West applying ‘double standards’ to Israeli war crimes – Palestinian party leader
The US and its allies are backing genocidal action against civilians in Gaza, Dr. Mustafa Barghouti has told RT

Israeli war crimes are an issue of double standards by Western governments, Palestinian National Initiative party leader Dr. Mustafa Barghouti told RT on Friday.

Barghouti was commenting on a recent investigation by the New York Times that found the Israeli military leadership has significantly loosened its warfare rules to bomb Hamas in the wake of the October 7, 2023 attack by the Palestinian militant group.

The NYT report, which cited more than 100 soldiers and officials, said Israeli officers have been approved to endanger up to 20 civilians in Gaza in order to kill a low-level fighter, and often hit targets selected partly using AI tools. That order unleashed “one of the deadliest bombardments of the 21st century,” the report said.

Asked if he was shocked by the revelation, Barghouti responded he was actually surprised that it took “such a long time” to conclude what had been clear in the very first months of the war.

“What Israel is doing is nothing but slaughter of the civilian population of Gaza,” he said.

The party leader pointed out that four towns in Gaza have already been razed to the ground, with some 55,000 people killed, 70% of them women and children.

”And it took the world 14 months to discover that,” Barghouti stated, adding that the onslaught is going on as the Israeli army just bombarded the last hospital in the north of Gaza, arrested medical personal, and killed 50 people there.

Barghouti emphasized this would not have happened if the Western governments did not allow Israel to proceed with its war crimes.

The US is providing Israel with “every possible military arsenal” and many European governments continue to support this, he said.

”It is clear that Israel would not be able to continue its war for a single week without Washington’s support,” the politician argued.

Barghouti also pointed out that the IDF has been occupying parts of Syria and Lebanon, and began bombing Yemen.

”What we see is not only an Israeli government of occupation but an Israeli fascist government that behaves as an imperial power, trying to impose its control all over the region,” he claimed.

According to the Palestinian party leader, the world has not seen “such kind of aggressor behavior and military actions since maybe Nazi Germany’s attacks on its neighbors during the World War II.”

And then, according to him, comes the big question for every Western government, “why do they have double standards when it comes to Israel? Why Israel is allowed to be above the international law?”

The Israeli government should be punished, sanctioned and subjected to divestment and boycott, Barghouti concluded.

https://www.rt.com/news/610096-israel-war-crimes-gaza/

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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

HYPOCRISY ISN’T ONE OF THE TEN COMMANDMENTS SINS.

HENCE ITS POPULARITY IN THE ABRAHAMIC TRADITIONS…

SEE ALSO:

Vengeance drove Israeli brutality in Gaza – peace activist to RT

Anger over the October 7 Hamas attack overrode concern for civilians, Yariv Oppenheimer has said

GUSNOTE: AS MENTIONED BEFORE ON THIS SITE, IT IS LIKELY THAT ISRAEL KNEW OF — OR EVEN FOMENTED — THE ATTACK ON OCTOBER 7, TO GIVE NETANYAHU A PRETEXT TO BEGIN "THE GREATER ISRAEL" PROJECT IN THE MIDDLE EAST... THE BRUTALITY IS PART OF THE EVICTION OF THE POPULATIONS ON LANDS SOUGHT AFTER BY BIBI...

SEE ALSO: https://sputnikglobe.com/20241227/what-links-war-in-gaza-and-israels-plans-for-mega-canal-to-rival-suez-1121282545.html

The inclusion of anti-Israel and anti-Zionist actions and speech in the definition of antisemitism is a gross infringement on freedom of expression in this country, the group Jews Against the Occupation says in a submission to a government inquiry into antisemitism at Australian universities.

The full submission is below.

Submission to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights Inquiry into Antisemitism at Australian Universities

I am writing on behalf of Jews Against the Occupation ’48, a group founded in 2003 to pursue a just peace for all people living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.

This submission focuses on issues relating to “the prevalence, nature and experiences of antisemitic activity at universities,” and “other relevant matters.”

We believe that an evaluation of antisemitism at Australian universities requires both an accurate definition of antisemitism, and an informed understanding of the historical and current contexts of the current tug-of-war over Jewish identity and experience.

We deny that staff and students are subject to an objectively significant level of antisemitic attacks, and assert that the overwhelming majority of allegedly antisemitic incidents are in fact legitimate critique of Israel and Zionism. Their categorisation as antisemitic is enabled by a fallacious conflation of Jews and Judaism with support for Israel and Zionism, mirrored in the equating of hatred of Jews and Judaism with criticism of Israel and opposition to Zionism.

The free exploration and critique of ideas is central to the purpose of universities. The move to stifle pro-Palestinian discourse and activism on campus is not only a cynical manipulation of Jewish identity in the service of a foreign state, but also an alarming curtailment of academic freedom. Furthermore, this attempt to silence political dissent and suppress demands for academic and other bodies to adhere to international law is an unjustifiable infringement of the democratic rights of all Australians.

