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By Quds News Network

Bern (Quds News Network)- Palestinian-American journalist Ali Abunimah has confirmed that Swiss authorities released and deported him after detaining him for three days over his advocacy for Palestinian rights.

Abunimah, the executive director of the Electronic Intifada publication, suggested in a social media post on Monday that Switzerland detained him because of his advocacy for Palestinian rights.

“My ‘crime’? Being a journalist who speaks up for Palestine and against Israel’s genocide and settler-colonial savagery and those who aid and abet it,” he wrote.

On Saturday, he was arrested in Zurich before he was set to deliver a speech in the city, sparking outrage from Palestinian rights advocates.

[https://twitter.com/AliAbunimah/status/1883973368069906853]

Reuters reported on Sunday that the Swiss police cited an entry ban and other measures under the country’s immigration law as the reason for Abunimah’s arrest.

The Palestinian-American journalist said that when he was questioned by police officers, they accused him of “offending against Swiss law” without providing specific charges.

He said he was “cut off from communication with the outside world, in a cell 24 hours a day”, adding that he was unable to contact his family. He added that he was only given back his phone at the gate of the plane that flew him to Istanbul.

He noted that during the period when he was taken to prison like a “dangerous criminal”, Switzerland welcomed Israeli President Isaac Herzog to the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Herzog has sparked controversy for his stance on Israel’s war on Gaza, which has killed more than 47,300 Palestinians.

“This ordeal lasted three days but that taste of prison was more than enough to leave me in even greater awe of the Palestinian heroes who endure months and years in the prisons of the genocidal oppressor,” Abunimah said.

“More than ever, I know that the debt we owe them is one we can never repay and all of them must be free and they must remain our focus.”

Abunimah’s detention comes amid a growing crackdown on pro-Palestine voices in the West and Europe during the Gaza war, which UN experts have likened to genocide.

In October 2024, British counterterrorism police raided the home of Abunimah’s Electronic Intifada colleague Asa Winstanley — an incident that the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said was part of a “disturbing pattern of weaponizing counter-terrorism laws against reporters”.

[https://twitter.com/TamaraINassar/status/1852060522788581574]

Months earlier, British authorities held journalist Richard Medhurst, who is vocally critical of Israeli policies, for 24 hours as he arrived in London. Medhurst said on Saturday that the “terrorism” investigation against him was extended until May.

[https://twitter.com/richimedhurst/status/1883330668064821626]

28 January 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Ramzy Baroud

The problem with political analysis is that it often lacks historical perspective and is mostly limited to recent events.

The current analysis of the Israeli war on Gaza falls victim to this narrow thinking. The ceasefire agreement, signed between Palestinian groups and Israel under Egyptian, Qatari, and US mediation in Doha on January 15, is one example.

Some analysts, including many from the region, insist on framing the outcome of the war as a direct result of Israel’s political dynamics. They argue that Israel’s political crisis is the main reason the country failed to achieve its declared and undeclared war objectives—namely, gaining total “security control” over Gaza and ethnically cleansing its population.

However, this analysis assumes that the decision to go to war or not is entirely in Israel’s hands. It continues to elevate Israel’s role as the only entity capable of shaping political outcomes in the region, even when those outcomes do not favor Israel.

Another group of analysts focuses entirely on the American factor, claiming that the decision to end the war ultimately rested with the White House. Shortly after the ceasefire was officially declared in Gaza, a pan-Arab TV channel asked a group of experts whether it was the Biden or Trump administration that deserved credit for supposedly “pressuring Israel” to agree to a ceasefire.

Some argue that it was Trump’s envoy to Israel, Steve Witkoff, who denied Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu any room to maneuver, thus forcing him, albeit reluctantly, to accept the ceasefire terms.

Others counter by saying that the agreement was initially presented by the Biden administration. They argue that Biden’s supposedly active diplomacy ultimately led to the ceasefire.

The latter group fails to acknowledge that it was Biden’s unconditional support for Israel that sustained the war. His UN envoy’s constant rejection of ceasefire calls at the Security Council made international efforts to stop the war irrelevant.

The former group, however, ignores the fact that Israeli society was already at a breaking point. The war on Gaza had proven unwinnable. This means that, whether Trump pressured Netanyahu or not, the outcome of the war was already sealed. Continuing the war would have meant the implosion of Israeli society.

On the Palestinian side, some analyses—affiliated with one faction or another—exploit the war’s outcome for political gain. This type of thinking is extremely insensitive and must be wholly rejected.

There are also those hoping to play a role in Gaza’s reconstruction to gain political and financial leverage and increase their influence. This is a shameful stance, given the total destruction of Gaza and the urgent need to recover the thousands of bodies trapped under rubble, as well as to heal the wounded and the population as a whole.

One thing all these analyses overlook is that Israel failed in Gaza because the population of Gaza proved unbreakable. Such notions are often neglected in mainstream political discussions, which tend to commit to an elitist line. This line is entirely removed from the daily struggles and collective choices of ordinary people, even when they achieve extraordinary feats.

Gaza’s history is one of both pain and pride. It stretches back to ancient civilizations and includes great resistance against invasion, such as the three-month siege by Alexander the Great and his Macedonian army in 332 BCE.

Back then, Gazans resisted and endured for months before their leader, Batis, was captured, tortured to death, and the city was sacked.

This legendary resilience and sumoud (steadfastness) proved crucial in numerous other fights against foreign invaders, including resistance to Napoleon Bonaparte’s army in 1799.

