Israel and Palestine

Marking 600 days of Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza, I report on how, despite robust criticism and threats of “concrete action” by western leaders, nothing “concrete” has emerged at all to disrupt Israel’s ongoing slaughter of civilians, still averaging 100 deaths a day. I also report on the cynical and broken efforts to implement a US- and Israeli-backed food delivery scheme, which collapsed into chaos on its first day yesterday, as the system, alarmingly resembling a concentration camp, was overwhelmed by starving Palestinians, some of whom were subsequently shot and killed. The aid plan, which includes intrusive interrogations and biometric screening, is, of course, a deliberately engineered exercise in humiliation and control, also designed to shut down existing aid organizations, and especially UNRWA, the UN organization that has been successfully supporting Palestinians for 75 years, but which Israel has smeared as a front for Hamas, without providing any proof, and which it also despises because it advocates for all exiled Palestinians’ UN-mandated “right to return.” UNWRA and other aid agencies have a demonstrable ability to distribute aid where it is needed, and have full warehouses in Jordan and Egypt. In addition, over 9,000 trucks are waiting on the border, but Israel’s only intention is to keep on starving Palestinians to death, and preventing the delivery of urgently needed medical supplies. As we mark 600 days of the genocide, instead of progress, Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, have, instead, been doubling down on their messianic genocidal messages, continuing to implicate Israel’s supporters in policies of extermination drawn from the Old Testament, which, as I note, “scared me when I read it as a child, as it should anyone who believes that humanity cannot survive or thrive when weighed down by ancient hatreds.”

Last week, after starving Palestinian civilians for eleven weeks, and bombing them relentlessly for the last two months, Israel stepped up its aggression, launching “Operation Gideon’s Chariots” with even more savage bombing, and announcing its intention to militarily occupy the whole of Gaza, to erase every remaining building, and to force the surviving population into a concentration camp in the south, prior to an illusory program of “voluntary migration.” Plumbing unparalleled depths of depravity, after 19 months of unbearable horror, Israel’s genocidal endgame has finally provoked condemnation from its allies in the west, who, until now, have whispered barely a word of dissent. The foreign ministers of 22 countries and three senior EU officials issued a strongly-worded demand for the resumption of aid to prevent mass starvation, while the governments of the UK, France and Canada specifically threatened “concrete actions” if Israel continued its “wholly disproportionate” escalation, its starvation policies and its plans for the “permanent forced displacement” of the population, which, as they noted, “is a breach of international humanitarian law.” Words mean nothing to Israel, of course, and, if its allies are serious, they must follow up with arms embargoes, sanctions and more, but it remains noteworthy that so many countries are now turning against Israel, no doubt because the extent of its renewed escalation of hostilities and the impact of its starvation siege are so severe that they have suddenly become aware that they need to be seen to have made the right noises for when, inevitably, there will be a legal and moral reckoning. Hopefully, this turning of the tides is significant, reinforcing the recent warning, by opposition politician Yair Golan, that Israel, which is “kill[ing] children as a hobby”, that it “is on the way to becoming a pariah state, like South Africa was”, and the admission by an Israeli Foreign Ministry official that “the world is not with us” and that “No one will want to be identified with Israel.”

An urgent update on the situation in Gaza, as Israel launches “Operation Gideon’s Chariots”, which can only be regarded as its “final solution” to the “Palestinian problem”, with all the historical echoes that entails. Israel’s plan, announced 12 days ago, is to militarily occupy the whole of the Gaza Strip, to destroy all its remaining buildings, and to drive the surviving population to the south, to be held in a concentration camp where vetted individuals, subjected to biometric screening, will be allowed food, provided every two weeks, but only at the barest of subsistence levels to prevent death by starvation. Via posts from those trapped in Gaza, I report on the unprecedented escalation of military activity over the last two nights, as the severity of the attacks, and the death toll, have, shamefully, matched the scale and intensity of the earliest days of the genocide. I condemn western leaders for their continued inaction, and reserve particular contempt for Donald Trump, who, in his four-day tour of the Gulf, failed to say or do anything to help the Palestinians by calling for a renewed ceasefire and the resumption of desperately-needed humanitarian aid to stave off mass starvation, even after Hamas obliged him by releasing the US-Israeli soldier Edan Alexander. Instead, he revived his absurd proposal to remake Gaza — this time as a “freedom zone”, rather than “the Riviera of the Middle East” that he proposed in February, and has continued to endorse the “voluntary migration” of the entire population. Is he wilfully complicit, or just a rambling and incoherent fool? Sadly, no one even seems to know.

