.ps/Pages/Details/129629 .

[14]. Amy Watson, “Most dangerous countries for journalists worldwide from 2016 to 2021, by deaths” , Statista, 18 January 2022: https://www.statista.com/statistics/267871/number-of-journalists-killed-by-region/ .

[15]. UN World Population Prospects 2019: https://population.un.org/wpp/DataQuery/ .

[16]. “Killing of journalists in the Gaza war”, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_journalists_in_the_Gaza_war .

[17]. Gideon Polya, “Gaza: Apply Sanctions To Apartheid Israel, US, UK, German, French, Australian & US Alliance State Terrorism”, Countercurrents, 15 August 2025: https://countercurrents.org/2025/08/gaza-apply-sanctions-to-apartheid-israel-us-uk-german-french-australian-us-alliance-state-terrorism/ .

[18]. Gideon Polya, “Gaza Genocide By Numbers: Apply BDS Over 0.7 Million Gaza Deaths From Violence And Imposed Deprivation”, 4 July 2025: https://countercurrents.org/2025/07/gaza-genocide-by-numbers-apply-bds-over-0-7-million-gaza-deaths-from-violence-and-imposed-deprivation/ .

[19]. Gideon Polya, “Mass Starvation In Gaza: World Must End Occupation, Provide Aid & Boycott US, Israel & Germany”, Countercurrents, 25 July 2025: https://countercurrents.org/2025/07/mass-starvation-in-gaza-world-must-end-occupation-provide-aid-boycott-us-israel-germany/ .

[20]. Gideon Polya, “Conditional recognition of Palestine mere words”, Pearls & Irritations, 6 August 2025: https://johnmenadue.com/letters_to_editor/2025/08/conditional-recognition-of-palestine-mere-words/ .

[21]. Søren Roest Korsgaard, “Quick analysis: Counting the Dead in Gaza”, Rethink Government, April, 2025: https://rethinkgovernment.com/quick-analysis-counting-the-dead-in-gaza/ .

[22]. EXPOSING THE GAZA DEATH UNDERCOUNT, BY RALPH NADER. HON. JOHN B. LARSON OF CONNECTICUT IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Tuesday, October 1, 2024: https://www.congress.gov/118/crec/2024/10/01/170/152/CREC-2024-10-01-pt1-PgE1000-3.pdf .

[23]. Devi Sridhar, “Scientists are closing in on the true, horrifying scale of death and disease in Gaza”, The Guardian, 5 September 2024: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/sep/05/scientists-death-disease-gaza-polio-vaccinations-israel .

[24]. Gideon Polya, “For science’s sake, vote the Coalition last”, Letters, The Independent, 3 April 2025: https://independentaustralia.net/vn.php?sd=eGpJZTMyenoxOTUyNnxZWFZ6ZEhKaGJHbGhPVGt3TUVCbmJXRnBiQzVqYjIwPXw3MDN8MTY3NzY2MzkwMA ):

[25]. Gideon Polya, “The Lancet: 64,260 Gaza Violent Deaths Indicating 257,000 Indirect Deaths In 9 Months”, Countercurrents, 14 January 2025: https://countercurrents.org/2025/01/the-lancet-64260-gaza-violent-deaths-indicating-257000-indirect-deaths-in-9-months/ .

[26]. Zeina Jamaluddine, Hanan Abukmail, Sarah Aly, Oona M R Campbell, and Francesco Checchi, “Traumatic injury mortality in the Gaza Strip from Oct 7, 2023, to June 30, 2024: a capture–recapture analysis”, The Lancet, 9 January 2025: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(24)02678-3/fulltext .

[27]. Susan Abulhawa, “Math proves that Israel’s stated goals are an epic lie”, The Electronic Intifada, 27 June 2024: https://electronicintifada.net/content/math-proves-israels-stated-goals-are-epic-lie/47371 .

[28]. Rasha Khatib, Martin McKee and Salim Yusuf, “Counting the dead in Gaza: difficult but essential”, The Lancet, Volume 404, Issue 10449, p237-238, 10 July, 2024: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(24)01169-3/fulltext .

[29]. Gideon Polya, “Estimated 273,000 Gazans Killed In the First Year Of Oxford Union-Perceived Gaza Genocide By Apartheid Israel”, Countercurrents, 6 December 2024: https://countercurrents.org/2024/12/estimated-273000-gazans-killed-in-the-first-year-of-oxford-union-perceived-gaza-genocide-by-apartheid-israel/ .

[30]. Gideon Polya, “Stop The Killing & Occupation: Comparisons Of Jewish Israeli-Imposed Gaza Genocide Deaths With Nazi Atrocities”, Countercurrents, 12 November 2024: https://countercurrents.org/2024/11/stop-the-killing-occupation-comparisons-of-jewish-israeli-imposed-gaza-genocide-deaths-with-nazi-atrocities/ .

[31]. Richard Hil and Gideon Polya, “Skewering History: The Odious Politics of Counting Gaza’s Dead”, Arena, 11 July 2025: https://arena.org.au/politics-of-counting-gazas-dead/ .

[32]. UNHCR Refworld Global Law and Policy Database, Geneva Declaration Secretariat, “Global burden of armed violence”, 2008, Chapter 2: https://www.refworld.org/reference/research/gds/2008/en/64390 .

[33]. Gideon Polya, “Zionist-Perverted Western Mainstream Media Ignore 186,000 Palestinian Deaths In Apartheid Israeli Gaza Genocide”, Countercurrents, 15 July 2024: https://countercurrents.org/2024/07/zionist-perverted-western-mainstream-media-ignore-186000-palestinian-deaths-in-apartheid-israeli-gaza-genocide/ .

[34]. Gideon Polya, “Anti-racist Jews threatened by Zionist McCarthyism” , Pearls & Irritations, 9 August 2025: https://johnmenadue.com/letters_to_editor/2025/08/anti-racist-jews-threatened-by-zionist-mccarthyism/ .

[35]. Gideon Polya, “What Mainstream Australian Media Won’t Report”, Tasmanian Times, 31 May 2025: https://tasmaniantimes.com/2025/05/what-mainstream-australian-media-wont-report/ .

[36]. “Australian Mainstream media lying and censorship”, Mainstream media lying: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammedialying/australian-mainstream-media-lying-censorshp .

[37]. “Racist & lying Australian Mainstream ignores awful truths”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammedialying/racist-lying-australian-mainstream-ignores-awful-truths .

[38]. Ralph Nader, “It is a Holocaust”: An Open Letter to Media Executives Regarding the Vast Undercount of Gaza Carnage”, Countercurrents, 16 August 2025: https://countercurrents.org/2025/08/an-open-letter-to-media-executives-regarding-the-vast-undercount-of-gaza-carnage/ .

[39]. World Health Organization (WHO), “Child mortality (under 5 years)”, 28 January 2022: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/child-mortality-under-5-years#:~:text=Globally%2C%20infectious%20diseases%2C%20including%20pneumonia,for%20children%20under%205%20years.

