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The Masar Badil, the Palestinian Revolutionary Alternative Path Movement renews its call to the soldiers and officers of the Arab Army of Egypt, and to the masses of the Egyptian people, to assume their national, moral, Arab and human responsibility to defend Egypt’s sovereignty and dignity and support the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.

The current situation is extreme: The Camp David regime is fully involved in the genocidal siege and blockade of Gaza, illustrating its transition from a state of surrender to Zionist and US conditions into an actual participant in the US-“Israeli” crimes, preventing humanitarian aid from reaching the besieged Gaza Strip for 19 years, amid the ongoing Zionist aggression, the genocidal war, and the policy of starvation and imposed famine that has been ongoing since 7 October 2023.

The official position of the Egyptian regime does not respect the sentiments and wishes of our people in Egypt, Palestine and throughout the entire Arab world. It has become a sword and a whip in the hands of the Zionist entity, slaughtering and beating the Palestinian people on a daily basis. The Sisi regime in Cairo violates the principles of international humanitarian law, human rights law, and UN resolutions through its actions, which do not express the conscience of the great Egyptian people, nor does it represent Egypt’s brave soldiers and officers.

We urge the Egyptian masses and their national forces, the workers, students, men, women and free intellectuals, to take urgent action in the squares, streets, universities and unions to express their support for the resistance in Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen. The ongoing repression and silencing of voices in Egypt aims to forestall change, protect US-Zionist interests, and prevent Egypt’s liberation from the “agreements” of humiliation and surrender to the enemy. It is urgent to pressure the Cairo regime to free all political prisoners and jailed activists from Egyptian prisons.

The Zionist enemy, and behind it, the United States and Western imperialist powers, seek to undermine and marginalize Egypt’s prestige and historical position through daily public expressions of their contempt for the regime in Cairo, an “ally” — in reality, a tool — of the United States, completely dependent upon the decisions of Riyadh and Abu Dhabi, their interests and class and political privileges, at the expense of the Egyptian people, their self-determination and their future. This reality makes Egypt dependent and confined, with no ownership over its decisions and no meaningful sovereignty.

We renew our salute to the brave Yemeni people, their heroic armed forces and their steadfast revolutionary leadership, which supports our people’s struggle in Palestine. Their action has moved Yemen from a peripheral, marginalized position under previous governments to a central leading position at the heart of the struggle, a truly influential and effective Arab party in all regional and international calculations.

26 March 2025

Source: masarbadil.org

By Michel Chossudovsky

[This article titled Twenty-six Years Ago: NATO’s War of Aggression Against Yugoslavia. Who Are the War Criminals? by Prof. Michel Chossudovsky was first published by Global Research. You may read it here.]

Twenty-six years ago in the early hours of March 24, 1999, NATO began the bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. “The operation was code-named “Allied Force ” – a cold, uninspired and perfectly descriptive moniker” according to Nebosja Malic.

March 15, 2025. I am currently in Belgrade: This was NATO’s first war against a sovereign nation-state. It was a criminal undertaking. It was also a dress rehearsal for all subsequent US-NATO-led wars.

This article was first written in early May 1999 at the height of the bombing of Yugoslavia.

The causes and consequences of this war have over the years been the object of a vast media disinformation campaign, which has sought to conceal and dismiss NATO and US war crimes against the people of the former Republic of Yugoslavia.

It is important to note that in the late 1990s, a large segment of the “Progressive Left” in Western Europe and North America were part of this disinformation campaign, presenting NATO military intervention as a necessary humanitarian operation geared towards protecting the rights of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.

The intervention was in violation of international law. President Milosevic at the 1998 Rambouillet talks had refused the stationing of NATO troops inside Yugoslavia.

The demonization of Slobodan Milošević has served over the years to uphold the legitimacy of the NATO bombings as well as conceal the crimes committed by the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).

It also provided credibility to “a war crimes tribunal” under the jurisdiction of those who committed extensive war crimes in the name of social justice.

Slobodan Milosevic was arrested and deported to The Hague Tribunal ICTY detention Centre. The Just War thesis was also upheld by several prominent intellectuals who viewed the Kosovo war as: “a Just War”.

In turn the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) was upheld by several “leftists” as a bona fide liberation movement rooted in Marxism.

The KLA –whose leader Hachim Thaci until recently was president of Kosovo– was a paramilitary army supported by Western intelligence, financed and trained by the US and NATO. It had ties to organised crime. It also had links to Al Qaeda, which is supported by US intelligence. Hashim Thaci has been on the Interpol list in the 1990s.

In April-May 1999, there was ample evidence that the KLA leader supported by NATO was responsible for war crimes and that he was the Interpol list. On a personal note: I was blacklisted by so-called progressives as well as by the mainstream media for revealing this evidence as well confirming that Hashim Thaci was on the Interpol list.

On March 11, 2006, Milošević was found dead in his prison cell. According to his lawyer who had been in contact with him, Milosevic had been poisoned.

Exactly ten years later on March 24, 2016, the Hague ICTY Tribunal exonerated Milosevic stating he was innocent of the crimes he was accused of.

In a bitter irony, Thaci was rewarded for his crimes, appointed prime minster of Kosovo in 2008, and then president in early April 2016.