We submit that the assertion that pro-Palestine activism on Australian University campuses is inherently antisemitic is fallacious, racist, and politically motivated. It is founded on the false conflation of an ancient religious and cultural identity, Judaism, and a modern political ideology, Zionism. It depends on the racist, indeed antisemitic, attribution of particular political views and national loyalties to all Jews. It accepts false claims by self-appointed Zionist lobby groups that they represent Jewish opinion, values, and interests. It seeks to curtail academic freedom and possibly criminalise legitimate political expression. It pits the values and interests of Australians against the values and interests of a foreign state. It obscures the understanding and recognition of genuine antisemitism and thus endangers Jews.

We assert that the vast majority of incidents described as antisemitic are legitimate critiques of Israel and Zionism. Our submission will refute the assertion that such incidents are inherently antisemitic on the following grounds:

1. Jewish safety in the Palestine solidarity movement

‭Pro-Palestine activism may be uncomfortable for Jews whose identity is enmeshed with Israel‬ ‭and Zionism, but they are not objectively unsafe.‬

‭Jews are welcome in the Palestine solidarity movement, whether just beginning to question and‬ ‭explore, or fully committed. Palestinians, who have personal experience of both Israeli oppression and Jewish solidarity, understand very clearly the difference between Zionism and Judaism. Staff and students who have either been immersed in scholarship on Israel-Palestine, or have gravitated to the encampments and other solidarity actions since October 2023, have absorbed the same awareness.

‭Over many years, everyone in our group, and in similar groups, has participated in Palestine‬ ‭solidarity movement talks, workshops, lectures, films, protests, vigils, and encampments at ‭various Australian university campuses. We have never experienced antisemitic sentiment.‬

2. Fallacious definition of antisemitism

The conflation of antisemitism and criticism of Israel is based on the highly-contested International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism. Jewish‬ ‭Australian academic Peter Slezak‬‭ comprehensively refutes ‬‭it‬, and even its author ‭condemns its weaponization against free speech in universities.

The definition is inseparably aligned with the concept of “the new antisemitism,” which transmutes the definition of antisemitism from “discrimination against, denial of, or assault upon the rights of Jews to live as equal members of whatever society they inhabit” into “discrimination against, denial of, or assault upon the right of the Jewish people to live as an equal member of the family of nations, with Israel as the targeted ‘collective Jew among the nations’.”

Even aside from the racism and inevitable racialised discrimination inherent in a state created exclusively for a group of people of a specific religious persuasion or heritage, the new antisemitism is profoundly problematic.

This doctrine emerged from rising international criticism of Israel. When, in 1975, the UN General Assembly passed resolution 3379 equating Zionism with racism, it was clear that Israel’s reputation as a progressive state was slipping. (The resolution was revoked in 1991.) Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the issue remained largely an academic one, but growing disquiet at Israel’s serial violations of international law prompted Israel advocacy groups to mount a concerted campaign to delegitimise criticism of Israel by linking anti-Zionism and antisemitism.

The Israeli Government used the opportunity to establish Israeli hegemony over efforts by Jewish groups around the world to evaluate the threat of, and combat, antisemitism. With no regard for the wellbeing of Jewish diaspora communities, it used problematic data on antisemitism to undermine our sense of security, while simultaneously insinuating itself into our collective fear of persecution by arguing that Israel too was the victim of antisemitism.

This has borne fruit in Australia with the release of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) Report, “Anti-Jewish Incidents in Australia 2024”, which is based on questionable analysis and rife with unsupported assertions. The conflation of antisemitism with anti-Zionism evident in this report, and elsewhere in Australian public discourse, is the result of decades of determined efforts by Israel to silence its increasingly numerous and vocal critics.

3. Dangers of genuine antisemitism

Antisemitism is real, and no doubt exists in small pockets in many groups and bodies, as well as being a core belief of the far-right. It is a genuine threat to the safety and wellbeing of Jews. To conflate the speech and actions of people motivated by deeply held convictions on justice and universal rights with the speech and actions of people motivated by racist hatred is not only wrong, but dangerous. (To do so because the interests of a foreign nation, communicated via politically-motivated lobby groups, coincide with the desire by the state to clamp down on the democratic rights of people in our own country is cynical in the extreme.)

The antisemitic trope of Jews conspiring to exert global domination has caused untold trauma to Jewish people everywhere, continues to underpin other conspiracy theories, and features heavily in contemporary conspiracy literature. It was not only used to justify persecution, pogroms, and eventually genocide, but continues to be raised in discussions concerning Israel’s influence on Western governments, often by well-meaning individuals. Each time, it creates profound anguish and despair. Linking all Jewish people to a state that has acted with impunity since its inception, and extracts billions of dollars annually from the most powerful country in history, reinforces this egregiously antisemitic trope, placing Jews in both psychological and potentially physical danger.