[40]. Civil Liberties in Australia: Chapter 7, Tasmania, “Roller-coaster ride for local liberties”: https://www.cla.asn.au/Article/2018/Ch7%20TAS%20151109%20copy%20180819.pdf .

[41]. John Polya, “Are We Safe? A layman’s guide to controversy in public health”, F.W. Cheshire, 1964.

[42]. John Polya and Robert Solomon, “Dreyfus in Australia”, Fast Books, 1996.

[43]. “Sharpeville Massacre”, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharpeville_massacre .

[44]. Gideon Polya, “Apartheid Israel Among World Leaders For Killing Children”, Countercurrents, 15 June 2022: https://countercurrents.org/2022/06/apartheid-israel-among-world-leaders-for-killing-children/ .

[45]. Emma Graham-Harrison and Jason Burke, “Gaza’s children face catastrophe as death toll nears 4,000, UN warns”, Guardian, 5 November 2023: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/05/gazas-children-face-catastrophe-as-death-toll-nears-4000-un-warns .

[46]. Gideon Polya, 491 Sins & Gaza Genocide: Neo-Nazi Apartheid Israel Leads World In Killing Children & Journalists”, Countercurrents, 6 November 2023: https://countercurrents.org/2023/11/491-sins-gaza-genocide-neo-nazi-apartheid-israel-leads-world-in-killing-children-journalists/ .

[47]. Gideon Polya, “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” , Korsgaard Publishing, 2021.

[48]. Gideon Polya, “A Shocking List of 52 Zionist- & Apartheid Israeli-Nazi Germany Comparisons, Countercurrents, 7 August 2021: https://countercurrents.org/2021/08/a-shocking-list-of-52-zionist-apartheid-israeli-nazi-germany-comparisons/ .

[49]. Dr Ramzy Baroud, “The Arab, the Left and Those Who Remained Silent: History Will Not Forgive You”, Countercurrents, 15 August 2025: https://countercurrents.org/2025/08/the-arab-the-left-and-those-who-remained-silent-history-will-not-forgive-you/ .

[50]. Gideon Polya, “Free Palestine. End Apartheid Israel, Human Rights Denial, Child Killing, Gaza Massacre, Occupation and Palestinian Genocide”, Korsgaard Publishing, 2024.

[51]. “ Universal Declaration of Human Rights”: https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights .

[52]. Gideon Polya, “Australia must stop Zionist subversion and join the World in comprehensive Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Apartheid Israel and all its supporters”, Subversion of Australia, 15 April 2021: https://sites.google.com/site/subversionofaustralia/2021-04-15 .

[53]. Gideon Polya, “Universal Declaration of Human Rights & Palestinians. Apartheid Israel violates ALL Palestinian Human Rights”, Palestine Genocide Essays, 24 January 2009: https://sites.google.com/site/palestinegenocideessays/universal-declaration-of-human-rights-palestinians .

[54]. Gideon Polya, “Apartheid Israel Excludes Occupied Palestinians From All Provisions Of The Universal Declaration Of Human Rights”, Countercurrents, 20 May 2012: https://countercurrents.org/polya200512.htm .

[55]. Gideon Polya, “Breakthrough: ICJ Rules Israel’s Occupation Of Occupied Palestinian Territory Unlawful”, Countercurrents, 20 July 2024: https://countercurrents.org/2024/07/breakthrough-icj-rules-israels-occupation-of-occupied-palestinian-territory-unlawful/ .

Dr Gideon Polya taught science students at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia over 4 decades. He published some 130 works in a 5 decade scientific career, notably a huge pharmacological reference text “Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds” (2003). 

18 August 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor

Palestinian Territory – More than 30 Palestinians sustain permanent or temporary disabilities each day in the Gaza Strip, as part of the genocide carried out by Israel since October 2023.

The number of persons with disabilities in the Gaza Strip has risen by about 35 per cent compared to the period before the genocide, as a direct result of Israeli attacks deliberately targeting civilians. The Israeli army systematically employed excessive force and highly destructive weapons to maximise deaths and injuries, causing permanent disabilities and severe physical and psychological suffering to thousands of Palestinians. This forms part of Israel’s systematic policy of destruction, integral to the ongoing crime of genocide.

From about 156,000 Palestinians injured during Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip over 681 days of genocide, the Euro-Med Monitor field team documented more than 21,000 cases of permanent or temporary disability. This exceptionally high rate reflects Israel’s use of highly destructive weapons, including cluster munitions, heavy explosives, and missiles fired at populated areas, causing amputations, deformities, and severe brain and sensory damage. These practices form part of a deliberate policy to maximise physical and psychological suffering among civilians.

Prior to Israel’s genocide in Gaza in October 2023, the number of people with disabilities in the Strip was estimated at about 58,000. In less than 23 months, 21,000 new cases of permanent and temporary disability were recorded, raising the proportion of people with disabilities to around 3.4 per cent of the total population, directly caused by Israel’s ongoing crimes.

Furthermore, the initial figure of 58,000 before October 2023 was not the result of natural or purely health-related causes, but was largely driven by repeated Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip over the years, including the excessive use of force against peaceful demonstrators in the Great March of Return and successive military assaults that left thousands with permanent injuries. This demonstrates that Israel had already been systematically increasing the number of people with disabilities in Gaza even before the current genocide.

Based on data from the Palestinian Ministry of Health and institutions concerned with persons with disabilities, Euro-Med Monitor documented 8,700 cases of permanent disability, including 4,800 amputations, 1,200 cases of paralysis, 1,200 cases of blindness, and 1,500 cases of other disabilities such as speech and hearing loss and disabilities caused by major burns.

In addition to violent attacks with highly destructive weapons, the deliberate denial of medical care through the targeting of the health system, the blockade, and restrictions on the entry of medicines and surgical supplies, as well as leaving the injured for hours or days under rubble due to the obstruction and targeting of rescue efforts and the lack of equipment, have all exacerbated the risk of disability and amputation.

The repeated targeting of medical personnel and the obstruction of their access to the wounded, the blockade restricting patients’ movement and preventing treatment abroad, recurring injuries from explosions and explosive bullets, and environmental pollution caused by shelling and the use of chemical weaponry such as white phosphorus are all causing chronic injuries and permanent disfigurements, further increasing the number of people with disabilities in the Gaza Strip.

The rise in amputations is also linked to the collapse of the healthcare system, which Israel has systematically targeted. Overwhelmed hospitals receive huge numbers of injured people, forcing medical teams to prioritise cases and leaving many without timely, critical treatment.

Alongside the collapse of health services, harsh living conditions caused by forced displacement, the destruction of homes, the confinement of hundreds of thousands to tents without basic necessities, the absence of sewage networks and clean water, widespread pollution, and severe shortages of food and essential medicines, especially antibiotics, have turned treatable injuries into serious infections that in many cases led to amputation, driving disability rates in the enclave to unprecedented levels.

