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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

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network unequivocally condemns the latest US-Zionist assault on Yemen, which has taken the lives of dozens of martyrs and injured many more in the Yemeni capital, Sana’a, and Saada Governorate, and urges all supporters of Palestine to stand in defense of Yemen and all those in the region and around the world targeted for their resistance to genocide.

The US’ latest bombing of Yemen illustrates vividly once again that this is now and always has been a US-Zionist genocide in Gaza and throughout occupied Palestine, against the Arab nation and against the region as a whole. The complicity and involvement of the Arab reactionary regimes in the assault on Yemen further underlines the alliance of Zionism, imperialism and Arab reaction in the enemy camp confronting all those who stand for justice, unity, self-determination and national and international liberation.

Yemen’s blockade of Zionist shipping is a blockade to break the siege and end genocide, the decolonization of the Red Sea from imperialist and Zionist control and domination. Yemen is leading the world in the implementation of the Genocide Convention and international law, requiring the Zionist regime to abide by its ceasefire conditions, end the siege on Gaza and stop blocking the entry of humanitarian aid. Any attack on Yemen is carried out, clearly and explicitly, to advance the project of genocide and starvation against the Palestinian people, through a bloody assault on the people of Yemen. The aggression on Yemen comes after Sayyed Abdel-Malik Badr al-Din al-Houthi announced that the four-day window for the Zionist regime to abide by its ceasefire agreement had expired and that, therefore, anti-genocide naval operations against Zionist shipping in the Bab al-Mandab strait would resume.

The people, armed forces, government and AnsarAllah movement of Yemen, and their revolutionary leadership, are defending their seas and land against genocide, and on the front lines in defense of the Palestinian people and advancing the liberation of Palestine. For the millions around the world boycotting the Zionist entity, it is clear that Yemen’s is the greatest example of boycott and sanctions on the Zionist regime in material practice, causing billions of dollars in damage to the Zionist genocide economy.

Millions of people continue to march in Yemen, presenting a brilliant example of the unity of popular action and mass mobilization with military action and armed struggle, with an incomparable willingness to sacrifice in order to liberate Palestine. Hezam al-Asad, a member of the political bureau of AnsarAllah, said: “Our stance in supporting our people in Gaza remains steadfast and is escalating until the siege is lifted. Nothing can affect our principled position in advocating for the injustice faced by the Palestinian people.”

It is clear that the US-Zionist assault will never break the will of the Yemeni people, after over 10 years of siege and blockade by the US-backed Arab reactionary regimes failed to quench the Yemeni people, their leadership in resistance, and their commitment to struggle for justice. Yemen stands strong, independent and free, despite the “terrorist designations” and the bombs of the imperialist powers, defending peace in the Red Sea against imperialist militarization and genocide traffic, and standing with the Palestinian people in Gaza against genocide, starvation and mass slaughter.

These attacks come simultaneously with intensified repression by the fascist state powers in the heart of the imperial core. Let us be clear: their arrests and deportations are meant to silence the movement, create fear and impose terror in the hearts of the population in order to give them free rein to bombard Yemen, to assault Gaza, to starve the Palestinian people, to attack Tulkarem, to advance genocide throughout Palestine, to threaten Iran.

It is critical that the Palestine movement stands fully with Yemen against this attack and refuses to be silenced by repression, to ensure that there is no business as usual for genocide. The only way we can effectively fight repression is to defend all those under attack and to escalate, in size, strength and numbers, our support for Palestine, for Yemen and for all of the forces of resistance. We cannot fight repression as a series of individual battles, but must do so as part of the anti-imperialist, anti-Zionist struggle, for the liberation of Palestine, the Arab nation and the region.

The Yemeni people are making quite clear that they will never stop their defense of Palestine, despite the bombings of civilian homes, power plants and infrastructure, by the US-Zionist imperialist monster. It is incumbent upon us all to take that same stand for Yemen, to begin to live up to the Yemeni example set every day with courage and steadfastness; to fill the streets and squares, to raise our voices, to make it impossible for the imperialist assaults to continue. To stand with Yemen is to stand with Palestine, is to stand with the global resistance in defense of humanity.

**

In June 2024, hundreds of organizations and thousands of individuals joined with us in a statement in defense of the Yemeni people against US-British-Zionist aggression. We reiterate every word said then and urge all to act now.

(Link to sign on: https://bit.ly/yemenstatement  )

We stand with Yemen confronting U.S. and British aggression

We, the undersigned parties, organizations and associations, condemn the U.S.-British aggression and attacks on the struggling people of Yemen, we express our support for the principled Yemeni position towards the Palestinian cause rights, and we declare our solidarity with the Yemeni people in the historic battle that they are waging to end the genocide against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, to stop Zionist war crimes and to break the siege. We also stand behind the heroic Yemeni armed forces and their legitimate, natural right to respond to aggression as they implement the demands of the Yemeni people and the directives and decisions of the revolutionary leadership in Sana’a.

The people of Yemen, who have remained committed to their firm and advanced revolutionary position, continue to confront all forms of siege and aggression at the hands of the U.S. and British colonial forces and their agents in the region. They will not be intimidated by the recent U.S.-British massacre on May 31, 2024, which caused dozens of martyrs and casualties. The people of Yemen continue to express their position with unparalleled strength and courage, especially on Fridays, through the massive and solemn public demonstrations in “Sabaeen Square” in the center of the capital, Sana’a, and in various governorates, squares, and streets of the country.

The heroic Yemeni position, which has been embodied in word and deed in confronting war and aggression over the past ten years, and in supporting the Palestinian people for more than eight months, constitutes the true and necessary response against the Zionist-U.S. war of annihilation against the Palestinian people in the besieged Gaza Strip. It also embodies an effective revolutionary model in true solidarity with the Palestinian people. This exceptional stance has become a source of pride and inspiration for all peoples and movements for justice and liberation in the world, proving the strength of free peoples and their ability to change the equations of conflict and shift the balance of power as they confront imperialism, Zionism and their agents in the world.

