UK Prime Minister Terrorizing Palestine Supporters

 

After the arrest of Sarah Wilkinson on Thursday, Jonathan Cook says Keir Starmer is determined to silence critics of his — and his government’s — complicity with Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

The arrest on Thursday of Palestine solidarity activist Sarah Wilkinson, following the arrest of journalist Richard Medhurst last week — both based on an improbable claim they have violated Section 12 of the Terrorism Act — is definitive proof that Keir Starmer’s authoritarian purges of the Labour left are being rolled out against critics on a nationwide basis.

Now safely ensconced in No 10 [Downing Street, the official residence of the prime minister] Starmer can crush the basic rights of British citizens with as much relish as he earlier pummelled the remnants of democracy inside the Labour Party — and for much the same reason.

The British prime minister is determined to terrorise into silence critics highlighting his, and now his government’s, complicity with Israel and its genocide in Gaza.

Starmer would rather dramatically expand the scope of already draconian “counter-terrorism” laws than act against the wishes of the United States, either by stopping arms sales to a fascist Israeli government led by Benjamin Netanyahu or by joining South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.

There, judges have already ruled that the slaughter of tens of thousands of Palestinians over the past 11 months is a “plausible genocide.” The next step is for South Africa and the many states backing it to persuade the World Court that the genocide is proven beyond doubt.  (more...)

UK Prime Minister Terrorizing Palestine Supporters

The police came to her house just before 7.30am. 12 of them in total, some of them in plain clothes from the counter terrorism police. They said she was under arrest for "content that she has posted online." Her house is being raided & they have seized all her electronic devices.

— Jack Wilkinson (@JackWilkinsonAA) August 29, 2024

Israel supporters flout Canadian law with impunity

 

As an observer of foreign affairs, I’ve often written about the hypocrisy of Liberal and Conservative governments’ failure to uphold “an international rules-based order” despite claims of its importance. In the case of Israel, the duplicity is even more glaring. Our governments, past and present, repeatedly fail to uphold Canadian law.

Activists have long shown how arms sales and military recruitment to Israel violates the law. But Global Affairs, Minister of Justice, RCMP and other government agencies have generally ignored their legal responsibilities when it comes to the genocidal apartheid state.

Issuing arms permits to Israel contravenes Canada’s Export and Import Permits Act. According to the law, Canada shouldn’t export arms to a country if there is “a substantial risk” they would undermine peace and security or be used to violate international law. As a signatory to the UN Arms Trade Treaty Canada is also obliged to not transfer arms to a country responsible for grave human rights violations. Two recent International Court of Justice rulings strengthen the legal case against Canadian arms sales to Israel. Still, Global Affairs allows arms transfers.

The Minister of Justice and RCMP have also failed to apply the law regarding Israel, refusing to enforce the Foreign Enlistment Act and Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act. In 2020 a formal legal complaint and public letter signed by numerous prominent individuals were released calling on the federal government to investigate individuals for violating the Foreign Enlistment Act by inducing Canadians to join the Israeli military. The Trudeau government effectively ignored the public letter and legal complaint even though it was published on the front page of Le Devoir. Then Justice Minister David Lametti responded by simply saying it was up to the police to investigate. For their part, the police refused to seriously investigate. Partly in response to the police’s unwillingness to take the matter seriously, a case was launched through a private prosecution against Sar-El Canada, which brings Canadians to volunteer on Israeli military bases. A Justice of the Peace agreed the evidence warranted a hearing, but the Crown interceded to dismiss the case against Sar-El. They clearly didn’t want a court to adjudicate the matter.  (more...)

Israel supporters flout Canadian law with impunity

How Canada Still Arms Israel: With Rachel Small

 

Earlier in August the US government announced that General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems Inc. a Quebec-based company is the principal contractor in the sale of 50,000 high explosive mortar cartridges and related equipment to the Israeli military, which is worth $61 million US (or about $83 million in Canadian dollars). This is part of a total of $20 billion US weapon export announced and approved by the US to Israel. 

This catches Canada is several lies they have made since October. The lie of sending only “non-lethal” weapons. The lie that the Trudeau government stopped all arms exports to Israel earlier this year. As it turns out they do not need export permits nor approvals to send weapons to the US, which in turn sends them to the Israeli military.

Here to talk to us more is Rachel Small from World Beyond War who has been monitoring and supporting grassroots resistance to the Canada-Israel arms trade.

How Israel's destruction of Gaza's education echo through global academia

 

Joining us to talk about if and how Palestinians should engage with American politics – and much more – is Steven Salaita, a professor of English and comparative literature at the American University of Cairo.

He is the author of eight books, including a new novel that just came out, titled Daughter, Son, Assassin. Earlier this year, he published a memoir, An Honest Living with Fordham University Press.

The Fall of the Ottomans Created the Modern Middle East

 

A sweeping narrative of battles and political intrigue from Gallipoli to Arabia, The Fall of the Ottomans is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the Great War and the making of the modern Middle East.

Trump and Israel

 

Donald Trump wants to return to the White House, which might just happen.