In my latest article, I follow up on Israel’s new plans for an escalation of hostilities in the Gaza Strip, cutting through the failures of media commentators to establish what the plans actually reveal, which is nothing less than the extermination of the entire population. Everything about the plans is diabolical, including the screamingly illegal proposal to militarily occupy the whole of the Gaza Strip and to force the surviving population to the south, to be hemmed into a tightly-controlled area in which aid, at the barest of subsistence levels, will be provided by private contractors, but only to those who have submitted to monitoring and the use of facial recognition technology. However, it is the last component of the plan — for the “voluntary migration” of the population — that is even more troubling than the proposals for total military occupation and for a kind of techno-concentration camp. This is because, as few commentators seem to want to acknowledge, no country is willing to take in significant numbers of Palestinian refugees. Egypt and Jordan have persistently refused, because of legitimate fears of massive unrest were they to be complicit in mass ethnic cleansing, and in the countries of the west, as I describe it, “anti-immigrant sentiment is more virulent than at any other time in living memory.” As I proceed to explain, the proposal for “voluntary migration” is, therefore, nothing but an illusion that is being used by Israel to disguise its true intent, which, without any viable escape route for the Palestinians, consists solely of continuing extermination, either “a quick death by Israel’s ongoing military assaults, or a slow death via hunger, dehydration, and the myriad murderous outcomes of Israel’s destruction of Gaza’s entire medical system.”

I write to bear witness, to be counted as someone who didn’t stay silent as the most grotesque western-backed atrocities in most of our lifetimes were taking place in Gaza, but my heart has been breaking for the last two months as Israel resumed its genocide after breaking the six-week ceasefire, firstly via the reimposition of a complete siege on all supplies of food, water, medical supplies and fuel, and then, for the last six weeks, via a resumption of its intensive bombing of the civilian population. In my latest long read, I repeatedly condemn western politicians and the mainstream media for their persistent failure to challenge Israel, or to tell the truth about the genocide, and, with no end in sight to Israel’s screamingly illegal project, over the last two months, of coercion and murder to pressurize Hamas to free all the hostages and to surrender, with the only “reward” being the supposed “voluntary migration” of the rest of the population, I turn to Israel itself as perhaps our best hope, as, over the last month, over 140,000 former officials, members of the military and academics have openly condemned the resumption of the genocide. I also highlight the baleful role played by Donald Trump, both in his support for the resumption of Israel’s genocide, and in his assault on freedom of speech in the US via the kidnapping and intended deportation of peaceful students whose only “crime” has been to oppose the genocide, and I provide a warning about how “a depraved darkness within Israel itself has been deliberately spread so thoroughly throughout the western world that we are left gazing at the face of a renascent fascism, leeringly suggesting that there is nothing to protect any of us.”

My assessment of the almost inestimably important case of Mahmoud Khalil, the legal US resident abducted on March 8 and taken to an ICE detention facility in Louisiana for deportation. Targeted for his involvement in student protests against Israel’s genocide in Gaza at Columbia University, Khalil’s abduction and his intended deportation are a glaring example of the Trump administration’s intention to shred the First Amendment to support Israel and its ongoing genocide in Gaza, although they are framing it as a “national security” matter. The Secretary of State, the pliant and dim-witted Marco Rubio, seeks to justify Khalil’s deportation by invoking a barely-used provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) of 1952, which gives him the authority to deport non-citizens if he has “reasonable ground to believe that [their] presence or activities in the United States would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.” If successful, the Trump administration will be able to deport any green card holder or visa holder who has engaged in any kind of non-violent opposition to Israel’s genocide, a startling development which would not only formally make the US into a dictatorship, in which freedom of speech (or even thought) is not allowed; it would also do so in the service of a foreign country, Israel. This is a position that, as I describe it, “lays bare how the Trump administration, like the Biden administration before it, prioritizes Israel’s interests over its own, in what really ought to be seen as a betrayal of America’s self-interest — or even as an act of treason.” Although an immigration judge rubber-stamped Khalil’s deportation on Friday, a legal challenge is ongoing in federal court in New Jersey, and we must all hope that it is successful, although it seems certain that it will be a protracted process that will last for many years. Its importance, however, cannot be underestimated. As I say, “It’s no exaggeration to say that the future of the US depends on it.”