Meanwhile, the United States established Camp Bondsteel in 1999, “the largest and the most expensive foreign military base built in Europe since the Vietnam War.”

It took the “international community” to acknowledge that Hashim Thaci had committed extensive crimes against humanity.

In June 2020, Kosovo President Hashim Thaci was charged with ten counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role in the country’s conflict in the 1990s by the Kosovo Tribunal in The Hague.

Thaci and three other former leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) are accused of overseeing illegal detention facilities where the movement’s opponents were kept in inhumane conditions, tortured and sometimes killed. He continues to be described as a wartime hero.

It is worth noting that the same “leftists” who supported the KLA in 1999 are now supporting the Syrian “revolutionaries” (affiliated to Al Qaeda and supported by US-NATO).

Today our thoughts are with the people of Yugoslavia whose country was fragmented and destroyed by US-NATO.

Our thoughts are also with the people of Kosovo who were victims of extensive NATO bombings as documented in this article written 21 years ago at the height of NATO’s war of aggression against Yugoslavia.

—Michel Chossudovsky, March 15, 2025

______________________________________________________

NATO’s War of Aggression Against Yugoslavia: Who Are the War Criminals?

By Michel Chossudovsky, 15 May 1999

Low Intensity Nuclear War

With NATO air-strikes entering their third month, a new stage of the War has unfolded. NATO’s “humanitarian bombings” have been stepped up leading to mounting civilian casualties and human suffering. Thirty percent of those killed in the bombings are children.[1] In addition to the use of cluster bombs, the Alliance is waging a “low intensity nuclear war” using toxic radioactive shells and missiles containing depleted uranium. Amply documented, the radioactive fall-out causes cancer potentially affecting millions of people for generations to come. According to a recent scientific report, “the first signs of radiation on children including herpes on the mouth and skin rashes on the back and ankles” have been observed in Yugoslavia since the beginning of the bombings.[2]

In addition to the radioactive fall-out which has contaminated the environment and the food chain, the Alliance has also bombed Yugoslavia’s major chemical and pharmaceutical plants. The bombing of Galenika, the largest medicine factory in Yugoslavia has contributed to releasing dangerous, highly toxic fumes. When NATO forces bombed plants of the Pancevo petrochemical complex in mid-April “fire broke out and huge quantities of chlorine, ethylene dichloride and vinyl chloride monomer flowed out. Workers at Pancevo, fearing further bombing attacks that would blow up dangerous materials, released tons of ethylene dichloride, a carcinogen, into the Danube.”[3]

NATO to the “Rescue of Ethnic Albanians”

Ethnic Albanians have not been spared by NATO air raids. Killing ethnic Albanians in Kosovo is said to be “inevitable” in carrying out a “humanitarian operation on behalf of ethnic Albanians”. In addition to the impacts of the ground war between the KLA and the Yugoslav Armed Forces, the bombings and the resulting radioactive fall-out in Kosovo have been more devastating than in the rest of Yugoslavia.

Presented as a humanitarian mission, the evidence amply confirms that NATO’s brutal air raids of towns and villages in Kosovo have triggered the exodus of refugees. Those who have fled their homes to refugee camps in Macedonia and Albania have nothing to return to, nothing to look forward to… An entire country has been destroyed, its civilian industry and public infrastructure transformed into rubble. Bridges, power plants, schools and hospitals are displayed as “legitimate military targets” selected by NATO’s Combined Air Operations Centre (CAOC) in Vicenza, Italy and carefully “validated prior to the pilot launching his strike.”

With the “diplomatic shuttle” still ongoing, the Alliance is intent on inflicting as much damage on the Yugoslav economy (including Kosovo) as possible prior to reaching a G8 brokered “peace initiative” which will empower them to send in ground troops. “Allied commanders have steadily widened their list of economic targets… Increasingly, the impact of NATO air strikes has put people out of work… causing water shortages in Belgrade, Novi Sad and other Serbian cities. … [T]he effect was to shut down businesses, strain hospitals’ ability to function and cut off water…”[4]. Some 115 medical institutions have been damaged of which several have been totally demolished. And hospital patients –including children and the elderly– are dying due to the lack of water and electricity…[5]

General Wesley Clark, NATO’s Supreme commander in Europe, confirmed in late May that “NATO’S air campaign has not reached its peak yet and the alliance should be prepared for more civilian casualties.”[6] General Clark also confirmed that “he would be seeking to increase the number of air strikes in Kosovo and expand the range of targets.[7] As the bombings entered their third month, there was also a noticeable change in “NATO rhetoric”. The Alliance had become increasingly unrepentant, NATO officials were no longer apologising for civilian casualties, claiming that the latter were contributing to “helping Milosevic’s propaganda machine.”

Extending the Conflict Beyond the Balkans

Drowned in the barrage of media images and self-serving analyses, the broader strategic interests and economic causes of the War go unmentioned. The late Sean Gervasi writing in 1995 had anticipated an impending War. According to Gervasi, Washington’s strategic goals stretched well beyond the Balkans. They largely consisted in “installing a Western-style regime in Yugoslavia and reducing the geographic area, power and influence of Serbia to a minimum….”[8]

In this context, the installation of American power in Southern Europe and the Mediterranean also constitutes a step towards the extension of Washington’s geopolitical sphere of influence beyond the Balkans into the area of the Caspian Sea, Central Asia and West Asia.