Glory to the martyrs and speedy recovery to the wounded

The criminal camp of U.S.-British-Zionist aggression and and their agents in the region will be defeated

Victory for the Palestinian and Yemeni peoples and for the resistance camp in Palestine, Lebanon and Iraq

Long live international solidarity

• Actions4Palestine
• Al Quds Toronto
• Al-Awda PRRC
• Aliança RECOs – desde o Sul Global
• Alianza latinoamericana por Palestina contra el Apartheid
• Alkarama (Movimiento de Mujeres Palestinas)
• All-African People’s Revolutionary Party (GC)
• ALM Counselling
• Al-Quds Project
• AlYudur
• Amanecer
• Amsterdam for BDS
• Anakbayan BC
• Anti Imperialist Action Ireland
• Anti-Imperialist Alliance
• AnU KLAVE’EM collective
• Apogee Journal
• Arab Left Forum
• Assocacion Salvadoreña Palestina
• Athens Against Apartheid
• Authors For Social Justice.
• Autonomous Indonesia Contingent for Liberation
• BDS Greece Kifissia Initiative for Solidarity with Palestine
• BDS Tokyo
• BDS Vancouver/Coast Salish Territories
• Best of the Alps
• Black Alliance for Peace – Solidarity Network
• Bronx Anti-War Coalition
• Brooklyn for Peace
• Bruxelles Panthères
• Canada Palestine Association
• Canada-Philippines Solidarity for Human Rights
• Canadian Arab Federation
• Canadian BDS Coalition and International BDS Allies
• Canadian Islamic Congress
• Canadian Lebanese Academic Forum (CLAF)
• Casa Baltimore Limay
• CC4P
• Central New York Revolutionary Student Union
• Centre for Counter Hegemonic Studies
• Centro de Documentación en Derechos Humanos “Segundo Montes Mozo S.J.” (CSMM)
• Century of the Child
• Children’s Awareness Series
• Citoyens du Québec
• Club de la Cultura Árabe
• Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid
• Coalition of South Asian Women Against Violence
• COASAP
• Code Pink River Valley
• CODEPINK (South Florida Chapter)
• Colectivo de Comunicación ContrahegemoniaWeb
• Collectif 69 de soutien au peuple palestinien l
• Comisión Ética contra la Tortura Chile
• Comité belge de soutien au peuple palestinien
• Comite Solidaridad Pueblo Palestino
• Committee Against War
• Committee of Anti-Imperialists in Solidarity with Iran (CASI)
• Communist Party of Lancashire UK
• Cops Off Campus Ontario (COCO)
• Crescent Justice Collective
• CSM interactiv
• Cubamistad
• CUNYforPalestine
• CWP artists’ collective
• Diaspora Pa’lante Collective
• DSA International Committee
• Early Childhood Development Intercultural Partnerships
• Earth Neighborhood Productions
• EEK (Workers Revolutionary Party-Greece)
• Elders for Justice in Palestine
• Falastini Advocates for Liberation
• Famílias da Resistência
• Fellowship of Mercy
• Feministisk Initiativ, Sweden
• Femmes Against Empire
• former ambassador for The Netherlands in Yemen, Johannes Wijenberg
• Free Gaza Movement
• Free Palestine BC
• Free Palestine Canada
• Free Palestine Melbourne
• Free Palestine Movement
• Free Palestine Tri-Cities BC
• Freedom from War Coalition
• Freedom Road Socialist Organization
• Freie Linke Zukunft
• Frente Antiimperialista Internacionalista
• Friends of the Filipino People In Struggle – CST
• From the River to the Sea Project
• Front Mahasiswa Nasional (FMN)
• Garuda Keadilan
• Gaza Centre for Human Rights
• Gender Justice LA
• German Communist Party
• Good Shepherd Collecctive
• Gorilla Radio
• Grandmothers against War
• Greater Toronto 4 BDS
• Grupo Libelulas
• Grupo Obrero de Formación Marxista
• GST Consulting Ltd
• GTA4Palestine
• Handsoffvenezuela.nl
• Housing and Land Rights Network – Habitat International Coalition
• Humanity Organization
• Indiana Center for Middle East Peace
• Instituto Brasil-Palestina IBRASPAL
• International Action Center
• International Peace Network
• ISL-RCIT
• Jaćhai World
• Jailhouse Lawyers Speak
• JB Consulting
• Jewish Anti-Zionist Collective Toronto (JAZCto)
• Jewish Network for Palestine
• Jordan Canada Association
• Just Peace Advocates/Mouvement Pour Une Paix Juste
• Justice Alliance
• Justice For All Canada
• Justice For Palestine
• Knights of the Golden Rule
• Kona 4 Palestine
• Lotus Co-operative Homes
• Low and High Power Group
• Lutherans forJustice in the Holy Land
• Maine Natural Guard
• Mani Rosse Antirazziste
• Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada
• Masar Badil – Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement
• Massy Arts Society
• Massy Books
• May Lui Consulting
• Media Decompression Collective
• Media Review Network (MRN)
• Methuselah Designs
• Michiana Friends of Palestine
• Mississippi Rising Coalition
• Mobilization Against War & Occupation (MAWO)
• Montreal4Palestine
• Mouvement Citoyen Palestine
• Movimento Mulheres pela PAZ na Palestina
• Museo Fadwa Tuqan
• Muslim Business Council
• Muslims On Long Island
• Nacion Andaluza
• National Jericho Movement
• Nederlands Palestina Komitee
• Neighbors for Peace
• Netzwerk Freiheit für alle politische Gefangenen, Hamburg
• Newmarket Aurora 4 Palestine
• Nicaragua Solidarity Coalition
• NorCal Sabeel
• North American Resistance Committee (NARC)
• North Bay Rapid Response Network, a part of the North Bay Organizing Project (NBOP)
• Ocean Surf Sounds
• Ohio Peace Council
• Oilsandstruth.org
• One State Assembly
• Ongd AFRICANDO
• Ontario Palestinian Rights Association (OPRA)
• Orinoco Tribune
• Palestina Askatu!
• Palestina Solidariteit
• Palestine Action US
• Palestine Democratic Forum
• Palestine Liberation Centre
• Palestine Solidarity Campaign Committee
• Palestine Solidarity Working Group
• Palestine-Global Mental Health Network
• Palestinian and Jewish Unity (PAJU)
• Palestinian Justice Alliance
• Palestinian People Association in Uppsala
• Palestinians in Coast Salish Territory
• Papineau4Palestine
• Parable of the Sower Intentional Community Cooperative
• Parallelo Palestina
• Party of Communists USA
• Pax Christi Maine
• Peace in Kurdistan Campaign
• Peacekeeping Collective
• People for Humanity
• People for Justice and Peace
• Peterborough Pollinators
• Philippines-Palestine Friendship Association
• Portland Revolutionary Student Union
• Principles Not Parties
• Public Intellectuals for Social and Spare Change
• Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism!
• A Raise Augusta
• Red de Mujeres Verdes Equo Cantabria
• Regina Peace Council
• Resistance News Network
• Revolutionaire Eenheid
• Revolutionary Communist Group
• Rhapsodi Digital Art
• River Valley Branch Code Pink
• Robin Rae Photography
• Rockland for Palestine
• Roots
• Samidoun Albuquerque
• Samidoun Brasil
• Samidoun Göteborg
• Samidoun Manchester
• Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
• Samidoun Stockholm
• Samidoun Toronto
• Santa Monica Residents Cross-City
• Scarborough Rouge Park for Palestine
• Scottish Republican Socialist Movement
• SELFOP
• Seven Star Sports
• Socialist Action / Ligue pour l’Action socialiste
• SpeakOut Poetry
• Stand with Palestine Halifax
• Standing With Yemen
• Stirling SPSC
• Stop the War Machine
• Students for Yemen CP
• Sunshine Coast for Palestine
• Surandantes Comunicacion Comunitaria
• Suzanne Barr Food
• Syria Support Movement
• TESC Divest
• The James Black Gallery Association
• The Mensch Group
• The Pearl Nutrition
• Toronto Forum on Cuba
• Trawunche Madrid (Coordinación de Apoyo al Pueblo Mapuche)
• United Educators of San Francisco
• UO Students for the Liberation of Palestine
• USA-Palestine Mental Health Network
• Utrecht BIJ1
• Venceremos, Partido de Trabajadrxs
• Veterans for Peace
• Veterans For Peace #161
• Victoria Friends of Cuba
• Voluntarios por Palestina
• Vrede Met Venezuela NL (Hands Off Venezuela The Netherlands)
• Western Mass CODEPINK
• Women Against Military Madness
• Workers Voice Socialist Movement
• Workers World Party
• World Beyond War
• XllenTech Solutions
• Yemeni Center for Human Rights Culture
• الجالية اليمنية الكندية Yemeni Canadian Community