Even if some of Gaza’s current population is unaware of that history, they are a direct product of it. From this perspective, neither Israeli political dynamics, the change of the US administration, nor any other factor is relevant.

This is known as “long history” or longue durée. Far from being merely an academic concept, the long legacy of resistance against injustice has shaped the collective mindset of the Palestinian population in Gaza over the years. How else can we explain how a small, isolated, and impoverished population, living in such a tiny piece of land, managed to withstand firepower equivalent to many nuclear bombs?

The war ended because Gaza withstood it—not because of the kindness of an American president. It is crucial that we emphasize this point repeatedly, rather than seeking inconclusive and irrational answers.

It matters little how we define victory and defeat for a nation still suffering the consequences of a war of annihilation. However, it is important to recognize that Palestinians in Gaza stood their ground, despite immense losses, and prevailed. This can only be credited to them—a nation that has historically proven unbreakable. This truth, rooted in “long history,” remains valid today.

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

28 January 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor

Palestinian Territory – United States President Donald Trump announced his plan to expel the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip from their homes there, and has called on neighbouring nations to accept the Palestinians into their countries. These remarks, which were made after Israel egregiously violated international law by committing genocide against the Palestinian people in the Strip for over 15 months—including by destroying all essential necessities for life in the enclave—are deeply concerning.

The Palestinians, who are already suffering from the devastating effects of Israel’s attempts to annihilate them, should not have to pay a further price for this genocide by being forcibly displaced outside of their homeland. Israel, as the occupying power, is the only entity that must take moral and legal responsibility for the crimes it has committed in the Gaza Strip, pay reparations to the Palestinians, and rebuild the Strip as quickly as possible.

Since the Fourth Geneva Convention expressly forbids the forced displacement of populations under occupation, any plans to do so would be a blatant violation of this agreement. The facilitation of these plans would also violate the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to stay on their land and in their homeland, a right which is protected by international law, and would be crimes against humanity and war crimes. In addition to being an international crime, the forced displacement of Palestinians is a component of a larger plan to strengthen the systematic expulsion and forced relocation crimes Israel has been committing against Palestinians for many years.

In addition to directly supporting Israel’s expansionist and colonial policies, which systematically aim to remove Palestinians from their lands in favour of its illegal colonial settlement projects, Trump’s statements call for the evacuation of Gaza’s population by forcing neighbouring countries to absorb refugees from the Strip. This runs counter to the strong historical and cultural ties that bind Palestinians to their land.

For months, Israel has been committing genocide by carrying out mass killings against civilians and methodically demolishing Gaza Strip cities, neighbourhoods, and infrastructure in an effort to drive Palestinians from their land and force them to flee. In order to weaken the Palestinians’ ability to survive on their land, and to establish a coercive environment that forces them to flee, these policies have gone beyond simply killing, destroying, and starving them. They have also included destroying the essentials of life, such as access to water, electricity, education, and health care.

Trump stated today (26 Sunday) that more Palestinians from the Gaza Strip should be sent to Jordan and Egypt, and that he is pleading with the leaders of the two nations to allow them to do so because the Strip is “in a state of chaos”.

Since the reopening of the Rafah land crossing with Egypt, which was closed last May, Israel has purposefully bombed cities, residential neighbourhoods, and infrastructure in the Gaza Strip, including streets, schools, and essential facilities there. Israel’s deliberate attempt to either kill or drive Palestinians from their land is especially obvious given the dearth of basic necessities in the besieged enclave, such as homes and infrastructure like water, electricity, communications, Internet, and school networks. In addition, statements made by Israeli ministers and officials publicly promote voluntary migration.

Israel has been committing genocide in the Gaza Strip since 7 October 2023, and the destruction of entire Palestinian cities and neighbourhoods by the Israeli army is a glaring example of this crime and a key instrument of its execution.

This crime has gone beyond simply killing 10s of thousands—or potentially hundreds of thousands—of Palestinians and progressively destroying the lives of over two million people by removing their basic necessities for survival. It has also included the total destruction of Palestinian cities and their architectural and cultural heritage; the erasure of the Palestinian people’s national and cultural identity; the forced relocation of Palestinian people from their lands, and the imposition of this permanent displacement; the dismantling of their communities; and the obliteration of their collective memory in an attempt to eradicate their physical and human existence as well as their past, present, and future.

A regional and global stance opposing Trump’s claims of deporting Gaza Strip residents is absolutely necessary. Mass displacement as a solution to the current conflict not only ignores the underlying causes of the issue but also exacerbates the injustices already experienced by the Palestinian people, and denies them their rightful self-determination and safe residence in their homeland. Trump’s claims, along with any actions that follow, are likely to exacerbate tensions and undermine regional stability.

The international community must fully uphold the principles of international law and adopt solutions that respect Palestinian rights. These solutions should include ending Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian territories, holding Israel accountable for its ongoing crimes, and establishing a clear path to achieving justice for the Palestinian people. Additionally, the international community should ensure that all Palestinian refugees and displaced persons are able to return to their original areas in accordance with relevant international resolutions, rather than supporting any policies that would uproot Palestine’s indigenous population in favour of Israel’s colonial policies.

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

28 January 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Kevin Reed

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers dramatically increased daily arrests of immigrants in cities across the US beginning on Sunday under orders from the Trump White House.

In a meeting on Saturday, Trump administration officials demanded quotas for ICE arrests be raised from a few hundred to between 1,200 and 1,500 people per day. A report in the Washington Post said the increase was demanded “because the president has been disappointed with the results of his mass deportation campaign so far, according to four people with knowledge of the briefings.”