In this regard, NATO’s military intervention in Yugoslavia (in violation of international law) also sets a dangerous precedent. It provides “legitimacy” to future military interventions. To achieve its strategic objectives, national economies are destabilised, regional conflicts are financed through the provision of covert support to armed insurgencies… In other words, the conflict in Yugoslavia creates conditions which provide legitimacy to future interventions of the Alliance into the “internal affairs of sovereign nations.”

The consolidation of American strategic interests in Eastern Europe, the Balkans (and beyond) was not only marked by the enlargement of NATO (with the accession of Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic as NATO members) barely two weeks before the beginning of the bombings, the War in Yugoslavia also coincided with a critical split in geopolitical alignments within the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

In late April, Georgia, the Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Moldava signed a pact in Washington, creating GUUAM, a regional alliance which lies strategically at the hub of the Caspian oil and gas wealth, “with Moldava and the Ukraine offering [pipeline] export routes to the West.”[9] This geopolitical split bears a direct relationship to the crisis in Yugoslavia. The region is already unstable marked by nationalist conflicts and separatist movements.

The members of this new pro-NATO political grouping not only tacitly support the bombings in Yugoslavia, they have also agreed to “low level military cooperation” with NATO while insisting that “the group is not a military alliance directed against any third party, namely Moscow.”[10]

Dominated by Western oil interests, the formation of GUUAM is not only intent on excluding Russia from the oil and gas deposits in the Caspian area but also in isolating Moscow politically thereby potentially re-igniting Cold War divisions…

The War Has Stalled Nuclear Arms Controls

In turn, the War in Yugoslavia has significantly stalled nuclear arms-control initiatives leading to the cancellation of an exchange program “that would have had US and Russian nuclear weapons officers in constant contact at year’s end to prevent any launches as a result of Year 2000 computer troubles.”[11]

Moreover, Russia’s military has also voiced its concern “that the bombing of Yugoslavia could turn out in the very near future to be just a rehearsal for similar strikes on Russia.”[12]

According to Dr. Mary-Wynne Ashford, co-president of the Nobel Peace Prize winning International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), the impact of NATO bombings of Yugoslavia “on nuclear weapons policy is an extremely serious development… Russians feel a sense of betrayal by the West… because NATO took this action outside the UN.”[13]

Aleksander Arbatov, deputy chairman of the Defence Committee of the Russian State Duma U.S.-Russian relations describes the War in Yugoslavia as the “worst most acute, most dangerous juncture since the U.S.-Soviet Berlin and Cuban missile crises.”[14] According to Arbatov:

“START II is dead, co-operation with NATO is frozen, co-operation on missile defence is out of the question, and Moscow’s willingness to co-operate on non-proliferation issues is at an all-time low. Moreover, anti-U.S. sentiment in Russia is real, deep and more wide-spread than ever, and the slogan describing NATO action – “today Serbia, tomorrow Russia,” is “deeply planted in Russian’s minds.”…[15] Mary-Wynne Ashford also warns that whereas Russia was moving towards integration with Europe, they [the Russians] now:

“…. perceive their primary threat from the West. Officials in [Russia’s] Foreign Affairs (Arms Control and Disarmament) told us that Russia has no option but to rely on nuclear weapons for its defence because its conventional forces are inadequate…. Even if the bombings stop now, the changes in Russia’s attitude toward the West, its renewed reliance on nuclear weapons with thousands on high alert, and its loss of confidence in international law leave us vulnerable to catastrophe…. This crisis makes de-alerting nuclear weapons more urgent than ever. To those who say the Russian threat is all rhetoric, I reply that rhetoric is what starts wars”.[16]

The Media War: “Silencing the Silent Majority”

This war is also “a War against the Truth”. With protest movements developing around the World, NATO has reinforced its clutch over the mass media. In a stylised (“wag the dog”) media masquerade, the Alliance is relentlessly portrayed as “the saviour of ethnic Albanian Kosovars.” A full-fledged “cover-up operation” has been set in motion with a view to thwarting public debate on the War. The hidden agenda is to “silence the silent majority.” The Western media heeding to the Alliance’s demands has blatantly misled public opinion. Casually portrayed on TV screens, civilian deaths are justified as inevitable “collateral damage”. According to the Pentagon, “there is no such thing as clean combat.”[17]

Meanwhile, anti-war commentators (including former ambassadors and OSCE officials) have been carefully removed from mainstream public affairs programmes, TV content is closely scrutinised, the images of civilian deaths and destruction relayed from Belgrade are seldomly and selectively displayed, journalists are under tight supervision. While the media does not hesitate to criticize NATO for having committed “errors” and “tragic mistakes”, the legitimacy of the military operation and its “humanitarian mandate” are not questioned:

“Public opinion is confronted with a loaded question which allows only one answer. In the present war, that question is, “Doesn’t ethnic cleansing have to be stopped?” This simplification allows the media to portray Yugoslavia rather than NATO as the aggressor. The alliance, in a complete inversion of reality, is presented as conducting an essentially defensive war on behalf of the Kosovar Albanians…” when in fact ethnic Albanians are the principle victims of NATO’s “humanitarian bombings.”[18]