16 March 2025

Source: samidoun.net

By Dr Marwan Asmar

Israel relaunched its bloody war on Gaza, with vehemence and callousness and with the blessing of the Donald Trump administration in the White House.

Its back to the “good old bloody days” of murder, mayhem and slaughter of mostly innocent women and children who have no part in the current war waged between Israel and Hamas.

Unwilling to quench its thirst for blood, Israel relaunched its war on the 364-kilometer Gaza Strip by killing over 322 people in the first five hours of early morning Tuesday while everyone was fast asleep.

Up until then it has been a “slight” rest bite reached through a ceasefire on 19 January between Hamas and Israel through US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators bringing an end to the daily killing of Gazans that today stands at 48,500 people.

Everyone is asking if the ceasefire is wrecked and stands in ruin on day 525, the total length of the carnage started on the people of Gaza soon after 7 October 2023, when about 1200 Israelis were killed.

Whatever the politics of the recent war, it has become amply clear the Israel slaughter has not been aimed at Hamas fighters, which it couldn’t eradicate even after 15 months of war on the Islamic organization but resulted in the mass killing of the women and children of Gaza.

The latest spate of dropping bombs on the people of Gaza, facilitated by the United States which stands as complicit in this genocide, sees no end light, but is seen as just the beginning although Gaza and its infrastructure is already annihilated with its people displaced and living in the wild and under the skies.

The world stands and waits to see, if the genocide will continue from this day onwards, or is it just a pressure tool to get Hamas to release the 59 or so Israeli prisoners it currently holds. If the latter is the case however, Hamas has long shown, it has a long breath and will not release the prisoners that originally were around 250 and now stands at the current number through exchange deals with the fact that the Israeli army has killed around 23 of them in failed rescue operations.

The latest bombings, carried from the air starting from the south of the strip on the southern city of Rafah, Nuseirat, Al Shati and Maghazi camps, and Deir Al Balah in the center of the enclave, including Gaza city and the destroyed northern areas, speaks of dark days are expected ahead.

Hamas are yet to respond militarily. There are couple of issues to consider here. Hamas officials have been talking to the Trump administration officials in the last couple of weeks about different paths.

Will that continue, particularly after this bloody debacle. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who long wanted to destroy Hamas, and thus the war to continue, said this time around, the latest military operation in Gaza is being carried out “in consultation” with Trump and his associates.

If this is the case, the latest Israeli deadly spate, may not last long, particularly because Trump is on record of stating that he doesn’t want the war to continue but wants to end it which means he will not continue to supply Israel with weapons indefinitely and there will come a time when he will stop.

But that might be a while before that and he may continue to tolerate the mass bombing of Gaza. However, since he is talking to different parties through his envoy Steve Witkoff, he will likely “manage” what Israel continues to militarily do in the Gaza Strip and be involved in a “stop-go” war process.