During its ongoing ground incursions into the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army has detained many people with disabilities. Although Israeli authorities withhold clear data on detainees from Gaza, Euro-Med Monitor has confirmed that those with disabilities face deadly and inhumane conditions in Israeli prisons and military detention centres. They are subjected to physical and psychological torture and denied basic rights, including medical care, while accurate information about their fate remains unavailable.

The suspension of medical referrals has prevented thousands of injured people from accessing advanced treatment and essential surgeries outside Gaza, forcing under-resourced local teams to resort to amputation as the only option and directly increasing the number of people with disabilities.

Israel not only destroyed Gaza’s health system but also targeted vital facilities and institutions serving persons with disabilities. Almost all specialised centres and associations were destroyed or severely damaged, with around 80 per cent completely destroyed. These include Assalama Charity Association, Baitona for Community Development, Jabalia Rehabilitation Society, the Palestinian General Union of People with Disability, Atfaluna Society for the Deaf, Accessible Beach Break, Al Salam Sports Club for People with Disabilities, the Association of Visually Impaired Graduates, Right to Live Society, the Centre for Disability and Inclusion Services at the Islamic University of Gaza, the Communication Disorders Clinic at the University College of Applied Sciences, El-Amal Rehabilitation Society, the Society of Friends for People with Special Needs, and the Society of Physically Handicapped People.

This systematic destruction of disability institutions seeks to dismantle the support and rehabilitation framework for this group, deepening the impact of disability and depriving those affected of their most basic rights.

Israel also disrupted the work of the UNRWA’s Al-Nour Centre for the Visually Impaired in Gaza City, which provided children with Braille tools, guide canes, and specialised educational services. The facility had been converted into a shelter.

It also inflicted extensive damage on the Sheikh Hamad Hospital for Rehabilitation and Prosthetics, the only facility in Gaza capable of manufacturing prosthetic limbs and offering comprehensive rehabilitation programmes. In addition, it destroyed homes and service centres that housed wheelchairs and prosthetic devices, depriving thousands of people with disabilities of essential services that enable mobility and independent living. This has turned disability into a double burden of suffering, reflecting a systematic policy of deliberately depriving the most vulnerable groups and imposing destructive living conditions on the entire population as part of the crime of genocide.

Of the roughly 62,000 Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks, more than 400 were persons with disabilities. In addition, an estimated 9,000 died from critical injuries due to the deliberate denial of healthcare and essential treatment, constituting intentional killing.

The unprecedented rise in disability rates reflects a deliberate pattern of inflicting serious harm, one of the elements of genocide under the 1948 Genocide Convention and the Rome Statute, which define causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of a group as an act of genocide when carried out with intent to destroy that group, in whole or in part.

Furthermore, many temporary disabilities are likely to become permanent due to the lack of medication, treatment, and rehabilitation, compounded by the collapse of the healthcare system and the ban on external medical referrals. This denies those affected essential care and severely limits their chances of recovery.

In testimony to Euro-Med Monitor, Anwar Ibsisa, 40, from Khan Yunis, recounted that he was shot in the back by an Israeli sniper while attempting to reach the US-backed GHF aid distribution centre in Rafah. He said: “I was lying in the area where people gather before reaching the aid centre. Suddenly, Israeli soldiers opened fire. I saw a young man getting shot in front of me. I ran to help him, but a bullet struck my back, hitting my spinal cord. Now I suffer from permanent hemiplegia.”

A.M., 38, injured on 15 June 2025 while trying to obtain aid in the Zikim area northwest of Gaza, said: “I was among people trying to get closer to the aid trucks when a quadcopter flew over and opened fire randomly. I was shot in the right leg and fell to the ground covered in blood before losing consciousness.”

He added: “When I woke up, I realised I had been bleeding for three hours. Even after reaching the hospital, I lay there for six hours without care. They told me there were no vascular doctors and that I had to wait.”

He continued: “After six days, they decided to amputate my leg without anaesthesia because the infection had spread. Days later, they cut another five centimetres, again without anaesthesia, as the infection worsened. The pain was excruciating.”

Mohammed Awad, 27, from Gaza City, who lost his leg when his home was bombed, said: “I used to work to support my family, but now I cannot stand on my feet. I feel as if my life has suddenly stopped.”

In another testimony to Euro-Med Monitor, Amna H., 19, from Khan Yunis, who lost her sight in the Israeli bombing of her family’s home, said: “I wake up every day to pitch-black darkness. I did not only lose my eyes, but also the ability to see my mother and siblings.”

Sami al-Kurd, 35, from Jabalia camp in northern Gaza, who was left partially paralysed by an Israeli airstrike, said: “My body no longer obeys me. I need help with the simplest tasks. This occupation has robbed me of my independence and dignity.”

The tragedy of disability does not end with injury or amputation but worsens daily under Israel’s policies of destruction and impoverishment. Those affected are left without limbs or physical abilities, deprived of treatment, rehabilitation, and prosthetic devices that could help them live more independently. In an environment without resources, medicine, adequate food, or safe housing, disability becomes a heavy burden on both the individual and their family, while repeated displacement and life in tents without basic necessities deepen feelings of helplessness and isolation.

These consequences go beyond humanitarian impacts and are deliberately used to undermine Palestinians’ ability to survive and thrive. They inflict deep psychological scars that weaken resilience, restrict productive potential and participation in reconstruction, and intensify suffering in displacement camps and ill-equipped shelters, reflecting a systematic policy to drain Palestinian society of its strength and capacity to prosper.

Targeting civilians and causing permanent disability constitutes a deliberate act at the core of the crime of genocide, falling within the intentional infliction of serious harm on the Palestinian people as a protected group under the 1948 Genocide Convention. It is a fundamental element of the crime under both the Convention and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, as widespread disability undermines the physical and psychological capacity of the Palestinian people to survive and clearly reflects the destructive intent inherent in genocide.

The international community must act urgently to halt the genocide, hold Israeli officials accountable before international and national courts, and provide immediate humanitarian assistance to Palestinians with disabilities in Gaza, including treatment, prosthetic limbs, psychological care, and rehabilitation services. This requires rebuilding specialised facilities destroyed by Israel, ensuring the entry of prosthetic devices and surgical supplies, and establishing sustainable programmes for care, social support, and economic empowerment to guarantee these victims their basic rights to dignity and independent living.

All states, individually and collectively, must urgently meet their legal obligations to end the genocide in the Gaza Strip in all its forms. This requires concrete measures to protect Palestinian civilians and lift the illegal blockade, as only then can the accelerating humanitarian collapse be halted and aid allowed into the enclave. Any delay in lifting the blockade will only worsen an already uncontainable catastrophe, leaving more than two million people trapped in hunger, disease, and thirst, deprived of the basic conditions for a dignified life.