Following the failed assassination attempt in suspicious circumstances, the billionaire was given a boost to his popularity; however, will that be enough for him to unseat the Democrats?

Recently, the US presidential hopeful has issued somewhat critical remarks on the Israeli regime, especially about the genocide in Gaza.

In a recent radio interview, Trump said, "And the other thing is I hate that they put out tapes all the time. Every night, they’re releasing tape of a building falling down. They shouldn’t be releasing tapes like that. They’re doing it, so they’re losing the PR war. They, Israel, are absolutely losing the PR war."

It seems Donald Trump’s presidential campaign is largely reliant on an injection of funds from Zionist lobbyist Miriam Adelson.

Trump’s relationship goes far back to the Adelson family, originally with Sheldon, the late husband of Miriam. Both Sheldon Adelson and Donald Trump’s names were discovered on Netanyahu’s list of millionaires, published in the Israeli press over a decade ago.

For an anti-Zionist movement

 

In today's show, we'll be setting out the measures that must be taken to challenge Zionism and ultimately destroy it as an ideology that currently holds sway over the British, European, and American political establishment.

Later in the show, a second report sets out why accepting so-called liberal Zionists into the pro-Palestine movement actually undermines meaningful solidarity with the Palestinian resistance.

Cutting the Zionist Gordian Knots

 

Historians Matt Ehret & Gordon, Ghost of Based Patrick Henry focus on cutting the Zionist gordian knots.

France’s Neoliberal Coup – with French MP Danièle Obono

 

France sucks

War to the "Last Ukrainian" -- and the Last Pole, Last German, etc.

Friday questions -- 1.) How can a fight to exonerate Lyndon LaRouche open the way for the defeat of the imperial oligarchs and their plans for global dictatorship?  2.) Does anyone take the Zelensky "Peace Plan" seriously?

CJPME Refutes Faulty Reports of Iranian Influence Over Pro-Palestine Protests

 

Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME) urges journalists and officials to exercise heightened scrutiny and skepticism regarding reports suggesting Iranian influence over pro-Palestine protests. Earlier this summer, several newspapers and Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre shared conspiracy theories about Iranian control over pro-Palestine student encampments based on a report by XPOZ, an Israeli cyber-security company. According to a new analysis by CJPME’s Media Accountability Project, however, XPOZ is a highly partisan source with suspect and opaque research methods, and should not be cited by journalists.

“Irresponsible media reports treating XPOZ as a credible source have given fuel to those who want to falsely portray student activists as agents of Iran. This is a conspiracy theory,” said Jason Toney, Director of Media Advocacy for CJPME. “To be clear, there is no evidence that Iran is behind protests in Canada, period. Anyone who has worked with pro-Palestine activists around Canada knows the suggestion that Iran is funding protests is beyond outlandish,” Toney added.

The XPOZ report was first covered in an article by UK-based Iran International under the outlandish headline, “Iran masterminded anti-Israel protest in Canadian university,” and subsequently by the National Post which claimed that “anti-Israel protests at McGill University were boosted by a social media influence campaign with potential ties to Iran.” The latter article was shared by Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre as a supposed example of “foreign interference.”  (more...)

CJPME Refutes Faulty Reports of Iranian Influence Over Pro-Palestine Protests

Unions call out Biden on Gaza: United Electrical and UAW speak

 

The death toll in Gaza continues to climb, with conservative estimates putting the numbers of dead around 40,000, but a recent report in the British medical journal The Lancet estimates the actual death toll could be 186,000 or even higher—that’s roughly 8% of Gaza’s population. And with each passing day, the humanitarian crises unfolding in Gaza and the West Bank gets orders of magnitude worse. Seeing the dire situation in Palestine, seven major US labor unions collectively drafted, signed, and sent a letter to President Biden demanding that US military aid to Israel stop immediately. The letter reads, in part: "Large numbers of Palestinian civilians, many of them children, continue to be killed, reportedly often with US-manufactured bombs. Rising tensions in the region threaten to ensnare even more innocent civilians in a wider war. And the humanitarian crisis deepens by the day, with famine, mass displacement, and destruction of basic infrastructure including schools and hospitals. We have spoken directly to leaders of Palestinian trade unions who told us heart-wrenching stories of the conditions faced by working people in Gaza." In this episode of Working People, TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez and TRNN Staff Reporter Mel Buer speak with George Waksmunski, president of the United Electrical, Radio, & Machine Workers of America (UE), Eastern Region, and Brandon Mancilla, Region 9A Director for the United Auto Workers, about why their unions signed onto this call for an end to US aid to Israel and what organized labor can do to end the genocide in Gaza.

Hiding an Ugly Truth About Israel

 

Jonathan Cook on Tony Greenstein’s exposure of a glaring omission in a new biography of Rudolf Vrba, the first Jew to escape Auschwitz and an intense critic of the Zionist movement.

Tony Greenstein offers an excoriating account of how Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland distorted the historical record in his biography of Rudolf Vrba, the first Jew to escape Auschwitz.