The problem with Trump is that also he is looking for different objectives in Gaza. He first wanted to displace its 2.2 million people to neighboring countries like Jordan and Egypt. Now, he appears to be retracting from this position because of Arab and world pressure.

Will he backdown and order Israel for a quick “fix” and or let the war on Gaza continue by which time Hamas, will once again, start fighting Israel again, both in the Strip and through endlessly targeting its major cities, towns, settlements for the past 15 months.

Despite the fact that Trump said that “all hell will break lose” on Gaza if the war doesn’t stop and Hamas is not brought to heed, the US president is choosing to forget the Houthis, despite mass bombing them in the last couple of days. They promised they will continue to strike Israel if it continues to stand as an obstacle to humanitarian and food delivery to Israel and will not be deterred by US and British bombing of Yemen. And to prove their point, a ballistic missile was fired on the same day, Tuesday, after the Israeli bombing of the Strip.

Hence what Trump wants and what he will get on the ground are two different things. His wish to end the Israel-Hamas war and establish a “new Gaza” will not be achieved through parochial thinking.

The Palestinians are on the ground, they have no wish to go anywhere while Hamas continues to have a formidable fighting capability and have no qualms to going back to war. The fact they are talking to the mediating parties, including the US doesn’t mean they are ready to put their guns down and leave the grounds of Gaza.

Netanyahu must realize that unless he wants the whole Middle East region to be engaged in a perpetual long-term war. The question is, is Trump and the United States military establishment prepared for that?

Dr Marwan Asmar is the chief editor of the crossfirearabia.com website.

19 March 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Vikas Parashram Meshram

Understanding farmer suicides requires a deep examination of their underlying causes, particularly in the context of Maharashtra. In 1990, The Hindu newspaper’s rural editor, P. Sainath, reported on the frequent suicides of farmers. Initially, reports of farmer suicides emerged from Maharashtra. Soon, similar incidents were reported from Andhra Pradesh. It was initially believed that most suicides were committed by cotton farmers in Maharashtra’s Vidarbha region. However, statistics from Maharashtra’s State Crime Records Bureau in 2010 revealed that the suicide rate was alarmingly high among farmers growing various cash crops across the state. The suicides were not limited to small farmers but included medium and large-scale farmers as well.

To investigate this crisis, the state government formed several inquiry committees. Then-Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced a ₹110 billion relief package for farmers in Vidarbha. Over time, due to the agricultural crisis, farmer suicides were also reported in Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh. In this context, the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) recorded 17,368 farmer suicides in 2009, with Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh accounting for 10,765 (62%) of these cases.

In Maharashtra, between January 1 and December 31, 2024, 2,706 farmers from Vidarbha and Marathwada committed suicide. This was confirmed by the state’s Relief and Rehabilitation Minister, Makarand Patil, in a written response to a starred question in the Legislative Assembly. The Amaravati division recorded 1,069 suicides, while the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar division saw 952 suicides, primarily due to climate change, droughts, crop failures, and debt. Of these 2,706 cases, 1,563 were deemed eligible for government aid. In 101 cases, the farmers’ families received ₹30,000 through direct financial assistance and ₹70,000 from the bank’s monthly income scheme, totaling ₹100,000 in aid.

Data from the past decade indicates that Maharashtra sees an average of 3,000 farmer suicides annually. In 2020, 2,270 farmers committed suicide. Information obtained under the Right to Information (RTI) Act from the State Relief and Rehabilitation Department confirms these figures. However, while releasing these statistics, the department claimed that suicides had declined in all divisions except Nagpur and Nashik. Vidarbha remains the region most associated with farmer suicides.

Despite government compensation for bereaved families, there has been little focus on addressing the root causes of these suicides. In reality, a significant portion of Vidarbha’s population relies entirely on agriculture for survival, with no alternative livelihood options. Moreover, since 91% of agriculture in the region is rainfed, any monsoon unpredictability directly affects farmers’ livelihoods. However, the crisis in Vidarbha is not just due to monsoon dependence but also results from government policies, rising costs, and political neglect of farmers’ issues.

The lack of reliable lending institutions in Vidarbha forces many farmers to depend on private moneylenders for financial support. Additionally, the crisis is linked to erratic rainfall and the high cost of cultivating cash crops like cotton. Last year, farmers who grew Kharif crops suffered losses of up to 60%, severely impacting their financial stability and their ability to invest in the next farming cycle.

Financial Burden on Cotton Farmers

Vidarbha, especially Yavatmal district, is known for cotton production. However, like other districts in the region, Yavatmal has been in the news for decades due to farmer suicides. Farmers continue to cultivate their land year after year despite the ongoing crisis, hoping for a successful harvest.

A key question is: how much does a cotton farmer in Vidarbha spend per acre in pursuit of a good yield? Their work begins with land leveling, followed by debris removal, purchasing seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides, hiring labor, sowing, irrigating crops at the right intervals, and grading cotton once harvested. After all these efforts, when a farmer finally brings his cotton to market, he often struggles to get a fair price.

Due to delays in government procurement, many farmers have had to sell their cotton to traders at prices ranging from ₹5,300 to ₹5,400 per quintal. Cotton farming is the most common practice among Kharif season farmers, and many report spending around ₹36,000 per acre on cultivation. The approximate breakdown of costs includes:

Land leveling: ₹1,000 ,Debris removal: ₹500

Seeds: ₹750,Sowing: ₹1000,Fertilizers: ₹5,000

Herbicides: ₹5,000,Pesticides: ₹5,000

Irrigation: ₹10,000,Cotton grading: ₹4,000

Transportation: ₹2,000,Security: ₹1,000

Unpredictable weather continues to pose a significant threat, and farming costs are rising. Despite this, farmers persist with their work because they have no alternative. However, every time they invest heavily in cultivation, unexpected rainfall often destroys their crops, leading to substantial financial losses. Consequently, they are trapped in an ever-growing cycle of debt.