The international community must also impose economic, diplomatic, and military sanctions on Israel in response to its systematic and grave violations of international law. This includes banning weapons exports to Israel and halting arms purchases from it; suspending all forms of political, financial, and military support and cooperation; freezing the assets of officials involved in crimes against Palestinians or inciting such acts; and imposing travel bans on them. Moreover, trade privileges and bilateral agreements that grant Israel economic advantages, enabling it to commit crimes, must be suspended.

The international community must urgently fulfil its legal and moral obligations by addressing the root causes of the Palestinian people’s suffering and oppression, ongoing for 77 years. It must ensure their right to live in freedom, dignity, and self-determination in line with international law, end the apartheid regime imposed by the Israeli settler-colonial enterprise, lift the illegal blockade of the Gaza Strip, hold Israeli perpetrators accountable, and guarantee Palestinian victims their right to compensation and redress.

Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor is a Geneva-based independent organization with regional offices across the MENA region and Europe

18 August 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Dr. Fai

Kashmiri American community observed the 77th anniversary of unimplemented UN Commission for India and Pakistan (UNCIP) resolution of August 13, 1948, by renting the digital led trucks in New York city. The digital trucks were sponsored by Washington-based ‘World Kashmir Awareness Forum’. The resolution of August 13, 1948, states that ‘the Government of India and the Government of Pakistan reaffirm their wish that the future status of the state of Jammu and Kashmir shall be determined in accordance with the will of the people.’

The digital trucks were carrying the message: “Struggle for Free Kashmir Will Never Impede: To UN Resolutions India Will Have to Concede”; “In Kashmir India Enforcing Ethnic Cleansing: UN Guilty of Inertia and Caught Sleeping”; “UN Resolutions Succinctly State: Kashmir is Not an Indian Protectorate”; “Kashmiris Reject Indian Occupation: UN Resolution only Solution”; “Kashmir Conflict Should be Heeded: Mediation of President Trump is Highly Needed”; “Settler Colonialism and Demographic Alterations: India Shreds UN Resolutions”; “No Election, No Selection: UN Resolution the Only Solution.”

Dr. Ghulam N. Mir, President, World Kashmir Awareness Forum and Executive Producer, Saffron Kingdom, a Kashmiri film said that the UNCIP was established by the UN Security Council in 1948 to investigate and mediate the dispute over Jammu and Kashmir between India and Pakistan. UNCIP was tasked with facilitating a ceasefire, demilitarization, and holding a plebiscite under the auspices of the United Nations to determine the future political status of Kashmir as mandated by the UNSC Resolution 47 of April 21, 1948.

Dr. Mir added that the dream of Kashmiris, and the world around remains unfulfilled to this day. Peace remains elusive for the region and despite its massive military force unarmed Kashmiris in and around the globe remain defiant. The UN may be weak, but Kashmiris remain resilient and hopeful of their future.

Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai, Chairman, World Kashmir Awareness Forum said that Kashmir is not an “internal matter” for India, it is an international dispute recognized by the United Nations Security Council since 1948, which promised Kashmiris the right to choose their future through a free vote. International law, including the Fourth Geneva Convention, clearly forbids an occupying power from moving the people into occupied land. India’s demographic engineering in Kashmir under military control is a direct violation of that law.

Dr. Fai added that while Kashmir suffers, the world’s democracies issue only soft words of concern. The UN Security Council has limited itself to closed door discussions, with no resolutions, no sanctions, and no real action. This silence helps India speed up its colonial project. Without real diplomatic and economic pressure, Kashmir’s identity could disappear within a generation.

Dr. Imtiaz Khan, Kashmiri American scholar said that United Nations Security Council resolutions adopted 77 years ago remain unimplemented. This is the outcome of conceited attitude of successive Indian governments and lackadaisical attitude of the United Nations. The creation of UN in 1945 apparently marked a major turning point in global diplomacy, aiming to prevent future conflicts, foster peace, and promote cooperation among nations. But as far as Kashmir is concerned, the United Nations has failed to deliver.

Dr. Khan added that India has not only exhibited lack of compliance, but she has integrated Kashmir as part of the country and since August 2019 she is actively pursuing the line of action that can be construed as settler colonialism, demographic alteration and ethnic cleansing. Under these circumstances the credibility of UN is at stake. The message it sends that with economic prowess, huge military force and weapons that can cause mass destruction, the nations can shred any resolution and thump at the nose of international community.

Raja Mukhtar, Spokesman of JKLF North America and the main organizer of the event said that after Article 370 was abrogated, Domicile law was enacted which has increased a sense of insecurity and has made indigenous Kashmiris strangers within their own land.

Raja Mukhtar maintained that the people of Kashmir have given sacrifices beyond imagination. But one thing, Indian army could not do: it could not kill the sentiments and aspirations of the people of Kashmir for freedom. Those sentiments of the people of Kashmir are growing day by day. Mohammad Yasin Malik is the prime example who has not abandon the cause, despite inhuman conditions he endures within the walls of Tihar Jail.

Sardar Taj Khan, senior vice chairman, Kashmir Mission USA and co-organizer of the event said let us send a clear message to the people of Kashmir that Kashmiri diaspora and friends of Kashmir stand committed to carry on the struggle till the final settlement of the Kashmir dispute.

Sardar Taj added that the Kashmiris across the globe have rejected the reprehensible attempts of Indian government to change the demographic character of our nation and resolved to counter India’s bigoted settler colonialism through peaceful resistance.

Sardar Sawar Khan, former Advisor to the Prime Minister of Azad Kashmir alerted that whole Kashmir has been converted into a concentration camp. Any voice of dissent is met by long-term imprisonment or even death. Thus, it is exigent for the Kashmir diaspora to disseminate these atrocious stories to world and question their criminal silence over this important issue which has potential to jeopardize the existence of South Asia – one fifth of total human race.

Advocate Sardar Imtiaz Khan Garalvi said that the Global Kashmiri diaspora leadership has unanimously resolved to pursue the struggle to protect the unique and historical identity of the State of Jammu and Kashmir against all challenges. He appealed to all peoples of conscience and the international community to raise their voices against the brutal oppression the people of Jammu and Kashmiri are suffering under the occupying forces of the Government of India.

Sardar Zarif Khan, Advisor to the President of Azad Kashmir said that Indian draconian laws grant legal immunity to any type of crime against humanity perpetrated by Indian army in Kashmir. Torture is an international crime. Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 7 of International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) clearly state, “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”. Yet Indian soldiers who are involved in torture in Kashmir are not prosecuted because they have been given immunity under the Indian law.

Sardar Zubair Khan, Director, Community Affairs, ‘Voices of Justice in Kashmir’ said that India’s war crimes in Kashmir are shameful. The presence of 900,000 Indian soldiers has made Kashmir the largest army concentration anywhere in the world. The atrocities committed by Indian army has intensified manifold after August 5, 2019, when article 35 A and 370 were abrogated by Indian Government.

Raja Liaqat Kiyani, President, Kashmir House Maryland said that the Kashmir dispute could only be resolved through the free exercise by the Kashmiri people of their UN-pledged right of self-determination, and not by military means as India is attempting to do. He added that the lives and hopes of Kashmiris should not be snuffed out by a “might-makes-right” approach to international relations, moral values and universal principles.