One might wonder why Vrba’s incredible story has been buried for decades, given how keen Hollywood is to make Holocaust movies.

Greenstein explains. Vrba’s efforts in early 1944 to warn other Jews of their coming fate in the Nazi death camps were betrayed by European leaders of the Zionist movement, who silenced him.

That movement was prepared to sacrifice hundreds of thousands of Jews in return for the Nazis escorting the Zionist elite out of danger in Europe to Palestine. There the Zionist movement was already well-advanced in its preparations to expel the native Palestinians and build a self-declared Jewish state on the ruins of their homeland.

The Zionists’ attitude reflected that of the movement’s founding father, Theodor Herzl:

“The anti-Semites will become our most dependable friends, the anti-Semitic countries our allies.”

Vrba was hugely critical of the Zionist movement for collaborating with the Nazis, and had no love for the Jewish state it spawned.  (more...)

Hiding an Ugly Truth About Israel

Related:

Guardian’s Zionist gatekeeper rewrites Holocaust history

The Treachery of the Nazi-Zionist Alliance

States of exception

 

Is it ‘antisemitic’ to accuse Israel of genocide in Gaza?

“Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.”

—John Stuart Mill

Supporters of Israel’s current “war” against Gaza often ask why critics don’t show equal concern for the victims of no less horrific conflicts elsewhere.

The implication, which is spelled out in the Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) “working definition” of antisemitism, is that while “criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic,” we are guilty of antisemitism if we single out Israel for criticism while remaining silent on comparable atrocities in Sudan, or Myanmar, or Yemen.

While the IHRA definition has been accepted by many Western governments (including Canada), it has been challenged as “unclear in key respects and widely open to different interpretations” by 350 leading international scholars in the fields of Holocaust history, Jewish studies, and Middle East studies who came together to sign the alternative Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism (JDA) in 2020.

Pointing out that “The IHRA Definition includes 11 ‘examples’ of antisemitism, 7 of which focus on the State of Israel,” the JDA offers an alternative set of guidelines and examples.  (more...)

States of exception

Kim Dotcom calls for boycott of France over Durov arrest

 

The Megaupload founder has urged people to stop buying French products and refrain from visiting the country

The founder of the Megaupload file sharing service, Kim Dotcom, has called for a boycott of France over the recent arrest of Telegram creator and CEO Pavel Durov in Paris.

Writing on X on Wednesday, Dotcom urged people to “boycott France until Pavel Durov is released” and called on people to stop spending money on French products and refrain from traveling to the country.

“If you want to fight for free speech, this is the way,” Dotcom wrote.

Durov, the 39-year-old Russian entrepreneur, was arrested on Saturday upon arriving at the Paris-Le Bourget Airport on a private jet. The Paris public prosecutor’s office has stated that Durov was arrested as part of a broader criminal inquiry against an unnamed person and a French judge has already twice extended his detention.

According to prosecutors, Durov, who also holds French, Emirati, and St Kitts and Nevis citizenship, could face charges ranging from complicity in drug dealing and money laundering, to facilitating the distribution of child pornography. The possible charges reportedly stem from what prosecutors believe to be insufficient moderation of Telegram and Durov’s failure to prevent misuse of the messenger app by bad actors.  (more...)

Kim Dotcom calls for boycott of France over Durov arrest

CUPE National helps Zionists attack CUPE Ontario President for Palestine support

 

Last week, supporters of the Zionist regime went on a new offensive against the President of CUPE Ontario and VP of CUPE National, Fred Hahn. Fred Hahn has been targeted by the bosses and Zionists for his solidarity with the Palestinian people, who have been suffering from a brutal escalation in Israel’s genocide after the Zionist entity was embarrassed by the Palestinian resistance’s October 7 Al-Aqsa Flood Operation.

What set off this most recent firestorm was Hahn posting a video on Facebook on August 11 linking Zionist participation in the recent Olympics to the Israeli bombing of residential buildings in the Gaza Strip. Hahn ended up deleting the video after a ferocious Zionist backlash, with Zionist members of CUPE such as Carrie Silverberg taking to the gutter press to whine that “I think I actually started crying, the emotion and sadness of how he continues to portray Jewish people.” 

During the latest hue-and-cry over Hahn’s alleged “antisemitism,” Ontario Labour Minister David Piccini, who oversees the exploitation of Ontario workers, took the opportunity to harass Hahn, approaching him and stating that “you have to stop hating Jews.” The corrupt and union-busting Conservative Premier Doug Ford chimed in to state that Hahn “has been a bully for 20 years…. His bigoted comments, it’s unacceptable.”

The Zionists and labour-haters have been in a feeding frenzy over Hahn’s principled solidarity with the Palestinians, just as they have been over every expression of organized labour support for the Palestinian cause. It should come as no surprise that the Zionists and the Ontario capitalist class should feel such urgency to attack, smear, and defame union leadership. What came as a bigger disappointment was that the leadership of CUPE National, under National President Mark Hancock and National Secretary-Treasurer Candace Rennick, took the opportunity to bloc with the Zionists against Hahn. 