State government data from the past two years highlights that most farmer suicides in this period occurred in the Amaravati division, with 1,893 recorded cases. Yavatmal district reported the highest number of suicides (295). The Aurangabad division ranked second, with 1,528 suicides in two years, followed by Nashik and Nagpur, where the number of suicides increased compared to 2019. Over two years, these regions recorded 774 and 456 suicides, respectively.

The state’s Relief and Rehabilitation Department attributed the reported decline in suicides in 2020 to the government’s debt waiver program, which provided financial relief to farmers. Additionally, the government granted concessions on land revenue and electricity bills in cases of natural disasters.

Indian agriculture remains heavily dependent on monsoons, and crop failures due to erratic rainfall are a major driver of farmer suicides. Droughts, rising costs, and mounting debts create a cycle of distress, trapping farmers in a web of banks, moneylenders, and middlemen. One of the primary reasons for farmer suicides is the lack of profitability in farming, making it increasingly unviable as a livelihood.

One critical issue is the shrinking size of agricultural land holdings. In 1960-61, the average landholding size was 2.3 hectares, which dropped to 1.6 hectares in 2002-03. While rural households’ income has increased, so have their expenses and debt burdens.

The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) conducted the All India Rural Financial Inclusion Survey (NAFIS) 2021-22, which analyzed post-COVID economic conditions based on data from 100,000 rural households. The findings revealed that the average landholding of farmers had declined from 1.08 hectares in 2016-17 to just 0.74 hectares in 2021-22, a 31% drop in five years.

Meanwhile, farmers’ monthly household income increased from ₹8,059 in 2016-17 to ₹12,698 in 2021-22, a 57.6% rise. However, household expenses also grew from ₹6,646 to ₹11,262 per month, marking a 69.4% increase. The proportion of expenditure on food declined from 51% to 47%, indicating that rural families are now spending more on non-food items, raising concerns about food security.

At the same time, debt levels have risen. The percentage of rural households in debt increased from 47.4% to 52%, reflecting economic strain. Institutional borrowing rose from 60.5% to 75.5%, with a significant increase in the use of Kisan Credit Cards (KCC), which expanded from 10.5% in 2016-17 to 44.1% in 2021-22.

Since economic liberalization, agricultural practices, especially cash crop farming, have changed significantly. Due to socio-economic hardships, many farmers lack technical knowledge about high-investment cash crops like Bt cotton. This financial strain makes them more vulnerable to debt and, ultimately, suicide. Addressing this crisis requires comprehensive policy reforms that prioritize financial security, sustainable farming practices, and support for struggling farmers.

Vikas Meshram is a Journalist

17 March 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Dr. Ramzy Baroud

The website of a certain pan-Arab media organization seems fixated on translating, commenting, or briefing its audience on everything that US and Israeli officials say about the Middle East.

Every threat made by US President Donald Trump, every tweet by an American official, however insignificant or inconsequential, somehow becomes a ‘breaking news’ story, worthy of follow-up and heated discussions, as if what Americans say, or fail to say, is the only factor that determines outcomes in our region.

The same thing applies to Israeli officials or media: an unsubstantiated Jerusalem Post report, a mere analysis by ‘Israel Hayom’, an opinion piece by an unknown writer in Maariv, Haaretz, or any other publication, are somehow inflated to become facts, or serve as a representation of Israeli politics and society.

Writers like Thomas Friedman, of the New York Times, whose influence within the mainstream intellectual strata in the US is nowhere near what it used to be at the start of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, remain important figures for many Arab media outlets, thus shaping their understanding of US politics. It matters little that Friedman’s credibility has suffered through years of faulty analyses and that numerous other media outlets have collectively marginalized the once domineering role of America’s so-called ‘newspaper of record.’

This is not an ailment of a specific newspaper, TV channel, or website. It is a widespread culture that reflects the prevalent inferiority that continues to define many mainstream circles in the Arab world and the Middle East at large.

One can attribute this persistent reliance on the West for information to the lack of trust in the region’s own media, and in the belief, however erroneous, that freedom in western media makes it far more reliable in terms of accuracy and objectivity, among other reasons.

Nothing could be further from the truth, however, as western reporting on Middle East issues, even decades before the devastating war on Gaza, has been sharply biased, or, at best, selective and untrustworthy.

In fact, the Gaza war, where reporting from the ground took place by Gaza’s own youth, many of whom have been educated in local universities, or were even still students of journalism, shifted global public opinion on Palestine like never before in history.

This shift happened through mutual solidarity with Gaza by Arab and global youth on social media platforms, and also due to the amplification of Palestinian voices through independent media worldwide.

This fundamental change in how stories are told should inspire a seismic shift in the region’s approach to media creation, where the mic is finally given to local reporters, writers, and bloggers to address their own struggles directly to the world.

Unfortunately, that transformative change is yet to happen. To the contrary, there seems to be a growing demand for western views, commentary, analysis, even entertainment, and such.

This is particularly disturbing when the Middle East itself is in a political, social, and intellectual flux: yielding new schools of thought and a fascinating array of intellectuals who are far more familiar with the region than a detached American journalist, or a European columnist.

The problem is often compounded by the near complete absence of voices from the Global South, as if Middle Eastern media are simply duplicating the western media marginalization of all voices that operate outside their political hegemony.

This is how the West’s ruling class’s worldview becomes the “common sense” in many non-western societies, per the logic of Antonio Gramsci, who developed the concept of cultural hegemony.

Hegemony, in that sense, is not the imposition of power through direct military or political control, but through cultural dominance. This is why Friedman continues to matter for the Arabs, far more than a Tunisian intellectual, an Emirati opinion maker, or an Egyptian journalist.

The pioneering Arab sociologist, philosopher, and historian Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406) addressed such issues in his ‘Muqaddimah’ hundreds of years earlier when he linked cultural dominance to political and military powers. The ruling elites always impose their values, language, customs and cultures on subordinate groups, according to Ibn Khaldun.