Furthermore, the conflation of antisemitism and anti-Zionism will inevitably lead to the denial and minimisation of real antisemitism. As Jewish people who engage with the movement for justice in Israel-Palestine, it falls to us to have the hard conversations with well-intentioned individuals who occasionally fail to perceive when criticism of Israel and refutations of Zionism slide into antisemitism. If this false conflation is normalised and institutionalised, it becomes easy and understandable for people to dismiss, through either ignorance or malice, instances of actual antisemitism. Again, this places Jews in danger.

4. Narrowing of Jewish identity

Another insidious element in the appropriation of antisemitism by Israel is that it narrows Jewishness to Ashkenazi (European Jewish) identity. The antisemitism that played such a harrowing role in Ashkenazi experience, and is now used to shield Israel from criticism for its egregious disruption of Arab life in and beyond Palestine, was always “a European malady.” The Christian Evangelical theology that engendered political Zionism is a Western phenomenon. The ethnonationalist model of citizenship, of which political Zionism is a proponent, emerged in Central and Eastern Europe.

Awareness of Sephardi and Mizrachi (African-Arab-Asian) Jewishness has been completely erased, the experience of these Jewish communities deliberately expunged from history in the service of the Zionist narrative. Jews whose migrations over millennia saw them settle outside Europe were deeply rooted in their homelands, living mostly secure lives in the overwhelmingly pluralistic societies of the Arab and Asian worlds. In fact, their populations were periodically swelled by Jews fleeing persecution in Europe. These Jewish communities were completely blindsided by the antisemitism imported into Muslim societies during the 1930s and 1940s to drive flagging immigration to Israel.

The Ashkenazi-normative narrative leads to another troubling aspect of Israel’s relationship with Jewish identity and Jewishness, and further undermines the legitimacy of conflating criticism of Israel with antisemitism. Reflecting the white supremacist origins of the Zionist colonial project, Sephardi and Mizrachi Jews suffered discrimination by the Israeli State, and still have lower standards of living and poorer health and educational outcomes than Ashkenazis. Mizrachi Jews were deemed lesser Jews, and endured appalling living and working conditions, their protests brutally repressed by police. Jews from Yemen were given birth control drugs without their knowledge, and thousands of their babies “disappeared,” probably given to Ashkenazi families.

The Mizrachi Jews criticising Israel for its violations of their rights, are not antisemitic. Neither is criticism of Israel for its violations of Palestinian rights, nor are demands to end the inherently racist ideology of Zionism that underpins this racialised discrimination..

5. Antisemitic roots of Zionism

To further refute the argument that anti-Zionism is antisemitism, we point to the history of Zionism itself as a non- and anti–Jewish ideology. Zionism began as an antisemitic Christian theological position that saw the return of the Jews to Palestine as the precursor of God’s reign on Earth. This Evangelical enthusiasm should not be confused with love or concern for Jews, as the ensuing Apocalypse would result in our conversion or immolation.

From the 1800s, Christian Zionists began working to merge their vision with British imperial interests, cultivating close relationships with influential political figures. It was not until the 1880s, when Jewish communities across the Russian Empire endured a wave of pogroms, that Jewish “Lovers of Zion” established agricultural settlements in Palestine. Jewish Zionism formally emerged in 1897 with the first World Zionist Congress.

The founders of Zionism subscribed to the idea that antisemitism was a natural response by legitimate populations to the Jewish aliens in their lands. They agreed with antisemites that Jews were a degenerate people, reflecting ethnonationalist “Blood and Soil” ideology to argue that this was due to alienation from their ancient homeland. Echoing this idealisation of rural and farm life as a counterbalance to the corrupting influence of urban culture, their remedy was for Jews to relinquish their pacifist and scholarly ways and become warriors if they ever hoped to be accepted as normal.

Meanwhile, Britain had its own reasons for supporting the Zionist agenda. Firstly, it did not want any more desperately poor Jews seeking refuge from European pogroms. Secondly, it was indebted to biochemist Weizmann for the industrial fermentation of acetone for the war effort. And finally, the Bolsheviks had revealed the Sykes-Picot Agreement, the secret Franco-British plan to renege on promises to the Arab nationalists for helping win the war, and instead divide the Ottoman Empire between themselves. Britain hoped that endorsing a Jewish homeland in Palestine would both prompt Jewish Americans to push the US to more enthusiastically embrace the war, and give Britain moral cover for those embarrassing plans for the Middle East.

By 1917, PM Lloyd George despaired at the intractable carnage on the Western Front. Russia was war-weary and the US was slow to mobilise. Meanwhile, the Ottoman Empire was crumbling, its provinces likely to become spoils of war. Lloyd George appointed General Allenby to secure Palestine for Britain. Allenby took command of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force and, after bypassing the ferociously-defended Gaza, took Beer Sheva and then Jerusalem. The Balfour Declaration was ready to ensconce European Jews as a British settler colony by proxy.

Even today, when the reins of imperial power are held by the United States, Christian Zionism remains a formidable force. Despite the highly visible antics of the American Israel Public A airs Committee (AIPAC) with five million members, Evangelical Christians, of whom there are around 85 million, exert enormous power.