Sardar Shoaib Irshad, Joint Secretary, ‘Kashmir American Welfare Association’ (KAWA) said that the Domicile law means that everything the people of Kashmir own for centuries can be taken away by the Government of India at its will. Long-term design is to restrict local Muslim population in ghettos, snatch their livelihood so that they are at the mercy of the foreigners.

Br. Aalam of Bangladeshi businessman called on Government of India to accede to international law and to cooperate in holding a referendum.  India itself will benefit by the vast savings in military and paramilitary forces in Kashmir. He added that India’s design is ultimately change the demography of Kashmir.

Dr. Fai is also the Secretary General, World Kashmir Awareness Forum.

He can be reached at: WhatsApp: 1-202-607-6435. Or. gnfai2003@yahoo.comwww.Kashmirawareness.org

New York. August 13, 2025

By

Dear Secretary-General Guterres,

Amidst the ongoing Israeli genocide in the Gaza Strip and mass forcible displacement across the West Bank, the Strategic Assessment of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), published in June 2025, raises urgent concerns for all actors committed to upholding the rights and protection of Palestinian refugees—and for the United Nations itself in fulfilling its Charter mandate and obligations under international law.

Rather than challenging the Israeli campaign targeting UNRWA, violating international law, and upholding and reinforcing UNRWA’s mandate, the Assessment treats the Agency’s collapse as inevitable—presenting four future scenarios that, in different ways, dismantle the last operational UN institution serving over 5.9 million Palestine refugees.

In our paper, Engineered Collapse: The United Nations’ Strategic Assessment of UNRWA and Palestinian Refugee Rights, our analysis finds that the Assessment:

• Decontextualizes UNRWA’s mandate in the ongoing situation of genocide, colonialism, apartheid, and forced displacement;
• Prioritizes the political interests of certain Member States and the Israeli regime over binding international legal obligations;
• Proposes reforms that would fragment and localize refugee protection, offloading responsibilities onto host states;
• Ignores viable and just funding solutions, such as integrating UNRWA’s budget into the UN’s regular budget or utilizing revenues from Palestinian refugee properties held in custodianship;
• Portrays UNRWA’s neutrality through a colonial lens, instrumentalizing the Agency as a tool of “regional stability” for donor-driven political agendas.

At the heart of this matter lies the indivisible relationship between UNGA Resolutions 302 and 194. Article 11 of Resolution 194 establishes the right of Palestinian refugees to reparations—including return, property restitution, compensation, rehabilitation, and guarantees of non-repetition. Article 5 of Resolution 302 grounds UNRWA’s mandate in this still-unrealized right of return, stipulating that its operations are without prejudice to it. The Agency’s existence is a direct consequence of non-implementation of this right, and its dismantlement could only be justified once that right has been fully realized.

Another troubling trend is found both in the Strategic Assessment and in recent discussions—including the High-Level International Conference for the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution. Despite the clear legal framework affirming Palestinian refugee rights, the Assessment links UNRWA’s continued existence to the realization of the two-state solution rather than to the exercise of the Palestinian right of return. Notably, Paragraph 14 of the New York Declaration on the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine highlights the prospects outlined in Scenario Four of the Strategic Assessment. This scenario envisions transferring UNRWA’s services to the Palestinian Authority, which would politicize the Agency and violate its mandate.

Tying the Agency’s role and existence to this political framework compromises its neutrality, shifts its operational purpose away from fulfilling Palestinian refugees’ rights, and absolves the international community of their obligations to provide international protection.

Lastly, the Assessment’s failure to recognize the Israeli regime’s long-standing campaign to dismantle UNRWA as a legal emergency, normalizes its obstruction as an administrative matter instead of a violation of UN privileges and immunities. This limited treatment starkly contrasts with the gravity of the situation, which has resulted in the gravest loss of life ever suffered by any UN agency—over 330 UNRWA personnel killed and more than 311 UNRWA installations destroyed in Gaza since the Israeli genocide began.

BADIL and the Global Palestinian Refugee and IDP Network (GPRN, a coalition of 42 community-based organizations active in displaced communities across Mandatory Palestine and abroad) call on the UN Secretary-General to: 

• Safeguard the UN’s commitment to international law and the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, by ensuring that UNRWA’s mandate is upheld in full, shielded from politicization, and adequately resourced in accordance with the UN’s legal responsibilities;
• Reject the adoption of the Strategic Assessment, ahead of the upcoming renewal of UNRWA’s mandate by the UN General Assembly.

Sincerely,

BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency & Refugee Rights and the Global Palestinian Refugee and IDP Network (GPRN).

20 August 2025

Source: badil.org

Dr. Imtiaz Khan

Kashmiri American Scholar &
Board Member, World Kashmir Awareness Forum

August 20, 2025

Yasin Malik (born 3 April 1966 in Srinagar, Kashmir) is a prominent leader for the movement of Kashmiri independence and the chairman of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front. Raised in the Maisuma neighborhood of Srinagar, Malik’s political activism began early, when he founded the Tala Party and later the Islamic Students League. In the late 1980s, frustrated by blatant rigging of election in the 1987, he along with his colleagues launched a movement that demanded implementation of UN Security Council resolutions on Kashmir, to which both India and Pakistan are signatory. The mass agitation received mammoth support from the people of Kashmir and international attention unnerved government of India. Yasin Malik was jailed and tortured and consequently, he developed heart ailment and lost his ability to hear from one of his ears. He has been checked for these conditions by several physicians in the United States, but the damage is so severe that the defect is beyond total cure. 

It is important to mention Amy Waldman who wrote in the New York Times on August 24, 2002, that “Rigged elections in Kashmir in 1989 helped trigger the armed uprising that India estimates has taken more than 35,000 lives.”

Yasin Malik is not run of the mill politician, but a revolutionary leader who has flame of freedom burning in his heart. In media interviews he succinctly states that his involvement in “armed struggle” was outcome of the actions by Indian state. The voices of freedom were throttled and space for non-violent protests was diminished. Under mounting pressure from the people of Kashmir and the attention it received from international community, in 1994, a delegation headed by Ambassador Kuldip Nayyar was dispatched by Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao to contact Mr. Malik in the Jail. It was unequivocally affirmed that all cases against him will be dropped if he eschews violent measures. 

The statement by eminent journalist Ambassador Kuldip Nayyar in Redfiff.com on August 7, 1999, bears testimony to his fulfillment of the promise.  In Mr. Nayar’s words “The first militant, Yasin Malik, who raised his gun at a public meeting in the heart of Srinagar, has turned nonviolent and vegetarian. Now he is a follower of Mahatma Gandhi.” A prominent journalist Bharat Bhushan, wrote in a prestigious daily ‘The Telegraph’ on February 4, 2007, “The president of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), one of the first to wield the gun in Kashmir, is today training youngsters in non-violent politics. He uses a curious mixture of religion — Sufism — and non-violence to build a constituency for peace in Jammu and Kashmir.”