On August 21, 2024, the public learned that CUPE National Executive Board had held, one day earlier, an emergency meeting over the controversy, where they decided to seek Hahn’s resignation from his position: General Vice President of CUPE National. The entire CUPE National Executive Board, with the exception of Yolanda McClean, voted against Hahn.  (more...)

CUPE National helps Zionists attack CUPE Ontario President for Palestine support

Canadian military alliances enable Israel’s genocide

 

The government’s response to a Montréal firm supplying 50,000 explosives to the Israeli military highlights the need for opponents of Israel's holocaust to challenge Canada’s military alliances.

Last week, it was reported that a Montreal facility of General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems will provide 50,000 mortars and fuzes to the Israeli military. The $83 million contract was announced by the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency. After refusing to respond to journalists’ questions on the matter for five days, Global Affairs Canada released a statement saying they “will not speculate on a possible Foreign Military Sale by the United States.” But the US announcement said, “the principal contractor” is “located in Quebec, Canada”.

In March, the House of Commons voted for a (non-binding) resolution calling for an arms embargo on Israel. The government has repeatedly said they would abide by the vote and that no new permits for arms sales to Israel have been okayed since January 8. Days before the mortars contract was announced Defence Minister Bill Blair repeated that claim to activists. The Maple reported that $100 million in export permits submitted prior to January 8 remain outstanding.

But the government is now openly declaring that the vote in Parliament to halt arms sales doesn’t include most of Canada’s arms sales to Israel, which transit through the US. Most of Canada's international arms shipments go to the US, while the government doesn’t tabulate sales under a longstanding military accord. The 1956 Defence Production Sharing Agreement (DPSA) effectively made Canada part of the US defence industrial base. The arrangement granted Canadian companies unique access to bid on US military contracts, the world’s most lucrative arms market. It offers them access to advanced military technology and facilitated participation in US firms’ global value chains.

The DPSA appealed to the Pentagon because Canadian firms were relatively sophisticated suppliers. But there was also a political element to the DPSA. The Pentagon wanted to tie Canadian firms to the US military industrial complex in the hope that would spur them to advocate a pro-US military policy. A 1958 US national security document described the importance of maintaining a “healthy” “Canadian defense industry” for the US to “receive the same excellent cooperation in the joint defense effort that has prevailed in the past.”

If the government says a Montreal company can export arms to Israel because Washington contracted them, then Palestine solidarity activists should be calling for the DPSA to be abrogated. And not just the DPSA.  (more...)

Canadian military alliances enable Israel’s genocide

“This is from your country!”: The Canadian money propping up illegal Israeli settlements

 

Canada’s Jewish National Fund has tried to hide its support for Israel’s colonization of Palestinian land. But Israeli organizations are evading soldiers and settlers to expose their projects

We pile into Dror Etkes’ rental car early on Sunday morning in mid-July. 

The executive director and main field researcher of Kerem Navot, an Israeli organization that monitors the country’s land policy in the Palestinian territories, stresses the need to remain discreet as we drive out of Jerusalem, toward the militarily-occupied West Bank.

That or find the money for another car, he quips. It is expensive to book rental cars and buy insurance to travel to Area C, the parts of the West Bank where most illegal Israeli settlements are located and that are highly restricted or off-limits to Palestinians—and where his organization tries to carry out their research, undetected by the Israeli military. 

I sit in the backseat of a nondescript beige SUV that looks like it has taken a few beatings. This morning, Etkes and his colleague have invited us on a day-long excursion, to look into the operations of the Jewish National Fund of Canada, an organization whose stated purpose is developing “environmental and social service infrastructure projects in Israel.” 

For decades, JNF Canada had received charity status from Canada’s Revenue Agency (CRA), but this August, the CRA officially revoked it. 

After an audit, the CRA concluded that the JNF Canada used tax-exempt money to fund Israeli army bases, which is illegal under Canadian law. It also found the organization couldn’t prove how Canadian money was used in Israel, and did not justify why financial records were only kept in Israel, among other disqualifying concerns.

Palestinian solidarity advocates in Canada have long campaigned for this outcome, pointing to the charity’s role in building parks over Palestinian land and its discriminatory leasing of land within Israel.

For years dogged by CRA investigators, JNF Canada had pledged to the tax revenue agency in 2021 that it “will not fund projects in the disputed territories.”

But the paper trail simply became more hidden. 

Lately, Etkes tells us that it has become more difficult to document JNF Canada’s operations. Tracing how it funds parks and trails in the West Bank often requires risky trips like the one we’re on, encountering Israeli soldiers and extremist settlers. And the organization has become more careful in advertising their involvement on the ground.

JNF Canada is now taking the CRA to court over its decision to revoke its charitable status, claiming the decision was “biased” and “unjust.” But on my tour in the occupied West Bank, I found plenty of the organization’s projects that continue to advance the interests of illegal settlement expansion.  (more...)