6. Links between Zionists/ Israel and antisemites

Two Jewish scholars have been instrumental in exposing Zionist “collaboration with the Nazis and their obstruction of the rescue of European Jews to anywhere but Palestine.” One writer also considers the implications of this betrayal for a future resurgence of anti-Semitism, and analyses Israel’s subsequent weaponisation of the Holocaust.

This cozying up to antisemites was not an aberration. While Stalinist states in the USSR were carrying out vicious antisemitic campaigns and show trials, Zionist militias and, later Israel, were purchasing Soviet weapons. Israel supported Argentina under the Junta, during which time many thousands of dissidents, including Jews, were “disappeared.” In fact, Israel has always bee‭n naturally ideologically aligned with repressive regimes, its economy underpinned by its global‬ ‭export of ‬‭not only weaponry and surveillance technology, ‬‭but the techniques of repression‭.‬

These days, it cultivates bromances with the leaders of Hungary, and Poland, and with Trump, despite their ambivalence (at best) towards Jews. A stark illustration of how antisemitism is not a barrier to embrace by the Zionist state is the fact that an evangelical pastor who believes that Jews will go to Hell and a megachurch televangelist who claimed that Hitler was part of God’s plan played prominent roles in the 2018 opening ceremony of the US Embassy in Jerusalem.

Nor is this a reflection of the shifting sands of modern international diplomacy. The founders of Zionism understood that state antisemitism was essential to their colonial ambitions. Herzl foreshadowed Israeli policy when he wrote, “the anti-Semites will become our most dependable friends, the anti-Semitic countries our allies.” Even worse for people who abhor antisemitism, and especially for those of us who stand to suffer from it, their ruminations on the nature of Jewishness are deeply unsettling. Herzl’s appalling ‘Mauschel,’ published in the same year as the First Zionist Congress was held, would not have been out of place in ‘Mein Kampf.’

No wonder Zionists are intent on expanding the definition of antisemitism. The more the better. When Zionism is not only compatible with antisemitism, but thrives on it, it is nonsensical to claim that opposition to it is the real problem for Jews.

7. Jewish anti-Zionism

The idea that anti-Zionism is antisemitism enables the ridiculous assertion that significant numbers (in some periods of history, large majorities) of Jews were and are antisemites. Before Israel mounted its campaign to occupy and annex Jewish identity, Jews understood very well what antisemitism was. Even when political Zionism appeared on the scene, Jews knew that to criticise or reject it did not impinge on their relationship with their Jewishness.

Before WW2, Jews freely debated Zionism, the vast majority of Western Jews, both religious and secular, concluding that it was at best unnecessary and at worst antisemitic and dangerous. Even after the Holocaust, Zionism remained controversial. Some religious communities rejected it as blasphemous, socialists and communists rejected nationalism altogether, and vast numbers of Jews of all persuasions abhorred both the concept and the reality of the racialised dominance over and dispossession of another people.

Acculturated Jews in Western Europe foresaw the perils of being perceived as a fifth column. In 1917, Edwin Montagu, the only Jewish member of British Parliament, saw the Balfour Declaration as “anti-Semitic and in result will prove a rallying ground for Anti-Semites in every country in the world.” He believed that Zionism was “a mischievous political creed […] admitted by those who take a bigoted and narrow view of one particular epoch of the history of Palestine, and claim for the Jews a position to which they are not entitled.”

Progressive and leftist Jews rejected Zionism as a reactionary philosophy. Until very recently, most Jews were poor, and naturally allied with the struggles of the working class in their home countries. Jews in Eastern Europe mocked Zionists as “foolish” and formed the General Jewish Workers League, the Bund, committed to the struggle for social justice wherever they lived. In fact, Jews have played a disproportionate role in social justice struggles around the globe, from London’s East End and the Bolshevik Revolution to the civil rights movement and apartheid South Africa. It was unthinkably inconsistent with the politics of liberation to take part in a colonial project.

Even the understandable desire to escape waves of Christian persecution in Europe did not incline the overwhelming majority of Jews towards Zionism. They wanted the opportunities afforded by the New World. After the Nazi Holocaust, only a minority of survivors volunteered to go to Palestine. In the 1950s, Israel was suffering such a dearth of interest that the Mossad resorted to false flag attacks against Jewish targets in Baghdad to terrorise entire communities into migrating and providing the Ashkenazis with cheap labour.

Within the immigrant Jewish community in Palestine under the British Mandate, there was always an undercurrent of attempts to overcome the Zionist ontology. A critical part of this movement emerged from the Stern Gang, an extremist group that saw the fight against the British as an anti-colonial struggle, and sought to create a common partnership of Jews and Palestinians. Meanwhile, the other Zionist terrorist group, the Irgun, fought primarily against the Palestinians, yet one of its members later became a prominent advocate for joint Arab-Jewish action. From the very early years of Israel’s existence, there was also a current of Arab Jews, most notably Iraqis, who relentlessly criticised Israel for its profound and inherent Zionist racism.