The Post report also said, “The quotas were outlined Saturday in a call with senior ICE officials, who were told that each of the agency’s field offices should make 75 arrests per day and managers would be held accountable for missing those targets.”

Prior to the new quotas, the daily number of immigrants being arrested by the Biden administration was 311 people on average.

ICE reported 956 people had been arrested on Sunday by multiple federal police agencies in cities, including Chicago, Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Diego, Denver, Miami, Atlanta and major cities in northern Texas.

While the president and his fascist border czar Tom Homan are claiming that the raids are “enhanced targeted operations” aimed at “keeping potentially dangerous criminal aliens out of our communities,” it is clear the arrests are being carried out indiscriminately and the up to five-fold increase will intensify this fact.

In an example of the blatantly racist tactics being utilized by immigration authorities—which exposes the fundamentally undemocratic character of the entire operation—Navajo Nation Council Speaker Crystalyne Curley reported that at least 15 Indigenous people in Arizona and New Mexico have reported being stopped and asked to produce proof of citizenship. Some of these US citizens in tribal communities have also been detained.

A press release issued by the Office of Navajo President Buu Nygren on Friday said, “My office has received multiple reports from Navajo citizens that they have had negative, and sometimes traumatizing, experiences with federal agents targeting undocumented immigrants in the Southwest.”

Other reports have shown that the raids are above all aimed at intimidating and terrorizing immigrant families and communities as part of the Trump administration’s campaign to scapegoat immigrants for the crisis of American and world capitalism.

In the Chicago area, ABC Eyewitness News said a woman reported that her father, who had been in the US for 30 years, was arrested at his home in Waukegan. Yelitza Marquina explained that the seizure of her father happened under apparently false pretenses. “They (family members) opened the door because they thought maybe one of us was in trouble or something happened to us. Never did they think it was ICE.”

In another example of the despicable role of media personalities in the ICE offensive, “Dr. Phil” McGraw has been permitted to “embed” with ICE officers during raids in Chicago. The purpose of the ride-along by the former psychologist, who rose to television fame alongside Oprah Winfrey, is to bolster the Trump administration’s claims that only “known criminals and terrorists” are being targeted by ICE.

In Miami, CBS News interviewed an unidentified man who said ICE had taken his wife during a raid in the neighborhood of Brownsville. The man said his wife of 11 years was from Venezuela and had a court date scheduled to complete a three-year process of getting her US citizenship. He said, “everything was good” until ICE showed up. “They just came, and they snatched her,” he said.

In Los Angeles, Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) officials mobilized their forces to assist the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in the carrying out the crackdown in the fire ravaged city. Matthew Allen, Special Agent in Charge of the DEA’s LA field division, posted photos on social media showing DEA agents, who were masked, armed and dressed in paramilitary fatigues, deployed in a residential area.

[https://twitter.com/DEALOSANGELES/status/1883567509821112731]

In Texas, ICE representatives confirmed to the Texas Newsroom that raids were underway across the northern cities of Dallas, Irving, Arlington, Fort Worth, Garland and Collin County. The statement said that 84 people had been arrested in North Texas and the state of Oklahoma, and they were taken to ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations field office in Dallas for processing.

Targeted operations were also carried out in Austin and the Rio Grande Valley. In Austin, ICE was supported by DEA agents from Houston. However, details on the number of arrests or where they were carried out have not been reported.

On Sunday afternoon, protesters gathered at the Texas State Capitol in response to the raids in Austin. One protester told KXAN, “They are the epitome of the American Dream. They’ve come here and worked hard. They have a right to be here just like anyone else who has fled a country that doesn’t provide the needs of the citizens.”

A demonstration against the ICE raids was also held in Omaha, Nebraska, near 24th and L streets in the south of the city, as reported by KETV 7 ABC.

It is not clear what kind of process those who have been arrested will face. It is being widely reported that anyone who is merely undocumented—a civil, not criminal, infraction—and picked up in the raids will be deported, along with those authorities claim who have committed crimes in the US.

Also, US military aircraft are being used to fly groups of immigrants back to their home countries. CNN reported from Guatemala City on Monday about two flights by US military planes that had landed with migrants who had been deported.

Numerous Democrats have been interviewed on CNN about the vicious attacks on immigrant workers and their families. Not one has disputed the assertions of the fascist Trump and his cabinet officials that the US has been invaded by “drug dealers, criminals and rapists.”

Far from it, the Democrats argue that Trump has a “moral obligation” to protect those who are innocent, while also consistently supporting the pretext that “criminals” must be arrested and deported. This amounts to an endorsement of an unprecedented assault on the basic rights of the most vulnerable sections of the working class.

28 January 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Zachary J. Foster

The acting president of the International Court of Justice, Julia Sebutinde, plagiarized large parts of her dissenting opinion on the “Legal Consequences arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem.”

Recall that, in January 2024, Judge Sebutinde was the only judge of the 17 judges on the panel to vote against all six provisional measures in the genocide case brought by South Africa against Israel, including the order that Israel needed “to take all measures within its power” to prevent acts of genocide in Gaza.

It was in her 36-page opinion on the legal status of Israel’s occupation, however, published in July 2024, where she plagiarized many sentences, including whole paragraphs. The legal opinion also includes lengthy historical discussions, in which she got basic facts wrong and painted a distorted picture of the past. In fact, rather than citing historians, and giving those historians credit for their work in her footnotes, Sebutinde plagiarized propagandists, themselves partisans, interested not in getting history right but in defending the Zionist cause.