Indian government cannot ignore the fact that their former Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, interacted with Yasin Malik on February 17, 2006, at 6.00 p.m. (India time) and meeting lasted for more than an hour.  Dr. Singh sought help from Yasin Mailk and suggested him to take an initiative to bring separatist and militant voices into a dialogue process that can lead India–Pakistan peace parleys. It was conveyed to Yasin Malik by Prime Minister Singh that he had no qualms in visiting Pakistan to advance the peace talks. Subsequently, before visiting Pakistan, Yasin Malik flew to Washington and discussed the peace initiative with then the Assistant Secretary of State, Richrd A. Boucher. He also had a meeting with Elizabeth Millard in National Security Council.

Yasin Malik was invited by Dr. Micheal Krepon, President of Henry L. Stimpson Center, Washington; Dr. Stephen Phillip Cohen, senior fellow in foreign policy studies at Brookings Institutions, Dr. T. Kumar, the Director for International Advocacy at Amnesty International, Washington, DC, to speak on the peace initiative between India and Pakistan and his role in strengthening the dialogue process. Yasin Malik also spoke at New York based, Asia Society and Harvard University Asia Center. It would be illogical, irrational and insane to expect that Prime Minister of India or the representatives of state department or representative of American think-tanks would meet with a person who has committed murderous acts. 

In April 2025, while still incarcerated, Malik told India’s Supreme Court that he is a “political leader, not a terrorist,” and highlighted that multiple Indian prime ministers who had previously engaged Yasin Malik in dialogue. He also defended his choice to represent himself in court and clarified that his organization was never officially listed as a terrorist group under UAPA post-1994 ceasefire. On August 8. 2025, Malik appeared virtually before Delhi High Court. He had pleaded for physical presence rather than appearance via virtual mode. His plea was rejected.  Presently the National Investigation Agency (NIA) of India is asking for the enhancement of Mr. Malik’s life imprisonment into death penalty. The next hearing will be on November 19, 2025.

One wonders what his crime is.  Earlier trial court had said that crimes committed by Malik struck at the ‘heart of the idea of India’ and were intended to forcefully secede Jammu and Kashmir from the union of India. One wonders how Kashmir can secede from India when according to all international agreements including the UN resolutions, Kashmir has never acceded to India in the first place. Associated Press reported that Yasin Malik said during the trial, “Terrorism-related charges leveled against me are concocted, fabricated and politically motivated” and that “If seeking Azadi (Freedom) is a crime, then I am ready to accept this crime and its consequences.”

Sampat Prakash—a prominent Kashmiri Pandit, trade union leader, and activist—described Yasin Malik, the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chairman, as a courageous leader who “lives in the hearts of the Kashmiri people.” He highlighted Malik’s transition from armed resistance to leading a peaceful struggle for Kashmir’s freedom and expressed pride in his friend for having spent much of his life in jail for the Kashmir cause. Sampat Prakash urged Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to demonstrate sincerity toward resolving the Kashmir conflict by visiting Srinagar’s Martyrs’ Graveyard, bowing before the graves of innocent victims, and seeking forgiveness from the Kashmiri people. Despite ideological differences, Sampat Prakash publicly acknowledged Yasin Malik’s influence and commitment to the cause of Kashmir. 

The plan and intentions of the current fascist regime are more sinister when it comes to the case of Yasin Malik. Narinder Modi is using Yasin Malik as a pawn for his domestic agenda. The fascist government is encountered with severe backlash due to recent defeat from Pakistan and failed foreign policy. Increase tariffs imposed by present US government has led to economic downturn and Modi’s popularity is in tatters. To ameliorate his political standing, Prime Minister Modi is using concocted, cooked up and contrived cases against Yasin Malik. It should be noted that earlier Indian supreme court had rejected curative appeals for seeking death sentence for Yasin Malik. The trial court ruled that the case did not meet the Supreme Court’s “rarest of rare” threshold for capital punishment. Indian agencies are pursuing nefarious activities by conducting fresh raids after more than three and half decades to manufacture evidence to achieve their iniquitous goals.  

The International community must take cognizance of that historical behavior of India in cases like late Afzal Guru where it was stated by Chief justice of supreme court that notwithstanding the lack of overwhelming evidence, the death sentence needs to be carried to fulfill the collective conscience of the majority. Thereafter, the chief justice was rewarded with seat in the Indian parliament on his superannuation. 

By eliminating peace-loving leaders like Yasin Malik, the Indian regime is closing any avenues of peace in the region and pushing the youth of Kashmir towards actions that can be detrimental to the peaceful resolution of Kashmir conflict. We appeal to the United Nations and other world powers, including President Donald Trump to earnestly impress upon the Indian government to let international standards of justice prevail and free Mohammad Yasin Malik.

By Jeffrey D. Sachs* and Sybil Fares* – Common Dreams

An immediate UN Security Council vote to grant Palestine permanent membership in the UN next month would put an end to Israel’s zealous delusions of permanent control over Palestine. It cannot happen without US backing.

President Donald Trump wants a Nobel Peace Prize, and his efforts toward peace in Ukraine, if successful, could possibly help him earn one—but only if he also ends US complicity in the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Under Trump, as under former President Joe Biden, the US has served as Israel’s partner in mass murder, annexation, starvation, and the escalating torment of millions of Palestinians. The genocide can, and will, stop if Trump wills it. So far he has not.

Israel is committing genocide—everyone knows it, even its staunchest defenders. The Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem has recently made a poignant acknowledgment of “Our Genocide.” In Foreign Affairs, former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew recently admitted that extremist parties in Netanyahu’s government openly aim to starve Palestinians in Gaza. Lew frames his piece as praise for the former Biden administration (and for himself) for their supposedly valiant efforts to prevent mass starvation by pressuring Israel to allow minimal food entry, while blaming Trump for easing that pressure.

Yet the actual importance of the piece is that an ardent Zionist insider certifies the genocidal agenda sustaining Netanyahu’s rule. Lew recounts that in the aftermath of October 7, Israelis frequently pledged that “not a drop of water, not a drop of milk, and not a drop of fuel will go from Israel to Gaza,” a stance that still shapes Israel’s cabinet policy. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) can use Lew’s article as confirmation of Israel’s genocidal intent.

The genocide in Gaza, coupled with the annexation in the West Bank, aims to fulfill the Likud vision of a Greater Israel that exercises territorial control between the Sea and Jordan. This will destroy any possibility of a Palestinian state, and any possibility of peace. Indeed, Bezalel Smotrich, the extremist minister of finance and minister in the ministry of defense, recently vowed to “permanently bury the idea of a Palestinian state” while the Knesset has recently called for annexation of the occupied West Bank.

The US aids and protects Israel every day in these horrific crimes against the Palestinian people. The US provides billions of dollars in military support, goes to war alongside Israel, and offers diplomatic cover for Israel’s crimes against humanity. The vacuous mantra that “Israel has the right to defend itself” is the US pat excuse for Israel’s mass murder and starvation of innocent civilians.