There is a long list of Jews, Israelis among them, who offer not only harsh critiques of Israel, but staunch refutations of Zionist ideology. The following eminent scholars and investigative journalists have contributed enormously to our knowledge and understanding: Professor Ilan Pappe, Professor Haim Bresheeth, Tony Greenstein, Rabbi Brant Rosen, Professor Nurit Peled-Elhanan, Jeff Halper, Gideon Levy, Amira Hass, Professor Amos Goldberg, Dr Norman Finkelstein, Joel Kovel, Max Blumenthal, Avi Shlaim, Dr Ronit Lentin, Ran Greenstein, Nir Baram, Haggai Mattar, Orly Noy, Yuval Avraham, Mairav Zonstein, Raz Segal, Nora Barrows-Friedman, Shir Hever, Professor Omer Bartov, and Antony Loewenstein, to name a few. Peter Beinart, editor at ‘Jewish Currents,’ has‬ ‭completely ‬‭debunked the myth that anti-Zionism is‬‭ antisemitic‬‭.‬

Most ultra-Orthodox Jews oppose Zionism, with groups such as Neturei Karta and the Satmar Hasidim refusing to recognise the State of Israel. Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss is a highly visible activist for justice in Palestine. In Israel, these Jews are brutalised by Israeli military and police for their refusal to submit to Israeli demands to join the so-called Israeli “Defence” Forces. Yaakov Shapiro, a prominent anti-Zionist public intellectual, was a rabbi for three decades, now emeritus, and is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards from Orthodox Jewish bodies.

Then we have Jewish organisations such as Global Jews for Palestine with member organisations in sixteen countries and six continents, Jewish Voice for Peace in the United States, Jews for Palestine groups in most European countries. Groups in Israel include B’tselem, Israeli Committee Against Home Demolition. and Boycott from Within. In Australia we have well-established groups such as Jews Against Fascism, Tsedek, Loud Jew Collective, and Jews Against the Occupation ‘48, as well as smaller groups that have emerged since October 2023.

Palestinians have always documented, studied, and spoken about their experiences. However, due to the racist lacuna in the Western world view, it has often been “white” Jewish voices that have been able to draw attention to the realities of Israel-Palestine. To silence our voices under the pretext that we are antisemitic would be risible if it were not so dangerous.

8. Weaponisation of the Holocaust

Israel and its supporters shamelessly-shamefully weaponise European Jewish collective trauma to deflect legitimate criticism of Israel. The Zionist project has a history of prioritising its own interests over those of Jews whom it purports to protect, and its behaviour towards survivors of the Nazi genocide reflects this. It sees Jewish trauma as grist to its mill, enshrining the Holocaust as a central motif in Israeli consciousness and national identity, invoking its horrors as a pretext for Israeli exceptionalism. The Israeli education system begins this inculcation at an early age.

While this tactic emerged in response to criticism of Israel’s increasingly obvious violations of international law following its 1967 occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and Golan Heights, it has never been more blatant than in the aftermath of October 7th 2023. Comparing the killing of 1200 people to the industrialised torture and extermination of six million Jews, around one third of European Jewry, and the total obliteration of their communities and culture is tantamount to Holocaust denial, a view rightly condemned as gravely antisemitic.

Some Israeli historians have gone to great lengths to justify such comparisons, arguing without irony that the Holocaust “has increasingly become the prism through which Israelis understand both their past and their present relationships with the Arab and Muslim world.” They are oblivious to the obvious extrapolation that Israel’s behaviour in Gaza is thus also a Holocaust.

If we are to equate criticism of Israel with antisemitism, what shall we make of the Jewish Holocaust survivors who unhesitatingly denounce Israel’s crimes, and even liken Israel’s behaviour to that of the Nazis under whom they suffered so egregiously? Should we put them (metaphorically speaking) in the same camp as their actually antisemitic persecutors?

9. Our personal experience

‭As Jews who oppose Israel’s colonisation of historic Palestine and reject the political ideology o‭f Zionism, we do experience hatred and vilification that reflects a particular antipathy towards us ‭because we are Jewish: Zionist Jews deny our Jewishness, insult us as Nazis, kapos and kaffrs, call for us to be raped by Hamas, and have even expressed regret that our families survived the Nazi genocide. One of our senior members was physically assaulted and verbally abused in the street. Others have been variously harassed, intimidated, and threatened at council meetings‬ ‭and on public transport. Jewish academics have been subject to subtle and not-so-subtle‬ ‭pressure to censor their political views or risk their careers. Crucially, we are targeted not‬ ‭because of our Jewishness per se, but because of our politics.‬

Similarly, we submit that Jews who feel “unsafe” on Australia’s campuses are overwhelmingly perfectly safe in their Jewish identity. They are merely feeling uncomfortable because their political position in relation to Zionism and the State of Israel is increasingly placing them outside the consensus.