In short, Judge Sebutinde has no shame in presenting other people’s work as her own. This makes her a dishonest person, someone who should not be trusted to adjudicate anything at all, let alone international law for the world’s highest court. Here are 9 of the most egregious instances of her plagiarism:

The Jewish Virtual Library

Sebutinde plagiarized many sentences from the “The Jewish Virtual Library” website, run by Mitchell G. Bard and Or Shaked, two individuals who have decades of expertise distorting history to present Israel in a positive light.

1. Sebutinde: “Prior to the establishment of “British Mandatory Palestine”, Palestinian Arabs viewed themselves as having a unified identity with the Arabs in the subregion until the twentieth century.”

1. Jewish Virtual Library: “Prior to partition, Palestinian Arabs did not view themselves as having a separate identity.”

2. Sebutinde: “When the distinguished Arab American historian, Professor Philip Hitti, testified against the Partition of Mandatory Palestine before the Anglo-American Committee in 1946, he remarked: “There is no such thing as ‘Palestine’ in history; absolutely not.””

2. Jewish Virtual Library: “When the distinguished Arab-American historian, Princeton University Prof. Philip Hitti, testified against partition before the Anglo-American Committee in 1946, he said: “There is no such thing as ‘Palestine’ in history, absolutely not.”

3. Sebutinde: “In 1937, a local Arab leader, Auni Bey Abdul-Hadi, told the Peel Commission, which ultimately suggested the partition of Palestine: “There is no such country [as Palestine]! ‘Palestine’ is a term the Zionists invented! There is no Palestine in the Bible. Our country was for centuries part of Syria.”

3. Jewish Virtual Library: “In 1937, a local Arab leader, Auni Bey Abdul-Hadi, told the Peel Commission, which ultimately suggested the partition of Palestine: “There is no such country [as Palestine]! ‘Palestine’ is a term the Zionists invented! There is no Palestine in the Bible. Our country was for centuries part of Syria.””

4. Sebutinde: “The first Palestine-Arab Congress which convened in Jerusalem from 27 January to 10 February 1919 to choose Palestinian representatives for the Paris Peace Conference, adopted a resolution in which it, inter alia, considered Palestine as an integral part of Arab Syria.”

4. Jewish Virtual Library: “When the First Congress of Muslim-Christian Associations met in Jerusalem in February 1919 to choose Palestinian representatives for the Paris Peace Conference, the following resolution was adopted: We consider Palestine as part of Arab Syria, as it has never been separated from it at any time.”

Prager U

She also plagiarized from Prager U, another organization with decades of expertise not in history, but in distorting history to present Israel in a positive light.

5. Sebutinde: “the British Government offered the Palestinian Arabs 80 per cent of Mandatory Palestine (Transjordan), and the Jews the remaining 20 per cent (Palestine) in a suggested split that was heavily in favour of the former. Despite the tiny size of their proposed State, the Jews voted to accept this offer, but the Arabs rejected it and resumed their violent rebellion against the British mandate.”

5. Prager U: “The British offered them 80 percent of the disputed territory; the Jews, the remaining 20 percent. Yet, despite the tiny size of their proposed state, the Jews voted to accept this offer. But the Arabs rejected it and resumed their violent rebellion.”

6. Sebutinde: “Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak met at Camp David, with Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) Chairman Yasser Arafat in 2000, to conclude a new two-State plan. Barak offered Arafat a Palestinian State in all of Gaza, and 94 per cent of the West Bank, with East Jerusalem as its capital. The Palestinian leader flatly rejected the offer. In the words of President Bill Clinton of the United States, “Arafat was here 14 days and said no to everything.” Instead, the Palestinians launched a bloody wave of suicide bombings that killed over 1,000 Israelis and maimed thousands more, on buses, in wedding halls, and in pizza parlours.”

6. Prager U: “In 2000, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak met at Camp David with Palestinian Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat to conclude a new two-state plan. Barak offered Arafat a Palestinian state in all of Gaza and 94% of the West Bank with East Jerusalem as its capital. But the Palestinian leader rejected the offer. In the words of US President Bill Clinton, Arafat was “Here 14 days and said ‘no’ to everything.” Instead, the Palestinians launched a bloody wave of suicide bombings that killed over 1,000 Israelis and maimed thousands more – on buses, in wedding halls, and in pizza parlours.”

Douglas J. Feith

Sebutinde also plagiarized from a 2021 blog post by Douglas J. Feith published by the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank. Feith is not a historian, but a war monger, serving as the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy under President George W. Bush administration from 2001-2005 where he helped guide strategy on two of the most disastrous wars in US history, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

7. Sebutinde: ““Palestine” applied vaguely to a region that for the 400 years before World War I was part of the Ottoman empire.”

7. Douglas J. Feith: ““Palestine” applied vaguely to a region that for the 400 years before World War I was part of the Ottoman empire.”

8. Sebutinde: “In 135 CE, after stamping out the second Jewish insurrection of the province of Judea or Judah, the Romans renamed that province “Syria Palaestina” (or “Palestinian Syria”). The Romans did this as a punishment, to spite the “Y’hudim” (Jewish population) and to obliterate the link between them and their province (known in Hebrew as Y’hudah). The name “Palaestina” was used in relation to the people known as the Philistines and found along the Mediterranean coast.”