“This is from your country!”: The Canadian money propping up illegal Israeli settlements

Max Blumenthal: Gaza, Democracy, and the DNC

 

Flogging a dead democratic horse

The Attack on Free Speech is an Attack on Humanity

 

From Scott Ritter to Pavel Durov, from the Uhuru Three to Independent Candidates Diane Sare and Jose Vega, the British-run Anglo-American oligarchy is attempting to shut down any voices who speak out against endless war. We must recognize that the attack on free speech and press is a microcosm of the larger strategic situation.

EIR News

Protestors EXPOSE Dems' Genocidal Complicity

 

Ashish Prashar calls out the Democrats for their complicity in genocide and discusses his "no tax for genocide" which encourages British people to refuse to pay their taxes while their government funds a genocide. Then DNC delegate Nadia Ahmad talks about sneaking a "stop arming Israel" banner into the DNC and being assaulted with a "we love Joe" placard. And activist Lauren Steiner discusses organizing the action. 

Ashish Prashar is a formerly incarcerated political strategist, human rights activist, and writer. He was an advisor to the Middle East Peace Envoy and worked for former British Prime Minister Tony Blair in the Middle East and West Africa. He was a press secretary for the Conservative Party and Mayor of London Boris Johnson. Ashish also worked on Obama and Biden’s Presidential Campaigns. Ashish is a Fellow at the Royal Society of Arts and sits on the Board of Just Leadership and the Responsible Business Initiative for Justice. Ashish has appeared as a regular commentator in media outlets, including CNN, The Guardian and USA Today. He's now calling out ALL politicians for their complicity in genocide.

Nadia Ahmad is a DNC delegate from Florida, DNC Interfaith Council Co-Chair, DNC Women's Caucus Executive Committee member, part of Delegates Against Genocide and a law professor from Orlando. She's filed a complaint with Chicago police against the Democratic National Committee over the "Islamophobic Attack" she experienced at the Democratic National Convention. 

Lauren Steiner is an activist, organizer and independent journalist based in Asheville, NC. She has fought against fracking, the climate crisis, education privatization and the Trans Pacific Partnership and for net neutrality, clean energy, Medicare for All, racial, economic and environmental justice and Palestinian human rights. On her internet show The Robust Opposition, she interviews organizers, activists, authors and progressive elected officials and candidates.

Related:

No Tax For Genocide

The Slide Into Authoritarianism

 

The loss of civil liberties is almost always incremental. On a flight home from Greece, the author recently ran into an increasingly familiar and menacing problem.

All of us who care about civil liberties, civil rights, human rights and freedom of the press have had a front-row seat lately to a slide toward what can only be described as authoritarianism.  The governments of the U.S., U.K. and even Canada have been working hard, sometimes in a coordinated fashion, to silence dissenting voices.  The governments’ tactics have been heavy-handed, to say the least.

Most recently, journalist Richard Medhurst was arrested last week by British authorities.  Richard, who is one of the loudest and most important voices in support of human rights for Palestinians, was arrested at Heathrow Airport. 

Detaining a journalist is not terribly unusual in the U.K., unfortunately.  What usually happens is that the journalist is held for several hours, his phone and laptop are taken from him, he is given a variety of threats that he must appear to answer questions at some future date, and he’s eventually released.  Things were different for Richard, however.  

Our colleague Chris Hedges wrote, 

“After being taken into custody by six police officers, having his electronic equipment seized, and then questioned, he was placed in solitary confinement for almost 24 hours.  He was released on pre-charge bail.  He will remain under investigation for at least three months and he faces the prospect of being charged with an offense that could carry a prison sentence of up to 14 years.”  

And what is the charge that Richard is facing? It’s terrorism.  He is being threatened with a charge under Section 12 of the U.K.’s Terrorism Act for his reporting. 

Richard Medhurst is not, of course, a terrorist.  He’s a journalist working to publish the truth on the ground in Gaza.  There are a lot of Western governments that simply don’t like that.  (more...)

The Slide Into Authoritarianism

Justice delayed, not yet denied: an update on the ICC arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant

 

ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan's request for arrest warrants against Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant has been mired in attempts to shield Israel from accountability since May, but this soon could change.

It was a landmark ruling by the world’s supreme judicial body.

Israel’s 57-year occupation and colonial settlement of the Palestinian territories are unlawful, it must withdraw from the territories “as rapidly as possible,” and UN member states must hold Israel to account for its wrongful acts, the International Court of Justice declared last July 19, in The Hague, in a non-binding 12-3 vote. 

Sometime this fall, across town, a 3-judge panel of a totally different court – the International Criminal Court (independent from the UN) – will issue one of two far more consequential rulings.

In response to Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan’s May 20 application for arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and three Hamas leaders (Yahiya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh, who Israel killed in an assassination in Iran on July 31, and Mohammed Deif, who Israel claims to have killed but which Hamas denies), ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I (PTC) may approve Khan’s application, in which case arrest warrants would likely be issued shortly thereafter.

Alternatively, the PTC may tell Khan that Israel should have an opportunity to prove its own legal system is capable of holding Israelis responsible for the war crimes and crimes against humanity they’ve allegedly committed, a process that could drag on for months. 