Both Gramsci and Ibn Khaldun recognized the importance of ‘consent’ in maintaining power and discussed the process through which hegemons are undone.

As the world continues to experience massive and historical shifts towards new centers of power, the Middle East, like other regions in the global ‘peripheries,’ should take advantage of the ample opportunities created by the shifts to discover its own energies and reassert its relevance to the global discourse.

Our media must focus on local conversations by engaging journalists, intellectuals, academics, artists, and poets, so that, over time, authentic cultural projects can emerge, reflecting the realities of our region based on the priorities of those who live here.

We can no longer live in the shadows of others’ views or outsource our opinions to those thousands of miles away, as even if genuine, they can never truly reflect, let alone address, our challenges in an authentic and meaningful way.

For this transformative experience to occur, we must start by genuinely respecting our own people and having confidence in our ability to think independently, without relying on cues from Western analysts or newspapers.

Dr. Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle.

17 March 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Ellen Isaacs

Thousands are protesting the detention and threatened deportation of Mahmoud Khalil, a graduate student and green card holder who began life as a Palestinian refugee in Syria and led demonstrations at Columbia against the Israeli genocide in Gaza. He committed no crime, but is being called a security threat, a supporter of terrorism, in words that have reverberated many times in US history. The Trump regime threatens that his will be the first of many deportations to come.

However, we must remember that US capitalism has been deporting and forcefully moving workers since its inception, in order to lower wages, increase profits, build racism and nationalism and quell dissent (for a full discussion of this question, see https://multiracialunity.org/2016/05/07/migration-a-reflection-of-capitalism/#more-172). Below we will discuss some of the history of US deportations, current events at Columbia, the limitations of a nationalist outlook, and what kind of movement we must build. In future articles we will delve deeper into the history of fighting fascism around the world.

Deportations – An Established US Practice

Since 1882, the US has forced the removal of nearly 57 million people, more than any other country in the world. Although only one seventh of these were formal deportations, the rest were via “voluntary” departures, which only occur when ordered by federal authorities. In the last 100 years, more people have been expelled than have been allowed to stay in the US permanently.¹

The modern deportation mechanism got rolling with the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. By 1870, 20% of California’s workforce was Chinese, but they were soon no longer needed to build the railroads or work in cities as the native-born population grew. The Act not only restricted immigration, but denied citizenship or the right to marry a non-Chinese, even to longtime residents.

Over 22,000 immigrants of many origins had their citizenship revoked from 1906-1967, at first usually based on paperwork fraud charges, but later most often on a political basis. Terrified by the success of the Soviet Revolution in 1917, US leaders targeted left wing leaders. Perhaps the most famous case is that of anarchist Emma Goldman, who immigrated at 17 and married a citizen, but was deported in 1919 under the Anarchist Exclusion Act that banned foreign activists, who were said to have lied when taking an oath to defend the Constution.² Nearly 250 leftists were deported to the USSR in that same year.³

The US passed the Nationality Act in 1940, which could revoke citizenship from anyone who obtained a foreign passport, voted in another country, served in their military, or even just took up residence abroad. Under its auspices, 8350 citizens were expatriated in 1953.  In 1952 during McCarthyism, Congress passed the Immigration and Nationality Act, also known as the McCarran-Walter Act, that required citizenship applicants to prove their Constitutional loyalty.  One of the best known victims, the Trinidad-born activist Claudia Jones, was expelled in 1955. Since 1979, the Supreme Court has said citizenship can only be revoked for fraud or human rights violations.^2,3 We’ll see what the Court has in store for us now.

Despite the fact that undocumented immigrants are vital to the agriculture, construction and home health industries, Trump is determined to deport millions in order to to build racism and nationalism. He is harking back to the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 that allowed a President to remove non-citizens during a “declared war,” including those who are long term residents, without any hearing or due process. The Supreme Court has said in the past that the Act can be used only during an “invasion or predatory incursion,” but that’s exactly what Trump calls immigrants – an invasion – especially those who cross the Southern border.⁴ As of today, a judge has rejected the use of this Act, but we shall see what happens next.

The administration is clearly planning to deport and terrify as many anti-genocide students as possible through direct intimidation and inducing universities to attack them on their own or face dire reprisals. To quote Secretary of State Marco Rubio, “We will be revoking the Visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported.”⁵ This attack is necessitated by the absolute need the US has for its ties with Israel as its lone strong and dependable ally in the fossil fuel rich Middle East (see https://multiracialunity.org/2024/11/21/geopololitics-glues-us-to-gaza-genocide/ ). The government fears a reprise of the effect of the student movement against the war in Vietnam that played a role in winning soldiers to rebel on the battlefield and end the war. Universities, largely run by boards of bankers and business owners and dependent on federal grants, are being easily intimidated from allowing dissent on their campuses.

Mahmoud Khalil and Columbia

So, to get back to the case at hand. Whether a student expresses verbal sympathy for Hamas or not is currently not a legal basis for arrest, academic sanctions or deportation. Mahmoud , however, actually said in a CNN interview, “I believe that the liberation of the Palestinian people and the Jewish people are intertwined and go hand-by-hand and you cannot achieve one without the other.”⁶ Although we do not know Mahmoud personally and do not know if by this he means he supports a single binational state with equal rights or if he thinks an Islamic state under Hamas is desirable for  Palestinians, he at least does not believe that a state of continual occupation and war benefits either Israelis or Palestinians.