Since the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that allegations against Israel for committing genocide in Gaza are plausible, both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have confirmed this horrific reality. The United Nations has ruled that Israel’s entire occupation of Palestinian land is illegal. The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Galant in connection with allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity. As far back as 2022, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the UNconfirmed that Israel is practising the crime of apartheid. Alongside the widely documented rape and sexual abuse of Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons, and intensification of ethnic cleansing and “Judaisation” in the Occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, Jewish Zionists, indeed anyone who supports the State of Israel, should be feeling severely uncomfortable.

Conclusion

Ultimately, to criticise Zionism is to call out Evangelical Christian faux Judeophilia, to reject British and US imperialist meddling in the Middle East, to denounce Zionist prioritising of Israeli over Jewish interests, and to deplore the antisemitic beliefs that people of Jewish faith or heritage should live in an ethno-supremacist state, or should support such a state, whose ethos is fundamentally opposed to democracy and universal human rights.

Accordingly, Jews Against the Occupation ’48 submits that the inclusion of anti-Israel and anti-Zionist actions and speech in the definition of antisemitism is a gross infringement on freedom of expression in this country. Furthermore, in conflating Judaism and Zionism, it attributes certain beliefs and opinions to all Jews, and is thus inherently racist.

As Jews, we reject attempts to define us in terms of adherence to a political ideology. As Australians, we insist on the safeguarding of academic free speech in Australian universities, and on our broader democratic right to political expression.

Sincerely

Michelle Berkon
for Jews Against the Occupation ’48

https://johnmenadue.com/conflating-judaism-and-zionism-is-inherently-racist/

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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

HYPOCRISY ISN’T ONE OF THE TEN COMMANDMENTS SINS.

HENCE ITS POPULARITY IN THE ABRAHAMIC TRADITIONS…

PLEASE DO NOT BLAME RUSSIA IF WW3 STARTS. BLAME YOURSELF.

Israel Is Killing Civilians In Gaza On Purpose, And It’s Not Even Debatable
Just so we’re all clear, it is a fully established fact that the IDF is directly, deliberately killing civilians in Gaza.

Caitlin Johnstone

To be clear, it is well established that the IDF is directly and deliberately killing civilians in Gaza. There was a time, at the beginning of the genocide, when this could be disputed, but that is no longer the case. The facts are proven and the case is closed. It happens.

Israeli soldiers declare to the press that they knowingly killed civilians and then falsely labeled them terrorists. Countless doctors have testified that they regularly encountered dead or wounded children who had been shot in the head by Israeli snipers. Israeli media reported that the Israel Defense Forces intentionally targeted civilian infrastructure and used artificial intelligence systems to specifically target suspected Hamas members when they are at home with their family instead of being on the battlefield.

The debate is over. The "human shields" argument has been completely debunked. If you continue to deny that this is happening, it is because your worldview is so wrong that it forces you to deny facts and reality.

We have been fed lies about what happened on October 7. We have been fed lies about the Israeli abuses that led to October 7. We have been fed lies about what has been done over the past 15 months under the justification of October 7. And yet, defenders of Israel still expect to be taken seriously when they talk about October 7 in response to criticism of Israel’s actions.

It doesn't have to be this way. The rich and powerful feed us mountains of stories about why things should stay the way they are - but they are just stories.

Throughout history, every socio-political status quo has been accompanied by narratives that serve the powers that be, explaining why things are the way they are and justifying why those in charge live much more comfortably than the ordinary people who do the real work in this world. In the old days, people were told that kings received their authority directly from God and were therefore better and more worthy than the masses. Today, we have different rulers with different narratives justifying their rule and explaining why great inequality is fine and good, but these narratives are just as fictional as the old stories about the divine right of kings.

Today, we are trained to believe that the plutocrats who run our society have achieved their vast wealth through hard work and clever innovation, and that they are entitled to every penny because they are the most productive members of our society. Just as peasants of old were taught the divine right of kings, we are taught that capitalism is the most just and equitable of all possible systems, and that the world order led by the United States ensures that freedom and democracy will be protected and promoted for the benefit of all.

These are made-up stories, no more true than the story that monarchs were given magical powers by an invisible deity because their blood was special. But they are treated as serious facts by those who are charged with teaching us how to think, and by those who swallow this indoctrination.

In reality, we can change things whenever we want, and there is no reason not to. We are vastly outnumbered by our rulers, and the oligarchs and empire managers currently in control are destroying our biosphere while increasing inequality and exploitation and pushing us toward nuclear war on multiple fronts.

We have the ability to take the wheel away from them as soon as enough of us have the will. Any stories to the contrary we might believe are just fictional thoughts that our rulers put into our minds for their own benefit.

There is nothing wrong with being politically unpartisan at this point in history. Humanity as a whole is still wildly confused and dysfunctional in this particular slice of space-time, and even the best political factions are dominated by highly neurotic people who take no responsibility for their psychological state and internal clarity. If you have found a political party or faction that you trust, that is great, but if not, it is entirely possible to act as an individual while supporting worthy causes and movements on a case-by-case basis as they emerge, without permanently latching onto someone else’s bandwagon.