8. Douglas J. Feith “In 135 CE, after stamping out the province of Judea’s second insurrection, the Romans renamed the province Syria Palaestina—that is, “Palestinian Syria.” They did so resentfully, as a punishment, to obliterate the link between the Jews (in Hebrew, Y’hudim and in Latin Judaei) and the province (the Hebrew name of which was Y’hudah). “Palaestina” referred to the Philistines, whose home base had been on the Mediterranean coast.”

9. Sebutinde: “The line in the north emerged from Anglo-French negotiations in 1923. The one in the south was fixed by treaties in the mid-1920s between Britain and the new nation of Saudi Arabia. The border between the Mandate of Palestine and the Mandate of Mesopotamia (Iraq) was of little immediate importance, given that the line was in the middle of an uninhabited desert and Britain controlled both sides. That line was finally fixed through an exchange of letters in 1932.”

9. Douglas J. Feith: “The line in the north emerged from Anglo-French negotiations in 1923. The one in the south was fixed by treaties in the mid-1920s between Britain and the new nation of Saudi Arabia. The border between Mandate Palestine and Mandate Mesopotamia was of little immediate importance, given that it was in the middle of an uninhabited desert and Britain controlled both sides. That line was finally fixed through an exchange of letters in 1932.”

The plagiarism outlined above represents a clear breach of public trust. The ICJ needs honest judges, not judges who lie and present other people’s work as their own, not to mention work that is itself grounded not in historical research but in Zionist mythology and propaganda. Sebutinde is a disgrace to the court and its reputation, and every judge, lawyer and legal expert in the world should call for her immediate resignation.

Zachary J. Foster is a historian of Palestine who received his Ph.D in Near Eastern Studies from Princeton University in 2017.

1 February 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Andre Damon

Life expectancy in Gaza plunged by nearly 50 percent in the first year of the Israeli genocide in the besieged enclave, a study published in The Lancet has found.

The study, led by Michel Guillot, professor of sociology in the School of Arts & Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania, found that life expectancy in Gaza fell by a staggering 34.9 years, erasing over a century of progress in life expectancy in just one year.

For men, life expectancy dropped to 35.6 years from a pre-war life expectancy of 73.6 years—a decline of over 50 percent. For women, life expectancy declined from 77.5 years to 47.5 years.

By comparison, Nigeria, the country previously with the lowest life expectancy, has a life expectancy at birth of 54.46 years. The study’s findings indicate that the population of Gaza now has a life expectancy lower than any other country in the world.

These findings make clear that Israel’s war in Gaza is not a war, but a genocide, aimed not at any military objective but at killing as many Palestinians as possible and destroying as much of Gaza as possible in order to ethnically cleanse the territory, settle it, and annex it into “greater Israel.”

This has been the aim of the Israeli state since the Nakba of 1948-1949, and has been its modus operandi for decades, including the illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories in 1967. With the support of the Biden administration, the government of Benjamin Netanyahu initiated a full-scale genocide in October 2023, using the October 7 attacks as a pretext.

The figures in the latest The Lancet study are likely to be a major underestimation, as they do not account for deaths uncounted in official government statistics or deaths due to Israel’s deliberate policy of starvation, dehydration, and the destruction of Gaza’s medical infrastructure. The study based itself on data from Gaza’s Ministry of Health, which estimates that Israeli forces have directly killed 45,936 Palestinians.

The authors noted that “our approach to estimating life expectancy losses in this study is conservative as it ignores the indirect effect of the war on mortality… Actual losses are likely to be higher.”

Earlier this month, another study published in The Lancet estimated that Palestinian deaths in Gaza from Israeli bullets and bombs “probably exceeded 70,000.” An earlier study from The Lancet suggested that the all-cause mortality from the genocide, including from malnutrition and disease, could be 186,000 or more.

In November, the United Nations Human Rights Office published a report showing that nearly 70 percent of verified deaths in Gaza were of women and children, further underlining the reality that Israel is waging a genocide in Gaza.

Amid a ceasefire in Gaza which began on January 19, Israeli forces are continuing daily raids and bombings throughout the West Bank.

In a statement, United Nations spokesman Stephane Dujarric called on Israel to cease its military offensive on the West Bank, centered on the city of Jenin. The UN “remains deeply concerned about the humanitarian situation in the northern area of the West Bank as Israeli operations in Jenin continue for the 11th day….Nearly all of Jenin refugee camp’s 20,000 residents have been displaced over the past two months in the context of security operations.”

Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu will travel to Washington next week for two meetings with US President Trump on Tuesday. “I can confirm that Prime Minister Netanyahu will be here on Tuesday, February 4th, for a working meeting and visit with the president,” said White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.

Despite the nominal ceasefire in Gaza, the Israeli government, in coordination with the Trump administration, is making a renewed push for the expulsion of the Palestinian people from Gaza.

Last weekend, US President Donald Trump called for Israel to “clean” Gaza of its Arab inhabitants, openly calling for ethnic cleansing. “You’re talking about probably a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing,” Trump said.

Trump’s statement is an open and public embrace by the American state of the actual policy of the Netanyahu government, which is the systematic extermination and removal of the Palestinian population from Gaza. Trump reiterated his call for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza on Monday, declaring he would “like to get [Palestinians from Gaza] living in an area where they can live without disruption and revolution and violence so much.”

On Wednesday, Trump’s Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff met with Netanyahu to discuss, in the words of the Times of Israel, “Trump’s Gaza idea of sending Gaza’s population to Jordan and Egypt.”

The Times of Israel reported “the meeting lasted for two-and-a-half hours, and quoted senior Israeli officials as saying the officials discussed possible outlines for the transfer of Gaza’s population, in line with the US president’s repeated suggestion that millions of Gazans should relocate to Egypt and Jordan in order to enable the Strip’s reconstruction.”