We, in any case, think it is essential to go beyond the positions of the groups leading the Columbia protests, Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) and the Columbia Palestine Solidarity Coalition (CPSC), if a movement that truly threatens imperialism and genocide is to be built. CUAD states ” We support freedom and justice for the Palestinian people, and for all people…. We will not rest until Columbia divests from apartheid Israel, Palestinians are free, and liberation is achieved for all oppressed people worldwide,” which necessitates the end of “colonialism and imperialism.” They also vigorously oppose racism, including ant-Semitism, Islamophobia and anti-blackness.⁷

The problem comes with the dedication to the “right of self-determination,” which is a common position of most groups on the “left” today. This formulation has two basic flaws, both of which derive from the lack of a class analysis of society. If capitalism is a system based on exploitation of the working class (which includes the unemployed, the employed, professionals, students and soldiers) by a small group of owners, then both imperialist nations and colonized nations are so divided. The implication is that even within the oppressor nations, the vast majority of the population are exploited and repressed, the US being a prime example. To this, Columbia students can well attest. and they do not hesitate to attack US capitalism. Thus the workers in imperialist nations have much in common with workers of colonized or formerly colonized ones.

The second fallacy, however, is that these same class divisions do not exist within colonized or oppressed nations, like Palestine or Sudan or Haiti or all of the others the CUAD pamphlet mentions. In fact, the institutions and representatives of the imperialists are always deeply implanted in the political and financial institutions of these nations, whether before or after battles for liberation. If an anti-capitalist, like Lumumba in the Congo or Allende in Chile, comes into leadership, the US takes him out. In virtually every state where national liberation struggles have been victorious, from South Africa to Algeria to El Salvador and many, many more, workers do not hold power or enjoy equality. The local economic structure remains tied to international imperialist institutions like the IMF, and the economies remain limited to supplying resources rather than production. The only real victory has been in installing a ruling class of the same ethnicity as the workers and obliterating some racial segregation, but not inequality.

In Palestine, Fatah, the ruling party of the West Bank, is openly corrupt and in league with Israeli rulers, even going so far as helping to arrest anti-occupation fighters. Hamas, the Islamic group that rules in Gaza, has accepted millions of dollars from Israel both at its entry into Gaza in 1987 and in recent years, so Israel could promote intra-Palestinian divisions. Hamas has ruled Gaza in a repressive fashion, taxing the general population at exorbitant rates and suppressing its opposition in order to favor its own members. Many of the leaders lived in wealth while most of the population was food insecure.⁸ Despite Fatah’s corruption, a 2023 poll of Gazans found that 70% would prefer Fatah rule.⁹ Even the incursion of October 7, although a military operation that surprised Israel, predictably resulted in mass murder and infrastructure destruction in Gaza. Although many Gazans may admire the courage of Hamas fighters, there is very widespread dislike of the consequences, according to Aljazeera.¹⁰

Nonetheless, the pro-Palestine movement outside of the occupied territories expresses unmitigated support of Hamas, mostly on the basis that they are the leaders of an oppressed society and thus cannot be criticized. The CPSC goes even farther down the nationalist path by disaffiliating from CUAD because it is a “nebulous organization that is not led by the affinity group of Palestinian student organizers,”¹¹ They want only Palestinians to lead any collective opposing Israeli policy.

The Movement We Need

Our response is that workers in both imperialist and oppressed nations are victimized by capitalism and that we must unite as class brothers and sisters to analyze how to change this system. It is too simple and very misleading to declare that all rulers who oppose the US have the interests of workers at heart, even their own. None of us would be pleased to live or have lived under the Ayatollahs of Iran, Assad of Syria, or Saddam Hussein of Iraq, yet all of these have been supported by “leftists” on the grounds that they oppose the US.

In order to fight for freedom from capitalism, from racism, sexism, and imperialist wars for all workers, from Israel to Palestine, from the US to Russia and around the world, we must support each other, analyze each other’s situations, struggle with each other, and unite with each other. We must recognize that all ruling classes have an underlying strategy of maintaining their own power and use a variety of tactics to quell unrest – criminalizing dissent, deporting masses of workers, disrupting the workers’ lives with mass firings, cutting benefits and services and promoting police terror. Racism, nationalism and anti-communism are the main ideological tools of all these attacks.

As the US loses ground to China in productivity and influence in much of the world and as inter-imperialist war grows closer, fascist repression will be needed no matter which politicians are in power. We should recall that the current repression began well before Trump as Biden financed genocide and endorsed the firings and intimidation of many workers and student supporters of Palestine and supported cruel immigration policies.

We are glad to see an upsurge of demonstrations, of rapid response efforts to thwart deportations, know your rights campaigns and campus protests. However, it is problematic that the movements against cuts and layoffs and against campus repression remain separate to date. During the last week in New York City, there were mass marches of union workers and community groups against service and job cuts and, on the same day, marches to support Mahmoud Khalil that never intersected. We will not have the power to defeat fascism unless we unite, unless we recognize that fascism is the end result of failing capitalism that only an international rank-and-file led mass worker/student/soldier movement can overturn it and fight for a better world, one that we run ourselves.

Ellen Isaacs is a retired physician, anti-racist and anti-capitalist activist and co-editor of multiracialunity.org. She can be reached at eisaacs66@gmail.com.

1. Adam Goodman, The Deportation Machine:America’s Long History of Expelling Immigrants, 2020, Princeton University Press, p. 3

2. https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/citizens-denaturalization-and-assassination/

3. https://jacobin.com/2018/02/deportation-united-states-immigrants-activists

4. https://www.aclu.org/news/immigrants-rights/anti-immigrant-extremists-want-to-use-this-226-year-old-law-to-implement-a-mass-deportation-program

5. https://abc7ny.com/post/Federal-judge-temporarily-blocks-deportation-of-pro-Palestinian-activist-Columbia-grad-arrested-by-ICE/16000829/

6. https://edition.cnn.com/2025/03/11/us/mahmoud-khalil-columbia-ice-green-card-hnk/index.html

7.https://www.columbiaspectator.com/opinion/2023/11/14/columbia-university-apartheid-divest-who-we-are/

8. https://thearabweekly.com/hamas-leaders-seen-living-luxury-while-gazans-suffer

9. https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/polls-show-majority-gazans-were-against-breaking-ceasefire-hamas-and-hezbollah

10. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/1/29/analysis-hamas-has-been-hit-hard-by-israel-but-is-not-out-in-gaza

11. https://www.columbiaspectator.com/news/2024/10/30/student-organizers-disaffiliate-from-cuad-establish-columbia-palestine-solidarity-coalition/

17 March 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Andre Damon

The US military carried out dozens of airstrikes on Yemen Saturday and Sunday, including strikes on residential areas in the densely populated city of Sanaa, killing at least 53 people, including 31 civilians.