We still have a long way to go to mature as a species, and it may be some time before a unified political faction emerges that you can trust to consistently act in the highest interest.

https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2024/12/27/israel-is-killing-civilians-in-gaza-on-purpose-and-its-not-even-debatable/

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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

HYPOCRISY ISN’T ONE OF THE TEN COMMANDMENTS SINS.

HENCE ITS POPULARITY IN THE ABRAHAMIC TRADITIONS…

PLEASE DO NOT BLAME RUSSIA IF WW3 STARTS. BLAME YOURSELF.

Live, Middle East Wars: Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza Strip knocked out of service by Israeli raid now empty, WHO says
“The military and intelligence services have completed a targeted operation against a Hamas command center in Kamal Adwan Hospital,” the Israeli military said in a statement. The military confirmed that the director of the facility “suspected of being a Hamas terrorist,” had been detained for questioning.

https://www.lemonde.fr/international/live/2024/12/28/en-direct-guerres-au-proche-orient-l-hopital-kamal-adwan-situe-dans-le-nord-de-la-bande-de-gaza-mis-hors-service-par-un-raid-israelien-est-desormais-vide-affirme-l-oms_6470810_3210.html

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A PALESTINIAN SURVIVOR OF ISRAELI TORTURE’S CHILLING TESTIMONY: ‘EVEN THEIR MEDICS ARE NAZIS’
Detained at Israel’s Sde Teiman torture camp for a month in 2023, Rafik Hamdi Darwish Yasin offers testimony about his horrific experience in this exclusive interview.
BY RUWAIDA AMER, BELAL AWAD AND LEO ERHADT
DECEMBER 19, 2024

Dogs. Hunger. Humiliation. Beatings. Rape. The testimony of survivors from Sde Teiman, Israel’s torture camp for Palestinians based in the Negev Desert, paint a consistent portrait of inhumanity and savagery with few parallels in modern history. The Real News reports from the Gaza Strip, where Sde Teiman survivor Rafik Hamdi Darwish Yasin shares his experience at the hands of his Israeli captors.

Producer: Belal Awad, Leo Erhardt
Videographer: Ruwaida Amer, Mahmoud Al Mashharawi
Video Editor: Leo Erhardt

Narrator: 

In November 2023 Rafik Hamdi Darwish Yassin was detained by the Israeli Army in Gaza. Later he was transferred to the Israeli military-base-turned-detention-camp Sde Teiman and it was here where he says he was further subjected to multiple forms of physical and psychological torture for a further 25 days. 

Rafik Hamdi Darwish Yasin: 

I would have preferred they shoot me in Gaza than leave Gaza. We wanted to leave, two of our neighbors left the building; we were surprised by snipers and these two neighbors were killed. So we were besieged for five days until they came in their tanks. They smashed the front of the building, destroyed the stairs, then they entered and took us out. There were people that they didn’t detain; they just killed them in their homes. They entered and told us – I was wearing a jacket – they told me to take the jacket off and to lower my trousers a little. We got dressed, then they blindfolded us and tied our wrists with electric wire from the back. 

Narrator: 

Leaked CCTV footage from Sde Teiman appears to show Israeli soldiers sexually assaulting an inmate with the help of dogs, and the camp is awash with accusations of both psychological and physical torture. 

Rafik Hamdi Darwish Yasin: 

Most of the hits were to the head, I lost four teeth. Four teeth from my mouth. They hit the sides, the joints, anywhere it would not be easy to recover from, they would hit. Apart from that, the dogs. The dogs were muzzled, but if the dog stood on you it was like being stabbed five times. The cold, we were sleeping on one blanket and a mat that was less than one centimeter thick. On concrete, and the whole prison where we were was raised around one to one and a half meters in height. It was winter. We were there from November 23 to December 23. 

A month? One month, correct. A month that for the prisoner feels like 30 years. 30 days blindfolded, then we were tied, cuffed from behind for five days. Then they cuffed us from the front – even worse. Two plastic ties around each wrist with a metal chain in between. So that your hand – here, look: this is from December, it went all the way to the bone. They killed people in front of us. They used to take people to the top of buildings, tie them with rope to make it look like they were special forces in front of your eyes. What kind of torture is this? Who can tolerate this torture? They would hit you in the head with the rifle, there was a man who was killed as he got off the bus. They whacked him in the head, and he died right there while getting off the bus. 

They use their boots. They use dogs. Some would use music. They would lock you in a room and play loud music for three, five hours. 10 hours, 12 hours. I mean… the worst possible. They would force you to sit on your knees. Four hours. Standing, four hours. You would stay standing. Even the medic who would come to treat you, one of their medics – I had these ties here cutting to the bone – on both sides. A medic would come and bandage

your hand today. The day after the next medic would come and tie your wrists so tight that your hand would start bleeding again and would tie it with such pressure so that your wrists become deformed. Even their medics are Nazis. 