According to NATO’s propaganda machine, “ethnic Albanians do not flee the bombings” and the ground war between the KLA and the Yugoslav Army. According to Diana Johnstone this makes them “nearly unique [because] throughout history, civilians have fled from war zones…. No, as we have heard repeatedly from NATO spokesmen and apologists, Kosovo Albanians run away from only one thing: brutal ethnic cleansing carried out by Serbs.”[19]

The refugee crisis we are told by NATO is limited to Kosovo. Yet the evidence (withheld by the Western media) confirms that people throughout Serbia are fleeing major cities:

Reliable estimates put the number of refugees who have left Belgrade to escape the bombing at 400,000. Most are women and children, as with the Kosovo Albanians. At least another 500,000 have left Serbia’s other cities, notably Novi Sad and Nish, where NATO bombing has caused air pollution, cut the water supply, and struck purely civilian targets such as market squares. Altogether, according to the Italian daily “Il Manifesto”, the NATO bombing has produced at least a million refugees in Serbia. Predrag Simic, foreign policy adviser to Serbian opposition leader Vuk Draskovic, told a Paris conference [in late May] that Kosovo was being so thoroughly devastated by NATO bombing that nobody, neither Albanians nor Serbs, would be able to go back and live there”.[20]

Who Is Responsible for War Crimes?

Public “disapproval” of NATO bombings is immediately dismissed as “Serbian propaganda”. Those who speak out against NATO are branded as “apologists of Milosevic”. While most anti-War critics in NATO countries are not defenders of the Milosevic regime, they are nonetheless expected to be “balanced” in their arguments. “Looking at both sides of the picture is the rule”: anti-war commentators are invited to echo NATO’s fabricated media consensus, to unequivocally “join the bandwagon” against Milosevic. Under these circumstances, an objective understanding and analysis of the role of the Milosovic government since the civil War in Bosnia and in the context of the present crisis in Kosovo has been rendered virtually impossible.

Media double standards? Whereas President Milosevic and four members of his government were indicted by the Hague International Criminal Tribunal (ICTY) (late May) for organising a policy of “ethnic cleansing” in Kosovo, the news media failed to mention that several parallel law suits were launched at The Hague Tribunal (ICTY), accusing NATO leaders of “crimes against humanity.”[21]

It is also worth mentioning that the UK government (whose Prime Minister Tony Blair is among the list of accused in one of the parallel law suits) has provided The Hague Tribunal with “intelligence on the situation within Kosovo” since the beginning of the bombings.[22] Part of this intelligence material was relayed by the KLA with which British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook has been in frequent contact as well as through British Special Forces (SAS) directly collaborating with the KLA.

Lawsuit Directed Against NATO Leaders

In May, a group of 15 Canadian lawyers and law professors together with the American Association of Jurists (with members in more than 20 countries) launched a suit against NATO leaders at the ICTY in the Hague.[23] The suit points to “open violation” of the United Nations Charter, the NATO treaty, the Geneva Conventions and the “Principles of International Law Recognized by the Nuremberg Tribunal”. The latter makes: “planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances” a crime.[24]

The list of crimes allegedly committed by NATO leaders includes:

“wilful killing, wilfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health, extensive destruction of property,… employment of poisonous weapons [implying radioactive fall-out] or other weapons to cause unnecessary suffering, wanton destruction of cities, towns, or villages, or devastation not justified by military necessity,… “[25]

Under the terms of reference of the ICTY “a person who planned, instigated, ordered, committed or otherwise aided and abetted in the planning, preparation or execution of a crime shall be individually responsible for the crime” and “the official position of any accused person, whether as Head of State or Government or as a responsible Government official, shall not relieve such person of criminal responsibility or mitigate punishment.”[26]

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson (and former President of Ireland) confirmed in Geneva on 30 April that the Prosecutor of the War Crimes Tribunal (ICTY) has the mandate not only to prosecute Serb forces but that the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and NATO may also come under scrutiny, “if it appears that serious violations of international humanitarian law have occurred.”

According to Walter J. Rockler, former prosecutor of the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials:

“The bombing war also violates and shreds the basic provisions of the United Nations Charter and other conventions and treaties; the attack on Yugoslavia constitutes the most brazen international aggression since the Nazis attacked Poland to prevent “Polish atrocities” against Germans. The United States has discarded pretensions to international legality and decency, and embarked on a course of raw imperialism run amok.”[27]

Read the full article on Global Research.

25 March 2025

Source: michelchossudovsky.substack.com

Mahmoud Khalil, a Syrian born Palestinian and former graduate student at Columbia University, has been detained in a prison in Louisiana and threatened with deportation for his association with pro-Palestine protests at Columbia, where he was a negotiator between the University and the student activists.   He is not the only foreign student to be threatened with deportation over his participation in these actions. At Cornell University, Momodou Taal, a Gambian-born UK citizen has been fighting expulsion and deportation for his participation in pro-Palestine protests, and at Yale, Dr. Helyeh Doutaghi, an Associate Research Scholar from Iran has been suspended for an alleged connection with Samidoun, an organization that supports Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons. There are tens of thousands of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons, many of them incarcerated without charge.

The detention and threat of deportation against Mahmoud Khalil and the punitive actions against other foreign students is a continuation of state repression practiced by Donald Trump and by his predecessors. The accusations against Khalil and the others are inventions meant to make examples of them and crush opposition to United States complicity in Israel’s ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people.