Anis al-Asbahi, a spokesman for the Yemeni Health Ministry, said that over 100 people were wounded, “most of whom were children and women.”

In an unhinged rant on Truth Social, Trump wrote, “YOUR TIME IS UP, AND YOUR ATTACKS MUST STOP, STARTING TODAY. IF THEY DON’T, HELL WILL RAIN DOWN UPON YOU LIKE NOTHING YOU HAVE EVER SEEN BEFORE!”

He added, “We will use overwhelming lethal force until we have achieved our objective.” The Hill reported, according to a source, that Saturday’s attacks were the beginning of “many days if not weeks” of attacks.

The massacre, a war crime and criminal act of military aggression, was justified as a “preemptive” strike in response to a statement by Yemen’s Houthis last week that they will block Israeli ships from transiting the Red Sea until Israel ceases its blockade of food and water into Gaza.

No food, water, fuel or electricity has entered Gaza since March 2, despite a nominal “ceasefire” between Israel and Hamas. The United Nations’ High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, has accused Israel of using “starvation as a method of war, which is a war crime.”

Israel, with the support of the United States, is seeking to starve the population of Gaza, which before the start of the genocide numbered 2 million, in an effort to ethnically cleanse the territory. US President Donald Trump has declared that the United States would seek to “own” Gaza.

On Sunday, the US military carried out more than 40 raids on Yemen, attacking five different provinces. The victims included at least five children and two women, the Houthi Ministry of Health said. Most of the victims were in Sanaa, where the US claimed it was attempting to murder Houthi leaders—itself a war crime.

Michael Waltz, Mr. Trump’s national security adviser, told Fox News Sunday the attacks were “an overwhelming response that actually targeted multiple Houthi leaders and took them out, and the difference here is one, going after the Houthi leadership, and two, holding Iran responsible.”

The massacre was the largest military action in the Middle East of the Trump administration to date, and the largest US attack on Yemen in recent years. Between last January and May, the US and UK carried out five major attacks on Yemen.

Ahmed, a father of two, told AFP, “I’ve been living in Sanaa for 10 years, hearing shelling throughout the war. By God, I’ve never experienced anything like this before.”

Abdul Rahman al-Nuerah, a resident of Sanaa, told the New York Times that the explosions shattered the windows of his house and terrified his children. “I instantly embraced and comforted them. … Children and mothers are afraid and still in shock.”

One resident who witnessed the attacks told Reuters, “The explosions were violent and shook the neighborhood like an earthquake.”

In addition to attacks on residential areas, the US bombed a power facility in the town of Dahyan, causing electricity blackouts.

US officials stated the massacre in Yemen was a threat against Iran. The strikes were intended to “put Iran on notice that enough is enough,” said US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, a notorious public defender of US war crimes, in an interview with Fox News.

Hegseth said the US attack on Yemen would be “unrelenting,” adding, “This isn’t a one-night thing. This will continue until you say, ‘We’re done shooting at ships. We’re done shooting at assets.’”

“To Iran: Support for the Houthi terrorists must end immediately!” Trump said on Truth Social, adding, “because America will hold you fully accountable.”

In an interview on ABC’s “This Week,” Waltz made clear that the US is considering targeting Iranian forces inside Yemen as well. “We will hold not only the Houthis accountable, but we’re going to hold Iran, their backers, accountable as well,” he said. “Their Iranian trainers, IRGC and others, that intelligence, other things that they have put in to help the Houthis attack the global economy, those—those targets will be on the table too.”

The attacks could be the beginning of a major new US military intervention in the Middle East, with the New York Times reporting that “some national security aides want to pursue an even more aggressive campaign that could lead the Houthis to essentially lose control of large parts of the country’s north.”

The Times reported that “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has been pushing Mr. Trump to authorize a joint US-Israel operation to destroy Iran’s nuclear weapons facilities, taking advantage of a moment when Iran’s air defenses are exposed, after a bombing campaign from Israel in October dismantled critical military infrastructure.”

Over the past year, the United States and Israel have waged a major regional war, coordinated with the Gaza genocide, targeting Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Iran itself. Israel carried out two major attacks on Iran, targeting its air defense infrastructure and potentially opening the door for a major US-Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear program.

The aim of this war is the creation of what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called the “new Middle East,” a term first coined by Bush administration Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in 2006.

As the US continues its military escalation throughout the Middle East, the humanitarian situation in Gaza is deteriorating. “Without aid entering the Gaza Strip, roughly 1 million children are living without the very basics they need to survive—yet again,” said Edouard Beigbeder, a spokesperson for the United Nations Children’s Agency.

“Tragically, approximately 4,000 newborns are currently unable to access essential lifesaving care due to the major impact on medical facilities in the Gaza Strip,” Beigbeder said. “Every day without these ventilators, lives are lost, especially among vulnerable, premature newborns in the northern Gaza Strip.”

Despite the nominal ceasefire, Israeli forces continue to kill people in Gaza every single day. Over the past 24 hours, 29 bodies were brought to hospitals in Gaza, and 51 people were wounded. This has brought the confirmed death toll to 48,572, with another 10,000 more missing and likely buried under the rubble. On Saturday, an Israeli drone attack killed nine people, eight of whom were aid workers.

“It is with great sadness and regret that we announce the demise in Gaza of eight of our team’s dedicated humanitarian aid workers. They were killed in violation of the agreed ceasefire in a drone airstrike,” said Shuaib Yusaf, the CEO of the Al Khair Foundation, a humantarian group.

17 March 2025

Source: countercurrents.org