Archive for May, 2026

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Largely overlooked amongst the grotesque collection of messianic, supremacist enthusiasts for genocide who make up the leadership of the State of Israel — in particular, of course, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the two far-right ministers in his coalition government, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich — is the figure of Israel Katz, a longtime “hardliner” and ally of Netanyahu who was appointed as the defense minister in November 2024 after Netanyahu sacked his predecessor Yoav Gallant.

Now 70 years of age, Katz first emerged publicly as a far-right student agitator at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in the 1980s, opposing what he saw as “Arab students’ campus violence”, when he was suspended for a year for tying the university’s rector, the renowned chemist Raphael Mechoulam, to a chair using a rope. A former solder, whose parents were Holocaust survivors from Romania, he has been a member of the Knesset since 1998, and had held numerous ministerial positions, mostly under Netanyahu, since 2003.

Israel Katz as the epitome of relentless genocidal intent

For the last 18 months, Katz has been the epitome of relentless genocidal intent. In a statement issued after his appointment, he spoke of his intention to secure “victory over our enemies and to achieve the goals of the war: the return of all hostages as the most important moral mission, the destruction of Hamas in Gaza, the defeat of Hezbollah in Lebanon, the containment of Iranian aggression, and the safe return of the residents of the north and south [of Israel] to their homes.”

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My detailed analysis of the current situation in the Gaza Strip, after Nickolay Mladenov, the “High Representative of Gaza” in Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace”, insisted that no reconstruction will take place in Gaza without the complete disarmament of Hamas, even though Hamas never agreed to that, and even though the humanitarian situation in Gaza, as controlled by Israel, remains dire. I draw extensively on interviews by Drop Site News with senior Hamas officials, and an article in Haaretz by the head of an Israeli NGO supporting the Palestinians, pointing out the complicity of the west in the ongoing humanitarian disaster.

962 days since Israel’s genocide in Gaza began, and 227 days since a ceasefire took effect through the implementation of the first phase of Donald Trump’s “Peace Plan”, Nickolay Mladenov, the Bulgarian former UN official who is now the “High Representative of Gaza” in Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace”, has alarmed those seeking a balance between Israel’s obligations under the ceasefire deal and an acceptable response by Hamas by telling the UN Security Council on May 21 that Hamas was the “principal obstacle” to the continued implementation of the next phase of the “Peace Plan” because “it refused to accept verified decommissioning, relinquish coercive control and allow a genuine civilian transition.”

Mladenov’s speech to the UN followed what Drop Site News, on May 22, described as a “15-point roadmap” that he delivered to Hamas in April, which “amounted to an ultimatum: If the Palestinian resistance does not surrender its weapons, no meaningful reconstruction will be permitted in Gaza and Israeli forces will not withdraw.” In his report to the UN Security Council, Mladenov described the total disarmament of Hamas and other resistance groups as “the single factor that unlocks every other element of the plan.”

As Drop Site News proceeded to explain, however, “disarmament was categorically not a part of the phase one deal signed by Hamas and Israel in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt in October 2025.” As they added, “Despite repeated claims by US and Israeli officials that Hamas agreed to all of Trump’s terms, [they] and other Palestinian factions did not sign an agreement beyond a ceasefire, exchange of captives, and an initial framework for the redeployment or withdrawal of Israeli forces from some parts of Gaza.” The limited deal, they added, “also included the opening of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt and the resumption of deliveries of life essentials and equipment to clear rubble and begin early reconstruction efforts.”

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As the beleaguered International Criminal Court seeks an arrest warrant for Bezalel Smotrich, Itamar Ben-Gvir, in charge of Israel’s torture prisons, and a key driver of legislation approving the death penalty for Palestinians, and establishing a special military tribunal to prosecute and execute those seized on Oct. 7 , 2023, continues to evade accountability.

When the Nazis held the Wannsee Conference on January 1942 to co-ordinate the “Final Solution to the Jewish Question” — the extermination of all the Jews in German-controlled Europe — it was attended by 15 high-level administrators in the relevant government departments, and the SS.

When senior officials in Israel were planning the genocide of the Palestinian people of the Gaza Strip, after October 7, 2023, no single conference was convened to facilitate what it would be appropriate to call Israel’s “Final Solution to the Palestinian Question”, but key officials can be readily identified.

The first two are Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the former Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant, for whom arrest warrants were issued by the International Criminal Court on November 21, 2024, for war crimes and crimes against humanity — the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare, and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts.

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In wonderful news from the District Court in Washington, D.C., Judge Richard Leon has blocked the imposition of US sanctions on Francesca Albanese, the tenacious UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, who, since Israel’s exterminatory assault on Gaza began, 31 months ago, has been fearless and indefatigable in her support of the Palestinians, and her condemnation of Israel’s almost innumerable crimes — including war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide — and has also condemned the countries and companies that have been complicit. See her reports here: “Genocide as colonial erasure”, “From economy of occupation to economy of genocide”, “Gaza Genocide: a collective crime” and “Torture and genocide.”

The 26-page ruling, a preliminary injunction, will be particularly irritating for the Trump administration, because Judge Leon cannot be dismissed as a “left-wing activist judge.” An appointee of George W. Bush, he first came on my radar in 2008-09, when, as a judge dealing with the habeas corpus petitions of prisoners at Guantánamo, he became notorious for his frequent rulings against the prisoners, including one particular case which I condemned as How Cooking For The Taliban Gets You Life In Guantánamo.