Zionist groups openly boast of giving the Trump administration names of non-citizens who they want to see deported. Yet Trump’s actions are an extension of the Patriot Act, the illegal detentions at Guantanamo Bay, and of institutions like Columbia University working with police departments to end peaceful protests. At other institutions faculty have been fired and students have been suspended or even expelled in an effort to placate the state and their own wealthy donors.

Trump is not just claiming a right to deport non-citizens who exercise their rights to speak and assemble freely, but he is continuing the Biden administration’s commitment to ethnic cleansing in Gaza, while Israel continues bombing and cutting off water and electricity, which are war crimes by definition, and in violation of a ceasefire agreement. Like other presidents, Trump is bombing Ansar Allah and civilians in Yemen to punish their steadfast solidarity with Palestine.  The Obama/Clinton initiative to destroy the Syrian Republic has also come to fruition, with the leader of Al Qaeda in Syria now ruling the country. At the same time, his multinational force of Takfiri-Wahhabi-Salifist extremists slaughters Alawite, Shia and Christian Syrians in the thousands.

Palestine is not the only point of contention that drives the state to repress speech. The Uhuru 3 were indicted by the Biden Department of Justice, accused of being Russian agents when they spoke against the proxy war in Ukraine. They were ultimately acquitted, but their case exemplified the commitment to silence individuals and movements who speak out against U.S. imperialism. The most common form of repression in the U.S. is the police state, as in Chicago, where the local police department ran a black site prison, Homan Square, with the help of the Justice Department under the Obama, Trump, and Biden presidencies.

Trump’s deportations in violation of court orders are a new threat to human rights. But Guantanamo Bay still holds prisoners, and the Patriot Act has been renewed several times since it was first passed in 2001.

UNAC demands freedom for Mahmoud Khalil and others repressed for exercising their rights to speak and assemble freely, an end to genocide and wars of aggression, and the end of university complicity in the suppression of political speech.

Free Palestine!

Stop Deportations!

Free all Political Prisoners!

Defend the Human Rights of Free Speech and Assembly!

Stop Imperialist Aggression!

_____________________________

17 March 2025

Source: nepajac.org

By Quds News Network

Gaza (Quds News Network)- More than 70 Palestinian civilians have been killed in Israeli airstrikes targeting multiple areas across the Gaza Strip, as Israel continues its bombardment of the enclave since Tuesday morning, resuming its genocidal war and violating the ceasefire agreement.

Local and medical sources have confirmed that more than 70 civilians have been killed so far, with the death toll expected to rise as many remain trapped under the rubble.

In Beit Lahiya, over 15 members of the Abu Halima family were killed after their home was targeted. The majority of the strikes have focused on Khan Younis, where 15 members of the Abu Dakka family lost their lives, most of them children.

[https://twitter.com/QudsNen/status/1902616568564969914]

[https://twitter.com/QudsNen/status/1902608748327162153]

According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, more than 700 Palestinians have been killed and over 900 others injured since the Israeli assault on Gaza began on Tuesday.

Israel Kills 17 Civilians at Funeral Tent in Northern Gaza

At least 17 Palestinians were killed and 32 others injured on Wednesday evening when an Israeli airstrike targeted a funeral tent in Al-Sultan neighborhood of Beit Lahia, northern Gaza Strip.

Israel carried out the attack as mourners were breaking their fast during Ramadan. Eyewitnesses described the strike as sudden and direct, targeting elderly mourners and children. Horrific scenes from the site were captured on camera, showing the extent of the devastation.

[https://twitter.com/qudsn/status/1902427637680632187]

[https://twitter.com/qudsn/status/1902408454859301101]

In a separate strike, Israeli warplanes bombed a home in Beit Hanoun, killing four women and children. Footage showed rescuers pulling their bodies from the rubble.

The Ministry of Health reported that the death toll from Israeli attacks since Tuesday morning has risen to 436, with 678 others injured. The total number of Palestinians killed since October 7, 2023, has now reached 49,547, with 112,719 wounded.

Israel resumed its genocidal war on Gaza early Tuesday morning, launching intense airstrikes across the strip. The attacks, which targeted civilians during pre-dawn meals, marked the official collapse of a ceasefire agreement brokered by Qatar, Egypt, and the United States in January.

20 March 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By The Chris Hedges Report

Israel has begun the final stage of its genocide. The Palestinians will be forced to choose between death or deportation. There are no other options.

22 Mar 2025 – This is the last chapter of the genocide. It is the final, blood-soaked push to drive the Palestinians from Gaza. No food. No medicine. No shelter. No clean water. No electricity. Israel is swiftly turning Gaza into a Dantesque cauldron of human misery where Palestinians are being killed in their hundreds and soon, again, in their thousands and tens of thousands, or they will be forced out never to return.