The first of these two scenarios was what ICC watchers had anticipated, in the weeks following Khan’s arrest warrant application.

Then, the process went sideways.  (more...)

Justice delayed, not yet denied: an update on the ICC arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant

The pro-Israel groups cultivating Keir Starmer's new MPs

 

Over a dozen new MPs accepted funding from pro-Israel lobby groups before they were even elected to parliament, Declassified has found

The donations were provided by the Labour and Conservative Friends of Israel groups, which aim to promote Israel’s interests in Britain but do not disclose their own sources of funding.

Twelve successful Labour candidates and three Conservatives travelled to Israel with these organisations in the year leading up to Britain’s general election.

The total cost of the trips was over £30,000, with some of them taking place amid Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza and being described as “solidarity” missions.

The revelation comes in the first MPs’ register of interests for the new parliament, which was released this month.

Andrew Feinstein, an arms trade expert who stood as an independent candidate against Keir Starmer, told Declassified: “It is deeply disturbing that the Friends of Israel organisations are attempting to cultivate politicians in Britain even before they are elected”.

Israel Lobby Funded 15 New MPs Before Election

Eurofash

 

Active Measures discusses the arrests of journalist Richard Medhurst in the UK and Telegram CEO Pavel Durov in France.

Western Europe is a totalitarian place where freedom of speech is not respected

 

Unlike Facebook that does what Israel says, Telegram has refused to accommodate Israel’s cooperation requests, Going Underground host Afshin Rattansi told RT.

French election winners accuse Macron of seizing power

 

The president has refused to nominate a new prime minister from the left-green alliance that garnered the most seats in parliament

France’s left-wing New Popular Front (NPF) has expressed its displeasure with President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to rule out nominating its candidate for prime minister after the alliance secured the most seats in the National Assembly following the July election.

Although the alliance won the most seats in the voting, it failed to secure enough to govern, forcing Macron to enter negotiations in order to appoint a new prime minister and form a new government.

The NPF had nominated Lucie Castets, a 37-year-old economist and director of financial affairs at Paris City Hall, as its candidate for prime minister. The NFP is a broad left-wing electoral alliance made up of France Unbowed (LFI), the Socialist Party, the Greens, the Communist Party, and several smaller parties.

Macron, meanwhile, rejected the candidacy of Castets, claiming that “my responsibility is that the country is not blocked or weakened,” the president said in a statement on Monday. He added that a left-wing government would pose a threat to “institutional stability.”  (more...)

French election winners accuse Macron of seizing power

LETTER FROM LONDON: On the UK Terrorism Act

 

In the wake of the Medhurst arrest, Alexander Mercouris looks back at the genesis of the Terrorism Act under which the journalist was held.

At the time when Prime Minister Tony Blair brought in the Terrorism Act 2000 — note that this was before 9/11 – I was working in the Royal Courts of Justice. As I remember the lawyers were buzzing about it, worried about its vague and sloppy language, and its overt authoritarianism and capacity for abuse.

There was general incredulity that Blair, who is himself a lawyer, as of course is his wife, and his Home Secretary Jack Straw, who is also a lawyer and a former adviser of Barbara Castle, one of the most revered figures in modern Labour history, would bring in a law like that.

Looking back and thinking of those days, it’s amazing how naive we were.

Here we are and this terrible law is now being used against journalists, and is being used in a way which violates fundamental human rights.

The terrible thing is that it was at precisely this same time that the Blair government was bringing into law – with wide support from within the legal community — the Human Rights Act 1998, which embedded the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) into U.K. law (the Human Rights Act 1998 was signed into law in 1998 but only came into force on Oct. 2, 2000).

At the time everyone in the legal world assumed that it was the Human Rights Act 1998 that was by far the more important Act, and which would be far more consequential than the Terrorism Act 2000.

Indeed I distinctly remember all sorts of assurances floating around that there was no need to worry because the Terrorism Act 2000 would be restricted and its loose wording interpreted by reference to the ECHR and the Human Rights Act 1998.

In reality what has happened is the opposite. Far from the Human Rights Act 1998 mitigating the effect of the Terrorism Act 2000, it is the Terrorism Act 2000 which is prevailing over the ECHR and the Human Rights Act 1998 – as the Medhurst case shows.

None of this would be happening were it not for a radical change in the whole legal and political culture in the U.K., which has taken place since these two Acts were brought into law.  (more...)

LETTER FROM LONDON: On the UK Terrorism Act

Anton Chaitkin Interviews Peter Nickitas

 

The Nightmare American-Israel Alliance: Some Unique Historical and Spiritual Insights

Western Propaganda Wars

 

German equipment visible in Kursk has raised old ghosts, and consolidated awareness of the hostile western intentions toward Russia. “Never again” is the unspoken riposte.

Related:

The western way of war – Owning the narrative trumps reality

International Day of Charity, Sept. 5, Day of Action at Canada Revenue Agency Offices

 

Not one cent of Canadian tax dollars should be funding genocide

Actions are being planned on International Day of Charity, September 5th. Montreal, Sherbrooke, London, Toronto Regina and other places across Canada are planning days of action. There are over 50 CRA offices across Canada. Consider joining in the day of action.