Three weeks into Israel’s renewed genocidal assault on the Gaza Strip, and five weeks since all supplies of food, water, medicines and fuel were cut off, Israel’s primary objective is now nothing less than the extermination of the Palestinian people, with the only other option being a plan to military occupy the whole of Gaza, and to herd the remaining population into concentration camps. A third option being pushed by Israel, encouraged by Donald Trump, is for the “voluntary migration” of the entire population of two million people. I repeat my previous beliefs that this is a fantasy, because it would be politically suicidal for Egypt and Jordan, and because anti-refugee sentiment is so dominant in the west. However, I also pay close attention to a recent post on X by Dr. Ezzideen, who runs a clinic in Gaza, and who recently posted an important appeal for help, on behalf of the thousands of Palestinians in Gaza who responded enthusiastically to the rumor that other countries might take them in. As he stated in his post, “Please understand, we didn’t want to leave. We loved our land more than our lungs. But we love our children more. We love the ones we still have”, and “we are asking … for a way out.” As he also stated, “If you hear us, if you read our comments, if you hold power or voice or kindness, answer us. Not tomorrow. Not in theory. Now.” I raise Dr. Ezzideen’s request because those whose voices he is amplifying — those suffering unprecedented levels of deprivation and fear in Gaza — can truly see no end to the slaughter and destruction, and nor can I. Those countries and organizations that are not actively supporting Israel’s genocide have, like the UN, found themselves powerless to do anything to bring it to an end. Faced with only two options — death or imprisonment in a concentration camp — we are being asked to mobilize in support of an alternative that, although legally abhorrent, may also be the only guarantor of life: coming together, throughout the countries of the world, to push our governments to offer new homes to those who, otherwise, see nothing but death.

As the official death toll in Gaza passes 50,000, and the journalist Hossam Shabat is ruthlessly targeted and murdered by Israel, I examine how, when secondary deaths are taken into account, a more realistic death toll may be as high as 250,000. I also point out how almost 500 times as many Palestinian children (17,492) have been killed by Israel compared to the number of Israeli children (36) killed on October 7, and point out how, again, when secondary deaths are taken into account, that total may rise to over 87,000 Palestinian children, more than 2,400 times as many as the number of Israeli children killed on October 7. I also celebrate the life and work of Hossam Shabat, and discredit the lies told about him and the more than 220 journalists murdered by Israel, who have all been falsely accused of being Hamas operatives, and I also point out how these same lies have been applied to the more than 1,500 doctors and medical staff killed or disappeared into Israel’s horrendous prisons for Palestinians, and how, in addition, Israel continues to kill Hamas administrative officials from all walks of life, blatantly ignoring the fact that they were not connected with the military or involved in the October 7 attacks. With the resumption of the genocide eight days ago, I express my horror that this is happening, as it confirms how an entire country has lost its way, and now lives only to kill as many Palestinians as possible, and I condemn the western countries, and the western mainstream media, who largely continue to support Israel, and who, as a result, are dragging us all down into depraved and unprecedented depths of inhumanity. I end with Hossam Shabat’s final words, which I encourage you to read in full, and which end with the following request for our continued support: “I ask you now: do not stop speaking about Gaza. Do not let the world look away. Keep fighting, keep telling our stories — until Palestine is free.”

My report about the heartbreaking resumption of Israel’s genocide in the Gaza Strip, as numerous attacks in the early hours of March 18 killed over 400 Palestinians, mostly women and children, bringing the two-month ceasefire to a blood-soaked end. Although Israel has cynically tried to blame Hamas, the responsibility lies solely with Israel itself, whose flailing excuses cannot disguise the blunt truth that they never wanted to proceed to the second phase of the ceasefire, which required their full military withdrawal, and manufactured excuses to implement a “complete siege” on Gaza two weeks ago, and, yesterday, to once more begin slaughtering Palestinian civilians. Although Israel’s actions have been greeted with outrage around the world, the resumption of the genocide has Trump’s backing, the UN remains as powerless as ever, and the best hope for a resolute challenge is perhaps from within Israel itself, where the families of the remaining hostages are openly condemning the government — and have the support of a majority of the Israeli population.

My analysis of a devastating new report by the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, finding that Israel is guilty of “the crime against humanity of extermination”, through the deaths of women and girls “from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth due to the conditions imposed by the Israeli authorities which have denied access to reproductive healthcare.” The Commission also found that Israel has engaged in acts “amounting to two categories of genocidal acts in the Rome Statute and the Genocide Convention”; namely, “deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of Palestinians and imposing measures intended to prevent births”, through its “systematic destruction of sexual and reproductive healthcare” in Gaza. The Commission also found Israel guilty of “the crime against humanity of murder and the war crime of wilful killing” for targeted killings of women, and for female fatalities on “an unprecedented scale” as the result of Israel “deliberately targeting residential buildings and using heavy explosives in densely populated areas.” The timing is appropriate, as, for the last two weeks, Israel has once more imposed a “complete siege” on Gaza, as part of deliberate attempt to sabotage the ceasefire in place since January 19, which can only compound the ongoing suffering of women and girls in Gaza. Condemnation has been widespread, but, as I note in conclusion, there is is still no clear way forward towards a lasting peace, and in the meantime the death toll will continue to rise; perhaps, as the renowned surgeon Dr. Ghassan Abu Sitta suggested in December, being as high as 300,000, of whom at least a third — 100,000 people in total — are women and girls.