The final chapter marks the end of Israeli lies. The lie of the two-state solution. The lie that Israel respects the laws of war that protect civilians. The lie that Israel bombs hospitals and schools only because they are used as staging areas by Hamas. The lie that Hamas uses civilians as human shields, while Israel routinely forces captive Palestinians to enter potentially bobby trapped tunnels and buildings ahead of Israeli troops. The lie that Hamas or Palestine Islamic Jihad (PIJ) are responsible — the charge often being errant Palestinian rockets — for the destruction of hospitals, United Nations’ buildings or mass Palestinian casualties. The lie that humanitarian aid to Gaza is blocked because Hamas is hijacking the trucks or smuggling in weapons and war material. The lie that Israeli babies are beheaded or Palestinians carried out mass rape of Israeli women. The lie that 75 percent of the tens of thousands killed in Gaza were Hamas “terrorists.” The lie that Hamas, because it was allegedly rearming and recruiting new fighters, is responsible for the breakdown of the ceasefire agreement.

Israel’s naked genocidal visage is exposed. It has ordered the evacuation of northern Gaza where desperate Palestinians are camped out amid the rubble of their homes. What comes now is mass starvation — the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said on March 21 it has six days of flour supplies left — deaths from diseases caused by contaminated water and food, scores of killed and wounded each day under the relentless assault of bombs, missiles, shells and bullets. Nothing will function, bakeries, water treatment and sewage plants, hospitals — Israel blew up the damaged Turkish-Palestinian hospital on March 21 — schools, aid distribution centers or clinics. Less than half of the 53 emergency vehicles operated by the Palestine Red Crescent Society are functional due to fuel shortages. Soon there will be none.

TO CONTINUE READING Go to Original – chrishedges.substack.com

24 March 2025

Source: transcend.org

By Nicholas Jones

20 Feb 2025 – The current state of the world has cause for serious optimism as we bare witness to the arrival and reprisal of new and old actors on the global stage; actors that are capable of changing the present, somewhat drastic reality, into a shared future for humanity that will bring about more economic prosperity and faces the very real chance of eradicating major conflicts and poverty on planet earth for all citizens.

Open vs Closed Systems

The names above are pretty obvious in their setting, but we need to open up the major differences that separate the truly “sovereign” nations from the NATO Hegemon and its Vassal states. Initial factors that divide these two powers are easy to highlight; One seeks development while the other seeks domination, One aims to enslave and ensnare others into its economic system, while the other aims to cooperate and embolden one another in economic projects seeking win-win results. We continue – One uses its military might to corner and threaten weaker actors on the world stage, while the other uses its military for defensive obligations, scientific research and for civilian technological developments. This increases its ability to defend from the Hegemon, practicing a policy of restraint, while conflicts caused by these external actors, arise on their borders.

By now we should be getting a sense of what nations represent which system – China, Russia and Iran represent the Sovereigns while the U.S.A and its NATO vassals represent the closed minded Oligarchy, that has its roots firmly entrenched in the dark age mentality of the crusades – a world war battle of might makes right – not forgetting using faith based mythology as the literature for the war cry. Hardly the image of man that Jesus Christ or Plato envisioned.

The Path Is Closed for the Hegemon

NATO or the Anglo-American five eyes surveillance state, created it seems in the image of Sauron – the all-seeing eye of Mordor – stands exposed at the top of the world alter from which it has lectured others for so many years now. Since 1991 when this observer was born, there have been over 20 major conflicts initiated by the Anglo-American-Zionist hydra state and this has set the stage for the change we see today, a change, that if one truly believes that his fellow citizen is endowed with the same image that his creator bestowed upon himself, was inevitably going to arrive sooner rather than later. The Global South (Africa, ASEAN + South America) were never truly in lockstep with the Hegemon, but realized after many assassinations, regime change operations and outright invasions, that resisting the attempts of the Anglo-Americans to financially recolonize their nations, was futile, until an actor capable of challenging that closed system thinking of colonization and extortion, arrived on scene.

China arrived with much speed and grandeur thanks to her enormous population rooted in Confucian philosophy, while Mao’s CCP incorporated the imagery of socialism and not forgetting a Deng Xiaoping inspired economic renaissance, to bring about a rising tide that would lift all boats. This was not in opposition to the true western culture rooted in Platonic philosophy, but certainly opposed to the overly individualistic Aristotelian image presented by the Western Oligarchy, where democracy masks the overtly oligarchic intentions of our elite and has everyone divided into parties that achieve very little in the realm of physical development. One only need compare the almost Soviet-like bureaucracy of the E.U using Green politics to squander every economic breakthrough, with the ever expanding and scientifically developed economy of China that is largely responsible for most of the real intrinsic wealth creation in the world since the millennium. This is certainly true for Africa, hence why the path of colonization and extortion for economic gains, is now almost closed for the Anglo-American Empire.

(Below we have an image of the destruction of Libya when Hillary Clinton infamously cackled – “We came, we saw, he died” when talking about Muammar Qaddafi, the Pan-Africanist. This woman almost became president of the land of the free.)

TO CONTINUE READING Go to Original – risingtidefoundation.substack.org

24 March 2025

Source: transcend.org

By The Peace People

Open Letter on behalf of the Palestinian Children of Gaza and children everywhere in the world suffering from the violence of hunger and war.

21 Mar 2025 – In Gaza this week, over 400 innocent Palestinians, including 100 children, have been killed overnight as Israel unilaterally ended the ceasefire without any warning.  This policy of continuing genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people by the rogue Israeli government is not only fully known by all the governments around the world but is supported by money, arms and silent complicity of many governments, particularly USA/Britain/European union leaders.