Trump’s plan to ethnically cleanse Gaza would be a major violation of international law. In a news conference on Monday, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric condemned Trump’s calls, saying, “We would be against any plan that would lead to the forced displacement of people, or would lead to any type of ethnic cleansing.”

Michael Becker, a professor of international human rights law at Trinity College in Dublin, told Al Jazeera, “The proposal to relocate Palestinians from Gaza to neighboring states smacks of forced displacement, which would violate international humanitarian law.”

He continued, “International courts have also found that whether a population transfer constitutes forced displacement depends on whether people have a genuine choice in the matter… This means that even if some Palestinians might appear to consent to relocation, this would not necessarily make their displacement lawful.”

1 February 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Ramzy Baroud

Even those of us who have long emphasized the importance of the Palestinian people’s voice, experience, and collective action in Palestinian history must have been shocked by the cultural revolution resulting from the Israeli war on Gaza.

By cultural revolution, I mean the defiant and rebellious narrative evolving in Gaza, where people see themselves as active participants in the popular resistance, not just mere victims of the Israeli war machine.

When the ceasefire was announced on the 471st day of the Israeli genocide, Gazans rushed to the streets in celebration. Media outlets reported that they were celebrating the ceasefire, but judging by their chants, songs, and symbolisms, they were celebrating their collective victory, steadfastness (sumud), and resilience against the powerful Israeli army, supported by the US and other Western countries.

Using basic means, they rushed to clean their streets, clearing debris to allow the displaced to search for homes. Though their homes were destroyed – (90% of Gaza’s housing units, according to the United Nations) – they were still happy, even to sit on the wreckage. Some prayed atop concrete slabs, some sang in large, growing crowds, and others cried but insisted no power could ever uproot them from Palestine again.

Social media was flooded with Gazans expressing a mix of emotions, though they were mostly defiant, expressing their resolve not just in political terms but in other ways, including humor.

Of course, the bodybuilders returned to their gyms to find them mostly destroyed. Rather than lament their losses, they salvaged machines and resumed training amid collapsed walls and ceilings punctured by Israeli missiles.

There was also the father and son who composed a song in the ahazej style, a traditional Levantine vocalization. The son, overjoyed to find his father alive, was reassured by his father that they would never abandon their homeland.

As for the children – 14,500 of whom were killed, according to UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) – they resumed their childhood. They claimed destroyed Israeli tanks in Rafah, Beit Hanoun, and elsewhere as their new playgrounds.

One teenager, pretending to be a scrap metal salesman, yelled, “An Israeli Merkava tank for sale,” as his friends filmed and laughed. He finished by saying, “Make sure you send this video to (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu,” before moving on, unfazed.

This does not mean Gaza is free of unimaginable pain, which is difficult for the rest of the world to fully comprehend. The emotional and psychological scars of the war will last a lifetime, and many will never recover fully from the trauma. But Gazans know they cannot afford to grieve in the usual way. So, they emphasize their identity, unity, and defiance as ways to overcome grief.

Parallel to its military assault on Gaza since October 7, 2023, Israel has invested heavily in dividing the Palestinian people and shattering their spirit.

In Gaza, it dropped millions of flyers from warplanes on starving refugees, urging them to rebel against Palestinian factions by providing Israel with names of “troublemakers.” The Israeli army offered large rewards for information, but little was achieved.

These flyers also called for tribal leaders to take control of their areas in exchange for food and protection. To punish those who resisted, Israel systematically killed clan representatives and councilors who tried to distribute aid throughout Gaza, especially in the north where famine was devastating.

Against overwhelming odds, Palestinians remained united. When the ceasefire was declared, they celebrated as one nation. With Gaza destroyed, Israel’s actions obliterated Gaza’s class, regional, ideological, and political divisions. Everyone in Gaza became a refugee; the rich, poor, Muslim, Christian, city dwellers and refugee camp residents were all equally affected.

The unity that remains in Gaza, after one of the most horrific genocides in modern history, should serve as a wake-up call. The narrative that Palestinians are divided and need to “find common ground” has proven false.

With the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank aiding Israel’s war on Jenin and other refugee camps, the old notion of political unity through a merger of the PA and various Palestinian factions is no longer viable. The reality is that the fragmentation of the Palestinian political landscape cannot be solved through mere political agreements or negotiations between factions.

However, a different kind of unity has already taken root in Gaza and, by extension, across Palestinian communities in occupied Palestine and the rest of the world. This unity is visible in the millions of Palestinians who have demonstrated against the war, chanted for Gaza, cried for Gaza, and developed a new political discourse around it.

This unity does not rely on talking heads on Arabic satellite channels or secret meetings in expensive hotels. It needs no diplomatic talks. Years of endless discussions, “unity documents,” and fiery speeches only led to disappointment.

The true unity has already been achieved, felt in the voices of ordinary Gazans who no longer identify as members of factions. They are Gazzawiyya. Palestinians from Gaza, and nothing else.

This is the true unity that must now form the foundation of a new discourse.

Ramzy Baroud is a US-Palestinian journalist, media consultant, an author, internationally-syndicated columnist, Editor of Palestine Chronicle (1999-present), former Managing Editor of London-based Middle East Eye, former Editor-in-Chief of The Brunei Times and former Deputy Managing Editor of Al Jazeera online.