You can tolerate the physical torture… But the psychological torture and the humiliation. If you understand Hebrew, it becomes much more difficult. Many didn’t understand the humiliating things they were saying. A horde of criminals, and there are levels with them: from those who hate the Palestinian people, to those who want to kill every single Palestinian, to those who would shoot at Palestinians directly. Three levels, and all three are criminals. Every one would show their hatred at a specific level. 

The Israeli army, the Israeli intelligence, says that whoever didn’t celebrate on October 7 ate sweets, and whoever didn’t eat sweets gave shelter to Hamas. What has October 7 got to do with me? What did I do on the 6th or 7th of October!? What did I do? I did not take part in this whole story. 

Narrator: 

Though it’s been almost a year since Rafik was released, the long term effects of that single month of detention remain. 

Rafik Hamdi Darwish Yasin: 

When I was in prison, I lost 43 kilos. Forty-three kilos in 30 days. 43 kilos, look. You can see how my body is wrinkled. I didn’t go to the toilet for around 6 days from lack of food. I started to bleed in my gut, and I was hospitalized. Now I can’t lift my arm. More than this I can’t lift my arm. To this moment I am on anxiety meds. These are the medications I take for the effects of the detention. These are strong psychological drugs. This one is half a pill at night, you couldn’t take this in the day. 

Every day I walk around 15 kilometers, so I can sleep on top of the anxiety meds. I mean, you can say that I have lost my life. We are alive but dead at the same time. 

They released us in Karma Abu Salem; of course, they didn’t tell us. They want to steal any joy from you until the last moment; they didn’t tell us we were being released. In Karma Abu Salem we were barefoot, none of us were wearing shoes. We walked for three and a half or four kilometers, walking on asphalt, covered in debris. The feeling of freedom… There wasn’t a lot of happiness. Why? Because we were far from family, and there’s a war that continues, and the blood is still flowing. There’s no reason to celebrate until now. There’s no reason for joy. 

You know the time that I used to be able to relax? When I would think of my family. That’s it. I would be able to leave the world I was in. I would remember my son who… I have one son who suffers from autism. I worry about him a lot. Even the buildings, the trees, the buildings, what was their crime? We evacuated the area; why are you bulldozing the buildings? Why are you bulldozing the trees? I mean they want to destroy everything that the Palestinians have built in 50 years. 

That’s the sound of strikes. 

– That’s the sound of strikes, yes. It’s far away, east of Deir. 

– God help us. 

– God help us.

https://therealnews.com/a-palestinian-survivor-of-israeli-tortures-chilling-testimony

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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

HYPOCRISY ISN’T ONE OF THE TEN COMMANDMENTS SINS.

HENCE ITS POPULARITY IN THE ABRAHAMIC TRADITIONS…

PLEASE DO NOT BLAME RUSSIA IF WW3 STARTS. BLAME YOURSELF.

Israel has relentlessly bombed all 38 branches of the Al-Qard Al-Hasan Association in Lebanon. Why is it so important to the Zionist cause to specifically obliterate a savings and loan institution? I investigate in our fourth mini-documentary from Lebanon.

Craig Murray is an author, broadcaster and human rights activist. He was British ambassador to Uzbekistan from August 2002 to October 2004 and rector of the University of Dundee from 2007 to 2010. 

A message to subscribers: My coverage is entirely dependent on reader support. Subscriptions to keep this blog going are gratefully received. For an alternative to PayPal, please try this GoFundMe appealand Patreon account. 

I have also started a Substack account where the content will be the same as this blog. Substack has the advantage of overcoming social media suppression by emailing you directly every time I post. You can, if you wish, subscribe free to Substack and use the email notifications as a trigger to come for this blog and read the articles for free. I am determined to maintain free access for those who cannot afford a subscription.

This article is from CraigMurray.org.uk

https://consortiumnews.com/2024/12/26/watch-craig-murray-the-bank-israel-bombed/

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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

HYPOCRISY ISN’T ONE OF THE TEN COMMANDMENTS SINS.

HENCE ITS POPULARITY IN THE ABRAHAMIC TRADITIONS…

PLEASE DO NOT BLAME RUSSIA IF WW3 STARTS. BLAME YOURSELF.

In the newsagents of train stations and airports, I play at hurting myself by leafing through the media, that is to say by jumping from one lie to another.

Arriving at my destination, I continue my masochistic game by turning on the radio and the TV. I zap with the naive hope of someone who scratches a lottery ticket, just in case…

Just in case, for once, you never know, chance, the hand of God, anything is possible…

Just in case I come across the truth.

Alas, it’s a game of leapfrogging, this croaking and slimy animal of which each is the drone of the other. I jump from lie to lie.

I know that there are other media, but so small, so ignored by those around you that you don’t even dare to talk to them about it.

Worse: since you read Le Grand Soir without responding to its (rare) financial solicitations, how much money have you given to... a newsagent? And bam!

Théophraste R. Author (at a time when cameras are everywhere) of the manual: "How to give nothing without it being seen?" (currently being written in my cellar).

https://www.legrandsoir.info/

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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.