There is a propaganda war against the truth being told of the over 55 wars going on in the world in which millions of children are dying as a result of militarism and war. The Political leadership of Europe is now planning to increase defence spending by 2.5% so that they can continue to fund wars around the world. The rearmament of Europe and its nuclear weapons built on whipped up fear and enmity amongst people will lead to World War, not peace and reconciliation amongst the human family.

What to do to save all our children from the madness of militarism and war?  Each of us no matter where we live must raise our voices to say NO. We will not allow these mad militarists and armed extremists to destroy our children. Refuse to hate, refuse to kill each other and demand instead dialogue and negotiation. Today in Gaza, the policy of starvation of 2.5 million people by Israeli policies is continuing and is killing children; we see it and it breaks our hearts!!!

As the children of Gaza are hungry and injured with bombs by official  Israeli policy, I have decided that I, too, must go hungry with them, as I can in good conscience do no other.

From today, I will fast and pray, fast and pray, that I in watching so much purposely imposed destruction of children, will not allow my own heart to be hardened against the killers of little children, but will stay ‘gentle’ and demand of our governments and armed militarists:

STOP THE MADNESS OF POVERTY, CRUELTY, MILITARISM AND WAR!

In the Ramadan Season, and Lent, let us join in fasting and prayer, in solidarity with a world fit for all our children built on non-killing, peace and justice. It is possible, and it starts with us teaching and living the science of peace, not war.

Peace People began in 1976 as a protest movement against the ongoing violence in Northern Ireland. Its three founders were Mairead Maguire, Betty Williams and Ciaran McKeown. Over 100,000 people were involved in the initial movement and two of the founders, Mairead and Betty, received the Nobel Peace Prize for that year.

Mairead Corrigan Maguire, co-founder of Peace People, is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment.

24 March 2025

Source: transcend.org

By Caitlin Johnstone

https://youtu.be/68oJWxbxVtM

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has published an explicit statement of genocidal intent toward the people of Gaza, threatening civilians in the enclave with collective punishment in the form of “total devastation” if they do not find a way to overthrow Hamas and free all Israeli hostages.

Katz’s statement reads as follows:

“Residents of Gaza, this is your final warning. The first Sinwar destroyed Gaza, and the second Sinwar will bring upon it total ruin. The Israeli Air Force’s attack against Hamas terrorists was only the first step. What follows will be far harsher, and you will bear the full cost.

“Evacuation of the population from combat zones will soon resume. If all Israeli hostages are not released and Hamas is not kicked out of Gaza, Israel will act with force you have not known before.

“Take the advice of the U.S. President: return the hostages and kick out Hamas, and new options will open up for you — including relocation to other parts of the world for those who choose. The alternative is destruction and total devastation.”

When Katz says “Take the advice of the US president,” he is referring to a statement made by President Trump earlier this month which made essentially the same threat addressed “to the People of Gaza,” saying, “A beautiful Future awaits, but not if you hold Hostages. If you do, you are DEAD! Make a SMART decision. RELEASE THE HOSTAGES NOW, OR THERE WILL BE HELL TO PAY LATER!”

When I criticized the US president for these remarks which explicitly threaten Gaza’s civilians, I got a deluge of Trump supporters telling me he wasn’t really talking about “the people of Gaza” as he said, but was rather speaking only about the ones who are actively holding hostages. Katz’s statement makes it abundantly clear that they were wrong, and that those of us who called a spade a spade at the time were correct.

The Israeli defense minister is simply following Trump’s position and reiterating what everyone who isn’t a blinkered partisan hack knew Trump was saying two weeks ago. He is doing this in exactly the same way Benjamin Netanyahu followed Trump’s position on ethnically cleansing Gaza last month by enthusiastically endorsing the plan Trump put forward to permanently remove all Palestinians from the enclave. Trump puts forward the plan, and Israeli officials put it into action.

So you’ve got both the US and Israeli governments openly threatening the entire population of the Gaza strip with the war crime of collective punishment if they don’t somehow kick Hamas out of Gaza, and additionally announcing the intent to inflict “total devastation” upon that population if they do not.

This is about as explicit an admission of genocidal intent as you can possibly come up with.

In its genocide case against Israel in the International Court of Justice, South African prosecutors compiled a mountain of evidence of Israeli officials announcing the intent to commit genocide in Gaza, such as Netanyahu describing Gaza’s population as “Amalek” in reference to a Bible story about a people who were completely annihilated on the orders of God, or former Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant describing Palestinians in Gaza as “human animals” while declaring a “total siege” on the enclave.

Al Jazeera’s Raz Segal and Penny Green wrote the following regarding the ICJ case last year:

“The crime of genocide has two elements — intention and execution — both of which have to be proven when accusations are made… Intention is usually harder to prove when accusations of genocide are made; the petitioner has to be able to prove “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such,” in the language of the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. But in Israel’s case, intention too has been laid bare by an ample amount of evidence — as the South African legal team pointed out.”

And Katz’s statement is probably the most clear and explicit admission yet. It’s hard to imagine a clearer declaration of genocidal intent than delivering a video statement addressed to a civilian population threatening them with “total devastation” if they don’t do as they’re told.

We may be sure that these statements by Katz and Trump have been added to files held by those who hope to successfully prosecute these monsters for war crimes one day. We may also be sure that they will be recorded in what will eventually be seen as one of the darker chapters in our civilization’s history.