Generations of historians, psychologists, sociologists, philosophers, and inquiring minds will ask how the descendants and co‑religionists of the Jews murdered by Hitler’s genocidal regime came to become genocidaires. Two factors, deeply intertwined, come to the fore.

First, the Nazi Holocaust lent credence among Jews to the Zionist claim that only a state with overwhelming military power and ready to use it can protect the Jewish people. For these militarists, every Arab country opposed to Israel’s ongoing occupation of Palestine became a dire foe to be crushed by war. This is Netanyahu’s doctrine of violence, which was first unveiled in the Clean Break strategy, and which has produced nonstop Israeli mobilization and war, and a society now gripped by implacable hatred even of innocent women and children in Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria. Netanyahu has dragged the US into countless devastating and futile wars out of Netanyahu’s blindness to the reality that only diplomacy, not war, can achieve Israel’s security.

Second, this non-stop resort to violence reignited a dormant strain of Biblical Judaism, notably based on the Book of Joshua, which presents God’s covenant with Abraham as justification for genocides committed in conquering the Promised Land. Ancient zealotry of this kind, and the belief that God would redeem his chosen people through violence, fueled suicidal revolts against the Roman Empire between 66 and 135 AD. Whether the genocides in the Book of Joshua ever occurred (probably not ) is beside the point. For today’s zealots, the license to commit genocide is vivid, immediate, and biblically ordained.

Aware of the danger of self-destructive zealotry, the rabbis who shaped the Babylonian Talmud proscribed Jews from attempting to return en masse to the promised land (Ketubot 111a). They taught that Jews should live in their own communities and fulfill God’s commandments where they are, rather than seeking to recapture a land from which they had been exiled following decades of suicidal revolt.

Whatever the fundamental reasons for Israel’s murderous turn, Israel’s survival among nations is at risk today as it has become a pariah state. For the first time in history, Israel’s Western allies have repudiated Israel’s violent ways. France, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada have each pledged to formally recognize the State of Palestine at the upcoming UN General Assembly in September. These countries will finally join the will of the overwhelming global majority in recognizing that the two-state solution, enshrined in international law, is the true guarantor of peace.

The majority of the American people, are rightly revulsed by Israel’s brutality and are also turning their support massively to the Palestinian cause. In a new Reuters poll released today, 58% of Americans now believe that the UN should recognize the State of Palestine, against just 32% who oppose that. American politicians will surely note the change, at Israel’s peril, unless the two-state solution is rapidly implemented. (Logical arguments can also be given for a peaceful one-state, bi-national solution, but this alternative has essentially no backing among UN member states and no basis in the international law regarding the Israel-Palestine conflict that has developed over more than seven decades.)

This Israeli government will not change course on its own. Only the Trump administration can end the genocide through a comprehensive settlement agreed by the world’s nations at the UN Security Council and UN General Assembly. The solution is to stop the genocide, make peace, and salvage Israel’s standing in the world by creating a Palestinian state alongside Israel on the June 4, 1967 borders.

For decades, the entire Arab and Islamic world has supported the two-state solution, and advocated to normalize relations with Israel and guarantee security for the entire region. This solution is in full accordance with international law, and was again espoused clearly by the UN General Assembly in the NY Declaration last month at the conclusion of the United Nations High-Level International Conference on the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution (July 29, 2025).

Trump has come to understand that to save Ukraine, he must force it to see reality: that NATO cannot expand to Ukraine as that would directly threaten Russia’s own security. In the same way, Trump must force Israel to see reality: that Israel cannot continue to rule over the Palestinian people, murder them, starve them, and ethnically cleanse them. The two-state solution thereby saves both Palestine and Israel.

An immediate UN Security Council vote to grant Palestine permanent membership in the UN next month would put an end to Israel’s zealous delusions of permanent control over Palestine, as well as its reckless territorial ambitions in Lebanon and Syria. The focus of the crisis would then shift to immediate and practical issues: how to disarm non-state actors within the framework of the new state and regional peace, how to enable mutual security for Israel and Palestine, how to empower the Palestinians to govern effectively, how to finance the reconstruction, and how to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to a starving population.

Trump can make this happen at the UN in September. The US, and only the US, has vetoed the permanent membership of Palestine in the UN. The other members of the UN Security Council have already signaled their support.

Peace in the Middle East is possible now—and there is no time to lose.

*Jeffrey D. Sachs is a University Professor and Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, where he directed The Earth Institute from 2002 until 2016. 

20 August 2025

Source: other-news.info

By Paul Craig Roberts 

What do we make of it?

A good result came of it. Trump moved away from his demand for a ceasefire and said that it was more important to work toward a permanent peace than a ceasefire which is seldom kept. 

This would seem to commit Trump to addressing the root cause of the conflict, which is Russia’s insecurity with NATO all over her borders.

Putin said that the meeting marked the transition from confrontation and threats to dialogue. This prospect alone made the meeting worthwhile.

These are good results. In a world of nuclear weapons the level of tension had become untenable.

For hopes to be realized two barriers must be recognized and overcome. One is the neoconservative doctrine of American hegemony. The other is the interest of the US military/security complex.

The doctrine of hegemony requires overcoming Russia in order to achieve Washington’s unilateralism. Is this doctrine too institutionalized to be repudiated?

The budget, influence over Congress, and power of the military/security complex requires a major enemy. Russia fills that role. Peace on equal terms with Russia takes away the enemy, and the budget and influence of the military/security complex declines. There are military bases or weapon manufacturers in almost every state, which means this interest is also institutionalized as President Eisenhower warned us it would be.

Therefore, the question before us is: how likely is it that Trump can get NATO and missile bases off of Russia’s border? It is not at all likely if attention cannot be directed to the basic problem.

How helpful will media be? It is the wrong focus to emphasize that Putin wanted the meeting in order to show that he was not isolated and could meet with the American president like Zelensky and Netanyahu do.  

The meeting was fortuitous. Trump had trapped himself. His threatened secondary sanctions or tariffs against India and other BRICS members backfired. Faced with his own 10-day deadline, he had to find a way out. He found it in an immediate meeting with Putin. For Trump the meeting was a way of getting himself off of the spot.

The opportunity to wind down a confrontation that would likely end in nuclear war is based on luck. 

Can this lucky outcome be turned into a mutual security agreement? That depends on the strength of the neoconservatives’ doctrine of hegemony and the willingness of the military/security complex to accept declining sales and profits. Until it is realized that these two interests are the barriers to peace that must be overcome, there will be no peace process.

*

Paul Craig Roberts is a renowned author and academic, chairman of The Institute for Political Economy. Dr. Roberts was previously associate editor and columnist for The Wall Street Journal.

18 August 2025

Source: globalresearch.ca

By Alan Macleod

7 Aug 2025 – After reaching an agreement with President Trump, David Ellison—the son of the second-richest man in the world, Larry Ellison—has acquired Paramount Global, the media giant that owns CBS News.