31 January 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Quds News Network

Washington (Quds News Network)- US President Donald Trump insisted Thursday that Egypt and Jordan would accept displaced Palestinians, despite both countries rejecting his proposal to “clean out” war-torn Gaza by displacing 1.5 million Palestinians.

Trump’s comments came a day after Egyptian President and Jordan’s King rejected any forced displacement of Gazans.

“They will do it,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office when asked for his response to the Egyptian and Jordanian refusal, and whether he would consider imposing tariffs on either country to push them.

“They’re going to do it. We do a lot for them, and they’re going to do it.”

On his larger vision for Gaza, Trump said he had called earlier in the day with King Abdullah II of Jordan and would speak Sunday with President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi of Egypt.

“I’d like Egypt to take people,” Trump said. “You’re talking about probably a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing and say, ‘You know, it’s over.’”

Trump said he complimented Jordan for having successfully accepted Palestinian refugees and that he told the king, “I’d love for you to take on more, cause I’m looking at the whole Gaza Strip right now, and it’s a mess. It’s a real mess.”

Trump added the part of the world that encompasses Gaza, has “had many, many conflicts” over centuries. He said resettling “could be temporary or long term.”

“Something has to happen,” Trump said. “But it’s literally a demolition site right now. Almost everything’s demolished, and people are dying there.”

He added: “So, I’d rather get involved with some of the Arab nations, and build housing in a different location, where they can maybe live in peace for a change.”

On Monday, Trump doubled down on his proposal, insisting that Egypt and Jordan would agree to it.

Asked about his comments, Trump told reporters on Air Force One he would “like to get them living in an area where they can live without disruption and revolution and violence so much.”

“When you look at the Gaza Strip, it’s b
Xoeeen hell for so many years,” Trump said. “There have been various civilizations on that strip. It didn’t start here. It started thousands of years before, and there’s always been violence associated with it. You could get people living in areas that are a lot safer and maybe a lot better and maybe a lot more comfortable.”

Asked how the Egyptian leader received the idea, Trump said Sissi’s “response [was] that he’d like to see peace in the Middle East.”

“I’d like to see peace in the Middle East,” Trump added.

Pressed further, Trump insisted that both the Egyptian and Jordanian leaders would come around.

“I’d love to do that,” he said. “I wish [Sissi] would take some. We helped them a lot, and I’m sure he’d help us. He’s a friend of mine. He’s in… a rough neighborhood. But I think he would do it, and I think the king of Jordan would do it too,” Trump added.

However, Egyptian state-linked media quickly reported on Tuesday that such a call never happened, citing a senior government source, after Israeli media, including the Jerusalem Post and Ynet, reported that the two presidents spoke by phone and that Sissi did not object to the idea.

Palestine, Egypt, and Jordan all strongly condemned Trump’s remarks.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) said the plan “constitutes a blatant violation of the red lines we have consistently warned against”.

“We emphasise that the Palestinian people will never abandon their land or their holy sites, and we will not allow the repetition of the catastrophes (Nakba) of 1948 and 1967. Our people will remain steadfast and will not leave their homeland,” it said.

Hamas said the US administration must abandon such proposals that align with Israeli “schemes” and conflict with the rights of the Palestinian people, who have already been resisting “the most heinous acts of genocide” and displacement since Israel launched its war on Gaza in October 2023.

“Our principles are clear, and Jordan’s steadfast position to uphold the Palestinians’ presence on their land remains unchanged and will never change,” Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi told a joint press conference in Amman.

“The solution to the Palestinian issue lies in Palestine; Jordan is for Jordanians and Palestine is for Palestinians,” he added.

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry also affirmed “Egypt’s continued support for the resilience of the Palestinian people on their land and their commitment to their legitimate rights in their homeland, in accordance with international law and international humanitarian law.”

Egypt “cannot be part of any solution involving the transfer of Palestinians into the Sinai,” the Egyptian Embassy in Washington said, citing an opinion piece published by Ambassador Motaz Zahran on the US website The Hill in October 2023.

On Wednesday, Egypt’s Sissi said in his first public response to Trump’s comments that displacing “the Palestinian people from their land is an injustice that we cannot take part in.”

Jordan’s King Abdullah II separately stressed his country’s “firm position on the need to keep the Palestinians on their land.”

White House envoy Steve Witkoff recently visited Gaza, marking the first US visit to the region in 15 years. In an interview with Axios, Witkoff painted a grim picture of the destruction in Gaza, describing the area as “uninhabitable” following the Israeli genocide and estimating that rebuilding could take 10 to 15 years.

Last week, Trump said during a 20-minute question-and-answer session with reporters aboard the Air Force that he would like Jordan, Egypt, and other Arab nations to increase the number of Palestinian refugees they accept from Gaza.

31 January 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Enas W Qeshta

As the world wonders what the first thing Palestinians in Gaza might do after the ceasefire, I know the answer shared by so many here: we’re left with the haunting reality of sleeping each night fearing bombings at any moment. I’ve lost several family members, but I’m grateful that my mother, father, and siblings are still with me.

As soon as the ceasefire agreement came into effect, my mother, father, and two brothers rushed to check on our home. I was on edge, just waiting for a call: “Our home is still standing.” Everyone was eagerly waiting.

Everything turned upside down, and I couldn’t hold back my tears when I received a call from my brother, Mohammed. His voice was filled with anguish as he said, “Thank God, Ya Habibti.” I asked, “AlHamdulillah, our home is still standing?” But his reply shattered my heart: “Nothing, nothing, no building is still standing here, my sister, AlHamdulillah.” In that moment, everything changed for me; the hope I clung to crumbled into ashes. I found myself waiting for the ceasefire deal, eagerly anticipating our return home, but that brought a haunting question: What is the purpose of life when home is no longer there?