We applaud the Canada Revenue Agency for recently revoking the charitable status of the Jewish National Fund and Ne’eman Foundation. But, JNF and Ne’eman Foundation are two of dozens of Israel-focused charities that have violated CRA rules by assisting colonies in the West Bank, racist organizations and the Israeli military.

Over the past several years detailed complaints have been submitted to the CRA asking it to investigate more than a dozen other Israel-focused charities, including the Canadian Zionist Cultural Association, Mizrachi Canada, Charity Partners Canada, Jerusalem Heritage Foundation of Canada and HESEG Foundation.. The CRA should investigate these organizations and others assisting West Bank colonies and the Israeli military.

Over 200 registered charities funnel over a quarter billion dollars in subsidized donations to Israel annually, which has a per capita GDP equal to Canada’s. As NDP revenue critic Niki Ashton recently posted “Not one cent of Canadian tax dollars should be funding genocide.  (more...)

International Day of Charity, Sept. 5, Day of Action at Canada Revenue Agency Offices

Russia vows to keep pushing for Nazi veteran’s extradition

 

Ottawa is well aware of Yaroslav Hunka’s “dark past” but still refuses to hand him over, Russia’s ambassador has said

Moscow will continue its efforts to force Canada to hand over 99-year-old Nazi SS veteran Yaroslav Hunka to answer for his alleged crimes, the Russian ambassador in Ottawa Oleg Stepanov has said. 

Hunka, who publicly admitted volunteering to join the Waffen-SS Galicia Division during the Second World War, made headlines last September after he was honored with a standing ovation as a guest in the Parliament of Canada during a visit there by Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky. Hunka’s unit took part in brutal anti-guerrilla operations across Poland and Soviet Ukraine in 1993-1944, its members accused of massacres and other atrocities against Polish, Jewish and Russian civilians. 

In late 2023, Russia asked Canada to extradite the then 98-year-old Ukrainian-Canadian on accusations of genocide over his suspected involvement in the murder of at least 500 Soviet citizens, but Ottawa rejected the request, citing a lack of a relevant treaty between the two countries.

On Thursday, the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office announced that it was able to put Hunka’s name on the database of the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol). The search for the Nazi veteran continues, the agency said, adding that it would demand his extradition if his whereabouts are established on the territory of other foreign states.  (more...)

Russia vows to keep pushing for Nazi veteran’s extradition

Related:

Canada ‘whitewashing’ Nazi crimes – Russian prosecutor-general

Israel’s Secret Scheme to Skirt US Laws and Influence American Politics

 

Leaked documents have revealed that Israeli government officials, along with Zionist lobby groups, actively sought legal advice to circumvent U.S. regulations under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) in their efforts to influence American elections and push anti-constitutional legislation.

According to a joint investigation by The Guardian, Lee Fang, and Jack Poulson, Israel consulted with legal experts, including former Democratic National Committee counsel Joseph E. Sandler and FARA specialist Joshua I. Rosenstein. They advised creating a U.S.-based nonprofit to avoid registering as foreign agents. Liat Glazer, a legal adviser to Israel’s Strategic Affairs Ministry, emphasized that while the nonprofit would not operate officially from Israel, it would still receive oversight through “informal coordination mechanisms.”

In a scheme aimed at avoiding U.S. regulations under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), a legal adviser to Israel’s Strategic Affairs Ministry, Liat Glazer, emphasized that the proposed U.S.-based nonprofit would not be officially operated from Israel. However, despite the formal separation, the nonprofit would still receive oversight and management from Israeli officials through “informal coordination mechanisms,” ensuring that Israel’s influence efforts in the U.S. could continue without triggering the requirements for foreign agent registration.

Israeli concerns about the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) intensified after Donald Trump took office in 2016, as the act was increasingly enforced during the Russiagate investigation. Officials in Tel Aviv recognized that FARA’s application was extending beyond adversaries to include U.S. allies. This concern was heightened when Thomas Barrack, a close associate of Trump and head of his inaugural committee, was accused of acting as a foreign agent for the United Arab Emirates, although he was eventually cleared of those charges.

While the influence of the pro-Israel lobby, like AIPAC, in swaying U.S. elected officials is widely recognized and often openly touted, the Israeli government’s covert operations in the U.S. remain far more clandestine.   (more...)

Israel’s Secret Scheme to Skirt US Laws and Influence American Politics

On the Arrest of Richard Medhurst

 

The arrest of the reporter Richard Medhurst, who has been one of the most ardent critics of the genocide in Gaza and Israeli apartheid state, at Heathrow airport is part of the steady march towards the criminalization of journalism, something all of us, including Medhurst, understood lay at the heart of the long persecution of Julian Assange.

Where the “norm” was for police to detain people for questioning under Schedule 7, Medhurst became the first journalist in Britain to be arrested under Section 12 of the draconian Terrorism Act.