Larry Ellison, the largest private funder of the Israel Defense Forces, is deeply tied to the Israeli national security state and counts Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu among his closest friends.

David has already announced significant changes at CBS, promising “unbiased” news coverage and “varied ideological perspectives,” which are widely understood to signal a shift toward right-wing, pro-Trump coverage. Worse still, Bari Weiss, a journalist with a long history of zealous pro-Israel advocacy, is being considered as the network’s new ombudsman, shaping its political direction, precisely because of her “pro-Israel stance.”

MintPress News examines Ellison’s close ties to both Trump and Israel, Weiss’s extensive career as Israel’s most vocal supporter in the U.S., and what this means for the future of free and diverse speech in America.

Israel’s Man In Silicon Valley

Although Skydance, Ellison’s media empire, is officially headed by David, it is well understood that father Larry holds both the purse strings and the reins of power. With a net worth of $301 billion, placing him second on the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires Rankings, Larry made his fortune by founding tech giant Oracle.

Oracle started as a project for the Central Intelligence Agency. Indeed, it is named after Project Oracle, a 1970s CIA operation on which Ellison worked. For some time, the CIA was Oracle’s only customer, until it began to win contracts with other agencies of the U.S. national security state. Today, although Oracle’s customer base is much wider, it maintains its role as the privatized face of the CIA.

Yet if Oracle is close to Washington and Langley, it is perhaps even more intimately tied to the State of Israel. An avowed Zionist, Ellison has worked tirelessly to advance Israel’s political project. Among his closest personal friends is Benjamin Netanyahu, with whom he vacationed on his private island in Hawaii. Ellison was so impressed and confident in the Israeli prime minister that he offered him a seat on his company’s board, replete with a salary of $450,000.

While Oracle has signed multiple lucrative contracts with the Israeli national security state, Ellison himself has personally bankrolled the Israeli Defense Forces, giving tens of millions of dollars to the Friends of the IDF, an organization that purchases equipment for the Israeli military. This included a $16.6 million pledge (the largest single donation the group has received) to build a new training facility for soldiers defending what he called “our home.” As Ellison explained:

In my mind, there is no greater honor than supporting some of the bravest people in the world, and I thank Friends of the IDF for allowing us to celebrate and support these soldiers year after year. We should do all we can to show these heroic soldiers that they are not alone.”

Oracle sees itself as an activist organization, one whose goal is the advancement of the Israeli colonization project. Safra Catz, the company’s Israeli-American CEO, bluntly explained that any employees uncomfortable with supporting a genocide should simply quit. “We are not flexible regarding our mission, and our commitment to Israel is second to none,” she said, adding:

This is a free world and I love my employees, and if they don’t agree with our mission to support the State of Israel, then maybe we aren’t the right company for them. Larry and I are publicly committed to Israel and devote personal time to the country, and no one should be surprised by that.”

For a deep dive into Oracle and its connections to both U.S. and Israeli power, read the MintPress News investigation, “Openly Pro-Israel Tech Group Now Has Control over UK’s Most Sensitive National Security Data.”

18 August 2025

Source: transcend.org

By Prof. Jan Oberg

13 Aug 2025 – But did you know? Is this discussed now when the UN turn 80 in October? No, politicians, media and scholars generally focus on war and ignore humanity’s most important peace-maker.

“UNITED NATIONS, Aug 12 2025 (IPS) – The United Nations, facing a liquidity crisis, has been threatening to lay-off about 20 percent of its estimated 37,000 employees world-wide: a proposed move that has triggered widespread protests from staff unions both in New York and Geneva.”
Thus starts Thalif Dean’s analysis in a recent IPS article.

The UN is in a liquidity crisis!!!???

This is an issue the whole world should talk about NOW.

This is a situation that every thinking person should condemn in the strongest possible terms: The UN must cut down, while the rest of the world, the West in particular with its 5% of the GNP, invests perverse sums in militarism and war, while other, cheaper and more efficient, peace-making means are available.

It is not that the UN should not be reformed and made more efficient. But in whose interest is it to force the UN to become even more poor and powerless?

World military expenditure reached $2718 billion in 2024, an increase of 9.4 per cent in real terms from 2023 and the steepest year-on-year rise since at least the end of the cold war, SIPRI has just told the world.

No reaction! No outrage!

Here are key facts about the United Nations’ budget:

The General Assembly has approved a $3.72 billion budget for the United Nations for 2025. The UN regular budget funds the core administrative costs of the organisation, including the UN General Assembly, Security Council, Secretariat, International Court of Justice, special political missions, and human rights entities.

“The biggest single item of expenditure is (UN) peacekeeping, which costs $9 billion across all agencies ($7.9 billion via DPKO). Much of the rest is spent on humanitarian assistance (e.g. $ 4.5 billion from the World Food Programme, $3.2 billion from the High Commissioner for Refugees, $2.3 billion from UNICEF – the children’s fund) or development programmes (e.g. $5 billion from the UN Development Programme). Overall $14.9 billion is spent on humanitarian assistance and $12 billion on development programmes.” More here.

Thus, these main items make roughly US$ 31 billion: 4 + 15 + 12 for all the United Nations does in our world.

Thus, the UN has 1,1% of the world’s military expenditures to do good worldwide.

Or, UN member states spend 100 times more on armament and war than on the entire UN system. Further, the US, one of the largest contributors to the UN budget, does all it can to undermine the UN, leave its organisations and cut down its contribution.

And as of 7 August 2025, only 119 Member States have paid their regular budget assessments in full.

Here is how the UN is funded and who is not paying up – and more. And here is one that puts it all in perspective: “When you add up the regular UN Secretariat and peacekeeping budgets, the annual average cost of the UN for each person on the planet is about $1.25; that’s about the cost of a bag of chips…”

There exists no way the world can move towards a future with more peace and less violence as long as these priorities continue – and continue un-discussed as if they were natural, normal and healthy. The reality is that the global system is fundamentally sick, militarising itself to death. Period.

Military expenditures have never been as high as they are today, and everyone talks about the increasing risk of war, regional or global. Armament means less security, and bigger risks. And possessing nuclear weapons is a violation of international law.

In contrast, disarmament, another type of defence thinking, education about conflict analysis, resources for mediation and peace-making will, without a doubt, increase human and global security and open roads to peaceful co-existence.

The madness must stop. Therefore:

World taxpayers unite!
Refuse to pay for these perverse priorities.
Let the Military-Industrial-Media-Academic Complexes, MIMAC, arrange coffee and bake sales for their – kakistocratic – militarism and war.

See also my recent article “The UN at 80: Still humanity’s most important organisation, but member states deliberately destroy it” and this conversation:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DYuL68qNN8]

Prof. Jan Oberg, Ph.D. is director of the independent Transnational Foundation for Peace & Future Research-TFF in Sweden and a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment.

18 August 2025

Source: transcend.org