I just want to go home, even though it’s hard to call it that anymore. Our house has turned into rubble. I can’t understand how a place filled with countless memories could be reduced to ruins. How could the Israeli occupation dare to bomb it? Who allowed them to wipe out our entire block?

The footage revealing the massive destruction doesn’t represent even 1% of the devastating reality. It feels as if an earthquake has struck, obliterating everything.

I’ve lost everything that mattered to me. I long to return home—to kiss every corner, to hug the walls, to lie on my bed, and to tidy my room. I miss my room so much. I once had shoes to fill a store and clothes far beyond what one shop could hold. Now, I’m left with just one pair of shoes and two pieces of clothing.

I’ve kept my university books, despite my mother urging me to part with some. I cherish them and hope they’re still there under the rubble, though I wonder who can retrieve them for me. I truly want them back.

I just want to go back home—only to home. Words can’t capture the overwhelming feelings I’m experiencing right now. I feel an urge to cry for everything happening around me, struggling to accept that I’ve lost my home, and with it, I feel I have nothing left to lose.

My father, my hero, has worked tirelessly since my birth to ensure our future. Now at 60, he should be enjoying rest, yet his hard work feels in vain after losing everything—including our family’s home of five apartments, our second home, and our businesses. We are left homeless.

My mother, the soul of my soul, has always been my support. She carried burdens that felt heavier than mountains, enduring struggles throughout her life to stand beside us. With great care and thought, she selected each piece to adorn our home, choosing rare decorations, beautiful carpets, and precious furniture. In the blink of an eye, the Israeli occupation turned our three-floor building into rubble and ashes.

My dear sister Ansam persists in completing her education. Israel has denied her the opportunity to complete her secondary schooling, known as “Tawjihi” in Palestine. She prepared diligently, gathering all her books, sticky notes, pens, stickers, and everything related to her studies. It breaks my heart to see her dreams crushed under the weight of despair. With tears in her eyes and a heavy heart, she told me, “I need my stuff back; I will go there and dig with my own hands to retrieve them all.” Ansam’s dream remains simple: to continue her education for a better future.

My 3-year-old nephew, Yazan, has never failed to take my heart. He survived 15 months of the Israeli genocide. I cherished taking photos of him on our sofa, just to see his innocent smile light up. It’s heartbreaking to think that I may never capture those moments again after the Israeli army decided to crush our home.

Even though there is no real meaning to the ceasefire without having a home, at least the daily Israeli bloodshed of Palestinians has stopped, and for now, I can take to the streets to walk without the fear of being targeted—that a missile could strike me at any moment.

The Israeli war criminal Netanyahu thinks he breaks our will by destroying our home, but I refuse to lose hope and become homeless because I still have the keys.

25 January 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Dimitris Eleas

The world was shaken by Donald Trump’s inauguration speech and the phrase, “our Golden Age has just begun” is like kidding.

There are many reasons why such a man, with such a big “Ego” was re-elected President of the USA. It is the hundred million Americans who have been impoverished. The rift from decades of economic inequality. Both major parties are to blame, but one party, the Democratic Party, is the one that represented the poor and those without degrees, supposedly, but forgot them along the way. And the Right, which knows how to preserve itself, would not miss such an opportunity.

The inauguration was attended by everyone, from the CEOs of the most powerful companies in the best seats, to the man with the chainsaw (President Miley of Argentina). All the elite of “the shores of America” united, along with the former presidents, and all the elite now supports Trump. Openly, without pretense and it’s not just the tax breaks. Dystopia! Did he make anyone go away with the nonsense he was saying?

Trump’s speech had a Wild West fantasy of “America will expand” and imperialism – to take back the Panama Canal, to rename the Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America – and elements of hyperbole as always. It is the style of extravagance and spectacle! This with the two sexes is the work of science and not politics. He spoke plainly about immigration and tariffs. This about “freedom of speech” is also the First Amendment to the American Constitution, it is the only logical thing one heard. This is also logical with Mars, because in the near future Humanity will be “forced” to expand elsewhere.

Melania made a big impression with the “vicar’s wide hat” she was wearing, and Trump’s kisses on her were seen as being in the air. She also looked like the heroine of a French novel at a funeral. What did Shakespeare miss, I thought, who was born in the wrong century and never wrote about how a scheming ruler can win over an entire kingdom by telling lies. The American people in the past felt decadence and betrayal. However, this people is not stupid, with the election of Trump it shakes everyone and everything, inside and outside, and especially the great powers, Russia and China, should not rush to take America’s place in the world. America does not leave the chair. In fact, one of the chair’s feet, in my estimation, is already firmly placed in Greenland.

It’s the next four years, enough time for the Democrats to find the ball again, and they will if they listen to a wise “old man” from Vermont, Bernie Sanders, but also Michael Sandel and Thomas Piketty and especially what the two important thinkers discussed in Paris some time ago. These gentlemen – the former a political philosopher at Harvard and the latter an economist – explain perfectly why Trump prevailed, why everywhere the Right is raising its head, and what can change now. Their book, “Equality: What it means and why it matters,” will be released soon.

At the same time, the Trump Administration, for all its comedy and tragedy, will be Shakespearean in scope – and undeniably entertaining for all Americans and more. The decrees issued already are the beginning…

Dimitris Eleas is a New York-based political scientist, researcher, writer, and activist.

24 January 2025

Source: countercurrents.org