After being taken into custody by six police officers, having his electronic equipment seized and questioned, he was placed in solitary confinement for almost 24 hours. He was released on pre-charge bail. He will remain under investigation for at least three months and faces the prospect of being charged with an offence that could carry a prison sentence of up to 14 years.

This arrest is about paralyzing his work, and the work of all who call out Israel for its mass slaughter. It is an ominous warning to any who stand up for Palestinian rights. It is designed to have a chilling effect on reporting that elucidates Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza and increasingly the West Bank, as well as the active collaboration in this extermination of the Palestinian people by the U.S. and U.K. governments. Medhurst’s arrest has nothing to do with fighting terrorism, at least for those who still believe journalism is not terrorism.

If we do not vigorously oppose Medhurst’s arrest, if we do not denounce the use of terrorism laws to attempt to silence journalists, including the Scottish journalist Craig Murray, Grayzone correspondent Kit Karenberg and the late David Miranda who was working with Glenn Greenwald on the files leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, Medhurst’s arrest will become the “norm.”  (more...)

On the Arrest of Richard Medhurst

Suspicions grow over security connections of many Western journalists

 

It turns out that numerous so-called 'independent' journalists are not so independent after all and work closely with security services to advance the interests of their governments.

DNC Gives Land Acknowledgments ‘While Actively Exterminating Indigenous People’

 

The Democratic National Convention opened with an Indigenous land acknowledgment, epitomizing what Indigenous activist Tara Houska says is the DNC's “gross caricature of respect for Indigenous people while actively exterminating them.” While the DNC touts Tim Walz as a climate champion, Houska recalls how Walz oversaw the brutal crackdown on herself and other water protectors resisting the Line 3 pipeline, ensuring fossil fuel giant Enbridge funneled $8 million to police to get the job done. Houska elaborates with Eugene and Rania on the Democratic policies that violate Indigenous rights and the climate.

End tax breaks for ‘charities’ pushing genocide to save kids

 

Help save the youth of America

Help save them from themselves

Help save the sun-tanned surfer boys

And the Californian girls – Billy Bragg

The Jewish National Fund losing its charitable should be celebrated by opponents of racism and colonialism as well as fiscal conservatives, Canadian nationalists and opponents of genocide. Even child welfare advocates should be applauding the Canada Revenue Agency’s revocation.

The JNF is an explicitly racist organization that has assisted the Israeli military and colonies in the West Bank. It’s appalling that all Canadians have subsidized its racism for the past 57 years.

Withdrawing the JNF’s ability to provide tax credits is also a win for those who care about kids. The JNF devotes significant energy to convincing young minds of its supremacist, genocidal, ideology.

Blue Boxes — tins for collecting money — have long been the mainstay of JNF youth outreach. Over the last century millions of them have been distributed around the world. An official description explained: “Since its debut in 1901 as JNF’s official fundraising pushke [collection box], the Blue Box has represented JNF and its efforts to develop the land and roads, build communities, strengthen agriculture and create water reservoirs in Israel. It is also a vehicle for educating Jewish youth and involving them in these efforts in order to foster their Zionistic spirit and inspire their support for the State of Israel. For many Jews, the Blue Box is bound up with childhood memories from home and the traditional contributions they made in kindergarten and grade school.”  (more...)

End tax breaks for ‘charities’ pushing genocide to save kids

The Pirates of Wall street, part 3

 

How Allen Dulles betrayed FDR for his Sullivan and Cromwell clients.

Western media can be held legally accountable for its role in the Gaza genocide

 

Western media companies have made themselves a part of the mechanism of genocide in Palestine, and there are historical precedents for holding them accountable.

The ruthlessness of the Israeli genocide machine in Palestine, and the direct complicity of the U.S., UK, and other Western governments are two key pillars in the horrors being perpetrated against the Palestinian people (and in the attacks on human rights defenders around the globe). 

But there is an essential third pillar: the role of complicit Western media corporations knowingly disseminating Israeli disinformation and propaganda, justifying war crimes and crimes against humanity, dehumanizing Palestinians, and blacking out information on the genocide in the West. From the perspective of international human rights law, such actions could and should be subject to sanctions. And there are historical precedents.

Seventy-six years ago, when delegates gathered at the newly established United Nations to draft a Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the importance of protecting freedom of expression was front and center. They would declare that “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” 

But, in the wake of a half-century of horrific atrocities, driven in significant part by the dehumanization of millions on the basis of their race, ethnicity, religion, or other status, they were all too well aware that speech could also be used as a powerful weapon to destroy the rights of others, including the right to life itself. Thus, in the same document, the UN made clear that freedom of expression does not grant media corporations or anyone else a right “to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the other rights and freedoms.” 

At the same time, in another UN conference room, delegates were gathered to create a new Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. There too, the drafters were aware of the danger of speech that dehumanizes and incites. The final convention would criminalize not just genocide, but also incitement to genocide and complicity in genocide- prohibitions that apply not only to states but to private actors as well.  (more...)

Western media can be held legally accountable for its role in the Gaza genocide