The latest case before Judge Leon was brought in February by Albanese’s husband, who, like her, is an Italian citizen, and by their daughter, who is a US citizen, seeking a preliminary injunction against the decision, last July, by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, to designate Albanese as a foreign national who has “directly engaged with the International Criminal Court (ICC) in efforts to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute nationals of the United States or Israel, without the consent of those two countries.”

In his press statement, Rubio added, “The United States has repeatedly condemned and objected to the biased and malicious activities of Albanese that have long made her unfit for service as a Special Rapporteur”, claiming, hysterically, that she ”has spewed unabashed antisemitism, expressed support for terrorism, and open contempt for the United States, Israel, and the West.”

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Please click on either of the ‘Donate’ or ‘Buy’ buttons below (via PayPal or Stripe) to make a donation towards the $2,500 (£2,000) I’m trying to raise to support my work as a reader-funded investigative journalist, commentator and activist over the next three months. To get links to all my work in your inbox, please also consider taking out a free or paid subscription to my new Substack newsletter.

What do we call a legal system that allows a judge to add a terrorism conviction at the sentencing phase of a trial, when the jury, who convicted the defendants of criminal damage, were not even told about it? Rigged, broken and a travesty of justice.

I haven’t published an article about Palestine Action here on my website since July last year, when I posted Why We Are All Palestine Action, and Why Direct Action to Prevent Genocide Is the Opposite of Terrorism, after MPs voted to support the scandalous proscription, by then-home secretary Yvette Cooper, of the direct action group as a terrorist organization.

I have, however, continued to cover developments on my Substack. See Mass arrests in London for opposing genocide last August, as hundreds of concerned citizens were arrested for peacefully holding up placards stating, “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action”, and Palestine Action ban ruled unlawful in February, covering the High Court ruling that is now being contested by the government in the Court of Appeals.

Two weeks ago, I posted Defending direct action to prevent a genocide, at the end of the retrial of the Filton 6, activists who, in August 2024, undertook direct action against a factory in Bristol owned by Elbit Systems, the Israeli arms company that manufactures drones and other weapons used in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza, and which included a powerful closing statement by one of the defendants, Charlotte Head. The first trial of the Filton 6, who had been held on remand (without charge or trial) since August 2024, in punitive conditions that encouraged many of them to engage in hunger strikes, began last November and ended in February with the jury dismissing some charges and unable to reach a verdict on others, but, instead of backing down, the government immediately launched a retrial.

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The monthly “First Wednesday” vigils for the closure of the “war on terror” prison at Guantánamo Bay, on Wednesday May 6, marked the 40th successive month that campaigners across the US, in Washington, D.C., New York, Detroit and Los Angeles, and around the world, in London, Brussels and Belgrade, have come together to call for freedom or justice for the 15 men still held — down from 34 when our vigils started — and for the prison to be closed.

Campaigners in San Francisco joined us on Friday May 8, and in Cobleskill, NY on Saturday May 9, and Ed Charles in Oakland, and Lizzy in Arizona, also sent photos. Campaigners in Mexico City had to postpone their vigil, while, in Los Angeles, Jon Krampner held an unrecorded solo vigil, and wrote, “Neither Julie nor Kate could make it, so I was by myself and went to the Downtown LA Federal Building from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m., with my jumpsuit, hood and Amnesty ‘Close Guantánamo’ sign. One young man hurrying into the building said he supported me, but, being in a hurry, declined my request for him to photograph me. Not much interaction beyond that; just a few people pausing to look at me and the sign. This is not much of a report, but at least I showed up.”

Please see below for the photos, and read on for my now monthly reflections on what the vigils mean, and why they continue to be important, followed by further photos. Next month’s vigils will take place on Wednesday June 3, when you’re welcome to join us, and I hope will also take part in the latest phase of Close Guantánamo’s ongoing photo campaign, making every 100 days of the prison’s existence, by taking a photo with the poster marking 8,900 days of Guantánamo’s existence on May 24, and sending it here. All this year’s photos can be found on a dedicated page on the Close Guantánamo website here.

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Please click on either of the ‘Donate’ or ‘Buy’ buttons below (via PayPal or Stripe) to make a donation towards the $2,500 (£2,000) I’m trying to raise to support my work as a reader-funded investigative journalist, commentator and activist over the next three months. To get links to all my work in your inbox, please also consider taking out a free or paid subscription to my new Substack newsletter.

For the last 16 months, campaigners around the world have, understandably, been highlighting the case of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the brave director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, in northern Gaza, who kept the hospital operational for three months, from October to December 2024, when it was besieged and attacked remorselessly by Israeli forces during what was known as “the Generals’ Plan.”

This was the “genocide within a genocide”, when the whole of northern Gaza was placed under a violent siege, and everyone still living there, who had failed to cooperate with previous evacuation orders — either because they were unwilling or unable to leave — was told in no uncertain terms that, if they stayed, they would be regarded as “enemy combatants” who could be summarily executed.

During the siege, Dr. Abu Safiya survived the death of his son, and was wounded himself, and he only finally surrendered on December 27, 2024, when it was no longer possible to keep the hospital running. He subsequently disappeared into Israel’s brutal prisons for Palestinians, where he is held under Israel’s blatantly illegal “Unlawful Combatants Law”, introduced in 2002, around the same time that George W. Bush was setting up his “war on terror” prison at Guantánamo Bay and defining those held there as “unlawful enemy combatants.”

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