Written by Caitlin Johnstone
21 March 2025

Source: caityjohnstone.medium.com

1. From Malaysia, we call on the conscience of the peoples of the world to rise up against the unjust imprisonment of Venezuelan migrants by the governments of the United States and El Salvador, and to demand respect for the rights of migrants, who left Venezuela due to the multiform war that they have imposed on that sister country and that is the cause of forced migration. Stop criminalizing migration!

STATEMENT ANTIFASCIST INTERNATIONAL MALAYSIA MARCH 25

 

The US-Zionist genocidal assault on Gaza is continuing, with over 100 airplanes dropping US-made weapons on Palestinians in schools, refugee camps, mosques and residential buildings, with over 200 martyrs and hundreds of wounded so far. The US and the Zionist entity bear joint and several responsibility for this crime, alongside their fellow imperialist powers Germany, Britain, France, Canada and others, as well as the complicit Arab reactionary regimes, and it is long past time that they are held accountable.

The resistance in Palestine, in Yemen, in Lebanon and throughout the region are imposing that accountability, but it is critical that the people bearing the brunt of the tons of bombs and weaponry not hold this burden alone. Palestinians — and the people of the region as a whole — have been resisting Zionist genocide not only for the past 18 months, but for over 77 years of Zionist occupation and over 100 years of colonial invasion and imperial extraction.

Since the inception of the ceasefire in Gaza 60 days ago, the Palestinian resistance and responsible organizations have meticulously tracked the repeated violations of the agreement by the Zionist regime. At the same time, in order to protect their people, the Resistance has not once violated the ceasefire agreements nor retaliated against the Zionist war criminals. For the past two weeks, the Zionist regime, together with the United States and its fellow imperialist powers, have fully blocked the entrance of aid to Gaza — not only the tents, caravans and other equipment required under the terms of the ceasefire, but basic needs like food and other humanitarian essentials.

Let us be very clear: the wave of deportations, arrests, threats and attacks by the fascist US government — and fellow imperialist powers — is meant to clear the path for the US-Zionist assault on Gaza, Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, all of occupied Palestine and the region. It is meant deliberately to create state terror and to quell the movement in support of Palestinian liberation. The same is true of the designations and bans imposed on Samidoun in the United States, Canada and Germany, and the attacks in the Netherlands, Belgium, France and elsewhere: these have been and are being done to keep people out of the streets, to undermine solidarity with the Resistance, and to create pervasive fear and terror imposed by the state.

All of these attacks, from the unlawful arrests and political detention of students protesting genocide, to the raids on British students, activists and journalists, to the imprisonment of Palestine Actionists for direct action, to the bans on Samidoun, to the “terrorist designation” of the Resistance organizations in Palestine, Lebanon, and Yemen, including those of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Hezbollah and AnsarAllah, are, quite simply, aiding and abetting genocide. There is no way to avoid or defeat these attacks by altering our calls for justice, remaining silent about the resistance, or allowing our movement to be divided by criminalization; it is clear that, as the Zionist regime drops its bombs on hospitals, children, and shelters, the entire Palestinian people and all who call for the liberation of Palestine, are targeted. Rather than retreat in the face of repression, it is more urgent than ever that we advance our organization, clarity, and, most critically, action.

The aim of such attacks is to create the conditions whereby the resistance, and the broad mass movement, in the imperial core does not respond and is suppressed into silence and ineffectiveness. They want the growing mass movement to leave the people and the Resistance in Palestine, in Yemen, in Lebanon, alone. This is not a coincidence of timing, it is a strategy of multi-pronged assault and counter-insurgency that has always been part of the imperialist-Zionist plan.

The Resistance is on the front lines, defending the people of Palestine and humanity itself, refusing subjugation, genocide and dispossession, not only for the past 18 months but for the past 76 years and beyond. The Zionist and imperialist regimes, despite their hundreds of tons of bombs and weapons of mass destruction dumped on the people of Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen, have failed to suppress the Resistance or uproot the people, and they will not end their humiliation with more genocide.

These bombs and weapons of genocide are provided by the United States, Germany, Canada, Britain, and their fellow imperialist powers. They are accompanied by political and diplomatic cover, economic integration and all forms of support for the Zionist colonial project in Palestine. Palestine Action in Britain has shown a clear example of how a people’s arms embargo can be imposed, through direct action in the center of the imperial core. Fundamentally, this is a struggle against imperialism and Zionism; genocide is at the heart of their project, and it has been the resistance, from Algeria, to Vietnam, to Palestine, that has uprooted these bloody colonial projects.

This is the time to make it clear that their repression, their bans, their designations and their arrests — their state terror and imposed fear — will never allow them to get away with genocide. It is the time to be louder, clearer and stronger than ever. It is time to stand with the Resistance, in defense of Palestine and in defense of humanity. Amid the US bombs, millions took to the streets today throughout Yemen to make it clear that their genocidal war machine would never suppress Yemeni resistance and humanity. It is imperative that the movement throughout the imperial core take inspiration from this example and do no less. We must nurture an international popular cradle of resistance that is confrontational, strong, resilient and directly aims to make their genocide impossible.

From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free. Victory to the Resistance, defeat for imperialism and Zionism, liberation for Palestine.

17 March 2025

Source: samidoun.net